The Listening Service

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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

Radio 3

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Music: Classical

An odyssey through the musical universe, presented by Tom Service

Rethink music with The Listening Service. Tom Service presents a journey of imagination and insight, exploring how music works

The Listening Service: The Feasibility of Studies

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The Feasibility of Studies

BBC Radio 3 - The Listening Service, The Feasibility of Studies

How was the humdrum study transformed by great composers into miniature masterpieces?

Studies. How did these musically barren finger exercises, the bane of many a pianist's life, evolve into concentrated miniature masterpieces by some of the great composers?

Studies began life as an aid in the struggle to master the piano within the human limitations of two hands and ten fingers. But from being the bane of many a pianist's life and a means of selling more pianos, these arid technical exercises flowered into some of the greatest music written for piano from Chopin, though Debussy to György Ligeti.  And in Conlon Nancarrow's studies for player piano, they even inspired the greatest set of keyboard works beyond any human ability. 

To find out how and why studies evolved to transcend their original function, Tom Service is joined by musicologist Katy Hamilton and talks to Pierre-Laurent Aimard who worked closely with Ligeti on his extraordinary series of studies, widely regarded as some of the greatest piano music of the 20th century.

David Papp (producer)

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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