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In the Dark

Texts and music on the theme of 'being in the dark', with readers Emily Bruni and Robert Bathurst. With Austen, Ishiguro and Milton, plus Stravinsky, Saariaho, Dowland and Faure.

Emily Bruni and Robert Bathurst read texts and poetry on today's theme, 'In the Dark' - the experience of not seeing things as they really are. For some it is physical blindness which prevents seeing, while for others it is metaphorical; they can't see because they are being deceived, or are deceiving themselves. And for some, being physically blind actually helps to see the world as it really is. Texts and poetry by Austen, Ishiguro, Milton, Sophocles and Jennings are accompanied with music by Stravinsky, Saariaho, Dowland and Faur茅.

1 hour, 15 minutes

Last on

Sun 16 Apr 2017 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

  • Friedrich Nietzsche, trans RJ Hollingdale

    Daybreak, read by Robert Bathurst

  • 00:00

    Friedrich Nietzsche

    Einleitung

    Performer: John Bell Young (piano).
    • NEWPORT CLASSIC NPD85513.
    • Tr1.
  • 00:01

    Kaija Saariaho

    Orion : Winter Sky (excerpt)

    Performer: Orchestre de Paris, Christoph Eschenbach (conductor).
    • ONDINE ODE11132Q.
    • CD4 tr2.

  • John Keats

    To Homer, read by Emily Bruni

  • Charles Dickens

    Great Expectations, read by Robert Bathurst

  • 00:06

    John Dowland

    Fortune my foe (excerpt)

    Performer: Carolyn Sampson (soprano), Matthew Wadsworth (lute).
    • WIGMORE HALL WHLIVE0034.
    • Tr7.

  • Laura Riding Jackson

    How Blind and Bright, read by Emily Bruni

  • 00:11

    Philip Glass

    Light (excerpt)

    Performer: Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Marin Alsop (conductor).
    • NAXOS 8.559323.
    • Tr1.

  • Walter de la Mare

    All but Blind, read by Robert Bathurst

  • 00:16

    Josef Suk

    Summer聮s Tale: Intermezzo 聳 Blind Musicians (excerpt)

    Performer: 大象传媒 Symphony Orchestra, Jiri Belohlavek (conductor).
    • CHANDOS CHSA5109.
    • Tr3.

  • Jane Austen

    Emma, read by Emily Bruni

  • 00:21

    Pietro Reggio

    Tis a strange kind of ignorance (Her unbelief)

    Performer: Joseph Cornwell (tenor), Alan Wilson (harpsichord).
    • MUSICA OSCURA 070986.
    • Tr21.

  • John Milton

    On His Blindness, read by Robert Bathurst

  • 00:25

    Peteris Vasks

    Concerto for Violin 聭Distant light聮; Cantabile (excerpt)

    Performer: Renaud Capucon (violin/director), Chamber Orchestra of Europe.
    • ERATO 4632322.
    • Tr9.

  • Kazuo Ishiguro

    Never let me go, read by Emily Bruni

  • 00:30

    Sergey Prokofiev

    Music for Children 聳 Regret (excerpt)

    Performer: Gy枚rgy Sebok (piano).
    • WARNER 0927496372.
    • CD4 tr5.

  • Sophocles, trans Robert Murray

    Oedipus, King of Thebes, read by Robert Bathurst

  • 00:33

    Igor Stravinsky

    Oedipus Rex: Dicere non possum

    Performer: Gunther Von Kannen (Tiresias), Peter Svensson (Oedipus), Orchestra de la Suisse Romande, Neeme Jarvi (conductor).
    • CHANDOS CHAN66545.
    • CD5 tr13.

  • Charlotte Bronte

    Jane Eyre, read by Emily Bruni

  • 00:37

    John Joubert

    Lyric Fantasy for piano on themes from Jane Eyre (excerpt)

    Performer: Mark Bebbington (piano).
    • SOMM SOMMCD060-2.
    • CD2 tr1.

  • Ellen M Huntington Gates

    The Dark, read by Robert Bathurst

  • 00:42

    Maurice Ravel

    Daphnis and Chloe; Lever du jour (excerpt)

    Performer: London Symphony Orchestra, Andre Previn (conductor).
    • EMI CDC7471622.
    • Tr2.
  • 00:43

    Andrzej Panufnik

    Landscape (excerpt)

    Performer: Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra, John Storgards (conductor).
    • ONDINE ODE11015.
    • Tr9.

  • Elizabeth Jennings

    Reminiscence, read by Emily Bruni

  • 00:47

    Curtis Fuller

    Three Blind Mice (excerpt)

    Performer: Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers.
    • BLUE NOTE CDP7844512.
    • Tr1.

  • Billy Collins

    I chop some parsley while listening to Art Blakeys version of Three Blind Mice, read by Robert Bathurst

  • 00:49

    L Hart & R Rodgers

    Blue Moon (excerpt)

    Performer: Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers.
    • BLUE NOTE CDP7844512.
    • Tr2.

  • Thomas Hardy

    Tess of the d聮Urbervilles, read by Emily Bruni

  • 00:52

    Aaron Copland

    Letter from Home (excerpt)

    Performer: Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, JoAnn Falletta (conductor).
    • NAXOS 8.559240.
    • Tr6.

  • William Shakespeare

    Sonnet 148, read by Robert Bathurst

  • 00:55

    Franz Liszt

    Der Blinde Sanger (excerpt)

    Performer: Leslie Howard (piano).
    • HYPERION CDA66445.
    • Tr23.

  • Wilkie Collins

    Poor Miss Finch, read by Emily Bruni

  • 00:59

    Gabriel Faur茅

    Pelleas et Melisande; Melisandes Lied

    Performer: Lorraine Hunt (soprano), Boston Symphony Orchestra, Seiji Osawa (conductor).
    • DG 4230892.
    • Tr3.

  • John Wyndham

    The Day of the Triffids, read by Robert Bathurst

  • 01:02

    Toru Takemitsu

    Les yeux clos II (excerpt)

    Performer: Kotaro Fukuma (piano).
    • NAXOS 8.570261.
    • Tr10.

  • Siegfried Sassoon

    Blind, read by Emily Bruni

  • 01:05

    Franz Schubert

    Der Blinde Knabe, D.833

    Performer: Matthias Goerne (baritone), Alexander Schmalcz (piano).
    • HARMONIA MUNDI HMC902063.
    • Tr2.

  • Agatha Christie

    And then there were none, read by Robert Bathurst

  • 01:09

    John Cage

    Perilous Night 聳 no.4

    Performer: Boris Berman (piano).
    • NAXOS 8.554562.
    • Tr4.

  • Philip Larkin

    Ignorance, read by Emily Bruni

  • 01:10

    Charles Ives

    The Unanswered Question (excerpt)

    Performer: Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Michael Tilson Thomas (conductor).
    • SONY MK 42381.
    • Tr5.

Producer's Note

Tonight鈥檚 Words and Music explores being in the dark, or the state of unseeing. Some of the texts I鈥檝e chosen deal with physical blindness, while with others it is metaphorical; not seeing things as they really are due to deception, or self-deception. The programme begins with a quote from Nietzsche: 鈥淲hy does man not see things? He is himself standing in the way: he conceals things鈥�, a situation which applies to many of tonight鈥檚 literary characters.

In his poem To Homer, Keats describes the Greek poet鈥檚 ability to view the world through 鈥渁 triple sight in blindness keen鈥�. This idea that physical blindness can enhance the other senses and actually enable you to 鈥榮ee鈥� better is also observed by Sophocles in his telling of the Oedipus myth; this contrasts the insight of the blind prophet Tiresias with the sighted king, who is unable to see the fate which will bring about his own downfall (Oedipus, of course ends up physically blind as well, having gouged out his own eyes).聽 And in his sonnet On His Blindness , the poet John Milton considers how best to spend his days to serve his maker within the limitations of blindness.

Bill Masen in Wyndham鈥檚 Day of the Triffids is temporarily blinded by bandages, and soon realises how confused and vulnerable this makes him; he doesn鈥檛 yet know that the bandages have in fact protected his sight while the rest of the world has succumbed to a plague of permanent blindness. For Wilkie Collins鈥� Lucilla, blindness from birth has had a profound impact on her personality, and how she relates to the other characters in the book. And Billy Collins muses on how the Three Blind Mice came to be blind, locate each other, and manage to run after a farmer鈥檚 wife!

Shakespeare鈥榮 Sonnet 148 questions the point of functional eyes which have no connection with true sight. Indeed there are many examples of characters in literature who don鈥檛 have the insight to understand their true situation. So convinced is Pip (Great Expectations) that his secret benefactor is Miss Havisham, that the truth comes as a very unwelcome surprise. Emma Woodhouse is so busy persuading her hapless prot茅g茅 Harriet that Mr Collins loves her that she fails completely to see that his affections are in fact directed towards herself. Kazuo Ishiguro describes beautifully the feeling of half-knowing something, so that the truth, when it arrives, is something you鈥檝e subconsciously been expecting. And Elizabeth Jennings reminisces on the simplicity of life before you鈥檙e old enough to fully understand it.

Of course some characters are in the dark through no fault of their own.聽 Jane Eyre only discovers at the altar that Mr Rochester has a wife already; Mr Rochester is another character who ends up physically blind, but better able to 鈥榮ee鈥�.聽 Tess of the D鈥橴rbervilles deceives her fianc茅e about her shameful past on the advice of her mother. By the time he finds out, the damage has been done. And I had to include an example of a detective novel: In Agatha Christie鈥檚 And then there were none, all the characters are in the dark, apart from the murderer himself.

Ellie Mant - Producer

Broadcast

  • Sun 16 Apr 2017 17:30
    大象传媒 Radio 3

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