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The starting point for this week’s Words and Music is a quotation from Tennyson’s ‘Locksley Hall’, the poem read by Judi Dench in ´óÏó´«Ã½ TV’s adaptation of Cranford recently. By ‘the ringing grooves of change’ Tennyson was referring to the pressure imposed on people by change, in his experience the changes wrought by the Industrial Revolution.

Revolutions – and periods of change - during history have always inspired poets and composers. Sometimes they’ve written in direct response to events and sometimes more obliquely. During the French Revolution poets like Blake, Wordsworth and Shelley responded very quickly to what was happening as did composers like Lefevre and Gossec: in the programme you’ll hear Lefevre’s ‘Hymne a l’Agriculture’ and Gossec’s ‘March Symphonie Militaire’ as well as extracts from Wordsworth’s ‘The Prelude’.

The Spanish Civil War too inspired writers like George Orwell and Stephen Spender and composers like Samuel Barber who wrote a choral setting of Spender’s ‘A Stopwatch and an Ordnance Map’ in response to the conflict in Spain. In Russia Shostakovich lived through the October Revolution, the Civil War and two World Wars as well as the horrors of Stalinism. And, although he remained loyal to the ideals of the October Revolution he, along with other poets and composers, detested Stalin. This is all expressed in his music including the piece in the programme, ‘In the Deserted Village’ from ‘The Fall of Berlin’. Although the piece expresses the horror of war it was written for a film which was presented to Stalin as a present on his seventieth birthday, an indication of the difficulties faced by artists during this period of Russian history. Poets like Alexander Blok had a complex response to what was happening in Russia, moving from idealism to disgust at the aftermath of revolution in poems like ‘On the Field of Kulicovo’. The programme though ends on a note of optimism and hope with Arthur Hugh Clough’s ‘Say Not the Struggle Naught Availeth’ and Beethoven’s ‘Egmont Overture’.
Fiona McLean - producer.

Tracklist.
ARTUR VINCENT LOURIE
Prelude - Suite
Christian Ockert - double bass
Leipziger Streichquartett
MDG 307 1192-2

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
The Prelude
Adrian Lukis (reader)

FREDERIC CHOPIN
Etude in C Minor, opus 10
Vladimir Horowitz - piano
SONY CLASSICAL SMK90428

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
The Prelude
Penny Downie (reader)

LEFEVRE
Hymne a l'Agriculture
The Wallace Collection
John Wallace - conductor
NIMBUS NI5175

LORD BYRON
from Don Juan
Adrian Lukis (reader)

JANE AUSTEN
from Pride and Prejudice
Penny Downie (reader)

GOSSEC
Symphonie Militaire - Larghetto
The Wallace Collection
John Wallace - conductor
NIMBUS NI5175

TRADITIONAL
Song on Liberty
Music of the American Revolution
Sherrill Milnes - baritone
Jon Spong - harpsichord
NEW WORLD 802762

LOUIS SPOHR
Quartet no 34 in E Flat Major - Larghetto con moto
Moscow Philharmonic 'Concertino' String Quartet
MARCO POLO 8225307

GEORGE ORWELL
from Homage to Catalonia
Neville Jason (reader)

PAUL ROBESON
The Four Insurgent Generals
'Songs for Free Men'
PEARL GEMMCD9264

ALEKSANDR BLOK
On the Field of Kulicovo
Penny Downie (reader)

ALEXANDER MOSOLOV
Oh, You Russians, Good Warriors
String Quartet no 2 'On Patriotic Themes of 1812'
Moscow Contemporary Music Ensemble
TRITON 17004

W.B. YEATS
The Second Coming
Adrian Lukis (reader)

SAMUEL BARBER
A Stopwatch and an Ordnance Map
Cambridge University Chamber Choir
GAMUT CLASSICS GAMCD535

ANNA AKHMATOVA
Prologue and Epilogue
Penny Downie (reader)

DMITRY SHOSTAKOVICH
In the Devastated Village
The Fall of Berlin
Moscow Symphony Orchestra
Adriano - conductor
NAXOS 8570238

HANNS EISLER
In die Stadte kam ich
Hollywood Songbook
Dietrich Fischer Dieskau - baritone
Aribert Reimann - piano
TELDEC 4509974592

ROBINSON JEFFERS
Shine, Republic
Adrian Lukis (reader)

KATHLEEN RAINE
Change
Penny Downie (reader)

JONI MITCHELL
Slouching Towards Bethlehem
Night Ride Home
GEFFEN 9243022

PHILIP LARKIN
Homage to a Government
Adrian Lukis (reader)

BEETHOVEN
Egmont Overture op 84
Berliner Philharmoniker
Herbert von Karajan - conductor
DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 4155062

ARTHUR HUGH CLOUGH
from The Bothie
Adrian Lukis (reader)

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