Radio France and BBC Radio 3 — Some Great Listening

Culture Monster of the LA Times reports that musicians from North Korea’s Unhasu Orchestra and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France performed jointly in the Salle Pleyel in Paris, under the baton of South Korean conductor Myung Whun Chung.  The concert was broadcast on Radio France and is available on-demand for the next month here.  It’s fun to hear the Korean traditional music.

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From Mar. 23 through Mar. 31, BBC Radio 3 is going to play a Schubert marathon — all Schubert all the time.  The Independent has more, including an interview with BBC 3’s visionary controller Roger Wright.

The more we hear of Schubert, and the better we understand him, the more astonishing he becomes. And his catalogue is so substantial that, as Roger Wright, the controller of Radio 3, points out: “Though many people know the most famous works, there are so many that nobody can know them all.”

The line-up includes plenty of live music – lunchtime “Schubertiads”, concerts by the BBC orchestras, piano recitals from leading Schubert interpreters, and more. Schubertian issues will also offer food for discussion: was he classical or romantic? What was his state of mind in his final year? And how on earth did he manage to write so much music?

Franz Schubert (1797-1828) composed nearly 1,000 pieces before his untimely death at the age of only 31, ranging from short songs to substantial symphonies and 18 operas.

You can hear it all online at BBC Radio 3.