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A Celebration of Sport

Words by CLR James, Simon Barnes, PG Wodehouse and Alison Uttley with music from Carl Davis, William Alwyn, Rachel Portman and Carl Maria von Weber capture the sporting calendar.

The joy, drama and human folly of the sporting calendar from rugby to the Olympics. The readers are Robert Powell and Pippa Bennett-Warner. As people recover from activities for this year's 大象传媒 Sports Relief, Words and Music takes us through the British summer sporting calendar from the optimism of April and the Grand National through the three-jerseyed days of the early cricket season into the warmth of Wimbledon, the heat of the British Open Golf, the elegance of Henley and culminating with competitors leaving for the Olympics in June.

Music from Warlock, Weber, Carl Davis and William Alwyn blends with the sometimes surprising words of Shakespeare, Milton and the many writers on sport from the heyday of Edwardian endeavour to the 20th-century frivolity of PG Wodehouse and John Betjeman and on to the enthusiasms of Alison Uttley and the beautiful reflections of the very best cricket writers like Neville Cardus and all-rounder Simon Barnes, with poetry from Roger McGough and John Arlott.

Producer: Tom Alban

Readings
Simon Barnes -The Times: 28th July 2014
John Milton -from Paradise Lost Book 2
Hugh McIlvanney - The Saga of Red Rum from McIlvanney on Horseracing
Alan Ross - from Stanley Matthews
Anon - from A Gravestone at Llanfair Church, South Wales
Alison Uttley - from Carts and Candlestick
Robin Daniels - Cardus Celebrant of Beauty, a Memoir
CLR James - from Beyond a Boundary
William Shakespeare - Henry V, Act I sc 2
E.M.Forster - from A Room With A View - Chapter 15
John Betjeman - from A Subaltern聮s Love Song
Steve Fairbairn - The Oarsman聮s Song
John Betjeman - Seaside Golf
Roger McGough - The Railings
John Arlott - On a Great Batsman
Alison Uttley - from Carts and Candlesticks
A E Houseman - To An Athlete Dying Young

1 hour, 15 minutes

Last on

Sun 15 Mar 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

    Vangelis

    Chariots of Fire

    • POLYDOR UK.
    • Tr7.

  • John Milton

    From Paradise Lost Book 2 Line 506 read by Pippa Bennett-Warner

  • 00:01

    Arthur Honegger

    Rugby, Mouvement symphonique

    Performer: Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, Netherlands, Jean Fournet.
    • Regis RRC 1328.
    • Tr8.

  • Simon Barnes

    The Times: 28th July 2014 read by Robert Powell

  • 00:09

    Carl Davis

    聯Champions聰 Theme

    Performer: Philharmonia Orchestra.
    • Movietrack Classics.
    • Tr15.

  • Hugh McIlvanney

    The Saga of Red Rum from McIlvanney on Horseracing, read by Robert Powell

  • 00:12

    W.Monk, H.Lyte

    Abide With Me

    Performer: Bournemouth Symphony Chorus.
    • BMG Production Music Classical Series.
    • Tr5.

  • Alan Ross

    From Stanley Matthews, read by Robert Powell

  • anon

    From a Gravestone at Llanfair church, South Wales read by Robert Powell and Pippa Bennett-Warner

  • 00:15

    Trad Psalm, W.H.Havergal

    The Rules of Cricket - A Psalm Chant

    Performer: The London Quartet.
    • SignumClassics.
    • Tr8.

  • Alison Uttley

    From 聯Carts and Candlesticks, read by Pippa Bennett-Warner

  • 00:18

    Peter Warlock

    The Cricketers of Hambledon

    Performer: The London Quartet.
    • SignumClassics.
    • Tr2.

  • Neville Cardus

    Cardus Celebrant of Beauty, a Memoir by Robin Daniels read by Robert Powell

  • 00:21

    Antonio Vivaldi

    The Four Seasons, Summer - Concerto No.2 in G minor

    Performer: London Philharmonic, Itzhak Perlman.
    • EMI Classics.
    • Tr4.

  • CLR James

    From 聭Beyond a Boundary, read by Robert Powell

  • 00:28

    Jit Samaroo

    Four Lara Four

    Performer: BP Renegades Steel Orchestra.
    • Faluma.
    • Tr1.
  • 00:30

    Frederick Loewe

    Ascot Gavotte

    Performer: National Symphony Orchestra, John Owen Edwards.
    • TER ltd.
    • Tr9.
  • 00:33

    George Ridley

    Blaydon Races

    Performer: Northern Sinfonia of England, The Sinfonia Chorus, Thomas Allen, Sheila Armstrong.
    • MWM Records.
    • Tr25.

  • William Shakespeare

    Henry V, Act I sc 2, read by Robert Powell

  • 00:38

    William Alwyn

    Derby Day Overture

    Performer: Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, James Judd.
    • Naxos.
    • Tr5.

  • E.M.Forster

    from A Room With A View - Chapter 15, read by Pippa Bennett-Warner

  • 00:45

    Erik Satie

    from Sports Et Divertissements, Tennis

    Performer: Chantal de Buchy.
    • PG.
    • Tr1.

  • John Betjeman

    from A Subaltern聮s Love Song, read by Robert Powell

  • 00:47

    Henry Pether

    A Game of Tennis

    Performer: Ian Partridge, Jennifer Partridge.
    • Just Accord.
    • Tr7.
  • 00:49

    Algernon Drummond

    Eton Boating Song

    Performer: The Band of the Life Guards.
    • BandLeader.
    • Tr3.

  • Steve Fairbairn

    The Oarsman聮s Song from 聯The Complete Steve Fairbairn聰 read by Pippa Bennett-Warner

  • 00:52

    Erik Satie

    from Sports Et Divertissements, Golf

    Performer: Chantal de Buchy.
    • PG.
    • Tr1.

  • John Betjeman

    Seaside Golf, read by Robert Powell

  • 00:54

    Rachel Portman

    The Day of the Match Dawns, from The Legend of Bagger Vance Soundtrack

    Performer: Soundtrack Album.
    • Chapter III Records.
    • Tr6.

  • Roger McGough

    The Railings, read by Robert Powell

  • 00:57

    Ludwig van Beethoven

    String Quartet No7 in F.Op. 59

    Performer: Lindsay String Quartet.
    • ASV.
    • CD1, Tr).

  • John Arlott

    On a Great Batsman, read by Robert Powell

  • 01:04

    Adrian Johnston

    A Game of Cricket, from the Orginal Soundtrack of 聭Becoming Jane聮

    Performer: Original Soundtrack Album.
    • Sony BMG.
    • Tr5.

  • Alison Uttley

    From 聯Carts and Candlesticks read by Pippa Bennett-Warner

  • 01:06

    Roy Harper

    When an Old Cricketer Leaves the Crease

    Performer: Roy Harper.
    • Science Friction.
    • Tr7.

  • A E Houseman

    To An Athlete Dying Young read by Pippa Bennett-Warner and Robert Powell

  • 01:11

    Vangelis

    Chariots of Fire

    • POLYDOR UK.
    • Tr7.

Producer's Notes

Words and Music:听 Summer Sports听

That Culture and Sport should belong in the same ministerial portfolio has always seemed rather strange to me.听 The separation between one and the other is a significant factor in early school life.听听 However this edition of Words and Music takes as its hero the current England Test cricket captain.听 As he glides a short ball through the vacant third slip area and jogs through for yet another century it should always be remembered that Alastair Cook was once a choirboy.听 I like to believe that in that balanced figure at the crease is a man who knows as much about William Byrd鈥檚 choral writing as he does of the late in-swinging yorker.

听

However, our journey through the British summer of sport starts with the gainsayers, and none more poetic than Milton for whom Sport was evidently a devilish pastime.听

After Satan鈥檚 decision to head for earth and disrupt God鈥檚 earthly plans in book two of Paradise Lost the great demonic consult breaks up.听 Seeking truce for their restless thoughts Milton has his fallen angels heading out to play.听 Some go hunting, others appear to organise a cross between Giant Polo and Quidditch, with rocks and hills for balls or bludgers.听 Arthur Honneger鈥檚 musical evocation of Rugby, Mouvement Symphonique, seemed a perfect match for the hellish combat.

听

Out of that dark overture we arrive at Spring with the words of Simon Barnes from his very last piece as Chief Sports writer for The Times.听 Here, as in almost everything he ever writes about sport, there鈥檚 a sense of its limitations and therefore its infinite possibilities.

And so our summer starts early with The Grand National.听 Mixing equine heroes we have first Carl Davis鈥� surging soundtrack to the film Champions which celebrated the triumph in adversity of the horse Aldaniti and the jockey Bob Champion.听 The horse recovered from a career threatening injury and the jockey from cancer before going on to win the National in 1981.听 That鈥檚 the soundtrack.听 The words are those of Hugh McIlvanney seeking to make sense of the extraordinary national feeling for another multiple National winner, Red Rum.

听

May brings us to the last knockings of the Football season in the form of the FA Cup Final.听 The FA Cup was once the greatest of all our national sporting events.听 The game has struggled of late with its 鈥榖eautiful鈥� image and its capacity to inspire.听 Many traditions lie in tatters which makes it both extraordinary and wonderful that the FA Cup hymn,听 鈥楢bide with Me鈥櫶� beloved by Gandhi and Alex Ferguson alike, should survive.听 The poet Alan Ross captures another kind of music which seemed to be happening in the mind and therefore leading the footwork of Sir Stanley Mathews.听 For younger listeners he was the Lionel Messi of his age and in a memorable Final in 1953 he transformed the fortunes of his Blackpool side, propelling them to what seemed an unlikely victory.听 The crude observation would be that he danced to a different tune.听 How much better to have him overhearing 鈥榓 private music... to whose slowly emerging theme / he rehearses steps, soloist in the compulsions of a dream.听 One nil to the poet.

听

A stark gravestone warning from Llanfair church in South Wales brings us to the dominant theme of Summer sport - Cricket.听 In this Psalm setting cricket enthusiasts The London Quartet demonstrate a vital ingredient of the game, a sense of its own ludicrousness.

听

And yet, and yet....听 Alison Uttley, remembers the magic that surrounds the game, and more particularly its paraphenalia.听

听

Peter Warlock is in next and demonstrating a classic ease of phrase and harmony he puts a melody to 鈥楾he Cricketers of Hambledon鈥� which is sodden with Edwardian nostalgia and none the worse for that.

Neville Cardus would have delighted in the exploits of Alastair Cook, making a golden career for himself as a writer and critic of both music and cricket.听 Here he is recalling his youth working as a school coach.听 He captures a bucolic summer scene as gently as Vivaldi.

听

Cricket is really about people and there are few better cricketing portraits than those drawn by the Caribbean writer and scholar C L R James.听 Here, from 鈥楤eyond a Boundary鈥� where he coined the question 鈥� What do they know of Cricket who only cricket know?鈥櫶� we have Matthew Bondman. Reflecting Matthew鈥檚 brilliance at the crease is a bit of Caribbean flamboyance from the Steel Band The Renegades.听 The Renegades, like CLR James, are Trinidadians and the subject of this piece is another - the world record breaking batsman Brian Lara.

听

In the post war years the West Indies cricketers and their supporters brought something new and vibrant to the culture of British summer sport.听 In spite of the fears at the time it didn鈥檛 replace but merely added to the variety.听 The regal Ascot Gavotte from 鈥楳y Fair Lady鈥� describes one manifestation of that variety, the Blaydon Races quite another.听听 Sheila Armstrong and Thomas Allen are in their element and if there鈥檚 ever debate about the music of the Geordie accent it should be silenced on hearing this performance with the Sinfonia Chorus.

听

As well as the flat race meetings of June there鈥檚 also tennis.听 It should be said at this point that the actor Robert Powell is a fine cricketer and the perfect man for this project but he is also part of a very elite band who knows and has played the real tennis of which Shakespeare wrote in Henry V.听 Pippa Bennett-Warner also advertised herself for this edition by an enormous enthusiasm for sport that she shares with a remarkable number of her acting colleagues.听

听

The tennis continues after another racing interlude, this time provided by William Alwyn鈥檚 Derby Day Overture.听 It comes from E.M.Forster鈥檚 鈥楢 Room with a View鈥� and Lucy Honeychurch鈥檚 realisation that a game, and the manner in which it is played, can tell you a great deal about a potential partner.

The tennis extract from Erik Satie鈥檚 鈥楽ports et Divertissements鈥� is altogether more ironic and cartoon-like, leading us into the first of John Betjeman鈥檚 two contributions to this programme.听 鈥楢 Subaltern鈥檚 Love Song鈥� needs no introduction or observation other than to mourn the passing of the wooden tennis racquet鈥檚 need for a press.

Henry Pether鈥檚 鈥楢 Game of Tennis鈥� is another gentle Victorian spin on the developing enthusiasm for all things sporting.

听

The next piece has transcended its sport and indeed its school.听 The Band of the Life Guards takes us out on the river for the Eton Boating song.听 The poem comes from an Aussie by the name of Steve Fairbairn whose name survives in a boating competition amongst Cambridge Colleges.听 You can also bump into a bust of the man if you walk the southern side of the Thames bank from Putney to Mortlake.听 Back in the 1930s he coached my Uncle Charlie Searle and once harangued him from a bridge.听 It appeared that Charlie鈥檚 eye and mind weren鈥檛 on the task in hand.听 鈥淪top dreaming, Searle鈥� he bellowed through his old-fashioned loud-hailer as the boat passed under him.听 Many years later Charlie went to see his old coach who was close to death in a hospital bed.听 The weary eyes opened for a second, saw Charlie and closed again. 听There was a pause before, eyes closed, he muttered: 鈥淪till dreaming Charlie鈥�.听

听

Satie again, this time describing golf leads us to the second of Betjeman鈥檚 contributions - 鈥楽easide Golf鈥�.听 Perhaps one for those who have suffered the vicissitudes of the game, this includes the best use I know of the word 鈥榰nprecedented鈥�.

Rachel Portman鈥檚 music for the golfing film Bagger Vance serves both golf and the gem of this collection, Roger McGough鈥檚 tale of Class and fatherhood and love - 鈥楾he Railings鈥�.

听

And so to August and the final events of the summer sporting season, well it used to be before they tried to squeeze more cricket into September.

The inclusion here of Beethoven, and in particular a Beethoven String Quartet is a tribute to another England Captain, Mike Brearley.听 Look him up on the 大象传媒 Desert Island Discs website and you鈥檒l find that he chose a Beethoven quartet for his solitude, but there鈥檚 another story that he used to hum the opening 鈥榗ello theme of a particular quartet while facing the menacingly quick bowlers of Australia and the West Indies.听 Those were the days before helmets and grills.听 It speaks volumes for batsman and composer alike.

听

Another England captain, Denis Compton, is captured by poet and commentator John Arlott. This is as good a point as any to remember the late David Rayvern Allen, John鈥檚 biographer, without whom I couldn鈥檛 have begun to make many of these selections.听 He certainly put me in the way of Alison Uttley鈥檚 cricketing memories.听 I鈥檓 sure he鈥檇 have enjoyed Adrian Johnston鈥檚 depiction of a cricket match from the film 鈥楤ecoming Jane鈥�.听 He鈥檚 certainly uppermost in my mind at the moment when I hear Roy Harper鈥檚 鈥榃hen an Old Cricketer Leaves the Crease鈥�.

听

Of course sport girds its loins for autumn and winter with renewed enthusiasm but for the purposes of this edition there鈥檚 a need for an ending, supplied by A E Housman.听 The music, which we heard at the start and which returns with an echo of something glorious and never quite gone, is a long atmospheric piece by Vangelis written for the film 鈥楥hariots of Fire鈥�.听 It anticipated the famous theme tune that came at the very last minute.

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Tom Alban

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Broadcasts

  • Sun 28 Jun 2015 17:30
    大象传媒 Radio 3
  • Sun 15 Mar 2020 17:30
    大象传媒 Radio 3

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