Forty Years of Poetry on Radio 3
Sunday 28 October 2007 22:15-0:00 (Radio 3)
It's 40 years since Radio 3 made its entrance on the world's stage. Poetry has been the station's lifeblood from its earliest days, so there's no better way to toast the past and welcome the future than a deep draught of the 'blushful Hippocrene'.
Featuring some of the most arresting performances poets have given on Radio 3 in the past 40 years, from John Ashbery to Derek Walcott, with music to match.
Duration:
1 hour 45 minutes
Forty Years of Poetry on Radio 3
I've always liked the notion that poets can sing the savagery out of bears.. especially in my more ursine moments. So its perhaps no surprise that I was easily lured out of Pooh-like hibernation to make a programme about the poetry broadcast on Radio 3 over the last forty years. I can't think of a better way to celebrate the station's maturity and I hope you enjoy the party as much as I did.
As you'll hear I chose Orpheus, a poet's poet and a musician -- to make the initial introductions and as there was such a crowd it seemed like a good idea to insist on an orderly queue.alphabetical but not tyrannical. Each letter corresponds either to the chosen poet's first or second name, the title of the poem or in one outrageous case of poetic licence the alleged metre.I'll leave you to discover this one for yourself! As you can imagine there were many occasions when I longed to bend the rules even more and embrace two A's or three Cs.
In any case you can count on renewing your acquaintance with Pablo Neruda, Ted Hughes, Philip Larkin, Sylvia Plath, Anne Carson, Derek Walcott, Seamus Heaney, Miroslav Holub and many more. The music has been chosen to complement or counterpoint the mood of the poetry but its certainly not a case of playing second fiddle.impossible when the performers include Alfred Brendel, the Lindsay String Quartet and Ornette Coleman.
In these prosaic days its probably too much to hope that mere words and music could teach a rock to dance or change a river's course but at the very least I hope they provide enough fizz for a proper birthday treat.
Zahid Warley (producer)
Playlist
CLAUDIO MONTEVERDI
Strommenti - Toccata
Chiaroscuro/London Baroque
Musical Directors Nigel Roders and Charles Medlam
EMI Track 1
Syringa
Read by John Ashbery
HANDEL
Concerto Grosso
Alexander's Feast
Largo
Capella Istorpolitana, Jozef Kopelman
Naxos, Track 19
James Berry
Fish Talk from The Verb 2007
LOUIS JORDAN
Saturday Night Fish Fry
Mercury. Rock'N'Roll. Track 20
Screen Door
Read by Anne Carson
LOUIS ANDRIESSEN
De Materie
Schonberg Ensemble and Asko Ensemble
Nonesuch. Part One. Track 1
Alexandria
Read by Lawrence Durrell
ERWIN SCHULHOFF
Sonata for Violin
Anne Sofie Von Otter, Bengt Forsberg, Christian Gerhaher, Daniel Hope
Deutsche Grammophon. Terezin/Theresienstadt. Track 23
T.S. ELLIOT
East Coker
BBC Archive
Read by T.S. Eliot.
BACH
Aria from Goldberg Variations
Uri Caine
Winter and Winter. Disc 1 Track 1
PAUL FARLEY
The Spindle
BBC Archive. The Verb
Read by Paul Farley.
ORNETTE COLEMAN
Turnaround -Abeille Musique. Sound Grammar. Track 4
THOM GUNN
The Man with Night Sweats
Read by Thom Gunn
ROBERT SCHUMANN
Papillons
Sviatoslav Richter
EMI Classics. Track 7
MIROSLAV HOLUB
Dialogue with a Poet
Read by Miroslav Holub
FOUR TET
She moves she
Rounds. Track 4
Domino
WENDY COPE
In The Rhine Valley
Wendy Cope
DJANGO REINHARDT
Nuages
Pavilion Records. Django Reinhardt and Friends. Track 18
JO SHAPCOTT
Surrealists Summer Convention Came to our City
Read by Jo Shapcott
JIMI HENDRIX
Little Wing
The Sunday Times Jimi Hendrix: 10 tracks performed live at The Royal Albert Hall. Track 1
SEAMUS HEANEY
A Kite for Michael and Christopher
Read by Seamus Heaney
SCHUBERT
Quintet in C
Lindsay String Quartet with Douglas Cummings -
ASV. Track 3
PHILIP LARKIN
The Whitsun Weddings
Read by Philip Larkin
ELGAR
In Haven
Bernadette Greevy, London Philharmonic Orchestra
EMI. Elgar Pomp and Circumstance Marches and Sea Pictures. Track 7
TED HUGHES
Mackerel Shoal
Read byTed Hughes
CHARLIE HADEN & PAT METHENY
Our Spanish Love Song
Verve. Track 2 Beyond the Missouri Sky
PABLO NERUBA
Pablo Neruda and translation
CHARLIE HADEN & PAT METHENY
Our Spanish Love Song
Verve. Track 2 Beyond the Missouri Sky
ALICE OSWALD
A Winged Seed
Read by Alice Oswald
GYORGY KURTAG
Hommage a Christian Wolff
ECM. Jatekok. Track 7
SYLVIA PLATH
Lady Lazarus
Read by Sylvia Plath
CONLON NANCARROW
Blues
ECM New Series. Herbert Henck Piano Music. Track 5.
W.H. AUDEN
A Lullaby
A poem in the medieval Welsh metre called Qith
Read by W.H.Auden
GLENN KOTCHE
Fantasy on a Shona Theme
Nonesuch. Mobile. Track 8
LANGSTON HUGHES
The River
Read byLangston Hughes
ROBERT SCHUMAN
Von fremden Landern
Alfred Brendel
Philips. Kinderszenen. Track 9
CHARLES CAUSELY
Seven Houses
Read by Charles Causely
ERIK SATIE
Petite Musique de Clown Triste
Etudes by Aldo Ciccolini
Satie l'Oeurvre pour piano, vol.111. Track 3
TENNESSEE WILLIAMS
Gold Tooth Blues
Read by Tennessee Williams
Japanese flute music
unknown
From UTA in the BBC archive
Uta poems
Translated by Arthur Waley
Read by Alison Waley and Mariko Ihara
Japanese flute music
unknown
From UTA in the BBC archive
JACKIE KAY
The Visit
Read by Jackie Kay
MILES DAVIS
So What
Miles Davis
Columbia. Kind of Blue. Track 1
DEREK WALCOTT
The Sea is History
Read by Derek Walcott
MILES DAVIS
So What
Miles Davis
Columbia. Kind of Blue. Track 1
XIAOLU GUO
The Man Who Loves Growing Beans
Read by Xiaolu Guo
MILES DAVIS
So What
Miles Davis
Columbia. Kind of Blue. Track 1
Moonlight Sonata
Yannis Ritsos
Read in Greek with explanation and translation.
BEETHOVEN
Moonlight Sonata
Freddy Kempf
BIS. Beethoven Piano Sonatas. Track 4
SIMON ARMITAGE
Zoom
Read by Simon Armitage
HAYDN
Orfeo ed Euridice
O che orrore!
The Academy of Ancient Music under Christopher Hogwood
L'Oiseau Lyre. CD 2. Track 27
DON'T MISS:
Words and Music live, Saturday November 10th 2007, 8.30pm
St George's Small Concert Room, William Brown Street, Liverpool, L1 1JJ
Join Cathy Tyson, Ensemble 10/10, saxophonist Tim Whitehead, New Generation Jazz Artist Gwilym Simcock and singer Jennifer John for a unique Words and Music event, as part of the Radio 3 Free Thinking festival.
The theme of "Freedom" will be explored, with readings of Emily Dickinson, Langston Hughes, Tennyson and music from Janacek, Bach and Stravinsky to improvisations on Ellington's Come Sunday and The Beatles' Free as a Bird.
Tickets are still available from Radio Merseyside on 0151 708 5500.
Details are also available on the Free Thinking website www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/freethinking
The programme will be broadcast on 11th November in the usual Words and Music slot.
