Happiness
Sunday 3 February 2008 22:15-0:00 (Radio 3)
Actor Simon Russell Beale curates a sequence of words and music on the theme of happiness. Emma Fielding and John Rogan read poems and texts by Wordsworth, Adcock, Shakespeare, AA Milne and Sassoon. Music evoking the happiness of the texts includes Byrd's Haec dies, Blossom Dearie singing I'm in Love, Prokofiev's Classical Symphony, Adams's China Gates and Wagner's Siegfried Idyll.
Duration:
1 hour 45 minutes
Happiness
Simon Russell Beale (curator)
Emma Fielding (reader)
John Rogan (reader)
Prelude
When invited to curate an edition of Words and Music, the actor Simon Russell Beale chose to explore the theme of happiness. He then set himself the task to find poetry, texts and music that are not about joy or ecstasy, but rather about common or garden happiness.
'Poets write often about grief, about horror, about sadness, but finding poems about happiness is difficult. And the same applies to music.' Some of the music and writing selected by Simon Russell Beale does border on the ecstatic, but essentially the programme is still about things we can all, with luck, experience: love, sex, sport, family life and an appreciation of the world around us.
So, in this Words and Music, there is a range of subjects from the excitement of living in a large city like London to the pleasures of sex in the afternoon, and from a really good birthday to watching your child sleep or playing a good round of golf. And the music includes some of Simon Russell Beale's favourite works: the jolliness of Saint-Saen's 2nd piano concerto, the intensity of Wagner's Siegfried Idyll, the joy of a 12th century hymn to creation by Perotin and even Blossom Dearie singing tremulously about love.
Elizabeth Arno (producer)
Playlist
00:00.00
PRELUDE by Simon Russell Beale (curator)
00:01.40
VAUGHAN WILLIAMS
Lark Ascending
Hugh Bean (violin)
New Philharmonia Orchestra
HMV 572162-2 Tr 9
00:02.56
THOMAS
Adlestrop
Emma Fielding (reader)
00:06.34
NORMAN MACCAIG
Small Rain
Emma Fielding (reader)
00:07:46
BEETHOVEN
Symphony No.6 in F major, Op.68 'Pastorale' (2ndmovement)
The London Classical Players
Roger Norrington (director)
EMI 749746-2 Tr 6
00:19.38
WORDSWORTH
Composed Upon Westminster Bridge
John Rogan (reader)
00:20.34
WEISS / THIELE
What A Wonderful World
Louis Armstrong
RCA 09026 687852 Tr 7
00:22.42
FLEUR ADCOCK
Londoner
Emma Fielding (reader)
00:23.42
BYRD
Haec Dies
Clare College Chapel Choir Cambridge
Timothy Brown (director)
IMPRESSIONS IMCD 701 Tr 21
00:25.43
GAVIN EWART
June 1966
John Rogan (reader)
00:26.30
ELGAR
Chanson du matin Op. 15 No. 2
Nigel Kennedy (violin)
Peter Pettinger (piano)
CHAN 8380 Tr 10
00:29.05
HARDY
A Thunderstorm in Town
John Rogan (reader)
00:29.35
ADAMS
China Gates
Andrew Russo (piano)
BLACK BOX BBM1098 Tr 3
00:33.15
BETJEMAN
Seaside Golf
John Rogan (reader)
00:34.25
BINGE
Elizabethan Serenade
The New London Orchestra
Ronal Corp (conductor)
HYPERION CDA66868 Tr 15
00:37.43
A. A. MILNE
Pooh (Extract: Eeyore's birthday presents from piglet and pooh)
Emma Fielding (reader)
00:44.04
WARLOCK
Pieds-en-l'air (from Capriol Suite)
Peter Lawson & Alan MacLean (piano duet)
CAMPION RRCD 1353 Tr 5
00:45.45
ROSSETTI
A birthday
Emma Fielding (reader)
00:46.26
COLEMAN / LEE / SCHLUGER
(I'm) in Love Again
Blossom Dearie
CAPITOL JAZZ 495449-2 Tr 2
00:49.10
SHEENAGH PUGH
Toast
Emma Fielding (reader)
00:50.50
HERRICK
Upon Julia's Clothes
John Rogan (reader)
00:51.06
SAINT-SAENS
Piano Concerto No.2 in G minor, Op.22 (3rd movement)
Stephen Hough (piano)
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
Sakari Oromo (conductor)
HYPERION CDA 67331/2 Tr 6
00:56.30
THOM GUNN
Sweet Things
John Rogan (reader)
00:59.21
PROKOFIEV
Classical Symphony, Op.25 (1st movement)
The Chamber Orchestra of Europe
Claudio Abbado (conductor)
DG 429 396-2 Tr 16
01:03.33
DONNE
The Sun Rising
John Rogan (reader)
01:05.17
MENDELSSOHN
Octet in E-flat major, Op.20 (1st movement)
Nash Ensemble
WIGMORE HALL LIVE 0001 Tr 4
01:14.00
MARLOWE
Elegia V (extracts)
John Rogan (reader)
01:19.25
BACH
Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied - motet (BWV.225) - extract
The Monteverdi Choir
The English Baroque Soloists
John Eliot Gardiner (director)
SDG 137 Tr 1
01:24.15
SASSOON
Everyone Sang
Emma Fielding (reader)
01:24.16
PEROTIN
Viderunt omnes fines terrae
The Hilliard Ensemble
Paul Hillier, director
ECM 837 751-2 Tr 1
01:28.06
PAUL DURCAN
10:30 Mass
John Rogan (reader)
01:32.45
WAGNER
Siegfried-Idyll - extract
Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam
Bernard Haitink (conductor)
PHILIPS 420 886-2 tr 6
01:37.47
ANNE BRADSTREET
To my Dear and Loving Husband
Emma Fielding (reader)
01:38.43
QUILTER, arr. HOUGH
The Crimson Petal
Stephen Hough (piano)
VC7 90732-2 Tr 3
01:41.04
DUFFY
A Child's Sleep
Emma Fielding (reader)
01:42.01
SHAKESPEARE
"Now until the break of day"
from A Midsummer Night's Dream
John Rogan (reader)
01:42.16
BRITTEN
A Midsummer Night's Dream - extract from final scene
Alfred Deller (Oberon)
Choirs of Downside & Emanuel Schools
London Symphony Orchestra
Benjamin Britten (conductor)
LONDON 4256632 CD2 T21
01:43.58
HOPKINS
Pied Beauty
Emma Fielding (reader)
