Walks in Two Worlds
Alexandra Gilbreath and Neil Pearson explore different worlds with readings of texts by Burnside, Coleridge and Vahni Capildeo and music by Chopin, MacMillan, Mussorgsky and Satie.
Theseus went into the maze, Orpheus into the dark of Hades. Heroes that they were, both emerged again to the light of the day. Alexandra Gilbreath and Neil Pearson are our guides to worlds galore, of magic and myth, and of love... for two people may share the same space but their thoughts? Who knows? How many worlds do we each inhabit as memory bends time back on itself?
So the familiar becomes the strange, with poetry from an Anglo-Saxon riddle, John Burnside, Vahni Capildeo, Ciaron Carson, Cecil Day-Lewis, Robert Devereux Earl of Essex, Thom Gunn, W S Graham, Selima Hill, Mervyn Peake, Warsan Shire, and prose from Paul Kingsnorth and Michael Ondaatje; with the music of Satie and Mussorgsky walking us through from one world to the next, plus Birtwistle, Britten, Chopin, Klami, George Lewis, James MacMillan and Jean Redpath.
Producer: Jacqueline Smith.
Last on
Music Played
Timings (where shown) are from the start of the programme in hours and minutes
-
00:00
Frédéric Chopin
Prélude, Op. 28 No.11 In B
Performer: Nikolai Lugansky.- Erato 0927-42836-2.
- Tr15.
-
Selima Hill
Dragon Fly, read by Alexandra Gilbreath
00:00Modest Mussorgsky
Il vecchio castello
Performer: Dénes Várjon.- Capriccio 71047.
- Tr4.
Les Murray
The Meaning of Existence, read by Neil Pearson
00:02Baka Forest People
Call of the Forest
Performer: Baka Forest People; Martin Cradick.- March Hare Music MAHACD 20.
- Tr10.
W. S. Graham
Imagine a forest (extract), read by Alexandra Gilbreath
00:04Richard Wagner
Parsifal, Transformation Scene
Orchestrator: Berliner Philharmoniker. Conductor: Herbert von Karajan.- Deutsche Grammophon 289 459 141-2.
- CD2 Tr5.
John Burnside
A Stolen Child (extract), read by Neil Pearson
00:07Uuno Klami
Kalevala Suite, Op. 23 - IV Cradle Song for Lemminkäinen
Orchestra: Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra. Conductor: Jorma Panula.- FINLANDIA 577072.
- Tr11.
John Burnside
Parousia (extract), read by Neil Pearson
Louis MacNeice
Collected Poems, Canto XXIV (extract), read by Neil Pearson
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, read by Alexandra Gilbreath
00:12Robert Johnson
Cross Road Blues
Performer: Robert Johnson.- CBS 4672462.
- CD1 Tr18.
00:15Modest Mussorgsky
Promenade
Performer: Dénes Várjon.- Capriccio 71047.
- Tr3.
Owen Sheers
Winter Swans, read by Neil Pearson
00:17Nigel Hess
Stirrings
Performer: Joshua Bell. Orchestra: Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Conductor: Nigel Hess.- SONY CLASSICAL SK92689.
- Tr11.
Anglo-Saxon riddle, translated by Richard Hamer
Swan, read by Alexandra Gilbreath
00:18Erik Satie
Gymnopédie No. 2
Performer: Yoshiko Okada.- ONGAKU 024106.
- Tr12.
Thom Gunn
Touch read by Neil Pearson
James K. Baxter
Moss on Plum Branches, read by Alexandra Gilbreath
00:21Joni Mitchell
Cactus Tree
Performer: Judy Collins.- Wildflower Records WFL-1336.
- Tr2.
Vahni Capildeo
Investigation of Past Shoes (extract), read by Alexandra Gilbreath
00:27Modest Mussorgsky
Promenade: Tuileries
Performer: Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, Gilbert Levine (Conductor).- Capriccio 71047.
- Tr19.
00:27Traditional
The Grey Silkie
Performer: Jean Redpath.- PHILO PH 2015.
- Tr9.
Robin Robertson
At Roane Head, read by Alexandra Gilbreath and Neil Pearson
00:34James Macmillan
Ballad
Performer: Buddug Verona James (Mezzo Soprano), Andrew Wilson-Dickson (piano).- FFLACH CD295H.
- Tr14.
00:37Traditional
Just a Closer Walk
Performer: George Lewis.- Frémeaux & Associés FA 5135.
- CD2 Tr20.
Mervyn Peake
It Makes a Change, read by Alexandra Gilbreath
Warsan Shire
Backwards, read by Alexandra Gilbreath
Warsan Shire
Backwards, read by Alexandra Gilbreath
00:40Jules Massenet
Méditations from Thaïs
Orchestra: Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Conductor: Nigel Hess.- SONY CLASSICAL SK92689.
- Tr5.
Cecil Day-Lewis
Walking Away, read by Neil Pearson
00:47Roy Harper
When An Old Cricketer Leaves the Crease extract
Performer: Roy Harper.- SCIENCE FRICTION HUCD039.
- CD1 Tr13.
Charles Kingsley
The Water Babies (extract), read by Alexandra Gilbreath
00:50Benjamin Britten
Variations On A Theme Of Frank Bridge: Funeral March
Performer: Kreisler String Orchestra.- Factory Facd226.
- Tr14.
E. E. Cummings
What if a much of a which of a wind (excerpt), read by Neil Pearson
Edward Thomas
The Combe, read by Alexandra Gilbreath
Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex
Verses Made By the Earl of Essex in His Trouble (excerpt), read by Neil Pearson
00:54Harrison Birtwistle
Theseus Game (for large ensemble with two conductors)
Orchestra: Ensemble Modern Orchestra. Conductor: Martyn Brabbins. Conductor: Pierre-André Valade.- DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 4770702.
- Tr1.
00:58Benjamin Britten
Serenade For Tenor, Horn & Strings Op 31: 01 Prologue
Performer: Barry Tuckwell. Orchestrator: Scottish Chamber Orchestra. Conductor: Steuart Bedford.- HMV 5 68334 2.
- Tr2.
01:00Christoph Willibald Gluck
Orpheo – Second Act –Scene I – Ballo. Presto – Coro: "Chi mai Dell'Erebo"
Singer: Franco Fagioli. Choir: Accentus. Orchestra: Insula Orchestra. Conductor: Laurence Equilbey.- ARCHIV 4795315.
- CD1 Tr9.
01:01Christoph Willibald Gluck
Orpheo – Second Act –Scene I – Aria con coro: "Deh, placatevi con me"
Performer: Franco Fagioli (Countertenor), Accentus Chorus, Insula Orchestra, Laurence Equilbey (Conductor).- ARCHIV 4795315.
- CD1 Tr10.
Ciaran Carson
The Fetch, read by Neil Pearson
01:05Erik Satie
Gymnopédie No. 3
Performer: Yoshiko Okada.- ONGAKU 024106.
- Tr13.
Michael Ondaatje
The English Patient (excerpt), read by Alexandra Gilbreath
01:08Benjamin Britten
Variations On A Theme Of Frank Bridge: Moto Perpetuo
Performer: Kreisler String Orchestra.- Factory Facd226.
- Tr13.
Paul Kingsnorth
Beast (excerpt), read by Neil Pearson
01:09Traditional
Just a Closer Walk With Thee
Performer: Allen Toussaint.- Nonesuch STCD 400083.
- Tr8.
Selima Hill
Man With A Grasshopper on His Nose, read by Alexandra Gilbreath
Producer's Notes:
Jung, Frazer and Campbell mapped out the mono-myth that stories our lives and underpins our sense of existence – the hero’s journey, leaving the safety of home, plunging into the world of the uncanny, facing down challenges... coming back changed. Using poetry and music and beauty as a form of spell and invocation, Walks in Two Worlds is a wander up and down the highways and by-ways of The Other – felt worlds, imagined, feared, exhilarating, funny – lived in and experienced as intensely as the quotidian. Mussorgsky’s Pictures from an Exhibition and Erik Satie’s ³Ò²â³¾²Ô´Ç±èé»å¾±±ð²õ will be our guides, lighting our way through a succession of adventures, shifting our moods up and down and round and round… not least because they have accompanied me on many a journey to the interior.   Â
Les Murray, W. S. Graham, and John Burnside tell their tales of magic forests, fey children and dangerous journeys, all transformative as Wagner’s hero Parsifal discovered. There will be other chancy places, where all is not as it seems and where the rules of the human world do not apply.Â
Then there is Love. Can two people really be one? Or, however close their hands and their hearts, how can one know where the other’s spirit is treading? The Welsh poet Owen Sheers, an Anglo-Saxon riddle-maker, Thom Gunn and the New Zealand poet, James K. Baxter stir our senses. Further on and further in, we come across sex between human and fairy… sad but very beautiful. Just listen to Jean Redpath singing The Grey Silkie or Robin Robertson’s devastating At Roane Head and Buddug Verona James’ with James Macmillan’s ballad-setting of a William Souter poem.Â
Or can we walk out of one world into another through sheer strength of will? Who in the depth of grief or suffering has said to themselves, let this not be so, let it be different.  Warsan Shire’s heart-breaking poem ‘Backwards’ says it all while the excerpt from Vahni Capildeo’s beautiful Investigation of Past Shoes shows how time bends back on itself and joy once felt can be transmitted down the years and Cecil Day-Lewis’ Walking Away shows how our worlds overlap in time, causing pain, producing wisdom.
In the otherworld of the ancients, Birtwistle, Britten and Gluck will show us two old heroes; Theseus who went into the maze and Orpheus who went down into hell; both return but they are changed. Â
This is not the whole journey, there will be surprises and twists, moments of laughter, but Walks in Two Worlds is not a map, just a dream, just go with it and don’t worry about what it means. We don’t know and most of the time that’s fine.
Producer: Jacqueline Smith
Broadcasts
- Sun 19 Nov 2017 17:30Â鶹ԼÅÄ Radio 3
- Fri 28 Dec 2018 17:00Â鶹ԼÅÄ Radio 3
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