Musical range Composer and conductor Igor Stravinsky rehearses with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, 1958. The Third Programme aired a diverse array of performances
At 6pm on 29 September 1946, when the Third Programme took to the air for the first time, it seemed as if the BBC was dramatically abandoning one of its core “Reithian" principles. The corporation's "founding father", John Reith, had always insisted that the broadcaster's purpose had been to make "all that is best" available to "the greatest number". Yet here was the Third, apparently threatening to ring-fence high culture for a minority.
Reith, already long departed from the role of director general, harrumphed from the sidelines. True, the very first item in that first Sunday's schedule was accessible enough. How to Listen was a "satirical review" that took the opportunity to poke gentle fun at the Third Programme's grand pretensions before anyone else did. The rest of the night's output proved a little more demanding, however. There was Bach's Goldberg Variations, played - rather unusually for the time - on the harpsichord, followed by "Reflections on World Affairs" from the South African prime minister Jan Smuts. Later there were madrigals by Monteverdi conducted by Nadia Boulanger, a live concert featuring works by Hubert Parry and Vaughan Williams, and a specially commissioned Festival Overture from Benjamin Britten.
Global voices
Jan Smuts, prime minister of the Union of South Africa, talks to journalists in London in April 1946. That September, Smuts was among the contributors to the launch day of the BBC's new Third Programme
This story is from the June 2022 edition of BBC History Magazine.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the June 2022 edition of BBC History Magazine.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
The Aztecs at war
RHIANNON DAVIES discovers why war was so important to the Mesoamerican people - and why they believed a badly cooked meal could prevent a soldier from shooting straight
Towering achievement
NATHEN AMIN explores a 13th-century stronghold that was built to subdue independent-minded Welsh people, yet has since become a symbol of courage in the face of overwhelming odds
Eighteenth-century mushroom ketchup
ELEANOR BARNETT shares her instructions for making a flavourful sauce with roots in south-east Asia
Goodbye to the gilded age
JOHN JACOB WOOLF is won over by an exploration of the Edwardian era, which looks beyond the golden-era cliché to find a nation beset by a sense of unease
The power of the few
Subhadra Das's first book catches two particular waves in current publishing.
The 'badass' icon
One of the problems with biography, if an author is not careful, is that it can quickly become hagiography.
Ghosts of Germany's past
KATJA HOYER is impressed by a study of a nation's attempts to grapple with the crimes it perpetrated during the Second World War
A window onto England's soul
SARAH FOOT has high praise for a book that traces the evolution of English Christianity over the course of 1400 years, through the lives of its greatest thinkers
"There was a general perception that Queen Victoria's mourning was neither normal nor acceptable”
JUDITH FLANDERS talks to Rebecca Franks about her new book, which delves into the customs surrounding dying, death and mourning in Victorian Britain
"Indigenous children were forcibly separated from their families"
HIDDEN HISTORIES... KAVITA PURI on the legacy of Canada's residential schools
