With the opening of London's new international terminal to Paris, Sophie Okonedo and Kenneth Cranham read a selection of poetry and prose around the theme of these two great cities.
Readings include words by Samuel Johnson, Wordsworth, Verlaine, George Orwell and Fleur Adcock, and a range of music from Gibbons, Noel Coward, Elgar, Boulez and Yves Montand.
From London to Paris
Kenneth Cranham (reader)
Sophie Okonedo (reader)
Producer's Note
In putting together this sequence of words and music around London and Paris, I've chosen poems and prose which bind both cities together: the beauty and ugliness, the majestic and the mundane, the city as a symbol of decay, but also a place of love, a place of fear and intimidation or a refuge for immigrants.
But, the sound of the cities is very different - from Francaix's Galop, the grainy chanson La Grande Cite from Yves Montand, to Vaughan Williams' atmospheric London Symphony and Elgar's grand Cockaigne Overture.
I selected music to complement the readings: TS Eliot reading from 'The Wasteland' with the spare music of Meredith Monk, Stefan Zweig's description of Paris as a city of youth with the exuberant music of Django Reinhardt, and Reich's Piano Phase which reflected the repetitive momentum of the London underground in Seamus Heaney's 'District and Circle'.
Jessica Isaacs (producer)
00:00:00
REICH
Piano Phase for two pianos
Steffen Schleiermacher & Josef Christof (pianos)
WERGO WER 6630-2
Track 3
00:00:08
SEAMUS HEANEY
District and Circle
Seamus Heaney (reader)
00:01:32
LUCIANO BERIO
Cries of London
Swingle II
Luciano Berio (director)
DECCA 425 620-2
Track 7
00:02:00
NOEL COWARD
London Pride
Noel Coward (voice)
Carroll Gibbons & Orchestra
ASV CD QS 6123
Track 12
00:05:25
IBERT
Le Metro (Paris - Suite symphonique)
Orchestre symphonique de Montreal
Charle Dutoit (conductor)
DECCA 440 332-2
Track 8
00:06:01
ORWELL
Down and Out in Paris and London
Kenneth Cranham (reader)
00:07:42
PIAF-MONNOT
La Grande Cite
Yves Montand (singer)
Bob Castella (accompaniment)
SONY COL 471124-2
Track 11
00:10:50
VAUGHAN WILLIAMS
As I walk over London Bridge (6 Studies in English Folk Song)
Lydia Mordkovitch (violin)
Julian Milford (piano)
CARLTON CLASSICS 30366 00132
Track 6
00:11:41
WALTON
Glide Gently (A Song for the Lord Mayor's Table)
Jill Gomez (soprano)
Westminster Singers
City of London Sinfonia
Richard Hickox (conductor)
CHANDOS CHAN 8824
Track 15
00:14:32
WORDSWORTH
Composed upon Westminster Bridge
Sophie Okonedo (reader)
00:15:07
VAUGHAN WILLIAMS
A London Symphony (No.2): Lento
London Symphony Orchestra
Bryden Thomson (conductor)
CHANDOS 8629
Track 2
00:22:05
DJANGO REINHARDT/STEFAN GRAPPELLI (Djangology)
Minor Swing
Quintet of the Hot Club of France
EMI 4 96240 2
Track 10
00:22:46
STEFAN ZWEIG
Paris the City of Eternal Youth (The World of Yesterday - extract)
Kenneth Cranham (reader)
00:25:12
DEBUSSY
Ballade des femmes de Paris (3 Ballades de Francois Villon)
Alison Hagley (soprano)
Cleveland Orchestra
Pierre Boulez (conductor)
DG 471 614-2
Track 15
00:27:05
MEREDITH MONK
Paris
Anthony de Mare (piano and vocals)
KOCH 3-7104-2 H1
Track 2
00:27:29
T.S. ELIOT
The Burial of the Dead (The Wasteland)
T.S. Eliot (reader)
00:29:25
FRANCAIX
Galop (Le Gai Paris)
Filharmonia Pomorska
Takao Ukigaya (conductor)
THOROFON CTH 2105
Track 7
00:32:15
HUGO WILLIAMS
A Brass Ring
Sophie Okonedo (reader)
00:33:19
MILHAUD
Montmartre (Paris: Suite for 4 pianos)
Christian Ivaldi, Michel Beroff, Jean-Philippe Collard & Noel Lee (pianos)
EMI CDM 769854-2
Track 6
00:34:22
NOEL COWARD
Parisian Pierrot (from 'London Calling')
Noel Coward (singer)
PAST CD 9715
Track 1
00:38:08
BOULEZ
Don (Pli selon pli)
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Pierre Boulez (conductor)
APEX 2564 62083-2
Track 1
00:38:42
DICKENS
Bleak House (extract)
Sophie Okonedo (reader)
00:41:14
LIGETI
Come un meccanismo di precisione (Quartet No. 2)
Arditti String Quartet
SONY SK 62306
Track 11
00:41:54
LOUIS MACNEICE
London Rain
Kenneth Cranham (reader)
00:44:42
WEELKES
The Cries of London
Theatre of Voices
Fretwork
HARMONIA MUNDI HMU 907214
Track 4
00:52:18
SAMUEL JOHNSON
London: A Poem
Kenneth Cranham & Sophie Okonedo (readers)
00:54:15
ELGAR
Cockaigne Overture (In London Town), Op.40
Philadelphia Orchestra
Eugene Ormandy (conductor)
SONY SB2K 63247
Track 20
01:08:59
G. ROIZ & J. LARUE
Amor, Amor, Amor
Renee Lebas (singer)
Music Memoria 841053-2
Track 21
01:11:30
APOLLINAIRE
Le Pont Mirabeau
Sophie Okonedo (reader)
01:12:51
FENTON
In Paris with you
Kenneth Cranham (reader)
01:13:51
SATIE
Je te veux
Angela Brownridge (piano)
EMI 575147-2
Track 34
01:15:38
COATES
Westminster (London Suite)
Peter Esswood (cello)
East of England Orchestra
Malcolm Nabarro (conductor)
ASV CD QS 6123
Track 10
01:20:37
WILLIAM BLAKE
Holy Thursday
Sophie Okonedo (reader)
01:21:10
PURCELL
My Heart is Inditing, Z.30
King's College Cambridge Choir
Leonhardt-Consort
Gustav Leonhardt (director)
TELDEC 9031 77608-2
Track 6
01:24:01
COPLAND
Quiet City
Raymond Mase (trumpet)
Stephen Taylor (cor anglais)
Orpheus Chamber Orchestra
DG 427 335-2
Track 5
01:33:27
VERLAINE
Urban sites
Kenneth Cranham (reader)
01:34:54
POULENC
Voyage a Paris (Les Banalites)
Nathalie Stutzmann (contralto)
Inger Sodergren (piano)
RCA 09026 63137-2
Track 4
01:36:02
MARAIS
Plainte (Suite en sol)
Hille Perl (viola da gamba)
Lee Santana (theorbo)
DHM 82876 58791-2
Track 11
01:36:27
BAUDELAIRE
The Swan
Kenneth Cranham (reader)
01:39:37
VAUGHAN WILLIAMS
A London Symphony (No.2): Lento
London Symphony Orchestra
Bryden Thomson (conductor)
Track 2
01:41:31
FLEUR ADCOCK
The Immigrant
Sophie Okonedo (reader)
