Record Review

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

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Music: Classical

A thorough look at the week's classical music releases, plus news and recommendations.

A thorough look at the week's classical music releases, plus news and the Radio 3 Disc of the Week recommendation.

Record Review: Purcell's Dido and Aeneas on Building a Library with Kirsten Gibson and Andrew McGregor

Purcell's Dido and Aeneas on Building a Library with Kirsten Gibson and Andrew McGregor

BBC Radio 3 - Record Review, Purcell's Dido and Aeneas on Building a Library with Kirsten Gibson and Andrew McGregor

Kirsten Gibson recommends a recording of Purcell's Dido and Aeneas.

Kirsten Gibson discusses the available recordings of Purcell's Dido and Aeneas and makes a recommendation.

with Andrew McGregor

9.30
Building a Library
Another chance to hear Kirsten Gibson discussing the available recordings of Purcell's Dido and Aeneas and making a recommendation.

Uncertainty surrounds the origins Purcell's Dido and Aeneas. It's thought to be from the late 1680s, towards the end of Purcell's short life, and some evidence points to a Chelsea girls' school as the unlikely venue of its premiere. Unlikely because the exceptional quality of its music and drama make the English court a more probable location for one of the greatest of all English musical stage works. Based on part of Virgil's Aeneid, love, abandonment and despair are its eternal themes, all of which are devastatingly portrayed in its most famous number, Dido's lament 'When I am laid in earth', an aria which has always attracted some of the most starry singers.

The current catalogue shows Dido is an internationally acknowledged masterpiece and the preserve of period performance specialists, but its recorded history began in the 1930s, long predating both of those aspects.

10.50
Edward Seckerson joins Andrew McGregor to review 'Herbert von Karajan - Complete Decca Recordings', a new 33-disc box set of remastered recordings made by the best-selling conductor in the history of the gramophone.  

11.20
Record of the Week
Andrew recommends an outstanding new release.

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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Purcell's Dido and Aeneas on Building a Library with Kirsten Gibson and Andrew McGregor

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