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The power of trios, trinities and triangles. Hattie Morahan and Jonathan Slinger read words by Wordsworth, Donne and Christina Rossetti with music by Prokofiev, Janacek and Bach.

The power of trios, trinities and triangles. Hattie Morahan and Jonathan Slinger read words by Wordsworth, Donne and Christina Rossetti with music by Prokofiev, Janacek and Bach.

Producer: Natalie Steed

Readings
Macbeth - William Shakespeare
The Three Ravens - Anon
I Chop Some Parsley While Listening To Art Blakey's Version Of "Three Blind Mice" - Billy Collins
Beattie is Three - Adrian Mitchell
Three Years She Grew - William Wordsworth
My Life Closed Twice Before Its Close - Emily Dickinson
Break, Break, Break - Alfred, Lord Tennyson
The Eumenides - Aeschylus, translated by Richard Latimer
Holy Sonnet IXV - John Donne
A Triad - Christina Rossetti
Three Violins Are Trying Their Hearts - Carl Sandburg
In Defence of Adultery - Julia Copus
The Inferno, Canto V - Dante Alighieri, translated by Paul Batchelor
The Kreutzer Sonata - Leo Tolstoy, translated by Benjamin Tucker

1 hour, 15 minutes

Last on

Sun 26 Apr 2020 17:30
大象传媒 Radio 3

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Music Played

Timings (where shown) are from the start of the programme in hours and minutes

  • 00:00

    Henry Purcell

    Chorus and Orchetra of the Academy of Ancient Music

    Performers: Echo Dance of the Furies, Dido and Aeneas

    • DECCA 4757195 tr 18.

  • 3 witches from Macbeth by William Shakespeare

    Hattie Morahan

  • 00:00

    Christoph Willibald Gluck

    Dance of the Furies, Orfeo ed Euridice

    Performers: Orpheus Chamber Orchestra

    • Deutsche Grammophon.
  • 00:05

    Dorough,Huston, Mercer, Mason, Jolicoeur

    The Magic Number

    • De La Soul Tr: 2.

  • The Three Ravens by Anon (trad)

    Hattie Morahan

  • 00:26

    Sergey Prokofiev

    Le prince et la princesse, The Love of Three Oranges, Symphonic Suite

    Performers: London Syphony Orchestra, Sir Neville Mariner

    • PHILIPS 4422782 tr: 5.

  • I Chop Some Parsley to Art Blakey's Version Of "Three Blind Mice" by Billy Collins

    Jonathan Slinger

  • 00:12

    Curtis Fuller

    Three Blind Mice

    Performers: Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers

    • BLUE NOTE CDP7844512 tr . 1.
  • 00:17

    Arthur Sullivan

    Three Little Maids From School, The Mikado

    Performers: Gala Ensemble, Hannah Pedley, Elinor Moran, Sally Johnson

    • Sony BMG.

  • Beattie is Three by Adrian Mitchell

    Hattie Morahan

  • 00:19

    George Gershwin

    Three quarter blues for piano

    Composer: Richard Rodney Bennett

  • Three Years She Grew by William Wordsworth

    Jonathan Slinger

  • 00:22

    Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

    Soave sia il vento (trio)

    Performers: Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment

    • EMI Classics 5 86501, tr 10.

  • My life closed twice before its close by Emily Dickinson

    Hattie Morahan

  • 00:25

    Dmitry Shostakovich

    Largo, Trio No. 2 in E minor for piano, violin and cello

    Performers: Beaux Arts Trio Menahem Pressler

    • PHILIPS 4320792 Tr. 08.

  • Break, break, break by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

    Jonathan Slinger

  • Aeschylus, translated Richard Lattimore Chorus, Eumenides

    Hattie Morahan

  • 00:31

    Orlande de Lassus

    Videntes Stellam Magi, motet for 5 voices

    Performers: Choir of Kings College, Cambridge

  • Holy Sonnet XIV by John Donne

    Jonathan Slinger

  • 00:34

    Henry Purcell

    Three parts upon a ground for 3 violins and continuo

    Performers: London Baroque Ensemble

    • Harmonia Mundi tr 1.
  • 00:38

    Lorenz Hart, Richard Rodgers

    Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered

    Performer: Ella Fitzgerald

  • A Triad by Christina Georgina Rossetti

    Hattie Morahan

  • 00:47

    Edward MacDowell

    To a wild rose from Woodland Sketches

    Performers: Emma Johnson clarinet, Julius Drake, Skaila Kanga

    • ASV CD DCA 800.

  • Three violins are trying their hearts by Carl Sandburg

    Hattie Morahan

  • 00:49

    Fred Ebb, John Kander

    Two Ladies from Cabaret

    Performer: Joel Grey

    • MCA Records Tr 3.

  • In Defence Of Adultery by Julia Copus

    Hattie Morahan

  • 00:53

    Johann Sebastian Bach

    Three part inventions no 11

    Performer: Glenn Gould

    • Sony Classical SK52596 tr 10.
  • 00:57

    Franz Schubert

    Andante con moto, Trio

    Performers: Jean-Cluade Pennetier

    • HARMONIA MUNDI HM901047 Tr. 2.

  • Inferno Canto V by Dante Alighieri trans Paul Batchelor

    Hattie Morahan

  • Leo Tolstoy trans Benjamin Tucker - Kreutzer Sonata

    Jonathan Slinger

  • 01:08

    Leos Jan谩膷ek

    Adagio, Quatuor no. 1 Sonate a Kreuzer

    • CALLIOPE CAL9699 tr.1.

Hattie Morahan

Hattie Morahan
Hattie Morahan

Jonathan Slinger

Jonathan Slinger
Jonathan Slinger

A note from the producer

Three: a magic number.

The number three occurs in tale of magic, myth and religion. Here the trinity of Christianity's "three-personed god" is invoked by John Donne alongside a motet of the three magi by Orlando de Lasso. It is a magic number summoning power to the witches of Macbeth and the rhetorician, whose repetitions to the power of three add emphasis and rhythmic satisfaction, whether that be Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered or Tennyson鈥檚 Break, Break, Break.

Three belongs to an older world: Aeschylus' Erinyes morph into the Romans' three sisters of vengeance, the Furies whilst the traditional English ballad conjures Three Ravens and Prokofiev's Love of Three Oranges remembers a fairy story captured in seventeenth century Italy. It resonates in the nursery in rhymes and tales of Thee Little Pigs, Goats Gruff and Three Blind Mice, here played with by Billy Collins and Art Blakey.

Indeed, the number three might even be considered essential to all stories. Add a third voice to a tete a tete and conversation becomes plot: love triangles, adultery and the complicating addition of a third actor into a romantic pairing have inspired artistic creation from Dante to Tolstoy to the West End musical. The trio, whether as musical form, or as human interaction, has more variations and possibilities for the ear than the duet.

Producer: Natalie Steed

Broadcasts

  • Sun 16 Jun 2013 18:30
    大象传媒 Radio 3
  • Sun 26 Apr 2020 17:30
    大象传媒 Radio 3

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