A Book of Hours
Sunday 6 January 2008 22:15-0:00 (Radio 3)
Amanda Root and Rory Kinnear take an imaginative journey around the clock over the course of 24 hours with poems and prose by Fleur Adcock, John Clare, Shakespeare, Byron, Walt Whitman and Carol Ann Duffy, and music by Sibelius, Debussy, Elvis Costello, Copland and Falla
Duration:
1 hour 45 minutes
A Book of Hours
Amanda Root (reader)
Rory Kinnear (reader)
This week's Words and Music takes an imaginative journey around the clock over the course of twenty four hours. The programme opens with Klami's 'Foggy Morning' and Wordsworth's poem 'Composed upon Westminster Bridge'.
The day progresses with John Clare's 'Schoolboys in winter' and the children's choir in Peter Maxwell Davies' 'Seven Songs Home' singing about the journey home from school. I selected music that for me reflected the emotions evoked by the poems so Carol Ann Duffy's erotic and beautiful poem 'Warming Her Pearls' is heard with Debussy's 'Nuit d'etoiles' and Charles Tomlinson's poem 'The Journey' about a drive as the sun sets and the moon rises with Falla's 'En el Generalife' from his 'Nights in the Gardens of Spain'.
T.S. Eliot reading from his 'Preludes' about the winter evening settling down and the lighting of the lamps seemed to lead to 'My Time of Day' from the musical 'Guys and Dolls' and sung by Ian Charleson. The programme ends with Romeo and Juliet debating whether the bird they can hear is a nightingale or a lark and night ends with Schoenberg's 'Verklarte Nacht'.
Fiona McLean (producer)
All timings are from the beginning of the programme
00:00:00
UONO KLAMI
Foggy Morning
Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra
Leif Segerstam - conductor
FINLANDIA 8573856042
00:01:05
WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
Upon Westminster Bridge
Amanda Root (reader)
00:01:43
EDVARD GRIEG
Morning - from Peer Gynt
Estonian National Symphony Orchestra
Paavo Jarvi - conductor
VIRGIN CLASSICS 5457222
00:05:51
JOHN DONNE
The Sunne Rising
Rory Kinnear (reader)
00:08:07
AULIS SALLINEN
Sunrise Serenade, op 63
Jouko Harjanne - trumpet
Aki Valimaki - trumpet
Avanti Chamber Orchestra
FINLANDIA 8573819722
00:14:42
CHARLES DICKENS
Great Expectations
Amanda Root (reader)
00:15:36
STEPHEN SONDHEIM
Too Many Mornings
Follies
Daniel Massey and Julia McKenzie
FIRST NIGHT ENCORE CD3
00:20:27
MARK DOTY
Long Point Light
Amanda Root (reader)
00:21:13
CLAUDE DEBUSSY
Nuages - Nocturnes
The Cleveland Orchestra
Vladimir Ashkenazy - conductor
ELOQUENCE 467 428-2
00:27:16
LOUIS MACNEICE
Sunday Morning
Rory Kinnear (reader)
00:28:24
GEORGE BUTTERWORTH
Bredon Hill
Bryn Terfel - baritone
Malcolm Martineau - piano
DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 4459462
00:33:06
COLE PORTER
Miss Otis Regrets
Ella Fitzgerald
VERVE 821 989-2
00:36:10
JOHN CLARE
Schoolboys in Winter
Rory Kinnear (reader)
00:37:01
PETER MAXWELL DAVIES
Home - Seven Songs Home
A Celebration of Scotland
The Choir of St Mary's Music School
Scottish Chamber Orchestra
Sir Peter Maxwell Davies - conductor/pianist
UNICORN DKPCD9070
00:38:38
CAROL ANN DUFFY
Warming Her Pearls
Amanda Root (reader)
00:40:44
CLAUDE DEBUSSY
Nuit d'Etoiles
Veronique Gens - soprano
Roger Vignoles - piano
VIRGIN CLASSICS VC5453602
00:43:40
MANUEL DE FALLA
En el Generalife - Nights in the Gardens of Spain
Alicia de Larrocha - piano
London Philharmonic Orchestra
Rafael Fruhbeck de Burgos
DECCA 410 289-2
00:43:43
CHARLES TOMLINSON
The Journey
Rory Kinnear (reader)
00:53:05
FRIDAY NIGHT IN THE ROYAL STATION HOTEL
Philip Larkin
Amanda Root (reader)
00:54:03
SAMUEL BARBER
Solitary Hotel
Thomas Allen - Baritone
Endellion String Quartet
Roger Vignoles - piano
VIRGIN CLASSICS 7243 5 45033 2 0
00:56:36
T.S. ELIOT
Preludes
T.S. Eliot (reader)
00:57:14
FRANK LOESSER
My Time of Day
Guys and Dolls
The Original National Theatre Cast
Ian Charleson
EMI MFP 0946 3213888
00:58:30
FELIX MENDELSSOHN
Notturno
A Midsummer Night's Dream
WIENER PHILHARMONIKER
Andre Previn - conductor
PHILIPS 420 161-2
01:05:11
WALT WHITMAN
A Prairie Sunset
Amanda Root (reader)
01:05:49
HARRISON BIRTWISTLE
Cantus IV - The Moon and the Seven Pleiades
Entr'Actes and Sappho Fragments
Heidi Grant Murphy - Soprano
Paul Hotstetter - conductor
KOCH 3-7486 -2
01:09:02
THOM GUNN
Night Taxi
Rory Kinnear (reader)
01:09:28
RAVEL
Prelude a la nuit
The Cleveland Orchestra
Vladimir Ashkenazy - conductor
ELOQUENCE 467 428-2
01:13:11
WALT WHITMAN
A Clear Midnight
Amanda Root (reader)
01:13:38
PHILIP GLASS
Evening Song
from Satyagraba
The Essential Philip Glass
SONY SBK64133
01:17:47
FLEUR ADCOCK
Things
Amanda Root (reader)
01:18:20
LORD BYRON
We'll go no more a'roving
Rory Kinnear (reader)
01:18:57
CHARLES-VALENTIN ALKAN
Nocturne in B
12 Studies in the Minor Keys
Jack Gibbons - piano
ASV CDDCS227
01:25:26
ELVIS COSTELLO
The Lovers Arise
Il Sogno
London Symphony Orchestra
Michael Tilson Thomas - conductor
DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 00289 471 5772
01:28:34
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Romeo and Juliet
Amanda Root and Rory Kinnear (readers)
01:28:58
ARNOLD SCHOENBERG
Verklarte Nacht
Berliner Philharmoniker
Herbert von Karajan - conductor
