New Year New Music ‒ Tune in and Turn on a Love for the New

January begins in the most traditional way for BBC Radio 3, with the New Year's Day concert from Vienna, Well known waltzes and a touch of Viennese glamour – a Broadcast tradition of many years.

But then we want to begin something new – a week long season called New Year, New Music, which will celebrate and present music of the last 60 years, and hopefully will help to demystify contemporary classical music, music that some find it hard to find a way into, but which in reality offers a world of beauty and intellectual challenge that is well worth an investment in time and effort to appreciate.

We will have a great range of new music which will be woven throughout the day in the heart of the schedule.

I remember Harrison Birtwistle’s The Minotaur, which when it was first performed at the Royal Opera House created a bit of a stir and even a violent reaction against it. When it was revived a few years later, it was greeted by enthusiastic audiences as the return of a much love masterpiece. Somehow our attitude to the piece and its complex sound world had changed. Or we had realised it wasn’t so scary really. 

That’s what we want to do through our programming in this special week ‒ to present new, challenging and avant gardemasterpieces in all their musical glory, but to contextualise the work and to present it in such a way that audiences can be drawn in and hopefully discover some new and marvellous things. 

We will begin on 1 January with Stockhausen’s great work from 1961, Hymnen, using the original four-channel tapes and a recording from a recent performance by the London Sinfonietta, so that audiences can for the first time, in broadcasting, hear the work as it was meant to be heard, in 4.0 surround sound. This famous piece blends and transforms recordings of national anthems from around the world with other sounds to create a unique experience for the audience. 

Then in the week following Stockhausen will be Composer of the Week, with Donald Macleod exploring the life and work of this influential figure of the 20th century, and a way into his ethereal and spiritual sound world – which has influenced many other people in different genres of music in the 20th and 21st centuries. 

Other great things include a 5-hour piece by La Monte Young: The Well-Tuned Piano. This will be an overnight broadcast , our very own 'slow radio', taking its time. Incidentally, the composer intended that audiences might best appreciate it by immersing themselves in the colourmagenta.

Other highlights will include the composer Tansy Davies making a personal choice of contemporary music on Saturday Classics, and a daily Essay on ‘seismic moments’ in musical history. In Tune will make its debut broadcast from the Turbine Hall in Tate Modern. And we welcome to BBC Radio 3 the London Contemporary Orchestra, who will be part of a concert of cutting edge modern music from St John’s Church Hackney, presented by Sara Mohr-Pietsch, and featuring Leafcutter John. Late Junction will present new music throughout the week – as is its wont. Contemporary composers will feature and talk about their work on Essential Classics. 

Through all this Tom Service and Sara Mohr-Pietsch will be providing the odd guide to how to listen – helping the modern listener orient themselves towards music that they might have thought to be too 'difficult'. 

So that’s New Year, New Music – all part of our mission to get more great works of musical art understood, better accepted and enjoyed by more people. Tune in with an open mind and turn on to new music with BBC Radio 3. A great way to start a New Year!