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Richard Sisson's Spring

Richard Sisson presents an alternative view of music linked to spring, from Disney's Bambi to Harrison Birtwistle's Gawain, via Tchaikovsky, Mendelssohn and Vivaldi.

In the first of four editions of Saturday Classics pegged to Britain's increasingly unpredictable seasons, Richard Sisson presents an alternative musical view of Spring, and not always a very complimentary one. After all, isn't Spring just a bit overrated? Richard explains why he thinks it is, illustrated with music great and silly, including Disney's Bambi, Harrison Birtwistle's Gawain, Tchaikovsky, Mendelssohn and Vivaldi, along with choice snippets of vernal writings. Expect lovely music, lambs, cuckoos.

1 hour, 30 minutes

Last on

Sat 30 Mar 2013 15:00

Music Played

  • Link

    Home Thoughts, from Abroad by Robert Browning (extract)

  • Christian Sinding

    The Rustle of Spring, Op.32 No.3 for piano

    Performer: Eileen Joyce

  • Link

    The Waste Land by T.S. Eliot (extract)

  • Louis鈥怌laude Daquin

    Le Coucou from Suite no. 3 in E minor for harpsichord

    Performer: Olivier Beaumont

  • Jean Sibelius

    Spring song Op.16 for orchestra

    Conductor: Christer Thorvaldsson Performer: Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra

  • John Kirkpatrick

    Dance of the Demon Daffodils

    Performer: John Kirkpatrick

    • Fledg'ling Records.
    • FLED 3075.
    • -1.
  • Link

    Two Women by Nora Hopper

  • Ernest Chausson

    Le Temps de Lilas from Poeme de l'amour et de la mer Op.19

    Performer: Dalton Baldwin Performer: Gerard Souzay

  • Link

    Spring Pictures by Katherine Mansfield (extract)

  • Tom Waits

    You Can Never Hold Back Spring

    Performer: Tom Waits

    • Anti.
    • 6677-2 C.
  • Paul Reade

    Spring from The Victorian kitchen garden

    Performer: Emma Johnson

  • Link

    The Cherry Trees by Edward Thomas

  • Richard Sisson

    Loveliest of Trees

    Performer: Christopher Gould Performer: Roderick Williams

  • Ian Venables

    Easter Hymn (Songs of Eternity and Sorrow Op.36)

    Performer: Andrew Kennedy Performer: Dante Quartet Performer: Simon Crawford-Philips

    • Signum Classics.
    • CD-112.
  • Link

    Thunder the Christ of It by Mervyn Peake (extract)

  • Sergey Rachmaninov

    Holiday from Fantaisie-tableaux (Suite no.1) Op.5 for 2 pianos

    Performer: Martin Roscoe Performer: Peter Donohoe

  • Pietro Mascagni

    Easter Hymn from Cavalleria rusticana

    Conductor: Herbert von Karajan Performer: Fiorenza Cossotto Performer: La Scala Chorus Performer: La Scala Orchestra

    • DEUTSCHES GRAMMOPHON.
    • DG 457 764 2.
  • Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky

    May from The Seasons Op.37b

    Performer: Sviatoslav Richter

  • Harrison Birtwistle

    Spring from Gawain 鈥 Opera in 1 Act

    Conductor: Elgar Howarth Performer: Royal Opera House Chorus Performer: Royal Opera House Orchestra

  • Link

    Summer makes me drowsy by Dorothy Parker and Spring by Edna St Vincent Millay

  • Fran Landesman

    Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most

    Composer: Tommy Wolf Performer: Ian Shaw

  • Link

    Tom Sawyer, Detective by Mark Twain (extract) and Tonio Kroger by Thomas Mann (extract)

  • Igor Stravinsky

    The Rite of Spring, Part 1

    Conductor: Pierre Boulez Performer: Cleveland Orchestra.

    • DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON.
    • 435-769 2.
  • Frederick Delius

    On hearing the first cuckoo in spring

    Conductor: Neville Marriner Performer: Academy of St Martin-In-The-Fields

Broadcast

  • Sat 30 Mar 2013 15:00

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