Helen Dunmore
Michael Berkeley's guest is novelist and poet Helen Dunmore. Her musical choices include works by Stephen Foster, Gluck, Schubert and Sibelius.
Michael Berkeley's guest this week is novelist and poet Helen Dunmore, who won the first Orange Prize for Fiction in 1996 with 'A Spell of Winter'. Her seventh novel, 'The Siege' (2001) was shortlisted for the Whitbread and Orange Prizes, and deals with the 880-day siege of Leningrad by German forces during World War II. She returned to Leningrad in the final year of Stalin's tyrannical reign for the setting of her tenth novel, 'The Betrayal', longlisted for the 2010 Man Booker Prize.
Helen Dunmore also writes poetry, short stories, and childrens' books. Her poem 'The Malarkey' won the National Poetry Competition in March 2010, and a month later she published her first picture book for children, 'The Ferry Birds', illustrated by Rebecca Cobb.
Singing is particularly important to Helen. Her musical choices begin with a song by Stephen Foster, which reminds her of her father, who loved music-hall songs. She first heard Kathleen Ferrier as a young child, and has chosen Ferrier's classic recording of 'What is Life' from Gluck's 'Orfeo ed Euridice'. She herself sang at school, and particularly loved the traditional songs she heard on 大象传媒 Singing Together programmes, especially sea shanties such as 'Bound for Australia'. Her husband loves Gregorian chant, and the Salve Regina from the Feast of the Blessed VIrgin holds a particular personal significance for her.
She also finds Mozart's Requiem intensely moving for its mysterious darkness Her other vocal choices include Country Joe and the Fish, which reminds her of the first rock festival she attended.
Her instrumental favourites are the glorious second movement of Schubert's String Quintet, and the Intermezzo from Sibelius's Karelia Suite, which conveys an amazing sense of landscape.
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Music Played
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Stephen Foster
Ah! May the Red Rose Live Always
Performers: Thomas Hampson (baritone), Armen Guzelimian (piano), Kenneth Sillito (violin obbligato)
- Thomas Hampson 鈥� An Old Song鈥�.
- EMI CDC7540512.
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Christoph Willibald Gluck
'What is Life' from 'Orfeo ed Euridice' Act III
Performers: Kathleen Ferrier (contralto), London Symphony Orchestra/Sir Malcolm Sargent
- Kathleen Ferrier.
- DECCA 4334702.
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Trad
Bound for South Australia
Performers: Fisherman鈥檚 Friends
- Port Isaac鈥檚 Fisherman鈥檚 Friends.
- Island 2766794.
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Country Joe and the Fish
The Fish Cheer & I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-To-Die Rag
- The First Three EPS.
- VANGUARD VMD792662.
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Franz Schubert
2nd mvt from String Quintet in C major D956 (EXCERPT)
Performers: Melos Quartet/Mstislav Rostropovich (cello)
- DG 4153732.
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Gregorian Chant
Salve Regina 鈥� Ton Solennel I 鈥� Salut, 么 Reine from F锚tes de la tr猫s Sainte Vierge
Performers: Choeur des Moines de Saint-Beno卯t-du-Lac/ Dom Andr茅 Saint-Cyr
- Plainchant Gregorian Calendar.
- FORLANE 3005102.
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Jean Sibelius
'Intermezzo' from Karelia Suite Op 11
Performers: Paavo Berglund/Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra
- Kullervo; etc.
- EMI CZS5742002.
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Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Confutatis & Lacrimosa from Requiem KV 626
Performers: English Baroque Soloists/Monteverdi Choir/ John Eliot Gardiner
- PHILIPS 4201972.
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Vampire Weekend
Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa
- XL VAMP1.
Broadcast
- Sun 17 Jul 2011 12:00大象传媒 Radio 3
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