Rivers
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
Last on
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
00:01William Grant Still
Danzas de Panama - suite for strings
Performer: Alexander Neiman. Performer: George Berres. Performer: Louis Kaufman.- Cambria.
- CD1121.
00:04Gerald 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
00:07Ravi 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
00:12EÌ„riks EsÌŒenvalds
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
00:18Marshall Jones
In The Mississippi River
Performer: The SNCC Freedom Singers.- Folk Era Records ‎.
- Folk Era Records ‎.
00:22Ernest 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
00:24Sun 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
00:29MITCHELL
THE RIVER
Music Arranger: N/A. Performer: Joni Mitchell.- REPRISE.
- 9362-46326-2.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Cologne, read by Raymond Fearon
00:33Richard 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
00:38Pygmies Of The Northern Congo
Bobe Ceremony
Performer: Pygmies of the Northern Congo.- Ocora.
- 6299684.
00:40Rokia Traoré
Dounia
Performer: Rokia Traoré.- Nonesuch.
- 465532-2.
00:46Wu Man
Dengyue jiaohui [Lanterns and moon competing in brilliance]
- Nimbus.
- NI5368.
Sarah Howe
Yangtze, read by Nicola Coughlan
00:52Franz 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
00:55Malcolm 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
01:00Robert 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 17:30³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Radio 3
- Thu 30 Dec 2021 18:15³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Radio 3