The Wedding
On the weekend of the royal wedding, Words and Music features wedding themed work by Keats, Elizabeth Jennings and Flaubert; with music by Mendelssohn, Janacek and Purcell.
On the day after Prince Harry ties the knot with Meghan Markle, Words and Music leads you up the aisle with a series of poetry, prose and music on the theme of the wedding. From the bridal marches of Wagner and Mendelssohn, to Saint-Sa毛ns' confection of piano and strings in the Wedding Cake Valse-Caprice, the joyful ritual of the wedding ceremony has inspired some timeless music. Anna Maxwell Martin and Jamie Glover read work which explores the enduring romance of wedded bliss and the darker moments of married life. Poetry by Shakespeare and Keats meditates on the nature of love and takes us to a sumptuous Grecian wedding feast; while Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice returns us to a time of marriage as an aid to social mobility. Dickens' Great Expectations introduces us to one of literature's most haunting brides: the jilted Miss Haversham, who resides in her faded wedding dress alongside the clock which stopped at twenty to nine on her wedding day, the moment she discovered her heart had been broken.
Producer: Georgia Mann.
Last on
Music Played
Timings (where shown) are from the start of the programme in hours and minutes
-
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00:00Felix Mendelssohn
Wedding March from A Midsummer Night聮s Dream
Performer: Berlin Symphony Orchestra.- Decca, 440296-2.
- 7.
-
Shakespeare
Sonnet 116, Jamie Glover
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00:00Henry Purcell
Sleep, Adam, Sleep, and take thy rest
Performer: Elin Manahan Thomas (soprano), David Millar (lute).- Coro, COR16081.
- 23.
Milton
Extract from Paradise Lost, Anna Maxwell Martin
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00:00Dmitry Shostakovich
The Gadfly, Romance
Performer: Tasmin Little (violin), Piers Lane (piano).- EMI, 2642292.
- Tr. 13.
T.S Eliot
A Dedication to My Wife, Jamie Glover
D.H Lawrence
The Wedding Morn, Anna Maxwell Martin
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00:00Edward Elgar
Carissima
Performer: Ashley Wass (piano).- Naxos, 8.570166.
- 6.
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00:00George Frideric Handel
Overture, Belshazzar聮s Feast
Performer: The English Concert, directed by Trevor Pinnock.- Archiv, 477037-2.
- Tr. 1.
Keats
Extract from Lamia, Jamie Glover
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00:00Giacomo Puccini
Ancora un passo from Madama Butterfly
Performer: Renata Scotto (soprano), Placido Domingo (tenor), Ambrosian Opera Chorus, Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Lorin Maazel.- CBS, M2k35181.
- tr. 6.
Walt Whitman
Extract from The Song of the Open Road, Jamie Glover
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00:00Ralph Vaughan Williams
Whiter must I wander? From Songs of Travel
Performer: Martha Wainwright (vocals), Tom Mennier (piano), Erin Hill (harp).- Drowned in Sound, DiS0011.
- tr. 13.
Jane Austen
Extract from Pride and Prejudice, Anna Maxwell Martin
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00:00Edvard Grieg
Wedding Day at Troldhaugen, Op. 65 no. 6
Performer: Leif Ove Andsnes (piano).- EMI CLASSICS, 5572962.
- tr. 19.
Gustav Flaubert
Extract from Madame Bovary, Anna Maxwell Martin
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00:00Camille Saint鈥怱a毛ns
Wedding Cake Valse-Caprice for piano and strings
Performer: Stephen Hough (piano), CBSO, conducted by Sakari Oramo.- Hyperion, CDA67331/2.
- Tr. 10.
Thomas Hardy
Extract from Far from the Madding Crowd, Jamie Glover
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00:00Robert Schumann
Quintet for piano, two violins and cello in E flat major, 2nd Mvt. In modo una Marcia.
Performer: Hagen Quartet, Paul Gulda (piano).- DG, 447111-2.
- tr.2.
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00:00Claude Debussy
Reflets dans l'eau from Images S茅rie 1
Performer: Jean鈥怸ves Thibaudet.- Decca, 460247-2.
- Tr. 1.
Michael Longley
Swans Mating, Anna Maxwell Martin
Edith Wharton
Extract from The Age of Innocence, Jamie Glover
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00:00George Frideric Handel
March from Suite for trumpet and strings in D
Performer: Maurice Andre (trumpet), W眉rtemburg Chamber Orchestra, directed by J枚rg Faerber.- EMI, 2642292.
- Tr. 19.
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00:00Richard Wagner
Bridal Chorus from Lohengrin
Performer: Frederic Bayco.- EMI, 2642292.
- Tr. 2.
Denise Levertov
Wedding Ring, Anna Maxwell Martin
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00:00Leos Jan谩膷ek
Adagio from Kreutzer Sonata
Performer: The Talich Quartet.- Calliope, CAL9699.
- tr. 1.
Dickens
Extract from Great Expectations, Jamie Glover
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00:00Charles鈥怣arie Widor
Toccata from Symphonie no. 5
Performer: Christopher Herrick (organ).- Meridian, CDE84148.
- tr. 4.
Robert Graves
A Slice of Wedding Cake, Jamie Glover
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00:00Barry/Greenwich/Spector
Chapel of Love
Performer: The Dixie Cups.- Rhino, R270588.
- tr. 7.
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00:00Felix Mendelssohn
Song without Words, Op. 30 no. 3
Performer: Daniel Barenboim (piano).- DG, 453061-2.
- Tr. 9.
Elizabeth Jennings
One Flesh, Anna Maxwell Martin
Words and Music: The Wedding
The Wedding
Producer Note: Georgia Mann听
The听 proposal. The ring. The dress. Those immortal Wagnerian notes from the organ鈥�.. As we enter prime wedding season, Words and Music takes you gently by the arm and walks you down the aisle in a celebration of that great romantic ritual: The Wedding. I have to confess that all things bridal are much on my mind as I make this programme, with my own wedding rapidly approaching. I am hoping to emulate Keats鈥� opulent nuptual feast in his epic poem Lamia - complete with attendants to sponge the feet of weary guests -,听 rather than presiding over a Miss Haversham style cob- webbed wedding chamber after a tragic jilting. Weddings and marriage offer a wealth of imaginative potential to composers and writers: from Saint-Sa毛ns鈥� frivolous musical confection The Wedding Cake Waltz to the painfully sad moment at which Sergeant Troy 听arrives at the altar without a bride in Thomas Hardy鈥檚 Far From the Madding Crowd.
Our ceremony opens with Mendelssohn鈥檚 much loved Wedding March from A Midsummer Night鈥檚 Dream 鈥� a tale of confused lovers careering towards their respective wedding days. Staying with Shakespeare we hear his Sonnet 116, a meditation on the nature of love masterfully constructed with a nod to the language of the wedding ceremony. For most, weddings are unadulterated joy and Grieg鈥檚听 Wedding Day at Troldhaugen sparkles with excitement and jollity. But once the rings have been exchanged, the guests have gone home and the hangovers have subsided 鈥� marriage doesn鈥檛 always deliver a happy ending. Denise Levertov鈥檚 discarded wedding ring sadly mirrors a marriage which has slipped away, while Robert Graves comically ponders a general lack of impressive husbands.
Perhaps the melancholy vision of a couple lying in bed, bound together in marriage but dreaming separate dreams in Elizabeth Jennings鈥� One Flesh is closer to the reality of marriage for many. But T.S Eliot鈥檚 moving dedication to his wife - accompanied by the string-laden strains of Shostakovich鈥檚 romance from The Gadfly - reminds us of the enduring love which wedding vows are there to enshrine.听
Broadcast
- Sun 20 May 2018 17:30麻豆约拍 Radio 3
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