Sound Frontiers: Turning Points
As part of Sound Frontiers - Radio 3 Live at Southbank Centre, a sequence of forward-looking prose and poetry interspersed with music. With Debussy, Mozart, Ives and Wodehouse.
John Sessions and Juliet Stevenson are in Radio 3's pop-up studio at Southbank Centre to perform forward-looking prose and poetry accompanied by music to tie in with the theme of this year's London Literature Festival, which begins later this week. The selection includes Debussy, Chopin, Mozart, Bob Dylan, Dylan Thomas, Dorothy Parker, Charlie Parker, Charles Ives and PG Wodehouse.
Sound Frontiers: 大象传媒 Radio 3 live at Southbank Centre
Celebrating 7 decades of pioneering music and culture
Producer: Harry Parker.
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Timings (where shown) are from the start of the programme in hours and minutes
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00:00Fr茅d茅ric Chopin
Revolutionary - 脡tude in C minor, Op.10 No.12
Performer: Vladimir Ashkenazy (piano).- DECCA 4101802.
- Tr5.
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Robert Frost
The Road Not Taken, read by John Sessions
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00:03Antonio Vivaldi
The Four Seasons - Autumn (Allegro 1)
Performer: Piero Toso (violin), Claudio Scimone (Conductor).- ERATO 2292459452.
- Tr7.
William Shakespeare
The Merchant of Venice IV (i) read by Juliet Stevenson
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00:08Al Cleveland, Marvin Gaye and Renaldo Benson
What聮s Going On?
Performer: Marvin Gaye.- MOTOWN 0640222.
- Tr1.
Henry David Thoreau
'Paradise to be Regained' from My Thoughts are Murder to the State, read by John Sessions
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00:14Claude Debussy
De l聮aube 脿 midi sur la mer
Performer: London Philharmonic Orchestra, Serge Baudo (Conductor).- EMI CDEMX 9502.
- Tr3.
Alice Oswald
From Tithonus, read by Juliet Stevenson
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00:20Joseph Haydn
The Creation 聳 Part II - Chorus
Performer: Philharmonia Chorus, Philharmonia Orchestra, Rafael Fr眉hbeck De Burgos (Conductor).- CLASSICS FOR PLEASURE CD-CFPD 4444.
- CD2 Tr9.
Dylan Thomas
Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night, read by John Sessions
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00:25Charlie Parker
Now聮s the Time
Performer: Charlie Parker.- verve 833 288-2.
- Tr16.
Dorothy Parker
Resum茅, read by Juliet Stevenson
Ogden Nash
Crossing The Border, read by John Sessions
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00:29Charles Ives, arranged by Sinclair
Country Band March
Performer: Royal Northern College of Music Wind Orchestra, Clark Rundell (Conductor).- CHANDOS CHAN 10367.
- Tr1.
Mary Russell Mitford
聭Our Village聮, read by Juliet Stevenson
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00:36Louis Alter 聳 Sidney D. Mitchell
You Turned the Tables on Me
Performer: Ella Fitzgerald, Frank DeVol's Orchestra.- VERVE 523 321-2.
- Tr9.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Sonnet VII, read by Juliet Stevenson
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00:40Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Marriage of Figaro - Act IV "Gente, gente, all'armi, all'armi"
Performer: Chor und Orchester der Deutschen Oper Berlin, Karl B枚hm (Conductor).- DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 449 728-2.
- CD3 Tr16.
Mike Nichols and Elaine May
A Little More Gauze, read by Juliet Stevenson & John Session
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00:50Traditional, adapted by Robert Johnson
Cross Road Blues
Performer: Robert Johnson.- JASMINE JASMCD 3001.
- Tr12.
Thomas Hardy
The Convergence of the Twain (Lines on the loss of the 聯Titanic聰), read by John Sessions
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00:55George Butterworth
Six Songs from A Shropshire Lad - Loveliest of Trees
Performer: Roderick Williams, Iain Burnside.- NAXOS 8572426.
- Tr1.
Imtiaz Dharker
A Century Later, read by Juliet Stevenson
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00:58Giovanni Battista Sammartini
Symphony in F major, J-C 32 聳 III Allegro assai
Performer: I Giovani di Nuova Cameristica, Riccardo Villani (Harpsichord), Daneile Ferrari (Conductor).- NUOVA ERA 720608.
- CD3 Tr18.
Ogden Nash
A Lady Who Thinks She Is Thirty, read by Juliet Stevenson
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01:02Bob Dylan
Ballad of a Thin Man
Performer: Bob Dylan.- COLUMBIA 512351 2.
- Tr5.
P. G. Wodehouse
Very Good, Jeeves, read by John Sessions
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01:10Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Overture Solennelle 聯1812 聯, op. 49 聳 Allegro giusto
Performer: Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, Sir Neville Marriner (Conductor).- CAPRICCIO 71042.
- Tr9.
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01:11Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Overture Solennelle 聯1812 聯, op. 49 聳 Largo
Performer: Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, Sir Neville Marriner (Conductor).- CAPRICCIO 71042.
- Tr10.
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01:12Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Overture Solennelle 聯1812 聯, op. 49 聳 Allegro vivace
Performer: Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, Sir Neville Marriner (Conductor).- CAPRICCIO 71042.
- Tr11.
Producer's Notes: Sound Frontiers 'Turning Points'
The programme is live from Radio 3's pop-up studio at the South Bank where the subject for the London Literature Festival is Living in Future Times. Radio 3 is present there and, with its Sound Frontiers title in mind, Words and Music explores in sound the idea of 鈥�Turning Points鈥�: those events and moments in history, geography, nature or in our personal lives where things alter direction and we find ourselves facing a different future.听
We begin with Frederic Chopin鈥檚 Revolutionary 脡tude written at the time of his native Poland鈥檚 uprising against Russia in November 1831.听 It was written as an emotional response to this (failed) revolution - on hearing that the rebellion had foundered he said 鈥淎ll this has caused me so much pain.听 Who could have foreseen it!鈥� - but, along with his other 茅tudes, it is in itself revolutionary: a turning point in that Chopin transformed a technical musical exercise into a form capable of expressing profound feeling.听
In his 1915 poem The Road Not Taken the New England poet Robert Frost expresses a more personal insight into reaching a turning point in one鈥檚 life.听 Using the simple metaphor of a fork in a country road and the choice that has to be made as to which one to follow, he not only gives voice to his personal dilemma but suggests advice to the reader - or listener - that the 鈥渢he one less traveled by鈥� might make 鈥渁ll the difference鈥�.听 That seems to have been the case for him as an adherent of more traditional forms of verse in the face of oncoming modernism.听
Antonio Vivaldi鈥檚 Four Seasons suite of violin concertos from the early 1720s charts the passage of nature through the year although it might be argued that only two of the seasons, Spring and Autumn, are turning points as Summer and Winter are two states of the earth in extremis with the other two seasons being the transitions from one to the other.听 This Allegro from the current season, Autumn, has within it turning points from the lively beginning to听 hints of the colder weather in the slow passage of the latter half.听听
Vivaldi was born and lived much of his life in Venice the setting for Shakespeare鈥檚 Merchant of Venice from which this Act IV speech by Portia is one of the most famous in all the playwright鈥檚 work.听 In the courtroom drama she, dressed as a male lawyer, begs Shylock for mercy for her client, another Antonio, part of a performance which tips the scales of justice in his favour.听
Justice is very much in Marvin Gaye鈥檚 mind with the opening and title track from his groundbreaking 1971 album What鈥檚 Going On?听 A turning point for black music in that it was possibly the first, certainly the most successful, soul concept album, it also captured the mood of the times which were changing fast as African-Americans began to assert themselves.听 But it was also Gaye鈥檚 music outlet for what was going on within himself as a person emerging from depression and as an artis迟.听 He later said 鈥淚n 1969 or 1970, I began to re-evaluate my whole concept of what I wanted my music to say... I realized that I had to put my own fantasies behind me if I wanted to write songs that would reach the souls of people. I wanted them to take a look at what was happening in the world鈥�.听 Gaye鈥檚 songs on the LP are remarkably forward looking, anticipating, for example, the ecological movemen迟.听
Henry David Thoreau鈥檚 essay of 1843 Paradise (to be) Regained听 from My Thoughts are Murder to the State was really more a book review; dissecting a volume called 鈥楾he Paradise within the Reach of all Men鈥� by Adolphus Etzler.听 In it Thoreau too has remarkable prescience imagining being on the brink of the future, with the then scarcely imaginable air travel but the changed nature of work itself.听听
Claude Debussy in 1903 was working on the Three Symphonic Sketches known as La Mer of which we hear part of De L鈥橝ube 脌 Midi Sur La Mer (From Dawn to Midday on the Sea), a key example of the way music was turning to more impressionistic and sensuous forms expressed visually by the French Impressionist artists although it seems that La Mer might well have been inspired by more English sources such as J. M. W. Turner or even Debussy鈥檚 visit to Eastbourne.听
Dawn is also the subject of Alice Oswald鈥檚 poem Tithonus.听 In Greek mythology Eos the goddess of the dawn fell in love with the mortal Tithonus and had him granted eternal life.听 It was rather remiss of her not to specify eternal youth and poor Tithonus shrivels and fades without dying. In this extract we hear how the arrival of dawn and the turning of night into a new day are contrasted with Tithonus.听
Haydn, inspired by Handel鈥檚 Messiah, chose as his subject nothing less than the dawn of the world - The Creation.听 This chorus is sung at the end of the sixth day 鈥榁ollendet ist das grosse听 Werk鈥�(the glorious work is achieved) and looks forward to the imminent future when Adam and Eve are placed upon the earth.听 Surely a turning point for us all?听
Dylan Thomas, like Alice Oswald, concerns himself with old age.听 Not only is death second only to birth as a turning point in our lives but on the threshold of it we are also faced with a choice of paths - which way to turn?听 Thomas is unequivocal in his urging: Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Nigh迟.听
Another exponent of a great force making irrevocable changes to the form of music comes in the shape of Charlie Parker, an innovator in the 1940s and 50s straddling jazz鈥檚 swerve into modernity. Now鈥檚 the Time not only encompasses his taking of traditional forms and turning them into something new but, in the title and his playing, expresses the carpe diem spirit with which it is done.听
Next, two brief, very brief, (cough, and you鈥檒l miss them) verses from two of America鈥檚 wittiest poets, taking extremely seriously the Shakespearean maxim that brevity is the soul of wi迟.听 Dorothy Parker, for much of her life and all of his, a contemporary of Charlie, has pithy advice on that turning point in life where one may be contemplating ending it and Ogden Nash, slightly, very slightly, junior to Dorothy, flashes a cruel light on the moment one realises one has turned old - not that he was himself particularly aged by today鈥檚 standards when he died at 69.听
Charles Ives, also knocking around in roughly the same era as the other three Americans just mentioned, like Parker (Charlie, not Dorothy) was one of the main composers responsible听 for moving American music into the modern age.听 His Country Band March, whilst musically demonstrating this change of direction was inspired by hearing two bands marching past each other and noting that out of two perfectly harmonised ensembles could come the most glorious dissonance.听
Love, of all human emotions is more subject to ups and downs and, yes, turning points than any other.听 Mary Russell Mitford was a great friend of Elizabeth Barrett Browning but was, at the time anyway, not over-shadowed by her poet pal.听 She published prolifically - poems, prose, fact and fiction and plays.听 But her blockbuster, as we鈥檇 now call it, came in 1824 with Our Village a series of sketches of life in her home hamlet of Three Mile Cross near Reading.听 It gathered massive momentum and in the end comprised no less than five volumes.听 In this extract from the first she describes a turning point in one of her neighbour鈥檚 amorous aspirations.听听听
Mary鈥檚 these-days-more-famous friend, she of Wimpole Street, was pretty prodigious herself when it came to poetry production.听 She wrote reams and reams of sonnets some, let鈥檚 face it, better than others. In this one, VII, she reflects on how love can not only turn one鈥檚 head but make the world around seem as if it has changed too.听听
Between these two literary ladies comes another woman whose output was as plentiful as it was perfec迟.听 Ella Fitzgerald takes on a 1936 tune from the great American songbook You Turned the Tables on Me.听 She recorded it at least three times and this version is a session from 1957 with an arrangement by Frank De Vol.听 The lyrics by Sidney D. Mitchell tell of another angle on the vicissitudes of love.听
Turning points do not always come at the beginning or along the way in affairs of the heart but sometimes at the last minute.听 For Mozart鈥檚 Marriage of Figaro, Lorenzo da Ponte based听 his libretto on Beaumarchais鈥檚 play recounting a 鈥榙ay of madness鈥� amongst masters and servants in which twist follows trick follows turn, but the true moment of resolution comes at the end of Act IV when the Count begs for forgiveness from his wife for his philandering ways, Contessa Perdono.听
In the late 50s and early 60s, before Mike Nichols and Elaine May went on to achieve renown as film directors they were the authors and performers together of wickedly funny duologues for records and radio. This one, A Little More Gauze, shows that while a surgeon maybe medically adroit he is not a particularly smooth social operator and it makes one wonder how much things have changed in operating theatres since then.听
On 27th November 1936, in room 414 of the Gunter Hotel in San Antonio, Texas Robert Johnson, the King of the Delta Blues singers recorded Cross Road Blues, one of only 29 recordings of his known to exis迟.听 He continues Robert Frost鈥檚 theme of road junctions as metaphor for crucial moments in life.听 However for Johnson the intersection seems to be more of dead-end as he looks east and west but still ends up in distress. The idea that the song is a reference to the supposed sale of his soul to the Devil at a Mississippi crossroads in exchange for success is unconvincing although it has spawned a tourist trade in crossroads claiming to be the scene of the Faustian bargain.听 But if, like Frost, he took the road less travelled it was an unfortunate choice - he died in murky circumstances within two years.听
John Sessions chose Thomas Hardy鈥檚 poem The Convergence of the Twain which is perhaps a dire warning on the perils of hubristic avoidance of turning points - opportunities to evade troubles ahead.听 Subtitled Lines on the Loss of the 鈥淭itanic"听 it evokes the 1912 disaster in terms of an unstoppable force meeting an immovable object 鈥� less of a paradox, in this case, than the two forces becoming听 one, with the man-made vessel returning to watery nature.听
The changing stages of human life are mirrored in the phases of a cherry tree throughout the year in A. E. Houseman鈥檚 poem The Loveliest of Trees here couched in music by George Butterworth and sung by Roderick Williams.听
The poet and film-maker Imtiaz Dharker鈥檚 verse听 A Century Later听 refers to Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani schoolgirl shot by the Taliban and who went on to win the Nobel Prize for Peace. 听The shooting turned out to be a watershed not only for Malala herself but for the schoolchildren inspired by her.听
The greatest of musical forms, at least until the latter half of the twentieth century, is the symphony and one of the people widely credited for inventing it, or at least developing it, was the Milanese composer Giovanni Battista Sammartini.听 In the first part of the eighteenth century he welded concerto and sonata forms together to form the template for the modern symphony.听
Ogden Nash鈥檚 second contribution to the programme is on the nature of aging too, A Lady Who Thinks She is Thirty?听 Actually it is a rather poignant insight into the moment of turning a corner in maturity and from a female point of view.听
Bob Dylan鈥檚 Ballad of a Thin Man听 from the album Highway 61 Revisited is a slightly hallucinatory approach to the question of a man unaware of听 that听 society is changing all around him , the man in question being, of course, everyman. Dylan鈥檚 warning that it鈥檚 time to deviate or go under is one of Titanic proportions.听听
On a less grandiose scale Bertie Wooster, from P. G. Wodehouse鈥檚 Very Good, Jeeves is faced with his own dilemma when he has pledged to sing in public.听 Fortunately his dependable man Jeeves is on hand with suggestion of how to turn things around.听
The programme ends as it began with Russia in conflict on this occasion the defeat of Napoleon in 1812 as depicted on the vast musical canvas of Tchaikovsky鈥檚 Overture Solennelle.听 This last section perhaps expresses something of Bertie鈥檚 sense of triumph as he overcomes his fears.听听
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Producer: Harry Parker
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