The Early Music Show

Original version

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

BBC Radio 3

Radio 3

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: Hercules at the Crossroads

Handel in Cambridge

Hercules at the Crossroads

BBC Radio 3 - The Early Music Show, Hercules at the Crossroads

Hannah French explores two settings of the ancient Greek tale, Hercules at the Crossroads.

Hannah French explores two composers' interpretations of the ancient Greek tale, Hercules at the Crossroads, in which the man of the moment is offered a choice between Vice and Virtue.

The ancient Greek tale, Hercules at the Crossroads, sees the man of the moment offered a choice between Vice and Virtue. Personifications of each visit him to offer the option of a pleasant and easy life, or a hard but glorious one. It was all the rage in the Renaissance, inspiring writers and artists and remained so to the time of Bach and Handel. Two pillars of the Baroque, each knowing something of pleasure and toil, and each setting this Herculean conundrum in his own style. Which will you choose? 

Music comes from recordings of Bach's secular cantata "Laßt uns Sorgen, laßt uns wachen", BWV.213 and Handel's 1750 oratorio "The Choice of Hercules".

Presented by Hannah French.

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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