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: Also Sprach Zarathustra: Strauss’s New Dawn

Also Sprach Zarathustra: Strauss’s New Dawn

BBC Radio 3 - The Listening Service, Also Sprach Zarathustra: Strauss’s New Dawn

Tom explores a piece composed by Strauss, inspired by Nietzsche and made famous by Kubrick

Tom Service explores the cosmic tone poem Also Sprach Zarathustra, composed by Richard Strauss, inspired by Friedrich Nietzsche, and made famous (partly) by Stanley Kubrick.

Made famous by Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, the tone poem Also Sprach Zarathustra which was composed by a young Richard Strauss in 1896 is much more than just two minutes of cosmic fanfare. Based on Friedrich Nietzsche’s philosophical novel inspired by the ancient Iranian prophet Zoroaster, its nine sections explore everything from passion, science, joy and death, to learning, convalescing, dancing and night wandering… 

But as a new year dawns how do the drama, power and epic sound worlds of Also Sprach Zarathustra ask and answer the fundamental questions of the universe and our place in it? Tom is joined by our witness philosopher Katrina Mitcheson to find out.

Producer: Ruth Thomson

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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Also Sprach Zarathustra: Strauss’s New Dawn

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