The Early Music Show

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BBC Radio 3 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced Third Programme.

BBC Radio 3

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Music: Classical: Early Music

Performance and news from the world of early music.

An exploration of early music, looking at early developments in musical performance and composition in Britain and abroad. UK only: please note that not all episodes are podcast.

The Early Music Show: Le Poeme Harmonique at the Utrecht Early Music Festival

Le Poeme Harmonique at the Utrecht Early Music Festival

BBC Radio 3 - The Early Music Show, Le Poeme Harmonique at the Utrecht Early Music Festival

Music from 17th Century Italy performed by Le Poeme Harmonique in Utrecht.

A concert given by Le Poeme Harmonique at the Jacobikerk as part of the 2019 Utrecht Early Music Festival.  17th-century music: vanities and contrafacta from Naples to Rome.

A concert given by Le Poème Harmonique at the Jacobikerk as part of the 2019 Utrecht Early Music Festival.  17th-century music: vanities and contrafacta from Naples to Rome.  Presented by Lucie Skeaping.

Naples, 1640. A pilgrim mingles with a colourful crowd as it moves in a vast procession. Along the cortege are heard laudi, simple devotionals sung in unison, and belted out with popular enthusiasm. Of the faithful, few know the authors of these melodies, and yet they live and work in the city.  
Were the traveller to enter a church, they would have found it hard to believe their eyes or ears. Lost in the Baroque décor, they risked being equally led astray by the music. Rather than hymns, echoing off the walls would be the roar of battle, a lover’s plaint or a dramatic quarrel. And yet, in Latin, under the heavy vaulting and between the twisted columns, they would still hear the names of Christ and the Virgin.
From its earliest beginnings, the musical language of opera has been the language of passion, even in church, where saints and sinners express themselves like lyrical figures; from the profane to the sacred, voices often merge. 

Music by Claudio Monteverdi, Gregorio Allegri, Luigi Rossi and Marco Marazzoli.

Live music and the arts: broadcasts more live music than any other radio network. Classical music is its core. Genres include world and new music, jazz, speech and drama.

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