BBC 100 - Celebrating our Orchestras and Choirs

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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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Radio 3

Radio 3 in Concert

Music: Classical

The best concerts from across the UK and Europe. Available to listen online for 30 days

Experience the best concerts from across the UK and Europe. Available to listen online for 30 days

Radio 3 in Concert: BBC Symphony Orchestra

BBC Symphony Orchestra

BBC Radio 3 - Radio 3 in Concert, BBC Symphony Orchestra

Semyon Bychkov conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra in Dessner, Strauss and Mussorgsky.

The BBC Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Semyon Bychkov, play Bryce Dessner and Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition. Kirill Gerstein is the piano soloist in Strauss's Burleske.

The BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Semyon Bychkov performs Bryce Dessner's Mari, Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, and Kirill Gerstein is the piano soloist in Strauss's Burleske. 

In 1922, the BBC made its first broadcast. As we celebrate a century of  informing, educating and entertaining, we look back on what the world was listening to 100 years ago, and to the future as the BBC SO (founded in 1930) continues to shape the sounds of the now.

It was in 1922 that Maurice Ravel turned to Modest Mussorgsky’s monumental piano work Pictures at an Exhibition, reimagining the piece in orchestral clothing and bolstering its shattering climax in the process. Semyon Bychkov presides over this performance of the resulting masterpiece, after the UK premiere of a 2021 work by American composer Bryce Dessner (who is also a member or rock band The National), commissioned by Bychkov himself.  Pianist Kirill Gerstein, a long-time musical partner of the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Semyon Bychkov, takes on the hyper-virtuosic demands of Richard Strauss's Burlesque, a piano concerto homage to Brahms.

During the interval we'll hear recent recordings from the BBC Symphony Chorus - founded by the BBC in 1928 as The National Chorus. Amy Bryce's So All Voices Can Fly was specially commissioned by BBC Radio 3 to celebrate BBC 100. And Cecilia McDowall's Shipping Forecast pays tribute to BBC Radio 4's daily broadcasts of the Met Office's weather reports and forecasts for the seas around the coasts of the British Isles - on behalf of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency.

Live from the Barbican Hall, London 
Presented by Martin Handley

Bryce Dessner: Mari (UK Premiere)
Richard Strauss: Burleske in D Minor 

20.20 Interval
Amy Bryce: So All Voices Can Fly
Cecilia McDowall: Shipping Forecast

BBC Symphony Chorus
Philip Cobb (trumpet)
Richard Pearce (organ and piano)
Neil Ferris (Chorus Director)

20.45
Modest Mussorgsky
Pictures at an Exhibition (orch Maurice Ravel)

Kirill Gerstein (piano)
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Semyon Bychkov (conductor)

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