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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BBC 100 - Celebrating Our Orchestras and Choirs

Music: Classical: Orchestral

A weekend of live performances from the BBC Orchestras and Choirs and the Ulster Orchestra

To celebrate the centenary of the BBC, a weekend of live performances showcasing the rich and diverse talent of the BBC Orchestras and Choirs and the Ulster Orchestra.

To celebrate the centenary of the BBC, the BBC Orchestras and Choirs and the Ulster Orchestra come together for a weekend of live performances showcasing the rich and diverse talent across the UK.

BBC 100 - Celebrating Our Orchestras and Choirs: BBC Philharmonic

BBC Philharmonic

BBC Radio 3 - BBC 100 - Celebrating Our Orchestras and Choirs, BBC Philharmonic

The BBC Philharmonic with Chief Conductor Omer Meir Wellber

The BBC Philharmonic with Chief Conductor Omer Meir Wellber celebrating 100 years of the ensemble.

The birth of the BBC Philharmonic, like the BBC, can be traced back to 1922; formed as the orchestra of 2ZY, a radio station later incorporated into the BBC, it broadcast from Old Trafford, just a stone's throw from where the BBC Philharmonic now has its MediaCityUK home. At the forefront of Britain's musical life from the start, an augmented ensemble played the first broadcast of Elgar's Enigma Variations in 1923 and of The Dream of Gerontius the following year. Initially the band consisted of a small number of players, so we reflect that by opening the programme with a piece for large chamber ensemble, a work which received its premier in 1922, Hindemith's Kammermusik No.1. Infused with jazz, with a film-music feel and quirky instrumentation (including a box of sand and a siren) it's a piece with immediate appeal. The ensemble has always championed new music and the UK premiere of Marionettes by Aziza Sadikova follows, looking back to the baroque and forward to the future. Giuilia Contaldo  joins the orchestra for Robert Schumann's Piano Concerto and the programme ends with music by Tippett, whose life spanned almost the whole of the 20th Century; his music embraces the politics, literature, science and culture of the times through which he lived, times through which the orchestra has broadcast. His sparkling Ritual Dances from his opera The Midsummer Marriage end the programme.  

To enjoy detailed on-line programme notes, timed with the music, visit bbc.co.uk/notes. 


Live from Bridgewater Hall
Presented by Tom McKinney

Hindemith: Kammermusik No 1
Aziza Sadikova: Marionnettes

8.10 Interval 

Schumann: Piano Concerto
Tippett:  Midsummer Marriage: Ritual Dances


BBC Philharmonic
Giulia Contaldo (piano)
Omer Meir Wellber (conductor)

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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BBC 100 - Celebrating Our Orchestras and Choirs

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