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Leadership

Jemima Rooper and Ewan Bailey with readings evoking leaders from Elizabeth I to Toussaint Louverture to Orwell's Napoleon the Pig with music including John Adams and Paul Robeson.

The qualities we look for in a good leader and the dire consequences of getting landed with a bad one are the focus of this week's episode. In Shakespeare’s Henry V, the king goes around the camp on the eve of Agincourt, quelling the fears of his army, while Aeneas brings hope to his despairing followers in Virgil’s Aeneid. Emmeline Pankhurst incites a suffragist meeting to rebellion and Elizabeth I gives a similarly rousing speech to her troops. On a more personal scale, Grace Nichols recalls the dedicated leadership of her father in his role as headmaster. There are disappointed leaders too – Napoleon and Toussaint Louverture – and a tyrannical pig in Orwell’s Animal Farm. Music includes Dominic Argento’s setting of the final diary entry of the leader of a disastrous polar expedition, dedicated activist Paul Robeson singing the spiritual Go Down Moses and John Adams’s operatic evocation of President Nixon’s historic trip to meet Chairman Mao, plus brilliant drummer and notoriously exacting bandleader Buddy Rich in full flow. The readers are Jemima Rooper and Ewan Bailey.

Producer: Torquil MacLeod

READINGS:
Roger McGough – The Leader
Niyi Osundare – The Leader and the Led
Grace Nichols – Picture My Father
Alfred Lord Tennyson – The Charge of the Light Brigade
Virgil (trans. C Day-Lewis) – The Aeneid
Robert Browning – The Lost Leader
Elizabeth I - Speech to the Troops at Tilbury, 1588
William Shakespeare - Henry V: Act IV, prologue
Lord Byron – Ode to Napoleon Buonaparte
George Orwell – Animal Farm
Ivan Krylov (trans. Gordon Pirie) – The Lion’s Share
WB Yeats – To a Shade
Dylan Thomas – ‘The hand that signed the paper’
Siegfried Sassoon – Base Details
Emmeline Pankhurst – I Incite This Meeting to Rebellion
John Agard – Waiting for Fidel
William Wordsworth - To Toussaint Louverture

1 hour, 14 minutes

Last on

Sun 25 Feb 2024 17:30

Music Played

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

  • Roger McGough

    The Leader, read by Jemima Rooper

  • 00:00

    Ernst Krenek

    Der Diktator, Op. 49, Scene 1: Prelude

    Orchestra: German Symphony Orchestra Berlin. Composer: Marek Janowski.
    • Capriccio C60107.
    • Tr1 S1.
  • Niyi Osundare

    The Leader and the Led, read by Ewan Bailey

  • 00:03

    Peter Martin

    Archetypes: VI. Ruler

    Performer: Sérgio Assad. Performer: Clarice Assad. Ensemble: Third Coast Percussion.
    • Cedille CDR90000-201.
    • Tr6 S1.
  • Grace Nichols

    Picture My Father, read by Jemima Rooper

  • 00:04

    Johnny Burch

    Preach and Teach (Live At Caesars Palace, Las Vegas, Nevada/1968)

    Performer: The Buddy Rich Big Band.
    • Blue Note Records 00724385433153.
    • Tr2 S1.
  • Alfred Lord Tennyson

    The Charge of the Light Brigade, read by Ewan Bailey

  • 00:10

    Max Steiner

    The Charge of the Light Brigade: Forward the Light Brigade

    Orchestra: National Philharmonic Orchestra. Conductor: Charles Gerhardt.
    • Sony Classical G010004017816Z.
    • Tr11 S4.
  • Virgil (trans. C Day-Lewis)

    The Aeneid, read by Jemima Rooper

  • 00:15

    Hector Berlioz

    Les Troyens, Op. 29, H. 133, Act 4: Chasse royale et orage - Pantomime

    Performer: Orchestre philharmonique de Strasbourg. Conductor: John Nelson.
    • Warner Classics 0190295762209.
    • Tr1 S3.
  • Robert Browning

    The Lost Leader, read by Ewan Bailey

  • 00:21

    Scott Engel

    The Old Man’s Back Again (Dedicated To The Neo-Stalinist Regime)

    Performer: Scott Walker.
    • UMC 00602537409044.
    • Tr7 S1.
  • 00:24

    Orlando Gibbons

    The Queen’s Command

    Performer: Alina Rotaru.
    • Dorian Sono Luminus DSL-92208.
    • Tr20 S1.
  • Elizabeth I

    Speech to the Troops at Tilbury, 1588, read by Jemima Rooper

  • 00:28

    William Mathias

    An Admonition to Rulers, Op. 43

    Singer: Oliver Martin-Smith. Choir: St. Albans Cathedral Choir. Performer: Michael Papadopoulos.
    • Naxos 8.573523.
    • Tr13 S1.
  • William Shakespeare

    Henry V: Act IV, prologue, read by Ewan Bailey

  • 00:31

    Sergey Prokofiev

    The Gambler Suite, Op. 49: III. The General

    Orchestra: Lahti Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Dima Slobodeniouk.
    • BIS - 2301.
    • Tr3 S1.
  • Lord Byron

    Ode to Napoleon Buonaparte, read by Jemima Rooper

  • 00:35

    Ludwig van Beethoven

    Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-Flat Major, Op. 73 "Emperor": II. Adagio un poco mosso

    Performer: Haochen Zhang. Orchestra: The Philadelphia Orchestra. Conductor: Nathalie Stutzmann.
    • BIS-2581.
    • Tr2 S3.
  • George Orwell

    Animal Farm, read by Ewan Bailey

  • 00:45

    Deer Lick Holler Boys

    Follow The Leader

    • Cooking Vinyl 191018366957.
    • Tr9 S1.
  • Ivan Krylov (trans. Gordon Pirie)

    The Lion’s Share, read by Jemima Rooper

  • 00:50

    Camille Saintâ€Saëns

    Carnival of the Animals: Royal March of the Lion

    Performer: Martha Argerich. Orchestra: Orchestra of the Academy of Santa Cecilia, Rome. Conductor: Sir Antonio Pappano.
    • Warner Classics 0190295755553.
    • Tr5 S1.
  • WB Yeats

    To a Shade, read by Ewan Bailey

  • 00:53

    Dominick Argento

    The Andrée Expedition, Pt. 2 "On the Ice": No. 13, Final Words (Salomon Andrée. Second Journal)

    Singer: Brian Mulligan. Performer: Timothy Long.
    • Naxos 8.559828.
    • Tr13 S1.
  • Dylan Thomas

    ‘The hand that signed the paper’, read by Jemima Rooper

  • 00:55

    John Adams

    Nixon in China, Act I Scene 2: Like the Ming Tombs

    Singer: Robert Orth. Singer: Marc Heller.
    • Naxos 8.669022-24.
    • Tr12 S1.
  • Siegfried Sassoon

    Base Details, read by Ewan Bailey

  • 01:00

    Claude Debussy

    Préludes, Book 2, L. 123 (Excerpts): No. 6, General Lavine – eccentric

    Performer: Dora Deliyska.
    • Haenssler CLASSIC HC22083.
    • Tr19 S1.
  • Emmeline Pankhurst

    I Incite This Meeting to Rebellion, read by Jemima Rooper

  • 01:04

    Trad.

    Go Down, Moses

    Performer: Paul Robeson.
    • Legacy/Columbia G010000935378B.
    • Tr5 S1.
  • John Agard

    Waiting for Fidel, read by Ewan Bailey

  • 01:07

    Adrien Le Roy

    A Briefe and Easye Instruction to Learne the Tabetre: Passemèze

    Performer: Turibio Santos.
    • Warner Classics 190295352554.
    • Tr2 S1.
  • William Wordsworth

    To Toussaint Louverture, read by Jemima Rooper

  • 01:09

    Thomas Tallis

    A new commandment

    Performer: Chapelle du Roi, Alistair Dixon (conductor).
    • Signum Classics SIGCD002.
    • Tr13 S1.

Broadcast

  • Sun 25 Feb 2024 17:30

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