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Last Things

Texts and music about endings, with readings by Tim Pigott-Smith and Katherine Parkinson. Includes Schubert, Mozart and The Doors, plus Updike, Auster and Michael Herr.

An edition of Words and Music about endings with readers Tim Pigott-Smith and Katherine Parkinson.

The subjects include last love and its consolations; death and what may follow; sound fading into silence and Heaven and Hell. These pieces are often the last words of a writer or a composer's last works and can act as a wry counterpoint, or even a kind of swansong.

So Schubert's 'String Quintet' sits next to John Updike's birthday meditations shortly before his death in 2009; Mozart's 'Requiem' jostles up against the beautiful but bleached words of the narrator in Paul Auster's apocalyptic novel 'In the Country of Last Things'; and The Doors' psychedelic anthem, 'The End', underpins Michael Herr's memories of Vietnam and his eerie vision of a soul slowly unravelling like a parachute.

Producer: Zahid Warley.

1 hour, 15 minutes

Last on

Sun 30 Jan 2011 22:15
Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 3

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Music Played

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

  • 00:00

    Sir James MacMillan

    Seven Last Words

    Performer: Polyphony, Britten Sinfonia, cond.Stephen Layton

    • HYPERION CDA67460.
    • 2.

  • Paul Auster

    Extract from In the Country of Last Things read by Katherine Parkinson

  • 00:06

    Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

    Requiem - Lacrimosa

    Performer: Monteverdi Choir, English Baroque Soloists cond. John Eliot Gardiner

    • PHILIPS 4201972.
    • 8.

  • T.S.Eliot

    – extract from Little Gidding read by Tim Pigott-Smith

  • 00:12

    Ludwig van Beethoven

    Cavatina from Quartet in B flat major, op.130

    Performer: Takacs Quartet

    • DECCA 4708492.

  • Seamus Heaney

    the Baler read by Katherine Parkinson

  • 00:23

    Franz Schubert

    Quintet in C, D956 – Scherzo and Trio

    Performer: Alban Berg Quartet with Heinrich Schiff

    • EMI CDM5668902.
    • 3.

  • John Updike

    from Endpoint - Mild Winter read by Tim Pigott-Smith

  • 00:28

    Franz Schubert

    Quintet in C, D956 – Scherzo and Trio

    Performer: Alban Berg Quartet with Heinrich Schiff

    • EMI CDM5668902.
    • 3.

  • John Updike

    From Endpoint - Raw days read by Tim Pigott-Smith

  • 00:32

    Franz Schubert

    Quintet in C, D956 – Scherzo and Trio

    Performer: Alban Berg Quartet with Heinrich Schiff

    • EMI CDM5668902.
    • 3.

  • John Updike

    From Endpoint - Not yet read by Tim Pigott-Smith

  • 00:36

    The Doors

    The End – Edit version

    Performer: The Doors

    • ELEKTRA/WARNER 7559618602.
    • 12.

  • Michael Herr

    Extract from Dispatches read by Tim Pigott-Smith

  • 00:40

    The Doors

    The End – Edit version

    Performer: The Doors

    • ELEKTRA/WARNER 7559618602.
    • 12.

  • Kurt Vonnegut

    Extract from Slaughterhouse 5 read by Katherine Parkinson

  • 00:46

    Joseph Haydn

    String quartet in E flat major, op.33 no.2 "The Joke" - finale

    Performer: Angeles String Quartet

    • PHILIPS 4646502.

  • Edwin Morgan

    One Cigarette – read by Tim Pigott-Smith

  • 00:49

    John Tavener

    Towards Silence

    Performers: Medici Quartet, Finzi Quartet, Cavaleri Quartet, Fifth Quadrant, Sir John Tavener

    • Signum Classics – SIGCD221.
    • 2.

  • A.E.Housman

    from Last Poems – XXXIII read by Katherine Parkinson

  • 00:53

    G.Gershwin,Gershwin/D.Heyward)

    Gone, Gone, Gone from Porgy and Bess

    Performer: Miles Davis

    • COLUMBIA CK65141.
    • 4.

  • Nazim Hikmet translated by Randy Blasing and Mutlu Konuk

    Last Will and Testament read by Tim Pigott-Smith

  • 00:57

    Richard Strauss

    Im Abendrot

    Performers: Jessye Norman and Gewandhausorchester Leipzig cond. Kurt Masur

    • PHILIPS 464 742-2.
    • 4.

  • Ford Madox Ford

    From On Heaven read by Tim Pigott-Smith

  • 01:10

    Leslie Sarony

    Ain't it grand to be bloomin' well dead – Part 1

    Performer: Leslie Sarony

    • WINDYVAR11.
    • 15.

Broadcast

  • Sun 30 Jan 2011 22:15
    Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 3

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