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
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Music Played
Timings (where shown) are from the start of the programme in hours and minutes
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00:01
Chinese Plucked Instruments Quintet
Imperial Dancing Music Of Tang Dynasty
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Cheng'en Wu
The Journey To The West read by Glen McCready
00:03Arthur 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
00:05Michael 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
00:06John 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
00:08François Couperin
La Virginite (Les Dominos)
Performer: Agnès Clément.00:09Wolfgang 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
00:11Jelly Roll Morton
Pearls
00:11Ramin Djawadi
Dark Wings, Dark Words (Game of Thrones)
William Shakespeare
The Tempest : Act V read by Christina Cole & Glen McCready
00:13Giacomo Puccini
Come e lunghi l'attesta (Tosca)
Singer: Leontyne Price. Orchestra: Vienna Philharmonic. Conductor: Herbert von Karajan.00:15Bin Idris
Mahabharata
Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa
The Mahabharata (Book 2 – LXIV) read by Christina Cole
00:17Frank Loesser
Luck Be a Lady Tonight (Guys and Dolls)
Singer: Marlon Brando.Dostoyevsky
The Gambler read by Glen McCready
00:21Sergey Prokofiev
Alexis (Suite: The Gambler)
Orchestra: Lahti Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Dima Slobodeniouk.00:23Kenny Rogers
The Gambler
Pushkin
Queen of Spades read by Christina Cole
00:27Franz 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
00:35György Kurtág
Fragments of a Colinda melody (Jatekok)
Performer: György Kurtág.00:37Robert Schumann
Schon ist das Fest des Lenzes (Minnespiel, Op.101)
Performer: Graham Johnson. Singer: Adrian Thompson. Singer: Geraldine McGreevy.00:44Iannis 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
00:42Queen
Play The Game
Rabindranath Tagore
: Playthings read by Christina Cole
00:47Anonymous
Romance (Jeux Interdits)
Performer: Miloš Karadaglić. Orchestra: English Chamber Orchestra. Conductor: Paul Watkins.00:50Hans Zimmer
Discombobulate (Sherlock Holmes)
Orchestra: Studio Orchestra. Conductor: Gavin Greenaway.00:52Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Musical Dice Game, K516f
Performer: Neville Marriner.00:54Georges Bizet
Les Chevaux de Bois (Jeux d'enfants)
Performer: Katia & Marielle Labèque.Hermann Hesse
: The Glass Bead Game read by Glen McCready
00:56Johann 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
00:57Nobuo Uematsu
Bombing Mission (Final Fantasy VII)
Suzanne Collins
: The Hunger Games read by Christina Cole
Rick Burroughs
: Alan Wake read by Glen McCready
01:01Petri Alanko
Alan Wake
01:07Koji Kondi
Super Mario Theme
Ken Nesbitt
: The Games in My Room read by Christian Cole
01:11Ellen McLain
Super Portal (Still Alive)
Broadcast
- Sun 7 Jan 2024 17:30鶹Լ Radio 3