A cultural institution

Mixing music with drama and the ancient with the cutting-edge, the BBC's Third Programme set out to scale the shining peaks of "high culture". But, says DAVID HENDY, its lofty aims alienated as much as they allured

-  DAVID HENDY

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