Iberia
Andrew Wincott
Yolanda Vazquez
![News image]()
Readers: Andrew Wincott and Yolanda Vazquez
Words and Music: Iberia
Producer's statement
This week's programme pays a visit to the Iberian Peninsula, a part of the world whose poetry and music often betrays the remarkable confluence of cultures, the coming together of East and West, Christian and Muslim, that has occurred here over the last millennium. There are two strands present in this selection of work: Spain and Portugal as seen by outsiders, and as portrayed in the music and poetry of its inhabitants.
When I sat down to plan this programme I found myself overwhelmed by the richness of Spanish music, one of the most pungent and unmistakeable national traditions there is; and as a consequence this selection is substantially Spanish in emphasis. In particular I was reminded of the frequent presence in Iberian music of the Church: the glorious sacred choral music of the sixteenth century, to my mind the finest musical product of Spain or Portugal, has left its mark - notably in the case of the Falla harpsichord concerto, whose slow movement here follows a beautiful motet by the great Toledan composer Alonso Lobo. Although most of the music here is by Spanish composers, I decided also to include a couple of pieces by outsiders reacting to what they saw in Spain - the Rimsky-Korsakov and Miles Davis selections, notably. The sound of the guitar is seldom far from the music of Iberia, a fact reflected not just in the flamenco piece played by Paco Pena, but in works by two composers of very different era and style, Domenico Scarlatti and Roberto Gerhard, which both imitate the rhythms and instruments of folk music.
The poetry and prose was chosen for its atmospheric qualities and ability to conjure an image spontaneously. About half of the poems are taken from the work of some of the greatest Iberian writers of the last hundred years: Lorca, Pessoa, Machado, as well as the Nobel laureate Juan Ramon Jiminez. Two of the greatest prose writers on Spain proved impossible to omit: Hemingway and Washington Irving. Connections between poems and music continually suggested themselves: the martial quality of the opening bars of the Miles Davis track, as well as its exoticism, might almost have been tailored for the Irving excerpt; Antonio Restrepo's description of a Toledo monk bent in prayer prompts music written for Toledo Cathedral; and Thomas Ades's Living Toys is arguably just as evocative of the bullfight as Hemingway's celebrated Death in the Afternoon. I wanted also to inject a bit of surprise: dissenting voices such as Emily Lawless, yearning for home, and Ted Hughes ("You Hated Spain"). There are musical surprises, too, most obviously in the nearly-Flamenco track called Farruca, which... but enough; you'll enjoy it more if I explain no further.
RUNNING ORDER
00:00:00
Washington Irving
From The Alhambra
Reader: Andrew Wincott
00:00:35
Miles Davis
Saeta
Sketches of Spain
CBS 4606042
Track 4
Dur: 4'59"
00:05:14
Federico Garcia Lorca (tr. Alan S. Trueblood)
Rider's Song
Reader: Yolanda Vazquez
00:06:02
Antonio Gomez Restrepo (tr. Thomas Walsh)
Toledo
Reader: Andrew Wincott
00:06:35
Alonso Lobo
Versa est in luctum
Gabrieli Consort
Paul McCreesh (conductor)
Archiv 4575972
Track 19
Dur: 4'54"
00:11:21
Manuel de Falla
Concerto for harpsichord and five instruments (II: Lento)
Elisabeth Chojnacka (harpsichord)
Ensemble Erwartung
Bernard Desgraupes (conductor)
ADDA 581235
Track 2
Dur: 6'26"
00:17:47
Acera Del Rio
Paco Pena (guitar)
Azahara
Nimbus NI5116
Track 5
Dur: 3'18"
00:18:02
Federico Garcia Lorca (tr. Cola Franzen)
The Guitar
Reader: Yolanda Vazquez
00:26:09
Albeniz, arr. Fruhbeck de Burgos
Suite espanola: Aragon
New Philharmonia Orchestra
Rafael Fruhbeck de Burgos (conductor)
Decca 4486012
Track 14
Dur: 5'12"
00:26:49
Fernando Pessoa (tr. Edwin Honig and Susan M. Brown)
Portuguese Sea
Reader: Yolanda Vazquez
00:26:49
Hermina Silva
A Tendinha
The Story of Fado
Hemisphere HEMIDCD100
Track 4
Dur: 2'06"
00:28:55
Enrique Granados
Goyescas: Quejas o la majas el Ruisenor
Alicia de Larrocha (piano)
Decca 4119582
Track 4
Dur: 6'41"
00:35:33
Emily Lawless
In Spain
Reader: Andrew Wincott
00:36:02
Pablo Neruda, tr. Nathaniel Tarn
The Way Spain Was
Reader: Yolanda Vazquez
00:37:19
Manuel de Falla
El Amor Brujo: El circulo magico
New Philharmonia Orchestra
Rafael Fruhbeck de Burgos (conductor)
Decca 4486012
Track 4
Dur: 3'06"
00:40:26
Abenamar
Sepharad (Songs of the Spanish Jews)
Ensemble Sarband
Deutsche Harmonia Mundi 05472773722
Track 6
Dur: 5'22"
00:45:44
Ernest Hemingway
from Death in the Afternoon
Reader: Andrew Wincott
00:47:13
Thomas Ades
from Living Toys
London Sinfonietta
Markus Stenz (conductor)
EMI CDZ5722712
Track 2
Dur: 2'55"
00:49:55
Fernando Pessoa (tr. Edwin Honig and Susan M. Brown)
Poem ("Sky, the blueness of quiet light")
Reader: Yolanda Vazquez
00:50:30
Domenico Scarlatti
Sonata in D Major, K96
Vladimir Horowitz (piano)
Horowitz Plays Scarlatti
Sony Classical SK90414
Track 6
Dur: 4'22"
00:54:49
Hilaire Belloc
Tarantella
Reader: Hilaire Belloc
BBC Archive recording
00:56:19
Farruca
Joe Beck, Sabicas (guitars)
Sabicas - Rock Encounter
Polydor 2482023
Side 2, band 4
Dur: 4'45"
01:00:42
Lord Byron
The Girl of Cadiz
Reader: Andrew Wincott
01:03:18
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
Capriccio Espagnol (exceprt)
London Symphony Orchestra
Rafael Fruhbeck de Burgos (conductor)
IMP PCD 924
Track 1
Dur: 8'48"
01:12:06
Antonio Machado, tr. Charles Tomlinson and Henry Gifford
O Luminous Late Day!
Reader: Yolanda Vazquez
01:12:49
Ted Hughes
You Hated Spain
Reader: Andrew Wincott
01:14:54
Roberto Gerhard
Soirees de Barcelone: No 1 (Allegretto placido)
Andrew Ball (piano)
Largo 5119
Track 7
Dur: 3'41"
01:18:36
Gaspar Sanz
Granduque/Canarios
Extempore String Ensemble
Spanish Music of the Golden Age
Helios CDH55098
Track 8
Dur: 4'24"
01:23:26
Juan Ramon Jimenez, tr J.B. Trend and J. L. Gill
Sky
Reader: Andrew Wincott
01:24:20
Juan Ramon Jimenez, tr J.B. Trend and J. L. Gill
Southern Sea
Reader: Yolanda Vazquez
01:29:23
Maurice Ravel
Rapsodie Espagnole (1: Prelude)
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Daniel Barenboim (conductor)
Erato 2292457662
Track 2
Dur: 5'29"
