Memory
Sunday 2 March 2008 22:15-0:00 (Radio 3)
Memory: Saskia Reeves and Alex Jennings read poetry and prose by Larkin, Carroll and Kavanagh, with music from Mahler, Joan Baez, The Beatles, Schumann, Tchaikovsky and Liszt.
Duration:
1 hour 45 minutes
Memory
Memory
Alex Jennings (reader)
Saskia Reeves (reader)
Producer's Note - Memory
For this week's Words and Music I've chosen poetry, prose and music on the theme of memory: the memory of home, of childhood, of lost loves. The programme starts with a passage from Wordsworth's Prelude in which he describes spots of time, the small memorable and emotional events in our lives which we can recall in order to revitalise and renew us in times of difficulty. These moments, he says, begin in childhood. Childhood is remembered too by D.H. Lawrence in 'Piano', by Schumann in 'Kinderszenen' and by Virginia Woolf's memory of lying in bed in St Ives as a child listening to the waves breaking outside her bedroom window.
Composers have always responded to memory. In the programme you'll hear songs by Ned Rorem, Poulenc and Haydn. Schoenberg argued that a musical idea is retained and then rerecognised by the listener in a process similar to memory. And, in the song 'Someone in a Tree' from 'Pacific Overtures', Stephen Sondheim explores the idea that the mosaic of history is pieced together from fragments of memory.
The programme ends with Charles Causley reading 'Eden Rock' in which he remembers his parents as they were when he was a child - they picnic beside a stream and beckon to him to cross and join them. For me it evokes memories of a trip with Michael Rosen to visit Charles Causley in his home in Cornwall for the last time where, shortly before his death, he read for Radio 3 this, his final poem.
Producer - Fiona McLean
Playlist
Details of Readings and Music
Times are from the start of the programme
00:00:00
GEORGE ENESCU
Impressions d'enfance
Leonidas Kavakos, violin
Peter Nagy, piano
ECM 4760532
00:00:50
WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
from The Prelude
Saskia Reeves (reader)
00:01:53
THE BEATLES
In my Life
Rubber Soul
PARLOPHONE CDP7464402
00:04:19
TAKEMITSU
Towards the Sea: the Night
John Williams, guitar
Sebastian Bell, Alto flute
London Sinfonietta
Conductor - Esa-Pekka Salonen
SONY CLASSICAL SK46720
00:06:09
VIRGINIA WOOLF
from Moments of Being
Saskia Reeves (reader)
00:07:13
DEBUSSY
La Mer - Jeux de vagues
The Cleveland Orchestra
Conductor - Vladimir Ashkenazy
DECCA 467 428-2
00:13:40
D.H. LAWRENCE
Piano
Alex Jennings (reader)
00:14:46
SCHUMANN
Kinderszenen
Vladimir Horowitz, piano
SONY CLASSICAL S2K53457
00:16:18
SEAMUS HEANEY
Relic of Memory
Alex Jennings (reader)
00:16:36
RACHMANINOV
Prelude in G sharp minor
Vladimir Horowitz, piano
SONY CLASSICAL SK53472
00:19:32
HAYDN
Beethoven - An die frene Geliebte
Thomas Allen (baritone)
Malcolm Martineau (piano)
BBC W10042
00:24:19
BILLY COLLINS
Forgetfulness
Alex Jennings (reader)
00:25:54
DVORAK
String Quartet no 12 - Lento
Vlach Quartet Prague
NAXOS 8553371
00:33:53
LEWIS CARROLL
Through the Looking Glass
Saskia Reeves (reader)
00:35:25
STEPHEN SONDHEIM
Someone in a Tree
Pacific Overtures
Soloists and Orchestra of the English National Opera
James Holmes, conductor
THAT'S ENTERTAINMENT CDTER1151
00:42:12
KENNETH GRAHAME
The Wind in the Willows
Alex Jennings (reader)
00:43:38
MAHLER
1st Symphony - 2nd Movement
San Francisco Orchestra
Conductor - Michael Tilson Thomas
821936-0002-2
00:45:52
CAROL ANN DUFFY
Plainsong
Saskia Reeves (reader)
00:52:16
MAX RICHTER
Europe, after the Rain
Memoryhouse
BBCLJ30022
00:58:28
TED HUGHES
Perfect Light
Alex Jennings (reader)
00:59:47
NED ROREM
Memory
Selected Songs
Carol Farley, soprano
Ned Rorem, piano
NAXOS 8559084
01:00:56
PABLO NERUDA
Memory
Saskia Reeves (reader)
01:02:18
BARTOK
Sonata for Solo Violin - Fuga
Isabelle Faust, violin
HARMONIA MUNDI HMN911623
01:07:14
TED HUGHES
A Short Film
Alex Jennings (reader)
01:08:29
JOAN BAEZ
Diamonds and Rust
Diamonds and Rust
A&M 3932332
01:13:15
SEAMUS HEANEY
Digging
Seamus Heaney (reader)
01:15:04
PATRICK KAVANAGH
In Memory of my Mother
Alex Jennings (reader)
01:16:07
GRIEG
Arietta
Gymnopodie
Tommy Smith, saxophone
Murray McLachlan, piano
01:19:34
THOM GUNN
Memory Unsettled
Thom Gunn (reader)
01:19:56
SCHOENBERG
String Quartet no 1
Leipziger Streichquartett
Andreas Seidel, violin
Tilman Buning, violin
Ivo Bauer, violin
Matthias Moosdorf, violincello
MDG30709192
01:26:41
ANNA AKHMATOVA
Memory of Sun
Saskia Reeves (reader)
01:27:15
POULENC
Les Chemins de l'amour
Nuit d'Etoiles
Veronique Gens, soprano
Roger Vignoles, piano
VIRGIN CLASSICS VC5453602
01:30:42
PHILIP LARKIN
The Winter Palace
Alex Jennings (reader)
01:31:31
CHARLES-VALENTIN ALKAN
Le Temps qui n'est plus
Douze Etudes dans les tons mineur
Jack Gibbons, piano
ASV CDDCS227
01:32:51
CHARLES CAUSLEY
Eden Rock
Charles Causley (reader)
01:34:06
SAMUEL BARBER
Adagio for Strings
Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra
Leonard Bernstein, conductor
DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 4395282
