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The Exotic

Texts and music on the theme of the exotic, with readings by Greta Scacchi and Simon Woods. With Byron, Forster and Shakespeare, plus Berlioz, Mozart and Ades.

Words and Music on the theme of The Exotic. Readings by Greta Scacchi and Simon Woods.
Distant lands full of heat, opulence and mysterious inhabitants; lost civilisations full of entrancing women and god-like warriors have provided vivid inspiration to authors and composers across the centuries. The Exotic has meant different things to different generations: from Shakespeare's visions of a savage island full of unnerving sights and sounds, informed by the era of exploration and brutal empire building in which he lived; to the rich visions of the romantics: Coleridge's Xanadu and Byron's Childe Harolde who wonders in landscapes described with the linguistic lushness of love poetry. Musical and literary experiences of exoticism are often about western artists seduced by a vision of otherness which is little more than a mirage: from Mozart's typically eighteenth century take on a Turkish harem to Kipling's colonial representations of India. Yet from the excitement of imagined faraway lands and people comes the lush beauty of Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade and the delicate orientalism of Debussy's Pagodes. Gustave Flaubert's entrancing SalammbΓ΄ and Shakespeare's glittering Cleopatra offer visions of exotic womanhood; the goddess who commands adulation and fear in equal measure - like the distant corners of the earth from which she comes.

Producer: Georgia Mann.

1 hour, 15 minutes

Last on

Sun 8 Jul 2012 18:30
ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 3

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Music Played

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

  • 00:00

    Camille Saint‐SaΓ«ns

    Bacchanale from Samson et Delilah

    Performer: Orchestre du ThéÒtre National de l’OpΓ©ra de Paris

    • EMI, CDM7691122.
    • 15.

  • Shakespeare

    Extract from Anthony and Cleopatra, Greta Scaachi

  • 00:05

    Isaac AlbΓ©niz

    Sevilla from Suite Espa?ola

    Performer: AndrΓ©s Segovia

    • EMI Classics, 5670092.
    • 11.

  • Byron

    The Girl of Cadiz, Simon Woods

  • 00:07

    Gabriel FaurΓ©

    Les Roses d'Ispahan

    Performer: Kathleen Battle (soprano), James Levine (piano)

    • DG, 445524-2.
    • 14.

  • Shakespeare

    Extract from The Tempest, Simon Woods

  • 00:11

    Thomas Adès

    Full fathom five from The Tempest

    Performer: Cyndia Sieden (soprano), The Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, conducted by Vasko Vassilev

    • EMI Classics, 6952342.

  • Blake

    The Tyger, Greta Scaachi

  • 00:16

    Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

    Overture, The Abduction from the Seraglio K.384

    Performer: Scottish Chamber Ocreshtra conducted by Sir Charles Mackerras

    • Telarc, CD-80544.

  • Yeats

    Byzantium, Greta Scaachi

  • 00:23

    N/A

    N/A - Plainte de Tecmessa

    Performer: Atrium Musicae de Madrid, directed by Gregorio Paniagua

  • 00:24

    Claude Debussy

    Pour l'Egyptienne from Six epigraphes antiques

    Performer: Boris Berman (piano)

    • Chandos, CHAN9294.
    • 16.
  • 00:27

    Jean‐Baptiste Lully

    Marche pour la cΓ©rΓ©monie des Turcs

    Performer: Le Concert des Nations, directed by Jordi Savall

    • Alia Vox, AVSA9821.
    • 1.

  • Jospeh Conrad

    Extract from Heart of Darkness, Simon Woods

  • 00:30

    N/A

    N/A - Nyanza Rukina

    Performer: Twa Tribesmen

  • 00:31

    David Fanshawe

    African Sanctus

    Performer: Choristers of St George’s Chapel, Windsor, Bournemouth Symphony Chorus, Alan Parker and Andy Pask (guitars), Eric Allen, Gary Kettel, Terry Emmery (percussion), Harold Fisher (drums), Kwasi Asare Kantamanto (traditional drums), Elizabeth Buriani, Mary Chebwana (ululations)

    • Silva Classics, SILKD6003.
    • 1.

  • Rudyard Kipling

    Extract from The Jungle Book, Greta Scaachi

  • 00:35

    Louis Prima, Phil Harris & Bruce Reitherman

    I Wan'na Be Like You (The Monkey Song)

    Performer: Louis Prima and Phil Harris (vocals)

    • Pickwick Music, DSMCD457.
    • 5.

  • Byron

    Extract from Childe Harold, Simon Woods

  • 00:40

    Hector Berlioz

    Harold en Italy Op. 16, Harold aux Montagnes

    Performer: Orchestre de l’OpΓ©ra Bastille conducted by Myung-Whun Chung

    • DG, 447102-2.
    • 4.
  • 00:46

    [traditional]

    Autumn Moon over Still Lake

    Performer: Silk and Bamboo Ensemble

    • ARC Music EUCD2177.
    • 4.

  • Amy Lowell

    From China, Simon Woods

  • 00:50

    Gilbert & Sullivan - Mya sama, miya sama, On n'mma no maye ni and From ev'ry kind of m

    Performer: John Ayldon (The Mikado), Lyndsie Holland (Katisha), The D’Oyly Carte Opera Chorus, The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Royston Nash

  • Coleridge

    Kubla Kahn, Greta Scaachi

  • 00:54

    Olivier Messiaen

    Oiseaux Exotiques

    Performer: Yvonne Loriod (piano), Bavarian Symphony Orchestra, conduicted by Karl Anton Rickenbacher

    • Koch, 3-1123-2.
    • 1.

  • Maya Angelou

    Africa, Greta Scaachi

  • 00:59

    Joseph Shabalala

    Nomathemba (Mother of Hope)

    Performer: Ladysmith Black Mambazo

    • Universal Music, 153739-2.
    • 5.

  • John Masefield

    Cargoes, Simon Woods

  • 01:04

    Benjamin Britten

    Storm from Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes, Op. 33

    Performer: Rlpo

    • Virgin Classics, 259803-231.
    • 8.

  • John Donne

    To his Mistress Going to Bed, Simon Woods

  • 01:11

    Henry Purcell

    The cares of lovers

    Performer: Emma Kirkby (Soprano), Anthony Rooley (lute)

    • L’Oiseau-Lyre, 4171232.
    • 14.

Broadcasts

  • Sun 28 Aug 2011 22:15
    ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 3
  • Sun 8 Jul 2012 18:30
    ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 3

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