Words and Music: The Sky Smiles Down
Fiona Shaw
Robert Glenister
The Sky Smiles Down - Producer's Note
This week's Words and Music takes a journey through the course of a summer day. Summer Vacation from Wordsworth's 'The Prelude' evokes the joy felt by the poet as he looks down from a ridge on Lake Windemere, 'a universe of Nature's fairest forms' seen on a summer morning. The poem is heard alongside Judith Weir's beautiful variation on the medieval melody 'Sumer is i-cumen in'. In contrast to the lushness of the English landscape Dana Gioia's 'California Hills in August' depicts a hot and dusty scene, 'the dry twisted shapes of black elm, scrub oak, and chaparall' leading to Vivaldi's summer section from 'The Four Seasons'. The sonnets originally to be heard alongside the concertos - possibly written by Vivaldi himself - also describe a hard season in which man and his flock languish.
The title, The Sky Smiles Down, comes from 'Summer in the South' by Paul Laurence Dunbar, the nineteenth century American poet, born the son of slaves, who became the first African-American poet to gain national acclaim. Another American summer is heard in the description of one of Gatsby's lavish parties from F.Scott Fitzgerald's 'The Great Gatsby' where the men and women come and go 'like moths among the whispering and champagne and the stars' which you'll hear with Miles Davis' 'Once upon a summertime'. Walt Whitman's 'Song of Myself' describes the erotic heat of a 'mad naked summer night' - and that heat is wonderfully evoked by Manuel de Falla in his Danza Lejana from 'Nights in the Gardens of Spain'.
Back to England and the rural scene in John Clare's 'Summer Evening' and Vaughan Williams' musical setting of Shove's 'The Water Mill'. As the sun sets Ted Hughes' 'Harvest Moon' appears with the fairies and barn owls of John Burnside's 'Summer'. 'The Sky Smiles Down' ends with the Adagio from Dvorak's Eighth Symphony, composed over the summer of 1889 at Dvorak's home in the Czech countryside which paints a musical picture of birdsong and country life.
Fiona McLean - producer
Details of Readings and Music
Times are from the start of the programme
00:00:00
MODEST MOUSSORGSKY
Tuileries
Pictures at an Exhibition
Wiener Philharmoniker
Andre Previn - conductor
PHILIPS 432512
00:00:25
EMILY DICKINSON
My Garden
Fiona Shaw (reader)
00:01:03
WORDSWORTH
Summer Vacation from The Prelude
Robert Glenister (reader)
00:01:49
JUDITH WEIR
Sumer is i-cumen in
Themes and Variations
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Jac van Steen - conductor
NMCD062
00:04:00
WILLIAM BLAKE
The Schoolboy
Robert Glenister (reader)
00:05:23
JOAN BAEZ
Never dreamed you'd leave in summer
Diamonds and Rust
A&M 3932332
00:08:08
GUSTAV MAHLER
Tempo di Menuetto
Symphony no 3
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Bernard Haitink - conductor
CSOR901701
00:08:16
AUGUST KLEINZAHLER
The Damselfly
Fiona Shaw (reader)
00:18:03
PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR
Summer in the South
Robert Glenister (reader)
00:18:17
OLIVER MESSIAEN
Les Orioles
Des Canyons aux Etoiles
Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France
Myung-Whun Chung - conductor
00:24:27
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Robert Glenister (reader)
00:25:32
DELIUS
Two Aquarelles
A Song of Summer etc
Sir John Barbirolli - conductor
DUTTON LABORATORIES CDSJB1005
00:29:25
JEAN REDPATH
Summer of my Dreams
JEAN REDPATH JR102
00:33:50
DANA GIOIA
California Hills in August
Robert Glenister (reader)
00:35:16
ANTONIO VIVALDI
Summer - The Four Seasons
Nigel Kennedy - violin and director
English Chamber Orchestra
EMI CDC7495572
00:40:32
F. SCOTT FITZGERALD
from The Great Gatsby
Fiona Shaw (reader)
00:41:56
MILES DAVIS
Once upon a summertime
Quiet Nights
Complete Columbia Sessions
Gil Evans - conductor
CXK 67397
00:45:22
QABBANI
In the summer
Fiona Shaw (reader)
00:45:45
WALT WHITMAN
from Song of Myself
Fiona Shaw (reader)
00:46:47
MANUEL de FALLA
Danza Lejana - Nights in the Gardens of Spain
London Philharmonic Orchestra
Rafael Fruhbeck de Burgos - conductor
DECCA 4102892
00:52:04
MARK DOTY
After the Fourth
Robert Glenister (reader)
00:53:49
JOHN CAGE
Summer
The Seasons
American Composers Orchestra
Dennis Russell Davies - conductor
ECM 4651402
00:59:40
MARK STRAND
My mother on an evening in late summer
Fiona Shaw (reader)
01:02:10
GERALD FINZI
In five-score Summers
Roderick Williams - baritone
Iain Burnside - piano
NAXOS 8557644
01:03:53
ZOLTAN KODALY
Summer Evening
Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra
Zoltan Kodaly - conductor
DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 4274082
01:09:18
STEPHEN SONDHEIM
Night Waltz
A Little Night Music
A Different Side of Sondheim
Richard Rodney Bennett
DRGCD5182
01:12:07
CAROL ANN DUFFY
Midsummer Night
Fiona Shaw (reader)
01:13:55
FELIX MENDELSSOHN
A Midsummer Night's Dream
London Symphony Orchestra
Andre Previn - conductor
EMI 5749812
01:18:47
SEAMUS HEANEY
Night Drive
Robert Glenister (reader)
01:19:42
SARA TEASDALE
Summer Night, Riverside
Fiona Shaw (reader)
01:20:52
GEORGE GERSHWIN
Summertime
Sarah Vaughan
The Essential Sarah Vaughan
CBS 4671522
01:24:09
JOHN CLARE
Summer Evening
Robert Glenister (reader)
01:25:05
VAUGHAN WILLIAMS
The Water Mill
Robert Tear - tenor
Philip Ledger - piano
LONDON 4303682
01:28:27
TED HUGHES
The Harvest Moon
Fiona Shaw (reader)
01:28:58
TORU TAKEMITSU
Rain Tree Sketch II
Fujita Piano Trio
ASV CDDCA1120
01:32:29
JOHN BURNSIDE
Summer
Fiona Shaw (reader)
01:33:27
ANTONIN DVORAK
Adagio - Symphony no 8
Berliner Philharmoniker
Rafael Kubelik - conductor
DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 4579022
