Main content

Alexandra Harris

Michael Berkeley talks to Alexandra Harris, one of the very first Radio 3 New Generation Thinkers, about her passions for landscape, weather and music.

Michael Berkeley talks to Alexandra Harris, one of the very first Radio 3 New Generation Thinkers, about her passions for landscape, weather and music.

As the evenings draw in and the weather gets colder, Alexandra Harris could not be happier. There’s no greater fan of English weather – even the miserable cold, wet variety – so much so that she’s written a book about it – Weatherland: Writers and Artists under English Skies.

Alexandra is a Professor of Literature at the University of Birmingham, is this year’s chair of the Forward Prizes for Poetry, and among her other highly praised books are a biography of Virginia Woolf, and Romantic Moderns, about the complex relationship between modernism and tradition in English art and literature, which won the Guardian First Book Award.

Alexandra tells Michael about her love of weather, winter and Schubert’s Winterreise, and about the music that conjures up the English landscapes that mean so much to her: we hear pieces by Britten, by the violinist Laura Cannell and by the Norfolk composer Simon Rowland-Jones.

Alexandra’s twin passions, for early church music and for the quiet of the evening, are brought together in music by Tallis written for the monastic service of Compline – and she acknowledges how lucky she is to be able to listen to it in the warmth and comfort of her home rather than in a freezing medieval monastery.

Producer: Jane Greenwood
A Loftus Media production for ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Radio 3

Available now

39 minutes

Last on

Sun 29 Nov 2020 12:00

Music Played

  • Benjamin Britten

    Marsh Flowers (5 Flower Songs)

    Choir: RIAS Chamber Choir. Conductor: Justin Doyle.
  • Laura Cannell

    Awaken Waken

  • Franz Schubert

    Gute Nacht (Winterreise)

    Performer: Thomas Adès. Singer: Ian Bostridge.
  • ±Êé°ù´Ç³Ù¾±²Ô

    Alleluia, posui adiutorium

    Choir: The Hilliard Ensemble.
  • Trad.

    The Cherry Tree Carol

    Ensemble: Anonymous 4.
  • Simon Rowland-Jones

    String Quartet no.7 (Flock of Knot)

    Ensemble: Carducci String Quartet.
  • Thomas Tallis

    Te lucis ante terminum

    Choir: Stile Antico.

Broadcast

  • Sun 29 Nov 2020 12:00

What makes Boogie-woogie piano legend Jools Holland tick?

What makes Boogie-woogie piano legend Jools Holland tick?

For Private Passions, Jools Holland revealed his piano history to Michael Berkeley.

11 things we learned from Harry Enfield’s Private Passions

11 things we learned from Harry Enfield’s Private Passions

Harry doesn't usually give interviews – but he couldn't say no to Michael Berkeley.

Archive Unlocked: Two Decades of Private Passions

Michael Berkeley introduces memorable interviews from Private Passions' archives.

Podcast