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Actors Amanda Hale and Oliver Alvin-Wilson read a selection of poetry and prose wrapped in a varied selection of music exploring feelings and ideas about the nature of 'warmth'.

Actors Amanda Hale and Oliver Alvin-Wilson chart a course through our varied and various perceptions of warmth. The desire for comfort and cosiness. The warmth of affection, of friendship and of love. The attraction of warmer climes or the 鈥渨armth of other suns鈥. The anxiety of global warming.

George Orwell is 鈥榙own and out鈥 in a London winter; Alexander Pushkin counters a frozen Russian landscape with the passion of young love; Johann von Goethe bids us find warmth in the land where "citron-apples bloom"; Paul Kerschen ponders the thoughts of John Keats, recuperating in the Italian sunshine; Haruki Murikami rediscovers the warmth of a certain phrase of music; while Zadie Smith, looking up at the sky, suggests 鈥渆veryone knows it shouldn鈥檛 be this hot!鈥.
Other featured authors include John Donne, Charles Dickens, Johann Von Goethe, Isabel Wilkerson, DH Lawrence, Emile Zola, Emily Dickinson, Richard Wright and Bai Juyi.
Complementary strains of music are given to us by - among others - David Lang, Robert Schumann, Giacomo Puccini, Piotr Tchaikovsky, Georges Bizet, Johnny Dankworth, Tori Amos, Georgy Sviridov, William Grant Still and with the comforting familiarity of 鈥楾rad鈥.

Producer: Chris Wines

29 days left to listen

1 hour, 14 minutes

Last on

Yesterday 18:15

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Music Played

Timings (where shown) are from the start of the programme in hours and minutes

  • 00:02

    Gavin Bryars

    Jesus' blood never failed me yet

    Ensemble: Hampton String Quartet.
  • 00:05

    Frederick Loewe

    Wouldn't it be loverly (My Fair Lady)

    Singer: Julie Andrews.
  • 00:08

    David Lang

    The Little Match Girl Passion

    Singer: Matthew Brown. Singer: Michael Blanchard.
  • 00:13

    Yu Hong-mei

    Idyllic Tune

  • 00:14

    Driftwood

    Come Into The Warm

  • 00:15

    Giacomo Puccini

    Questo mar rosso (La Boheme)

    Singer: Rolando Villaz贸n. Orchestra: Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Bertrand de Billy.
  • 00:19

    Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

    January - By the fireside (The Seasons)

    Performer: Mikhail Pletnev.
  • 00:24

    Victor Hely-Hutchinson

    A Carol Symphony (3rd mvt)

    Orchestra: The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra. Conductor: Gavin Sutherland.
  • 00:25

    Cleo Laine

    When Icicles Hang by the Wall

  • 00:28

    Henry Purcell

    'Tis love that hath warm'd thee (King Arthur)

    Orchestra: English Baroque Soloists. Conductor: Sir John Eliot Gardiner.
  • 00:30

    John Dowland

    Mrs Winter's Jump

    Performer: Jakob Lindberg.
  • 00:31

    Tori Amos

    Winter

  • 00:36

    Georges Bizet

    Symphony in C (2nd mvt)

    Orchestra: Scottish Chamber Orchestra. Conductor: Fran莽ois Leleux.
  • 00:40

    Warmth

    A Song the Children Dance to

  • 00:44

    Georgy Sviridov

    Troika (The Snowstorm)

    Orchestra: USSR TV Radio Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Vladimir Fedoseyev.
  • 00:46

    Robert Schumann

    Kennst du das Land?

    Singer: Barbara Sukowa. Ensemble: Sch枚nberg Ensemble.
  • 00:50

    Franz Schubert

    Meeresstille

    Singer: Barbara Sukowa. Ensemble: Sch枚nberg Ensemble.
  • 00:52

    Hugo Wolf

    Italian Serenade

    Ensemble: Brodsky Quartet.
  • 00:59

    William Grant Still

    Symphony no.1 (African-American) (1st mvt: Longing)

    Orchestra: Detroit Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Neeme J盲rvi.
  • 01:02

    Anushka

    Too Hot Outside

  • 01:04

    Peter Gregson

    Warmth

    Ensemble: Carducci String Quartet.
  • 01:09

    Gustavo Santaolalla

    Forgotten Memories (The Last of Us)

  • 01:11

    Trad.

    O Danny Boy

    Singer: Ren茅e Fleming. Orchestra: Philharmonia Orchestra. Conductor: Sebastian Lang-Lessing.

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