Radio 3 in Concert

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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

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: Nelson Mass

Nelson Mass

BBC Radio 3 - Radio 3 in Concert, Nelson Mass

BBC NOW and Christian Curnyn perform Haydn's 'Mass for troubled times'.

Christian Curnyn and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales perform Chaos from Rebel's Les Élémens, selections from Purcell's King Arthur and Haydn's Mass in D minor, 'Nelson Mass'.

Baroque specialist Christian Curnyn joins the BBC National Orchestra of Wales to conduct three works that all take a degree of inspiration from battles.  We begin with arguably the first ever battle, the chaos that reined before the creation of the world, as depicted by pioneering French composer, Jean-Féry Rebel. His Chaos became the opening movement to his work Les Élémens, which goes on to portray the creation of the universe from out of his pandemoniac dissonance. Purcell's King Arthur follows, a work that depicts the battles between the Britons, led by King Arthur, and the invading Saxons, rather than using Arthurian legend.  Tonight we'll hear selections chosen from that stage work by our conductor, Christian Curnyn. The concert concludes with Haydn's 11th mass that he later subtitled a "Mass for troubled times", but quickly became known publicly as the Nelson Mass, in relation to the military leader. It was written during the Napoleonic wars, prior to Nelson's victory, and possibly gained its popular title after Haydn performed the mass in the presence of Nelson, some five years before the battle of Trafalgar, and Nelson was greatly moved by the piece.

Presented live from BBC Hoddinott Hall in Cardiff by Ian Skelly.

7.30pm
Rebel: Chaos (Les Élémens)
Purcell: King Arthur (selections)

8.10pm
Interval Music

8.30pm
Haydn: Mass No 11 in D minor, Hob XXII/11 (Nelson Mass)

Anna Dennis (soprano)
Rupert Charlesworth (tenor)
Edward Hawkins (bass)
Hilary Summers (contralto) 
BBC National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales
Christian Curnyn (conductor)

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