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From his ideas about beauty and truth to the season of 'mists and mellow fruitfulness' and his letters to Fanny Brawne, with music echoing themes in Keats's poetry.

Nicholas Shaw reads from poems and letters written by John Keats. Born in London in 1795, he trained as a doctor at Guy鈥檚 Hospital before devoting his life to his poetry. He wrote his famous odes, sonnets, epic poetry and romances along with around three hundred letters to friends and family including his great love, Fanny Brawne. In 1820, like his younger brother and his mother, he fell ill with tuberculosis. He sailed to Italy in the hope of recovery but died in Rome in February 1821. Much of the writing on Keats, particularly in the early biographies, focused on his early death and that of his mother and brother, seeing him as a victim. But it鈥檚 also possible to feel astonishment at the life he led and the work he left us, both in his poetry and the many hundreds of letters to friends and family where he wrote about his great excitement at the travels he took around Britain and his thoughts on poetry.

Some of Keats鈥� earliest memories were from his early life in boarding school where he read his way through the school library and then lay at night listening to his headmaster playing Mozart, Handel and Arne on the piano. Mozart鈥檚 Divertimento in D Major is heard along with Thomas Arne鈥檚 Overture no 2 and the Air 鈥榃ater parted from the sea鈥� from Arne鈥檚 Artaxerxes, a piece quoted by Keats as he sailed in violent storms to Italy in the hope that life there would help him recover from his tuberculosis.

There is also work by composers inspired by Keats鈥� verse - The Smiths鈥� Cemetery Gates, Benjamin Britten鈥檚 Serenade op 31 and Dorothy Howell鈥檚 Lamia. And Death and the Maiden by Schubert who lived in Keats鈥� time and, in some ways, a similar and tragic life. The academic Christopher Ricks compared the work of Keats to that of Bob Dylan鈥檚, arguing that both of them knew that 鈥榯he calling of a real artist is to keep truth and beauty moving onward; not a-standing still like a statue鈥�. You鈥檒l hear Dylan鈥檚 Love Minus Zero where he sings of love being a fundamental truth in life. In Rome, Keats鈥檚 friend Joseph Severn hired a piano and played the piano arrangements for Haydn鈥檚 symphonies for him in his final days, here played by Ivan Ilic.

Words and Music ends with Keats鈥檚 final letter to Fanny Brawne in which he fears that his illness has become a barrier between them and his great poem Bright Star, would I were steadfast as thou art, with Jacqueline du Pre playing the Adagio from J.S. Bach鈥檚 Toccata, Adagio and Fugue in C.

Producer: Fiona McLean

You can find more information about Keats https://keatsfoundation.com/
An episode of Free Thinking called eco-criticism explores contemporary takes on poetry about nature including works by Keats and Wordsworth and another called Romanticism Revisited looks at some of his fellow writers, whilst Goethe, Schiller and the first romantics looks at the German scene in Jena.
The Radio 3 Essay broadcast a series called An Ode to John Keats hearing from the writers Sasha Dugdale, Sean O'Brien, Alice Oswald, Francis Leviston and Paul Batchelor

Main image: Portrait miniature of John Keats. Charles Brown after Joseph Severn. Image courtesy of Keats House, City of London Corporation.
Keats house website: https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/things-to-do/attractions-museums-entertainment/keats-house

READINGS
Ode to Autumn
On First Looking into Chapman鈥檚 Homer
On the Sea
Endymion
Letter to John Taylor from Teignmouth
Ode on a Grecian Urn
Letter to Benjamin Bailey
Ode to a Nightingale
This Living Hand
When I have fears that I may cease to be
Letter to Fanny Brawne
Bright Star, would I were steadfast as thou art

1 hour, 14 minutes

Last on

Wed 21 Dec 2022 18:15
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

    Thomas Arne

    Overture no 2

    Performer: Academy of Ancient Music.
    • OISEAU LYRE 4368592.
    • Tr 3.

  • John Keats

    Ode to Autumn read by Nicholas Shaw

  • 00:02

    Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

    The Seasons

    Performer: Detroit Symphony Orchestra.
    • Chandos Chan9514.
    • Tr 24.

  • John Keats

    On First Looking into Chapman鈥檚 Homer read by Nicholas Shaw

  • 00:07

    Dorothy Howell

    Lamia

    Performer: Karelia State Philharmonic.
    • Cameo Classics CC9037.
    • Tr 1.

  • John Keats

    On the Sea read by Nicholas Shaw

  • 00:16

    Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

    Soave sia il vento (Cosi fan Tutte)

    Orchestra: Philharmonia Orchestra.

  • John Keats

    from Endymion read by Nicholas Shaw

  • 00:18

    Gabriel Faur茅

    Apres une Reve

    Performer: Nicola Benedetti and Alexi Grynyuk.
    • Deutsche Grammophon 4763399.
    • Tr 8.

  • John Keats

    Letter to John Taylor from Teignmouth read by Nicholas Shaw

  • 00:23

    Franz Schubert

    String Quartet Death and the Maiden

    Orchestra: Norwegian Chamber Orchestra. Performer: Iona Brown.
    • Chandos CHAN 9616.
    • Tr 4.

  • John Keats

    Ode on a Grecian Urn read by Nicholas Shaw

  • 00:29

    Bob Dylan

    Love Minus Zero

    Performer: Bob Dylan.
    • COLUMBIA CD 32344.
    • Tr 4.
  • 00:32

    Joseph Haydn

    Symphony No.44 Presto

    Performer: Ivan Ilic.
    • Chandos 21042.
    • Tr 12.

  • John Keats

    Letter to Benjamin Bailey read by Nicholas Shaw

  • 00:38

    Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

    Divertimento in D Major

    Orchestra: Academy of St Martin in the Fields. Conductor: Neville Marriner.
    • DECCA 4304962.
    • Tr 9.

  • John Keats

    Ode to a Nightingale read by Nicholas Shaw

  • 00:50

    Toru Takemitsu

    Air for Solo Flute

    Performer: Toronto New Music Ensemble.
    • NAXOS 8555859.
    • Tr 9.

  • John Keats

    This Living Hand read by Nicholas Shaw

  • 00:56

    Thomas Arne

    Artaxerxes, Act 3 No. 21, Air. "water parted from the sea"

    Ensemble: The Mozartists. Singer: Caitlin Hulcup.
    • Signum SIGCD672.
    • Tr.

  • John Keats

    When I have fears that I may cease to be read by Nicholas Shaw

  • 00:59

    The Smiths

    Cemetery Gates

    • ROUGH TRADE CD96.
    • Tr 5.

  • John Keats

    Letter to Fanny Brawne read by Nicholas Shaw

  • 01:03

    Benjamin Britten

    Serenade op 31 Sonnet

    Orchestra: Berliner Philharmoniker. Singer: Ian Bostridge.
    • EMI CLASSICS 5580492.
    • Tr 17.

  • John Keats

    Bright Star, would I were steadfast as thou art read by Nicholas Shaw

  • 01:08

    Johann Sebastian Bach

    Adagio from the Toccata, Adagio and Fugue in C

    Performer: Jacqueline du Pr茅. Orchestra: Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
    • EMI 5 55529 2.
    • Tr 7.

Broadcasts

  • Sun 10 Oct 2021 17:30
    大象传媒 Radio 3
  • Wed 21 Dec 2022 18:15
    大象传媒 Radio 3

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