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The games that people play

Christina Cole and Glen McCready read from novels including George Eliot's Felix Holt, John Fowles' The Magus and Dickens' Great Expectations. Music by Prokofiev, Nyman, Queen.

Chess, dominos, cards, roulette, dice, children's playground games and contemporary computer games are the inspiration for today's programme with readings by Glen McCready and Christina Cole from texts including the ancient Indian Mahabharata where a king loses his wife and his kingdom playing dice, George Eliot's Felix Holt which compares life with a board game, and Pushkin bring us revenge in The Queen of Spades. We also hear about other aspects of game play: psychological games - the mind games that humans play on each other - as well as social and political games. There are readings from Dangerous Liaisons; Dickens’s Great Expectations, John Fowles' The Magus and from Patrick Hamilton’s play Gaslight. And bringing us up right up to date we log on to the imaginative world of computer gaming, referencing the likes of Super Mario, Alan Wake, Final Fantasy, and Portal.
Featured music is provided by composers including Arthur Bliss, Francois Couperin, Michael Nyman and Mozart - including a few rolls of the dice from his Musical Dice Game - as well as Kurtag, Xenakis, Ramin Djawadi, John Willams, Kenny Rogers and Queen.

Producer: Chris Wines

You can find more programmes inspired by game playing in Radio 3's arts and ideas programme Free Thinking (9th January) and the monthly Sound of Gaming (6th January and available now on 鶹Լ Sounds)

READINGS:

Cheng’en Wu: The Journey to the West
Lewis Carroll: Alice Through the Looking Glass
George Eliot: Felix Holt, the Radical
Pierre Choderlos de Laclos: Les Liasions Dangereuses
T.S. Eliot: The Waste Land – II. “A Game of Chess”
William Shakespeare: The Tempest (Act V)
Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa: The Mahabharata (Book 2 – LXIV)
Fyodor Dostoyevsky: The Gambler
Alexander Pushkin: Queen of Spades
Charles Dickens: Great Expectations
John Fowles: The Magus
Patrick Hamilton: Gaslight
Arthur Conan Doyle: The Return of Sherlock Holmes – ‘The Adventure of the Abbey Grange’
Rabindranath Tagore: Playthings
Hermann Hesse: The Glass Bead Game
Grantland Rice: Alumnus Football
Ian M Banks: The Player of Games
Suzanne Collins: The Hunger Games
Rick Burroughs: Alan Wake
Ken Nesbitt: The Games in My Room

1 hour, 14 minutes

Last on

Sun 7 Jan 2024 17:30

Music Played

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

  • 00:01

    Chinese Plucked Instruments Quintet

    Imperial Dancing Music Of Tang Dynasty

  • Cheng'en Wu

    The Journey To The West read by Glen McCready

  • 00:03

    Arthur Bliss

    Dance of the Red Pawns (Checkmate)

    Orchestra: Royal Scottish National Orchestra. Conductor: David Lloyd-Jones.
  • Lewis Carroll

    Alice Through the Looking Glass read by Christina Cole

  • 00:05

    Michael Nyman

    The Chess Game (The Man who mistook his Wife for a hat)

    Orchestra: Nashville Opera Orchestra. Conductor: Dean Williamson.
  • George Eliot

    Felix Holt, the Radical read by Glen McCready

  • 00:06

    John Williams

    The Chess Game (Harry Potter and the Philosohper's Stone)

    Orchestra: Studio Orchestra. Conductor: John Williams.
  • Pierre Choderlos de Laclos

    Les Liaisons Dangereuses read by Christina Cole

  • 00:08

    François Couperin

    La Virginite (Les Dominos)

    Performer: Agnès Clément.
  • 00:09

    Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

    Act 4 Cavatina (Le Nozze di Figaro)

    Singer: Sarah Tynan. Orchestra: Philharmonia Orchestra. Conductor: David Parry.
  • TS Eliot

    The Waste Land - II. “A Game of Chess” read by Glen McCready

  • 00:11

    Jelly Roll Morton

    Pearls

  • 00:11

    Ramin Djawadi

    Dark Wings, Dark Words (Game of Thrones)

  • William Shakespeare

    The Tempest : Act V read by Christina Cole & Glen McCready

  • 00:13

    Giacomo Puccini

    Come e lunghi l'attesta (Tosca)

    Singer: Leontyne Price. Orchestra: Vienna Philharmonic. Conductor: Herbert von Karajan.
  • 00:15

    Bin Idris

    Mahabharata

  • Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa

    The Mahabharata (Book 2 – LXIV) read by Christina Cole

  • 00:17

    Frank Loesser

    Luck Be a Lady Tonight (Guys and Dolls)

    Singer: Marlon Brando.
  • Dostoyevsky

    The Gambler read by Glen McCready

  • 00:21

    Sergey Prokofiev

    Alexis (Suite: The Gambler)

    Orchestra: Lahti Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Dima Slobodeniouk.
  • 00:23

    Kenny Rogers

    The Gambler

  • Pushkin

    Queen of Spades read by Christina Cole

  • 00:27

    Franz von Suppè

    Overture: Pique Dame

    Orchestra: West German Radio Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Michail Jurowski.
  • Charles Dickens

    Great Expectations read by Glen McCready

  • John Fowles

    The Magus read by Christina Cole

  • Patrick Hamilton

    Gaslight read by Glen McCready

  • 00:35

    György Kurtág

    Fragments of a Colinda melody (Jatekok)

    Performer: György Kurtág.
  • 00:37

    Robert Schumann

    Schon ist das Fest des Lenzes (Minnespiel, Op.101)

    Performer: Graham Johnson. Singer: Adrian Thompson. Singer: Geraldine McGreevy.
  • 00:44

    Iannis Xenakis

    Linaia-Agon

    Performer: Ron Schaaper. Performer: Koen Kaptijn.
  • Arthur Conon Doyle

    The Return of Sherlock Holmes: The Adventure of the Abbey Grange read by Glen McCready

  • 00:42

    Queen

    Play The Game

  • Rabindranath Tagore

    : Playthings read by Christina Cole

  • 00:47

    Anonymous

    Romance (Jeux Interdits)

    Performer: Miloš Karadaglić. Orchestra: English Chamber Orchestra. Conductor: Paul Watkins.
  • 00:50

    Hans Zimmer

    Discombobulate (Sherlock Holmes)

    Orchestra: Studio Orchestra. Conductor: Gavin Greenaway.
  • 00:52

    Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

    Musical Dice Game, K516f

    Performer: Neville Marriner.
  • 00:54

    Georges Bizet

    Les Chevaux de Bois (Jeux d'enfants)

    Performer: Katia & Marielle Labèque.
  • Hermann Hesse

    : The Glass Bead Game read by Glen McCready

  • 00:56

    Johann Sebastian Bach

    Ricercare a 3 (Musical Offering)

    Performer: Cristina García Banegas.
  • Grantland Rice

    : Alumnus Football read by Christina Cole

  • Ian M Banks

    : The Player of Games read by Glen McCready

  • 00:57

    Nobuo Uematsu

    Bombing Mission (Final Fantasy VII)

  • Suzanne Collins

    : The Hunger Games read by Christina Cole

  • Rick Burroughs

    : Alan Wake read by Glen McCready

  • 01:01

    Petri Alanko

    Alan Wake

  • 01:07

    Koji Kondi

    Super Mario Theme

  • Ken Nesbitt

    : The Games in My Room read by Christian Cole

  • 01:11

    Ellen McLain

    Super Portal (Still Alive)

Broadcast

  • Sun 7 Jan 2024 17:30

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