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Beautiful World, Where Are You?

A reflection on ideas of upheaval inspired by Schiller's poem, 'The Gods of Greece', set to music by Schubert, and the work behind the theme for the 10th Liverpool Biennial.

The line 'Beautiful world, where are you?' derives from a 1788 poem 'The Gods of Greece' by the German poet Friedrich Schiller which Franz Schubert set in 1819. Between these dates Europe saw profound change, from the French Revolution to the fall of the Napoleonic Empire. The line from Schiller's poem was the theme for the 2018 Liverpool Biennial and it sets the tone for a Words and Music exploring change.

The readers are Nyla Levy and Steve Toussaint. A full list of the words and music can be found on the Words and Music website.

Caliban's the Isle is Full of Noises speech from the Tempest ends darkly, with an injunction to murder Prospero. No-one should listen to promises of Beautiful Worlds and not realise there will be a price to pay. Then there is reaching for the ultimate with John Coltrane and Favourite Things - ecstatic terrifying music. Then those who have tried to think their way to understanding, Pythagoras, Galileo, Ernest Rutherford and Roger Penrose. and those who, faced with reality, take refuge in dreaming like Elizabeth Barrett Browning or John Lennon, reaching into a past he suspects never existed. We lurch from the promise of the Statue of Liberty to the despair of refugees and victims of recent wars and those who refuse to give in to despair. So music and words from around the world and across time, from Hesiod and Nassir Shamma, John Agard and Gillian Clarke, Shelley and Faiz Ahmed Faiz, The Waterboys, Joanna Kavenna, Ambrose, Berthold Brecht and Penelope Lively, Galilei, Simeon ten Holt, Sally Beamish, Bruckner, Max Richter and Josquin des Prez

Producer: Jacqueline Smith.

1 hour, 14 minutes

Last on

Mon 31 Dec 2018 16:30
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

    Rodgers & Hammerstein

    Introduction To My Favorite Things

    Performer: Jimmy Garrison.
    • Impulse! MVCZ85.
    • Tr2.

  • William Shakespeare

    from The Tempest, read by Steve Toussaint and Nyla Levy

  • 00:01

    Rodgers & Hammerstein

    My Favourite Things

    Performer: John Coltrane; Jimmy Garrison; Rashied Ali; Pharoah Sanders.
    • Impulse! MVCZ85.
    • Tr3.

  • Derek Mahon

    The World of J. G. Farrell (extract), read by Steve Toussaint

  • Derek Mahon

    The World of J. G. Farrell (extract), read by Nyla Levy

  • 00:03

    Franz Schubert

    Die G枚tter Griechenlands

    Performer: Andreas Staier, (Fortepiano), Christoph Pr茅gardien (Tenor).
    • DEUTSCHE HARMONIA MUNDI 05472772962.
    • Tr10.

  • Friedrich Schiller, translated by Richard Wigmore

    The Gods of Greece, read by Steve Toussaint

  • 00:05

    Alvin Lucier

    Nothing Is Real (Strawberry Fields Forever)

    Performer: Marino Formenti.
    • COL LEGNO WWE1CD20223.
    • Tr9.
  • 00:06

    Nassir Shamma

    L聮Abri d聮al-聭Amiriyya

    Performer: Nassir Shamma.
    • INSTITUE DU MONDE ARABE 503102.
    • Tr9.

  • Gillian Clarke

    Lament, read by Nyla Levy

  • William Wordsworth

    The World Is Too Much With Us, read by Steve Toussaint

  • 00:14

    Simeon ten Holt

    Tableau VI Sectie 197

    Performer: Annette Middelbeek, Francien Hommes, Kees Wieringa, Sander Sittig (4 piano).
    • STEMRA CDJD 18SH.
    • Tr6.

  • Hesiod, translated by Hugh G. Evelyn-White

    Works and Days (extract), read by Nyla Levy

  • Hesiod, translated by Hugh G. Evelyn-White

    Works and Days (extract), read by Steve Toussaint

  • Hesiod, translated by Hugh G. Evelyn-White

    Works and Days (extract), read by Steve Toussaint

  • Hesiod, translated by Hugh G. Evelyn-White

    Works and Days (extract), read by Nyla Levy

  • Hesiod, translated by Hugh G. Evelyn-White

    Works and Days (extract), read by Steve Toussaint

  • 00:19

    Joni Mitchell

    Both Sides Now

    Performer: Judy Collins.
    • Warner Music TV 聳 WMTV045.
    • CD2 Tr20.

  • Penelope Lively

    Going Back (extract), read by Nyla Levy

  • 00:22

    Sally Beamish

    The Imagined Sound of Sun on Stone

    Performer: Swedish Chamber Orchestra, Ola Rudner (Conductor).
    • BIS CD1161.
    • Tr4.

  • Sean Borodale

    RESPONSE TO FINDING A FOSSILISED FERN AT WRITHLINGTON COAL BATCHES NEAR RADSTOCK (extract), read by Steve Toussaint

  • 00:26

    Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

    Sonata, K. 301 聳 Allegro con spirito

    Performer: Jean-Pierre Rampal (flute), John Steele Ritter (Piano).
    • CBS CD42142.
    • Tr1.

  • Saint Ambrose, translated by John J. Savage

    The Six Days of Creation (extract), read by Nyla Levy

  • Saint Ambrose, translated by John J. Savage

    extract The Six Days of Creation, read by Steve Toussaint

  • 00:30

    Joni Mitchell

    The Circle Game

    Performer: Joni Mitchell, The Lookout Mountain United Downstairs Choir.
    • Reprise Records 936246326-2.
    • Tr5.

  • Elizabeth Barrett Browning

    The Best Thing in the World, read by Nyla Levy

  • 00:35

    Alvin Lucier

    Nothing Is Real (Strawberry Fields Forever)

    Performer: Marino Formenti.
    • COL LEGNO WWE1CD20223.
    • Tr9.
  • 00:36

    Vangelis

    Tears in Rain

    Performer: Vangelis.
    • Ume B0010558-02.
    • Tr12.

  • Arthur C. Clarke

    The Songs of Distant Earth (extract), read by Steve Toussaint

  • Edward Lear

    The Dong With the Luminous Nose (extract), read by Nyla Levy

  • 00:38

    Mike Oldfield

    Prayer for the Earth

    Performer: Mike Oldfield.
    • WEA 4509-98581-2.
    • Tr8.
  • 00:40

    Vincenzo Galilei

    Duo tutto di Fantasia

    Performer: Massimo Lonardi, Ugo Nastrucci (lutes).
    • AGORA MUSICA AG1371.
    • Tr1.

  • Bertolt Brecht, translated by Arvind Gupta

    Galileo (extract), read by Steve Toussaint

  • 00:43

    Max Richter

    On the Nature of Daylight

    Performer: Max Richter.
    • Park Lane Recordings PARKLCD01.
    • CD2 Tr9.

  • Joanna Kavenna

    A Field Guide to Reality (extract), read by Nyla Levy

  • Roger Penrose

    Shadows of the Mind: A Search for the Missing Science of Consciousness (extract), read by Steve Toussaint

  • 00:48

    George Frideric Handel

    Ode for the birthday of Queen Anne - HWV 74: I. Eternal Source Of Light Divine

    Performer: London Baroque, Charles Medlam (Conductor), Niklas Eklund (trumpet), Susanne Ryden (soprano).
    • Naxos 8 552109 10.
    • CD1 Tr11.

  • Emma Lazarus

    The new Colussus, read by Nyla Levy

  • 00:52

    Anton Bruckner

    Locus Iste

    Performer: New Philharmonia Chorus, Wilhelm Pitz (Conductor).
    • EMI 5857582.
    • CD3 Tr6.

  • John Agard

    Old World New World (漏 John Agard 2000 reproduced by kind permission of John Agard c/o Caroline Sheldon Literary Agency Ltd.), read by Steve Toussaint

  • 00:56

    Alvin Lucier

    Music for Piano with amplified sonorous vessels

    Performer: Marino Formenti.
    • COL LEGNO WWE1CD20223.
    • T79.

  • Karen Press

    Hope For Refugees, read by Nyla Levy

  • Faiz Ahmed Faiz, translated by Naomi Lazard

    When Autumn Came, read by Steve Toussaint

  • 00:59

    Mike Scott, William Butler Yeats

    Let the Earth Bear Witness

    Performer: Mike Scott, vocal, The Waterboys.
    • Proper Records PRPCD081.
    • Tr13.

  • Percy Bysshe Shelley

    Ode to the West Wind (extract), read by Steve Toussaint

  • 01:03

    Josquin des Prez

    Qui Habitat

    Performer: Huelgas Ensemble, Paul Van Nevel (Conductor).
    • Sony Classical SK 66 26.
    • Tr3.
  • 02:09

    John Lennon, Paul McCartney

    Strawberry Fields Forever (Take 7 & Edit Piece)

    Performer: The Beatles.
    • Apple Records 7243 8 34448 2 3.
    • CD2 Tr3.

  • Douglas Stewart

    Rutherford (extract), read by Nyla Levy

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  • Sun 29 Jul 2018 19:00
    大象传媒 Radio 3
  • Mon 31 Dec 2018 16:30
    大象传媒 Radio 3

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