Benjamin Britten (1913-1976)

As Christians around the world prepare for Easter, Donald Macleod explores the life and music of two nuns who were also composers. Though Hildegard of Bingen and Isabella Leonarda lived five centuries...

7 Huhti 20231h 11min

150 years ago this week, Sergei Rachmaninov was born: one of the finest pianists of his generation, touring the world in the 1920s and 30s as a musical megastar. Composing had been his real passion si...

31 Maalis 20231h 5min

Georges Bizet’s story ought to have been a very straightforward one. It was clear to everyone who met him just how brilliantly and excitingly talented he was. He was also fortunate to live and work in...

24 Maalis 202357min

Johanna Müller-Hermann once held a significant place as a composer and teacher in Vienna, yet has been largely forgotten over the decades since her death in 1941. Radio 3 has been working to unearth h...

10 Maalis 20231h 27min

The singer, and composer Barbara Strozzi neither held any position at church or court, nor had a consistant patron, and yet she published eight volumes of her own music, and had more secular music in ...

10 Maalis 20231h 11min

“So great a musician are you.....that if the Fates carried you off.....music would be mute.” So wrote a contemporary of Thomas Tallis, showing us just how highly this composer was regarded in his own ...

20 Helmi 202359min

Donald Macleod explores how Smetana created a musical Czech identity The title of Smetana’s most popular work, ‘Ma Vlast’, gives us a clue to what drove him through much of his career. It translates ...

10 Helmi 20231h 14min

As performer, composer, impresario, musical director, and teacher, Antonio Vivaldi was a key figure in the musical life of Baroque Italy. Thanks to his set of Concertos “The Four Seasons”, he remains ...

3 Helmi 20231h 8min