Wine
Tamsin Greig and Tom Hollander uncork a celebration of the joys and pitfalls of wine, including texts by Shakespeare, Chaucer and Baudelaire, with music from Offenbach, Mahler and Frank Martin.
Last on
More episodes
Previous
Music Played
Timings (where shown) are from the start of the programme in hours and minutes
-
00:00
Gustav Mahler
Das Lied von der Erde
Performer: James King, Vienna Philharmonic, Leonard Bernstein.- Decca 4523012.
- Tr1.
-
Chaucer
The Canterbury Tales, read by Tamsin Greig
00:05Béla Bartók
Burlesque no.2 ‘Tipsy’
Performer: Andreas Bach.- Hanssler 98042.
- CD1 Tr18.
Joyce
Ulysses, read by Tom Hollander
00:08Ravel
Chanson a boire
Performer: Gerald Finley, Julius Drake.- Hyperion CDA67728.
- Tr9.
Tolstoy
Anna Karenina, read by Tamsin Greig
00:13William Walton
BelshazzarÂ’s Feast
Performer: John Shirley-Quirk, LSO & Chorus, Andre Previn.- EMI CDC7476242.
- Tr4-6.
Li Po
Drinking Alone by Moonlight, read by Tom Hollander
00:22Gustav Mahler
Das Lied von der Erde
Performer: James King, Vienna Philharmonic, Leonard Bernstein.- Decca 4523012.
- Tr5.
Austen
Sense and Sensibility, read by Tamsin Greig
00:29Jacques Offenbach
Isabella’s Hangover Song (Christopher Columbus)
Performer: Anne Dawson. Ensemble: London Mozart Players. Performer: Alun Francis.Yeats
A Drinking Song, read by Tamsin Greig
00:33Martin
Le vin herbe
Performer: RIAS Kammerchor, Scharoun Ensemble, Daniel Reuss.- Harmonia Mundi HMC90193536.
- CD1, Tr4.
Dahl
Taste, read by Tom Hollander
00:43Claude Debussy
La puerta del Vino
Performer: Jean-Efflam Bavouzet.- Chandos CHAN10421.
- Tr15.
Baudelaire
The Soul of Wine, read by Tamsin Greig
00:48Verdi
LibiamonneÂ’lieti calici (La Traviata)
Performer: Placido Domingo, Bavarian State Opera Chorus & Orchestra, Carlos Kleiber.- DG 4293052.
- Tr7.
00:51Godowsky
Symphonic Metamorphosis on Wine, Women and Song
Performer: Marc-André Hamelin.- Hyperion CDA67626.
- Tr12.
Shakespeare
Henry IV Part Two, read by Tom Hollander
01:05Ibert
Bacchanale
Performer: CBSO, Louis Fremaux.- EMI CDC7492612.
- Tr8.
Producer's Note
Join Tom Hollander and Tamsin Greig for a festive glass of wine in the company of a wide range of writers and composers.
In the prologue to his Canterbury Tales, Chaucer describes a table of strangers gathered round a tavern table, the sole connection between them their love of wine. Shakespeare’s Falstaff tells all who will listen of the stimulating and fortifying properties of sack, a precursor to sherry while, in Sense and Sensibility, Austen’s Elinor appreciates the healing properties a glass has on pains both physical and emotional. Li Po, Baudelaire, Yeats and Joyce all praise wine: ambrosial, unifying, aphrodisiac, ecstatic.
Musical oenophilia comes from a tipsy Bartok burlesque and the famous brindisi from Verdi’s La traviata. Debussy evokes the Alhambra’s Wine Gate; Mahler a springtime drunkard; Offenbach, in his wonderful operetta Christopher Columbus, the Queen’s rather grim hangover. Frank Martin’s Le vin herbe is a retelling of the story of Tristan and Isolde and the flask of wine infused with herbs in order to inflame the senses; Belshazzar orders his retinue to drink wine from the exiled jews’ sacred vessels, thus ensuring this feast is his last. Johann Strauss’s Wine, Women and Song is kicked up a notch in Godowsky’s high-proof piano reworking, while Ibert’s Bacchanale was written sixty years ago for the tenth anniversary of the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Third Programme.
Now, could someone please help me find the Radio 3 corkscrew…Broadcast
- Christmas Day 2016 17:30´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio 3
Featured in...
Arts
Creativity, performance, debate