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Rachel Cusk

Michael Berkeley's guest is Canadian-born author Rachel Cusk, whose choices include music from Handel, Britten, Janacek, Shostakovich, Stravinsky and Finzi.

Canadian-born author Rachel Cusk is Michael Berkeley's guest this week. After finishing her schooling in England she went on to Oxford University, and won the Whitbread First Novel Award for 'Saving Agnes' (1993). Since then her books have included 'A Life's Work: On Becoming a Mother' (2001),;'Arlington Park' (2006), which was shortlisted for the 2007 Orange Prize for fiction; 'The Bradshaw Variations' (2009), and 'The Last Supper: A Summer in Italy' (also 2009), which is a memoir of a three-month family stay in Italy.

Rachel Cusk's music choices are all classical, and focus on piano and vocal music. They start with Bach and Beethoven played on the piano by Glenn Gould and Richard Goode respectively; while Lorraine Hunt Lieberson sings Handel's 'As with rosy steps the morn'. Then there's music by Britten (the opening of the canticle 'Abraham and Isaac') and Janacek (an excerpt from Act II of 'Jenufa'); Shostakovich's First Piano Concerto played by Russian pianist Dmitri Alexeev; an extract from Stravinsky's oratorio 'Oedipus rex', and part of Gerald Finzi's Eclogue, played by pianist Piers Lane with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra.

1 hour

Last on

Sun 23 May 2010 12:00

Music Played

  • Johann Sebastian Bach

    Goldberg Variations (Variation 13)

    Performer: Glenn Gould (piano)

    • SONY SM3K 87703.
  • Ludwig van Beethoven

    Sonata no.32 in C minor, op 111 [excerpt from 2nd movt]

    Performer: Richard Goode (piano)

    • NONESUCH 979 211-2.
  • George Frideric Handel

    As with rosy steps the morn (from Theodora)

    Performers: Lorraine Hunt Lieberson (mezzo soprano), Orchestra of the Age of the Enlightenment/Harry Bicket

    • AVIE AV 0030.
  • Benjamin Britten

    Canticle II, Abraham and Isaac, Op 51

    Performers: David Daniels (counter tenor), Ian Bostridge (tenor), Julius Drake (piano)

    • VIRGIN 545525-2.
  • Leos Jan谩膷ek

    Jenufa (Act 2, excerpt)

    Performers: Eva Randova (Kostelnicka), Vienna PO/Sir Charles Mackerras

    • DECCA 414 483-2.
  • Dmitry Shostakovich

    Piano Concerto No 1 (2nd movement, Lento)

    Performers: Dmitri Alexeev (piano), Philip Jones (trumpet), English Chamber Orchestra/Jerzy Maksimiuk

    • CLASSICS FOR PLEASURE CD-CFP 4547.
  • Igor Stravinsky

    Nonne erubescite (from Oedipus Rex, Act 2)

    Performers: Patricia Johnson (Jocasta), Sadler鈥檚 Wells Opera Chorus, RPO/Sir Colin Davis

    • CLASSICS FOR PLEASURE 585011-2.
  • Gerald Finzi

    Eclogue (extract)

    Performers: Piers Lane (piano), RLPO/Vernon Handley

    • EMI CDEMX 2239.

Broadcast

  • Sun 23 May 2010 12:00

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