Music Matters

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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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The stories that matter, the people that matter, the music that matters

Music Matters: Dame Janet Baker

Dame Janet Baker

BBC Radio 3 - Music Matters, Dame Janet Baker

Presenter Sara Mohr-Pietsch speaks to mezzo-soprano Dame Janet Baker.

Presenter Sara Mohr-Pietsch talks to the celebrated British mezzo-soprano Dame Janet Baker. Conductor John Wilson discusses his new recording of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma!

Presenter Sara Mohr-Pietsch speaks to one of the most treasured and celebrated British mezzo-sopranos, Dame Janet Baker. Following the recent celebrations of her 90th birthday, she reflects on her life in music, the physical and mental toll of performance, and a singer’s responsibility to always serve both the composer and the musical score.

Serving the score of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Oklahoma!, the much-lauded conductor John Wilson joins Sara to discuss his sumptuous new album - the first ever complete recording of the musical’s original Broadway manuscript. He explains the painstaking research behind the restoration of Robert Russell Bennett’s original orchestrations, how he approaches the task of preparing repertoire for the stage, and how to create the magical sound of musical theatre during its ‘golden age’ in the 1940s. 

Recently returned from filming concerts performed for soldiers fighting on the frontline, the BBC correspondent Mark Urban tells Music Matters about the current situation inside Ukraine. Sara speaks to composer and performer Ihor Zavhorodnii, and violinist Vera Lytovschenko, about their efforts to bring musical relief to residents in schools, hospitals and bomb shelters, and hears how they’re trying to reach and serve audiences inside their war-torn country. She hears, too, from the Chief Music Editor of Ukrainian Public Radio’s cultural station, Oleksandr Piriyev, who describes how he’s promoting Ukrainian music through the European Broadcasting Union.

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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