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Somewhere or Other

Georgie Glen and Rupert Holliday Evans read words by Christina Rossetti, Yeats, Donald S Murray and Freya Stark with music by Schubert, Van Morrison, Dave Brubeck and Judith Weir.

With actors Georgie Glen and Rupert Holliday Evans.
Songs, poems and notes of yearning over love, life and death and the exuberance of the sheer unquantifiable, marvellous, strange, exuberant nature of existence. Somewhere or other must surely be ... a love lost or never found, hugely enjoyed or deeply regretted; somewhere or other the perfect home awaits ... or a terrible death ... or a lesson hard learned ... or extraordinary luck ... or an encounter of no significance at all which happened once - never to be repeated but never forgotten.

The readings come from Christina and Gabriel Rossetti, Kevin Crossley Holland, W B Yeats, Federico Garcia Lorca, A A Milne, Freya Stark, Donald S Murray and Mark O'Connor amongst others; with the voices of Van Morrison, the Salzburg Boys' Choir, Elizabeth S枚derstr枚m and Ella Johnson plus the melodies of Franz Schubert and Robert Schumann, Judith Weir, Dave Brubeck, Benjamin Britten, Aram Khachaturian, Peter Maxwell Davies and others.

Producer: Jacqueline Smith.

1 hour, 15 minutes

Last on

Sun 15 Nov 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

    Leos Jan谩膷ek

    In the Mists Andante

    Performer: Leif Ove Andsnes, piano.
    • VIRGIN CLASSICS VC7596392.
    • 3.

  • Christina Rossetti

    Poem: Somewhere or Other

  • Dante Gabriel Rossetti

    Extract Poem: Very Like Indeed

  • 00:02

    Franz Schubert

    Gretchen am Spinnrade

    Performer: Elisabeth Soderstrom, sop; Paul Badura-Skoda, piano.
    • ASTREE E7783.
    • 13.
  • 00:05

    M铆che谩l 脫 S煤illeabh谩in

    Ah, Sweet Dancer

    Performer: M铆che谩l 脫 S煤illeabh谩in.
    • VENTURE CDVE40.
    • 6.

  • William Butler Yeats

    Poem 聭Sweet Dancer聮

  • Jack Kerouac

    Extract 聭The People I like聮

  • 00:08

    Van Morrison

    Foreign Window

    Performer: Van Morrison.
    • POLYDOR 8496192.
    • 3.

  • Rudyard Kipling

    Poem extract from 聭Sussex聮

  • 00:14

    Peter Maxwell Davies

    The Heather Track

    Performer: Choir of St Mary's Music School.
    • UNICORN DKPCD9070.
    • 5.

  • William Blake

    Poem 聭Piping Down the Valley聮s Wild

  • 00:16

    Carl Orff

    Fortune, Empress of the World

    Performer: Salzburg Boys聮 Choir Chorus; Orchestra of the Mozarteum; Ernst Hinreiter, cond..
    • CONIFER TQ124.
    • 1.
  • 00:18

    Reijseger

    Child聮s Footprint

    Performer: Ernest Reijseger, cello; Harmen Fraanje, church organ; Sean Bergin, penny whistle; Nederlands Kamerkoor; Ester Kuiper, Ananda Goud, sop; Albert van Ommen, Marc Van Heteren, tenor; Gilad nezer, Kees Jan de Koning: bass.
    • W&W 91-1812.
    • Tr6.

  • Coleridge

    Poem: Time, Real and Imaginary

  • A A Milne

    Poem 聭Halfway Down聮

  • 00:22

    Dave Brubeck

    Charles Matthew Hallelujah

    Performer: Dave Brubeck Quartet; Dave Brubeck Piano; Paul Desmond, Alto Sax; Joe Morello, Drums; Eugene Wright, Base.
    • COLUMBIA CK64668.
    • 3.

  • Arthur Hugh Clough

    Poem extract 聭Where Lies the Land

  • Freya Stark

    extract 聭Sailing on the Mayflower聮

  • 00:25

    Aram Khachaturian

    Adagio; Spartacus and Phrygia (theme from the Onedin Line)

    Performer: Berlin Symphony Orchestra; Michail Jurowski, cond..
    • CAPRICCIO 1081718.
    • CD2 Tr3.

  • Freya Stark

    Extract 聭Wanted a Musical Husband聮

  • Freya Stark

    extract 聭Prayers On Board聮

  • Freya Stark

    extract news of a Dervish

  • Freya Stark

    Whooping Cough Cure According to the Moors

  • William Ellery Leonard (after Aesop)

    The Swan and The Goose

  • Thomas Hardy

    Poem extract: The Roman Road

  • W H Auden

    Roman Wall Blues

  • 00:35

    Woodrow Johnson, Buddy Johnson

    Somehow, Somewhere

    Performer: Buddy & Ella Johnson.
    • Jasmine Records.
    • 22.

  • Edgar Allan Poe

    Poem: Eldorado

  • 00:38

    Judith Weir

    I Broke Off A Golden Branch

    Performer: The Schubert Ensemble of London; Mayumi Seiler, violin; Douglas Paterson, viola; Jane Salmon, cello; William Howard, piano; Peter Buckoke, double bass.
    • COLLINS CLASSICS 14532.
    • 3.

  • Percy Bysshe Shelley

    Poem: Ozymandias

  • William Butler Yeats

    Poem extract: The Second Coming

  • Federico Garc铆a Lorca trs Stephen Spender, J L Gili

    Goring and Death (At Five in the Afternoon)

  • 00:46

    Odaline de la Martinez

    Song of the Rider

    Performer: Marina Tafur, voice; Martin Allen, Percussion; Shelagh Sutherland, piano; Odaline de la Martinez, cond..
    • LORELT LNT103.
    • 2.

  • Rainer Maria Rilke trs C F MacIntyre

    The Panther

  • 00:50

    Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim

    Somewhere

    Performer: The Dave Brubeck Quartet.
    • Valentine Music Limited.
    • 10.
  • 00:54

    Peter Warlock

    The Curlew (Introduction)

    Performer: Anna Tilbrook piano; Michael Cox, flute, Gareth Hulse, cor anglais.
    • LINN CKD296.
    • 7.

  • George Crabbe

    Poem: Frenzy from Sir Eustace Grey

  • ANGLO SAXON POEM trs Kevin Crossley Holland

    Extract 聭The Seafarer聮

  • Mark O聮Connor

    Strike from poem: Two Views of a Gannet

  • 00:58

    Peter Maxwell Davies

    Farewell to Stromness

    Performer: Peter Maxwell Davies, piano.
    • UNICORN.
    • 13.

  • Donald S. Murray

    Poem: Lovemaking in St Kilda

  • 01:03

    Benjamin Britten

    As Dew in April

    Performer: Choir of King鈥檚 College, Cambridge.
    • EMI.
    • Tr6.

  • Anonymous. 15th Cent

    Poem: Quia Amore Langueo

  • 01:05

    Peter Warlock, William Butler Yeats

    The Curlew (He Reproves the Curlew)

    Performer: James Gilchrist tenor; Anna Tilbrook piano; Michael Cox, flute, Gareth Hulse, cor anglais.
    • LINN CKD296.
    • 7.

  • 14th century anon

    Maiden in the Moor Lay extract

  • 00:00

    Katherine Blake

    Maiden in the mor Lay

    Performer: Katherine Blake.
    • RCA 756005513592.
    • 16.

  • A E Houseman

    Poem: Goodnight

  • 01:12

    Robert Schumann

    Kuriose Geschichte (A Curious Tale)

    Performer: Daniel Barenboim, Piano.
    • DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 4311672.
    • 2.

PRODUCER'S NOTES: Somewhere or Other

Somewhere or other must surely be 鈥�. everything and everyone we need to be happy鈥�..or not. It may just be me, but like the horizon, that precious somewhere just keeps slipping away 鈥�.听听

If anyone ever found their own perfect Somewhere or Other it was most likely our childhood self; Peter Maxwell Davies, William Blake, Orff, A A Milne and Dave Brubeck always transport me back there鈥�. Hope they do for you too.听听听听听

The starting point for this mazy collation of music, song and words is Jan谩膷ek's composition 鈥業n the Mists鈥�.听 This transports us to a magic world where anything is really possible or could be.听 And the first people we鈥檒l meet,听 down the valley and over the moon, are听 Christina and Gabriel Rossetti, brother and sister ; she yearns for the soul mate lost or never found;听 he鈥檚 sympathetic in a rather cool kind of way: 鈥業 know鈥� he says 鈥榖ut, very like, that is just the way it is鈥�.

On we go, sailing听 now, over high seas,听 with no memory of where we cast off, nor of a safe harbourage ahead; maybe the Roman Road might give us a bit of direction though those storm clouds of thwarted passion look threatening鈥�.yes, it鈥檚 Schubert鈥檚 Gretchen, spinning her life away, obsessed听 over her lost heart鈥檚 love鈥�.but a moment later, shafts of sunlight as William Butler Yeats points out a听 sweet girl dancing on a lawn and Van Morrison glimpses something quite unforgettable through a foreign window.听

And there鈥檚 another thread in the weave, the sheer exuberance felt when contemplating the truly limitlessly vast scale of Somewhere or Other.听 Just think.听 Here or there anything can happen to anyone, and all the time something is happening everywhere and anywhere.听

There is an eternity in the moments polished, savoured and served up to us by our writers and poets and musicians 鈥nights languish, maidens despair, gannets dive in the moment the fish is dying says Mark O鈥機onnor, Freya Stark on her travels hears how fleas can cure whooping cough and even as Douglas S Murray鈥檚 Lovers on St Kilda fly like birds, Lorca鈥檚 friend is killed by a bull at five o鈥檆lock in the afternoon, and long years before that a curlew sang a lament over the Maiden on the Moor in her bower of roses . and lily flowers.

So the game of life, a curious story indeed, and no guaranteed happy endings鈥nvoked by Robert Schumann鈥檚 Kinderszenen and A E Houseman.

Producer: Jacqueline Smith

听

Broadcasts

  • Sun 25 Feb 2018 17:30
    大象传媒 Radio 3
  • Sun 15 Nov 2020 17:30
    大象传媒 Radio 3

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