By the Sea
Sunday 18 November 2007 22:30-0:00 (Radio 3)
Fiona Shaw and Alex Jennings read a selection of poetry and prose on a sea theme from Elizabeth Bishop, Michael Longley, Charles Dickens, John Masefield and Hugo Williams, with music inspired by the sea by Charles Trenet, Benjamin Britten, Mozart and Mendelssohn.
Duration:
1 hour 30 minutes
By the Sea
Alex Jennings (reader)
Fiona Shaw (reader)
Producer's note
In putting together this sequence I began by thinking of the hymn 'Eternal Father Strong to Save'. When I was growing up in West Cornwall we sang this at school every time there was a disaster at sea - it's a song that's very familiar to any one who lives near the coast.
In the programme you'll hear Benjamin's Britten's interpretation in 'Noye's Fludd'. The different moods of the sea thread through the sequence - Rimsky Korsakov's 'Scheherazade' around readings from 'David Copperfield', John Adams' 'Harmonium' around Elizabeth Bishop's mystic poem 'At the Fishhouses', Charles Trenet's 'La Mer' with Billy Collins' poem about the joys of the sea, 'Walking the Atlantic' and John Surman's 'The Road to St Ives' with a recording of the Cornish poet Charles Causley reading 'Morwenstow'.
Fiona McLean (producer)
Details of Readings and Music
Times are from start of programme
00:00:00
HUGO WILLIAMS
The Sea
Alex Jennings (reader)
00:00:08
CHARLES TRENET
La Mer
The Extraordinary Garden
EMI CDP7944642
Track 20
00:01:07
BILLY COLLINS
Walking the Atlantic
Fiona Shaw (reader)
00:01:43
ARNOLD BAX
Mediterranean
London Philharmonic Orchestra
Bryden Thomson (conductor)
CHAN 8494
00:05:32
OGDEN NASH
Pretty Halcyon Days
Alex Jennings (reader)
00:07:10
STEPHEN SONDHEIM
By the Sea
Sweeney Todd - Original Cast
Angela Lansbury and Len Cariou
Disc 2 Track 3
RCA 33792RC
00:10:42
TORU TAKEMITSU
Toward the Sea: The Night
London Sinfonietta
Esa-Pekka Salonen
John Williams (guitar)
Sebastian Bell (alto flute)
Gareth Hulse (oboe d'amore)
SONY CLASSICAL SK 46720
00:12:39
TED HUGHES
Relic
Fiona Shaw (reader)
00:14:46
CHARLES IVES
A Sea Dirge
Complete Songs Volume IV
ALBANY TROY 080
00:16:57
ALICE OSWALD
Sea Sonnet
Fiona Shaw (reader)
00:17:04
PHILIP GLASS
Glassworks: Floe
Michael Riesman (conductor)
SONY CLASSICAL SMK87968
00:17:50
JOHN KEATS
On First Looking Into Chapman's Homer
Alex Jennings (reader)
00:17:39
MOZART
Cosi Fan Tutte: Soave sia il vento
Philharmonia Orchestra
Karl Bohm (conductor)
Elizabeth Schwarzkopf
EMI CMS 7 69330 2
00:21:43
JOHN SURMAN
Road To St Ives: Marazion
Track 11
ECM 1418 843 849-2
00:24:19
CHARLES CAUSLEY
Morwenstow
Alex Jennings (reader)
00:24:01
JOHN ADAMS
Harmonium: Wild Nights
San Francisco Symphony Orchestra
Vance George (director)
NONESUCH 7559795492
00:30:58
ELIZABETHBISHOP
At the Fishhouses
Fiona Shaw (reader)
00:33:36
JOHN IRELAND
Songs: Sea Fever
Jonathan Lemalu (bass baritone)
Roger Vignoles (piano)
EMI 7243 575203 2
00:35:42
EWAN MacCOLL
Blow, Boys, Blow
Banks of Newfoundland
TRADITION TCD 1024
00:38:04
TOM PAULIN
Sea Wind
Alex Jennings (reader)
00:40:08
RIMSKY KORSAKOV
Scheherazade, Suite Symphonique
London Symphony Orchestra
Sir Charles Mackerras (conductor)
Kees Hulsmann (solo violin)
TELARC CD-80208
00:40:15
CHARLES DICKENS
David Copperfield
Alex Jennings (reader)
00:50:23
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
The Tempest
Alex Jennings and Fiona Shaw (readers)
00:51:49
BENJAMIN BRITTEN
Noye's Fludd
English Opera Group Orchestra
Norman Del Mar
LONDON 436 397-2
00:54:38
SEAMUS HEANEY
Lovers on Aran
Fiona Shaw (reader)
00:53:19
FREDERICK KEEL
Trade Winds
Jonathan Lemalu (bass baritone)
Roger Vignoles (piano)
EMI 7243 5 75203 2
00:57:36
DEBUSSY
Preludes: Voiles
Krystian Zimerman (piano)
Deutsche Grammophon 435 773-2
01:01:58
WALT WHITMAN
The World Below the Brine
Fiona Shaw (reader)
01:03:07
DEBUSSY
The Nocturnes: Sirenes
The Cleveland Orchestra
Vladimir Ashkenazy (conductor)
DECCA 467 428-2
01:13:06
JOHN MASEFIELD
Sea Fever
Alex Jennings (reader)
01:14:11
SIBELIUS
The Tempest
Suite No 2: Prospero
Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra
Neeme Jarvi (conductor)
BIS CD 448
01:15:53
T.S. ELIOT
Four Quartets
Fiona Shaw (reader)
01:16:40
PETER MAXWELL DAVIES
Choral Works: Sea Runes
BBC Singers
Simon Joly (conductor)
COLLINS 14632
01:18:33
MATTHEW ARNOLD
Dover Beach
Alex Jennings (reader)
01:21:50
FRANK BRIDGE
The Sea - Suite for Orchestra
Seascape
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra
Sir Charles Grove (conductor)
EMI 7243 566855 2
