Imogen Stubbs and Bill Paterson read a selection of poetry and prose around the theme of Blake's Songs of Innocence and Experience.
Featured writers include Emily Dickinson, John Clare, Robert Herrick, Thomas Mann and George Herbert. Sylvia Plath reads her poem Ariel and Brian Patten's A Blade of Grass, a poem about the loss of innocence.
The programme includes Blake settings by Vaughan Williams, Bernstein's The Age of Anxiety and Tallis's Spem in Alium.
Innocence and Experience
Imogen Stubbs (reader)
Bill Paterson (reader)
Producer's note
This year is the 250th anniversary of William Blake. For this edition of Words and Music, I took Blake's Songs of Innocence and Experience as a starting point for an exploration of youth and age. I selected a wide range of poetry including Blake's poetry, Norman McCaig's intimate picture of a small boy throwing pebbles, to Sylvia Plath's haunting poem, Ariel, Patience Agbabi's description of adolescence, George Herbert's poem about self-discovery, The Collar and Charles Causley moving memory of his parents in Eden Rock.
The music I chose seemed to complement the readings: Kurtag's percussive Jatekok with the sound of pebbles hitting water in McCaig's poem, the exuberant movement from Janacek's Mladi leading to Agbabi's poem, Bernstein's Age of Anxiety mirroring the different stages of life, and Thomas Hardy's poem The self unseeing with the outer-wordly music of George Crumb. I felt that the poem Elaine Feinstein Getting Older, seemed to lead to a hope for the future, and into Tallis' Spem in Alium. Finally, Robert Herrick's vision of eternity matched by the most universal composer, JS Bach in the aria from the Goldberg Variations.
Jessica Isaacs (producer)
Details of Readings and Music
Times are from start of programme
00:00:00
BERNSTEIN
The Seven Ages of Man (Age of Anxiety (Symphony No.2) for piano and orchestra, after Auden)
James Tocco (piano)
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Leonard Slatkin (conductor)
CHANDOS CHAN 9889
Track 5
00:00:26
BLAKE
Infant Joy
Imogen Stubbs (reader)
00:00:54
HANDEL
Virtue, Truth and Innocence - chorus (Esther)
The Sixteen
Harry Christophers (conductor)
COLLINS CLASSICS 70402
CD 2 Track 12
00:03:12
KURTAG
Glocken 'Hommage a Strawinsky' (Jatekok)
Marta & Gyorgy Kurtag (pianos)
ECM 1619 453 511-2
Track 14
00:03:24
NORMAN MACCAIG
Small Boy
Bill Paterson (reader)
00:04:29
ENESCU
Impressions d'enfance (Op.28)
Leonidas Kavakos (violin)
Peter Nagy (piano)
ECM 1824 476 053-2
Track 2
00:07:45
EDMUND SPENCER
Whilome in Youth
Bill Paterson (reader)
00:08:52
PABLO NERUDA
To the Foot from its Child
Imogen Stubbs (reader)
00:11:00
SCHUMANN
Melodie (Album for the Young, Op.68)
Daniel Levy (piano)
NIMBUS NI5219
Track 1
00:12:05
VAUGHAN WILLILAMS
Infant Joy (Ten Blake Songs)
Ian Partridge (tenor)
The Music Group of London
EMI CDM 769 170-2
Track 2
00:13:22
JANACEK
Third Movement from Mladi (Youth)
Chamber Orchestra of Europe Wind Soloists
ASV CD COE 812
Track 7
00:17:18
PATIENCE AGBABI
North West(ern)
Patience Agbabi (reader)
[over Northern Soul chosen by Patience Agbabi]
00:18:30
WILLIAM BOLCOM
The Tyger (Songs of Experience: Volume I Part II)
University of Michigan University Choir, Chamber Choir and University Musical Society Choral Union
University of Michigan School of Music Symphony Orchestra
Leonard Slatkin (conductor)
NAXOS 8.559216
CD 2 Track 7
00:20:13
BERNSTEIN
The Seven Ages of Man (Age of Anxiety (Symphony No.2) for piano and orchestra, after Auden)
James Tocco (piano)
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Leonard Slatkin (conductor)
CHANDOS CHAN 9889
Tracks 5-11
00:29:24
A. E. HOUSMAN
When I was one-and-twenty
Bill Paterson (reader)
00:30:04
GEORGE BUTTERWORTH
When I was one-and-twenty (A Shropshire Lad)
Bryn Terfel (baritone)
Malcolm Martineau (piano)
DG 445 946-2
Track 24
00:31:27
GEORGE CRUMB
God-music (Black Angels)
Kronos Quartet
NONSUCH 979394-2
Track 7
00:32:01
THOMAS HARDY
The Self-unseeing
Bill Paterson (reader)
00:34:02
EMILY DICKINSON
Experience is an angled road
Imogen Stubbs (reader)
00:34:30
GEORGE HERBERT
The Collar
Bill Paterson (reader)
00:36:12
BLAKE
The clod and the pebble
Imogen Stubbs (reader)
00:36:44
SHOSTAKOVICH
Largo from Symphony No.5)
London Philharmonic Orchestra
Bernard Haitink (conductor)
DECCA 425 066-2
Track 3
00:43:39
SLYVIA PLATH
Ariel
Sylvia Plath (reader)
00:44:10
BRITTEN
Elegy (Serenade for tenor, horn and strings)
Adrian Thompson (tenor)
Michael Thompson (horn)
Bournemouth Sinfonietta
David Lloyd-Jones (conductor)
NAXOS 8.553834
Track 4
00:44:58
BLAKE
The sick rose
Imogen Stubbs (reader)
00:48:08
JOHN CLARE
I am
Bill Paterson (reader)
00:49:22
TAVENER
Innocence
Patricia Rozario (soprano)
Graham Titus (bass)
Leigh Nixon (tenor)
Alice Neary (cello)
Charles Fullbrook (bells)
Martin Baker (organ)
Westminster Abbey Choir
Martin Neary (conductor)
SONY CLASSICAL SK66613
Track 2
00:58:21
EE CUMMINGS
Who are so dark of heart
Imogen Stubbs (reader)
00:59:06
BRIAN PATTEN
A blade of grass
Brian Patten (reader)
00:59:56
BRAHMS
Intermezzo in E major (Op.116 No.6)
Nicholas Angelich (piano)
VIRGIN 3793033
Track 6
01:01:06
YEATS
When you are old
Imogen Stubbs (reader)
01:03:36
THOMAS MANN
Death in Venice (extract)
Bill Paterson (reader)
01:04:56
BRITTEN
Chaos, chaos and sickness (Death in Venice, Scene 16)
Peter Pears (Gustav von Aschenbach)
English Chamber Orchestra
Steuart Bedford (conductor)
LONDON 425 669-2
Track 16
01:09:20
DYLAN THOMAS
I have longed to move away
Bill Paterson (reader)
01:10:15
BERNSTEIN
The Seven Stages (Age of Anxiety (Symphony No.2) for piano and orchestra, after Auden)
James Tocco (piano)
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Leonard Slatkin (conductor)
CHANDOS CHAN 9889
Tracks 12-18
01:15:02
GOETHE
To every age
Bill Paterson (reader)
01:16:24
BLAKE
A Divine Image
Imogen Stubbs (reader)
01:16:26
MAHLER
3rd movement from Symphony No.1 (Feierlich und gemessen)
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra
Riccardo Chailly (conductor)
DECCA 448 813-2
Track 4
01:27:27
CHARLES CAUSLEY
Eden Rock
Charles Causley (reader)
01:28:40
ELAINE FEINSTEIN
Getting Older
Imogen Stubbs (reader)
01:29:32
TALLIS
Spem in Alium
The Sixteen
Harry Christophers (director)
CORO CORSACD 16016
Track 1
01:39:06
ROBERT HERRICK
Oh years and age farewell
Bill Paterson (reader)
01:39:41
BACH
Aria from Goldberg Variations (BWV.988)
Andras Schiff (piano)
ECM 1825 472 185-2
Track 32
