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Readers Nicola Coughlan and Ray Fearon voyage along rivers from the Nile to the Yangtze, the Ouse to the Severn and the Suck with music from Joni Mitchell to Gerald Finzi.

The Nile to the Yangtze, the Ouse to the Severn and the Suck: today's Words and Music is a journey along some of the world's greatest rivers. Readers Nicola Coughlan and Raymond Fearon take us from the 'sleek, sinuous, full-bodied animal' of a river in Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows, to the 'waterway leading to the uttermost ends of the earth' in Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. The musical flow includes Gerald Finzi's luscious A Severn Rhapsody, Joni Mitchell's haunting River and Sun Ra's atmospheric evocation of The Nile.

Producer: Georgia Mann Smith.

READINGS:
Kenneth Grahame -The Wind in the Willows
Joseph Conrad - The Heart of Darkness
Alice Oswald - A Sleepwalk on the Severn
Olivia Laing - To the River: A Journey Beneath the Surface
Langston Hughes - The Negro Speaks of Rivers
Michael Longley - The Man of Two Sorrows
Leigh Hunt - A Thought of the Nile
Jane Clarke - The River
Sarah Howe - Yangtze
Wordsworth - Sonnets from The River Duddon: After-Thought

1 hour, 14 minutes

Last on

Thu 30 Dec 2021 18:15
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

    Josh MacRae

    Messing About on the River

    Performer: Max Bygraves.
    • Castle Communications PLC.
    • MACCD 172.

  • Kenneth Grahame

    Extract from The Wind in the Willows, read by Nicola Coughlan

  • Joseph Conrad

    Extract from The Heart of Darkness, read by Raymond Fearon

  • 00:01

    William Grant Still

    Danzas de Panama - suite for strings

    Performer: Alexander Neiman. Performer: George Berres. Performer: Louis Kaufman.
    • Cambria.
    • CD1121.
  • 00:04

    Gerald Finzi

    A Severn Rhapsody Op.3

    Orchestra: Aurora Orchestra. Conductor: Nicholas Collon.
    • DECCA.
    • 478 9357.

  • Alice Oswald

    Extract from A Sleepwalk on the Severn, read by Nicola Coughlan

  • 00:07

    Ravi Shankar

    Raga Piloo

    Performer: Asok Chakraborty. Performer: Daniel Hope. Performer: Gaurav Mazumdar. Performer: Gilda Sebastian.
    • Warner.
    • 256461329-2.

  • Olivia Laing

    Extract from To the River: A Journey Beneath the Surface, read by Nicola Coughlan

  • 00:12

    EΜ„riks Ešenvalds

    Rivers of light for chorus

    Performer: Ethan Sperry. Performer: Portland State University Chamber Choir.
    • Naxos.
    • 8.579008.

  • Langston Hughes

    The Negro Speaks of Rivers, read by Raymond Fearon

  • 00:18

    Marshall Jones

    In The Mississippi River

    Performer: The SNCC Freedom Singers.
    • Folk Era Records β€Ž.
    • Folk Era Records β€Ž.
  • 00:22

    Ernest John Moeran

    The White mountain, arr. for piano from Irish folk-song

    Performer: Una Hunt.
    • ASV.
    • CD DCA1138.

  • Michael Longley

    The Man of Two Sorrows, read by Nicola Coughlan

  • 00:24

    Sun Ra Arkestra

    The Nile

    • Strut.
    • STRUT109CD.

  • Leigh Hunt

    A Thought of the Nile, read by Raymond Fearon

  • Jane Clarke

    The River, read by Nicola Coughlan

  • 00:29

    MITCHELL

    THE RIVER

    Music Arranger: N/A. Performer: Joni Mitchell.
    • REPRISE.
    • 9362-46326-2.

  • Samuel Taylor Coleridge

    Cologne, read by Raymond Fearon

  • 00:33

    Richard Wagner

    Dawn and Siegfried's Rhine journey, transc. Glenn Gould for piano [from "Gotterdammerung"]

    Conductor: Klaus Tennstedt. Performer: Berliner Philharmoniker.
    • EMI.
    • CDC-7470072.

  • Joseph Conrad

    Extract from The Heart of Darkness, read by Raymond Fearon

  • 00:38

    Pygmies Of The Northern Congo

    Bobe Ceremony

    Performer: Pygmies of the Northern Congo.
    • Ocora.
    • 6299684.
  • 00:40

    Rokia TraorΓ©

    Dounia

    Performer: Rokia TraorΓ©.
    • Nonesuch.
    • 465532-2.
  • 00:46

    Wu Man

    Dengyue jiaohui [Lanterns and moon competing in brilliance]

    • Nimbus.
    • NI5368.

  • Sarah Howe

    Yangtze, read by Nicola Coughlan

  • 00:52

    Franz Schubert

    Auf dem Wasser zu singen D.774

    Performer: Ian Bostridge. Performer: Julius Drake.
    • EMI Classics.
    • 5563472.

  • Kenneth Grahame

    Extract from The Wind in the Willows, read by Nicola Coughlan

  • 00:55

    Malcolm Arnold

    The Padstow lifeboat - march Op.94 for brass band

    Conductor: Malcolm Arnold. Performer: Grimethorpe Colliery Band.
    • CONFIR CLASSICS.
    • CDCF-222.

  • William Wordsworth

    Extract from Sonnets from The River Duddon: After-Thought, read by Raymond Fearon

  • 01:00

    Robert Schumann

    Quartet in E flat major Op.47 for piano and strings

    Performer: Pro Arte Piano Quartet.
    • Decca Eloquence.
    • 480 3523.

Broadcasts

  • Sun 12 May 2019 17:30
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  • Thu 30 Dec 2021 18:15
    ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 3

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