A Change in the Weather
Sunday 30 March 2008 22:15-0:00 (Radio 3)
To mark 85 years since the first forecast was broadcast on the BBC, Mark Strong and Niamh Cusack read poetry on the theme of the weather. Featuring writings by John Donne, AA Milne, WH Auden, Laurence Binyon and Shakespeare interspersed with music from Gene Kelly, Ravel, Gershwin, Flanders and Swann, Mahler, Chopin and Terje Isungset.
Duration:
1 hour 45 minutes
The Changing Weather
Mark Strong (reader)
Niamh Cusack (reader)
Producer's Note
85 years ago, in March 1923, BBC Radio began broadcasting the weather forecast on a daily basis. It's been a national obsession ever since and so in celebration, Mark Strong and Niamh Cusack read poetry and prose on the ever-changing weather.
Beginning with Ravel's sunrise from Daphnis and Chloe and the glorious rising sun of John Donne, there follows a perfect May day described by Edward Thomas, and a taste of the shimmering sultry heat of a Manhattan spring day in Weill's "Street Scene". Louis MacNeice's "Sunlight on the Garden" combines nostalgia and foreboding and the weather, inevitably, starts to decline.
Windy days skittishly lead to Flanders and Swann's wry take on a year of British weather, after which A.A. Milne's John, with his great big waterproof boots on, seems to be exactly of a mind with Gene Kelly in his enjoyment of the rain.
The mood gradually darkens towards a great storm depicted in music by Ferde Grofe, although Laurence Binyon reminds us that the calm after the storm can be golden and glorious.
Fog can be both sinister and comforting, and W H Auden finds solace in a foggy Christmas, cut off from the reality of the world in "Thank You Fog".
And finally it snows - at times a transforming vision of beauty but sometimes a bleak empty canvas. I chose to close with the unearthly music of Terje Isungset, played on instruments actually made from ice, dissolving into the cold clear icy space of Holst's "Neptune" .
Elizabeth Funning (Producer)
Playlist
Times are from start of programme
00.00.00
RAVEL
Daphnis and Chloe Suite II
Lever du jour
The Philharmonia
Geoffrey Simon
CALA CACD 1005
Track 12
00.00.20
Archive weather summary clip
Robin Holmes 9th July 1956
00.01.37
JOHN DONNE
The Sun Rising
Read by Mark Strong
00.06.07
FINZI
Five Bagatelles, op 23a
No 4: Forlana
Robert Plane: clarinet
Northern Sinfonia
Howard Griffiths
Track 7
00.06.30
EDWARD THOMAS
May 23
Read by Niamh Cusack
00.09.06
KURT WEILL
"Ain't it awful, the heat" from "Street Scene"
Helen Arden, soprano, Wilson Smith, bass, Ellen Repp: contralto, Hope Emerson, mezzo
Original Broadway Cast recording
Orchestra conducted by Maurice Abravanel
CBS CD 44668
Track 3
00.11.37
GERSHWIN
Summertime
From "Porgy and Bess"
Leontyne Price: soprano
RCA Victor Orchestra
Skitch Henderson
RCA GD85234
Track 1
00.13.49
STEVE REICH
Duet
The Smith Quartet
Signum SIGCD064
Track 4
00.13.54
CHARLES TENNYSON TURNER
A Brilliant Day
Read by Niamh Cusack
00.14.32
R.S.THOMAS
"A Day in Autumn"
Read by Mark Strong
00.15.32
FAURE
Sicilienne from Pelleas et Melisande
Robert Thuillier: flute
Orchestre de la Suisse Romande
Armin Jordan
Erato 3984 23274-2
Track 5
00.17.29
LOUIS MACNEICE
"Sunlight on the Garden"
Read by Niamh Cusack
00.19.30
TRADITIONAL
Blow the wind southerly
Kathleen Ferrier: contralto
DECCA 4171922 (1)
Track 3
00.21.51
FREDERICK KEELl
Trade Winds
Jonathan Lemalu: Bass baritone
Roger Vignoles: piano
EMI 5 75203 2
Track 17
00.24.07
PEPYS
Extract from diary for Jan 24th 1666
Read by Mark Strong
00.25.35
DEBUSSY
Anime (.Le vent dans la plaine)
Preludes, Book 1
Noriko Ogawa: piano
BIS CD 1205
Track 3
00.25.53
A A MILNE
"Wind on the Hill"
Read by Niamh Cusack
00.27.21
AUSTIN CLARKE
A Strong Wind
Read by Mark Strong
00.27.57
TRADITIONAL
Arranged by Grainger adapted Mayor
Molly on the Shore
Simon Mayor: mandolin
Hilary James: guitar
Track 5
00.31.19
Archive weather forecast clip
00.31.56
FLANDERS AND SWANN
A Song of the Weather
Parlophone CDFSB1 (3)
Track 7
00.33.38
A A MILNE
Happiness
Read by Niamh Cusack
00.33.38
FREED&BROWN
Singin' in the Rain
Gene Kelly
Original Film Soundtrack
CBS CD 70282 (1)
Track 1
00.36.32
BOB CHILCOTT
Weather Report
Solo soprano: Micaela Haslam
Solo mezzo: Kim Porter
BBC Singers
Bob Chilcott
Signum SIGCD100
Track 22
00.41.03
IRELAND
Weathers (Hardy)
Christopher Maltman: baritone
Graham Johnson: piano
Hyperion CDA 67261/2
CD 1
Track 28
00.43.17
GURNEY
The Soaking
Read by Mark Strong
00.43.52
CHOPIN
24 Preludes, op 28
No 15 in D flat "The Raindrop"
Garrick Ohlsson: piano
EMI 5 86507 2
CD1
Track 15
00.44.54
EDWARD THOMAS
It Rains
Read by Niamh Cusack
00.46.10
THOMAS HARDY
The Division
Read by Mark Strong
00.48.53
DYLAN THOMAS
A Poem in October
Read by Mark Strong
00.52.13
RHIAN SAMUEL
"Water above Light" from Light and Water
The Fidelio Piano Quartet
Deux-Elles DXL 1128
Track 18
00.54.55
BINYON
The Storm
Read by Niamh Cusack
00.56.06
GROFE
Cloudburst from Grand Canyon Suite
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra
William T. Stromberg
Naos 8.559007
Track 9
01.02.11
SHAKESPEARE
King Lear
Excerpt: Blow wind and crack your cheeks
Read by Mark Strong
01.02.23
MAHLER
In diesem Wetter from Kindertotenlieder
Waltraud Meier: mezzo
Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra
Lorin Maazel
RCA 74321 57129 2
Track 10
01.08.37
SYLVIA PLATH
Sheep in Fog
Read by Niamh Cusack
01.08.54
DEBUSSY
Brouillards from Preludes, Book 2
Pascal Roge: piano
Onyx 4004
Track 13
01.11.50
CARL SANDBERG
Fog
Read by Niamh Cusack
01.12.05
GERSHWIN
A foggy day
Ella Fitzgerald
Arr and conducted by Nelson Riddle
Verve 8250242 (3)
CD 2
Track 5
01.15.34
AUDEN
Thank You
Read by Mark Strong
01.17.52
ANON
The North Wind doth blow
Read by Niamh Cusack
01.19.00
PURCELL
King Arthur
Act 3: "See, see, we assemble" (Chorus of cold people)
Choir of the English Concert
The English Concert
Trevor Pinnock
Archiv 435 491-2
CD 1
Track 25
01.20.57
BRIDGES
London Snow
Read by Mark Strong
01.22.31
VIVALDI
Winter from The Four Seasons: 1st movt
Renato Fasano
Virtuosi of Rome
EMI 5 09449 2 CD 1
Track 10
01.26.17
ELGAR
The Snow, op 26, no 1
London Symphony Chorus
Northern Sinfonia
Richard Hickox
EMI CDC 7494812 (1)
Track 6
01.32.00
SEAN O'BRIEN
Blizzard
Read by Niamh Cusack
01.33.54
DEBUSSY
The Snow is Dancing from Children's Corner
arr Peter Rueffer/ Richard Hand
Pro Arte Guitar Trio
ASV CD WHL 2129
Track 4
01.36.15
TED HUGHES
Snow and Snow
Read by Mark Strong and Niamh Cusack
01.35.32
TERJE ISUNGSET
Silent Blue
from "Two Moons"
Track 3
01.40.36
HOLST
Neptune - The Mystic from The Planets
Halle Orchestra
Mark Elder
Hyperion CDA 67270
Track 7
