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Press Releases
Red Button Britten, Carols for Breakfast and Bakewell's Belief among the Christmas highlights on Radio 3
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´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio 3 is serving up a selection of festive treats this Christmas.
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First Radio 3 Red Button for Television
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Radio 3 films its first red button programme for Christmas: Britten's cantata St Nicolas from Lancing College, Sussex – the very institution which commissioned this work 60 years ago and the location of its world premiere.
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With the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Singers, Choristers of St Paul's and the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Concert Orchestra, the performance is live on Radio 3 on 18 December.
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Music lovers who have satellite or digital TV can press their TV red button to watch this specially recorded performance for seven days from 19 December.
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´óÏó´«Ã½ Singers Record 12 Carols For Breakfast
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The ´óÏó´«Ã½ Singers, with their Chief Conductor David Hill, record 12 carols especially for Breakfast, to go out every day at 7.35am from 20 to 31 December.
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On the menu are Walton's What Cheer (New Year's Eve); Bob Chilcott's beautifully wrought The Shepherd's Carol, now a modern classic with many choirs (Boxing Day), Grace Rossiter's arrangement of the familiar tune The Angel Gabriel (21 December), and other contemporary carols from Christopher Brown (23 December), Gabriel Jackson (27 December), Ronald Corp (29 December) and Richard Rodney Bennett (30 December).
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Bringing a different flavour are Christmas songs which represent the seasonal and festive traditions of other countries, such as Vic Nees' touching arrangement of an old Flemish carol (20 December), a haunting piece by the Icelandic composer þorkell Sigurbjörnsson (Christmas Eve), and a jubilant setting, by Karsten Gundermann, of an old German tune which depicts the Christmas bells ringing (28 December).
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Milton At 400.
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Radio 3 commemorates the 400th anniversary of the birth of poet John Milton (1608-1674) with a host of programmes exploring his life and works during December.
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Highlights include a full reading of Milton's best known work, Paradise Lost, read by acclaimed actor Anton Lesser (every day from 22 December to 2 January); the Sunday Feature looks at Adventurous Song and Milton's evolving views and their importance today.
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The Essay (8-12 December) reveals a lesser known side of Milton in his work as an essayist rather than as a poet with contributions from: poet Martyn Crucefix; Sharon Achinstein who is editing his tracts on divorce; Andreas Whittam Smith, former Editor, The Independent; poet and author Tom Paulin; and Annabel Patterson, Sterling, Professor of English.
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Drama On 3 presents a brand new production of Samson Agonistes, the 'dramatic poem' published in 1671, just three years before Milton's death (14 December).
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Every day between 7 and 14 December, actor Robert Glenister reads many of Milton's poems including Lycidas, On The Morning Of Christ's Nativity and Sonnet X1X. The poems are featured throughout the day during Breakfast from 7.00am, and at 2.00pm and during In Tune from 6.00pm.
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The Australian poet John Kinsella, who has written what he calls a Miltonic anti-masque, is among Ian McMillan's guests on The Verb (12 December, 9.15pm) and The Early Music Show focuses on Milton's masque in honour of chastity, Comus, recorded at Ludlow castle, where Milton's masque was first performed in 1634 (13 December, 1.00pm).
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. And Puccini at 150
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Radio 3 marks the 150th anniversary of Puccini's birth in December with a series of programmes including a Music Matters special (20 December), in which Tom Service is joined by musicologist and authority on Italian opera, Roger Parker, in Tuscany as he visits the locations where Puccini lived and worked.
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Composer Of The Week explores his life and work (22-26 December), while in Afternoon On 3, Louise Fryer presents a historic performance of the ever-popular Tosca from the Metropolitan Opera New York radio archives, featuring leading Puccini singers of the time including soprano Renata Tebaldi as Tosca, tenor Richard Tucker as Mario Cavaradossi and baritone Leonard Warren as Baron Scarpia.
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There are four Puccini operas: La Fanciulla del West from the Royal Opera House (27 December); a second chance to hear Il Tabarro from the 2008 ´óÏó´«Ã½ Proms (29 December) and La Bohème and La Rondine both live from the Met (3 and 10 January respectively).
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A new series of Belief with Joan Bakewell
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Dame Joan Bakewell explores areas of belief with artists, thinkers and other public figures in Belief, a returning series of programmes for Radio 3.
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In a society where the notion of belief has become increasingly personal and subjective, religion remains a significant influence in society. In conversation with her guests, Joan Bakewell explores the influences that have shaped them, the ideas they have about life's big questions and how what they believe affects both their personal and working lives.
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Guests include the Church of England's first non-white diocesan bishop, the Bishop of Rochester, the right reverend Michael Nazir-Ali (22 December); prize-winning novelist, critic and cultural historian, Marina Warner (24 December); the head of Britain's Reform Jewish community, Rabbi Doctor Tony Bayfield (25 December); an off-on believer in God, Andrew Wilson (30 December), and Cambridge University chaplain and Muslim convert, Tim Winter (2 Jan).
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Christmas worship
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Christmas worship on Radio 3 begins with A Service For Advent With Carols live from the Chapel of St John's College, Cambridge at 4.00pm on Sunday 30 November.
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Every year cathedrals, churches and college chapels up and down the land are packed for Advent carol services in preparation for the season of Christmas.
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Perhaps most renowned of all is this service live from St John's College Cambridge which includes this year James MacMillan's A New Song and the first performance of John McCabe's The Last And Greatest Herald, specially commissioned for this occasion.
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Choral Evensong continues live on Wednesdays at 4.00pm, with a repeat on Sunday throughout December, from Lichfield Cathedral (3 December), St Edmundsbury Cathedral (10 December) and Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin (17 December).
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There's no broadcast on Christmas Eve but the following Sunday (28 December) the choir of Clare College Cambridge sings for the first time on radio a new sequence of Christmas carols by John Tavener, commissioned by the choir and called Ex Maria Virgine. The sequence is dedicated to the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall in joyful celebration of their marriage.
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On Christmas Day itself at 2.00pm, there's a repeat of the previous day's Festival Of Nine Lessons And Carols from King's College Cambridge (the commissioned carol this year is by Dominic Muldowney) and on the last Wednesday of 2008 (31 December, New Year's Eve) Choral Evensong is live from Douai Abbey near Reading, sung by the Rodolfus Choir and featuring seasonal music by Herbert Howells.
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And a week later, there's a special Service for Epiphany sung by the choir of King's College London and featuring a complete performance of Britten's A Boy Was Born, interspersed with readings.
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Gardiner's Bach from Spitalfields
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In the lead-up to Christmas on Performance On 3, John Eliot Gardiner conducts The Monteverdi Choir and The English Baroque Soloists in three all-Bach programmes recorded at Hawksmoor's glorious Christ Church as part of the Spitalfields Winter Festival.
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Each features one of the cantatas that make up the Christmas Oratorio, as well as one of the Motets and a Brandenburg Concerto (22-24 December).
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Christmas across Europe
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Christmas Across Europe And Beyond is a musical celebration of Christmas with one-hour concert performances from seven countries across Europe...and beyond – including the USA, Sweden, Austria, Finland, Denmark, Czech Republic and Norway.
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Radio 3 joins an international network of radio stations for a seasonal selection of choral and orchestral music (21 December).
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It's not just the music – a number of features exploring Christmas past, present and future is included in the day. Historian Judith Flanders talks about how today's Christmas customs find their roots in the Victorian imagination. Aled Jones reveals the hidden history of Christmas carols. And in these financially stricken times there will even be an exploration of the part Christmas plays on the balance sheet!
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Ballet in the afternoon
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Louise Fryer presents extracts from the large-scale ballet works of Prokofiev and Tchaikovsky in Afternoon On 3, culminating on Boxing Day with another chance to hear the complete Sleeping Beauty from ´óÏó´«Ã½ Proms 2008, performed by Valery Gergiev and the London Symphony Orchestra.
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Other ballets include: Cinderella with music by Prokofiev, performed by the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Symphony Orchestra under Sir Andrew Davis, with narration by Deborah Bull (22 December); the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Philharmonic perform Act 3 of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake, conducted by Alexander Titov (23 December); Act 2 of Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker, conducted by Vassily Sinaisky (25 December); and Prokofiev's Romeo And Juliet from the ´óÏó´«Ã½ National Orchestra of Wales, conducted by Thierry Fischer (24 December).
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New Year's Day Concert from Vienna
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Brian Kay presents the New Year's Day Concert 2009 live from Vienna. The Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra perform the annual celebratory concert of waltzes, polkas and marches, conducted for the first time by Argentinean-Israeli pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim.
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First live double-header for Christmas Morning from Breakfast presenters
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Live on Christmas morning, much-loved Breakfast presenters Rob Cowan and Sara Mohr-Pietsch share the microphone for the first time to present a special Christmas Breakfast.
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Their festive choices include the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel's Messiah, Haydn's exuberant Symphony No. 1 in D major, a selection of Peter Cornelius's Christmas Carols sung by both Angelika Kirchschlager and Hermann Prey, plus the latest instalment of Bach Dances and a specially recorded carol by Howard Skempton, sung by the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Singers.
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´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio 3 Publicity
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