Somewhere or Other
Georgie Glen and Rupert Holliday Evans read words by Christina Rossetti, Yeats, Donald S Murray and Freya Stark with music by Schubert, Van Morrison, Dave Brubeck and Judith Weir.
With actors Georgie Glen and Rupert Holliday Evans.
Songs, poems and notes of yearning over love, life and death and the exuberance of the sheer unquantifiable, marvellous, strange, exuberant nature of existence. Somewhere or other must surely be ... a love lost or never found, hugely enjoyed or deeply regretted; somewhere or other the perfect home awaits ... or a terrible death ... or a lesson hard learned ... or extraordinary luck ... or an encounter of no significance at all which happened once - never to be repeated but never forgotten.
The readings come from Christina and Gabriel Rossetti, Kevin Crossley Holland, W B Yeats, Federico Garcia Lorca, A A Milne, Freya Stark, Donald S Murray and Mark O'Connor amongst others; with the voices of Van Morrison, the Salzburg Boys' Choir, Elizabeth S枚derstr枚m and Ella Johnson plus the melodies of Franz Schubert and Robert Schumann, Judith Weir, Dave Brubeck, Benjamin Britten, Aram Khachaturian, Peter Maxwell Davies and others.
Producer: Jacqueline Smith.
Last on
More episodes
Previous
Music Played
Timings (where shown) are from the start of the programme in hours and minutes
-
00:00
Leos Jan谩膷ek
In the Mists Andante
Performer: Leif Ove Andsnes, piano.- VIRGIN CLASSICS VC7596392.
- 3.
-
Christina Rossetti
Poem: Somewhere or Other
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Extract Poem: Very Like Indeed
00:02Franz Schubert
Gretchen am Spinnrade
Performer: Elisabeth Soderstrom, sop; Paul Badura-Skoda, piano.- ASTREE E7783.
- 13.
00:05M铆che谩l 脫 S煤illeabh谩in
Ah, Sweet Dancer
Performer: M铆che谩l 脫 S煤illeabh谩in.- VENTURE CDVE40.
- 6.
William Butler Yeats
Poem 聭Sweet Dancer聮
Jack Kerouac
Extract 聭The People I like聮
00:08Van Morrison
Foreign Window
Performer: Van Morrison.- POLYDOR 8496192.
- 3.
Rudyard Kipling
Poem extract from 聭Sussex聮
00:14Peter Maxwell Davies
The Heather Track
Performer: Choir of St Mary's Music School.- UNICORN DKPCD9070.
- 5.
William Blake
Poem 聭Piping Down the Valley聮s Wild
00:16Carl Orff
Fortune, Empress of the World
Performer: Salzburg Boys聮 Choir Chorus; Orchestra of the Mozarteum; Ernst Hinreiter, cond..- CONIFER TQ124.
- 1.
00:18Reijseger
Child聮s Footprint
Performer: Ernest Reijseger, cello; Harmen Fraanje, church organ; Sean Bergin, penny whistle; Nederlands Kamerkoor; Ester Kuiper, Ananda Goud, sop; Albert van Ommen, Marc Van Heteren, tenor; Gilad nezer, Kees Jan de Koning: bass.- W&W 91-1812.
- Tr6.
Coleridge
Poem: Time, Real and Imaginary
A A Milne
Poem 聭Halfway Down聮
00:22Dave Brubeck
Charles Matthew Hallelujah
Performer: Dave Brubeck Quartet; Dave Brubeck Piano; Paul Desmond, Alto Sax; Joe Morello, Drums; Eugene Wright, Base.- COLUMBIA CK64668.
- 3.
Arthur Hugh Clough
Poem extract 聭Where Lies the Land
Freya Stark
extract 聭Sailing on the Mayflower聮
00:25Aram Khachaturian
Adagio; Spartacus and Phrygia (theme from the Onedin Line)
Performer: Berlin Symphony Orchestra; Michail Jurowski, cond..- CAPRICCIO 1081718.
- CD2 Tr3.
Freya Stark
Extract 聭Wanted a Musical Husband聮
Freya Stark
extract 聭Prayers On Board聮
Freya Stark
extract news of a Dervish
Freya Stark
Whooping Cough Cure According to the Moors
William Ellery Leonard (after Aesop)
The Swan and The Goose
Thomas Hardy
Poem extract: The Roman Road
W H Auden
Roman Wall Blues
00:35Woodrow Johnson, Buddy Johnson
Somehow, Somewhere
Performer: Buddy & Ella Johnson.- Jasmine Records.
- 22.
Edgar Allan Poe
Poem: Eldorado
00:38Judith Weir
I Broke Off A Golden Branch
Performer: The Schubert Ensemble of London; Mayumi Seiler, violin; Douglas Paterson, viola; Jane Salmon, cello; William Howard, piano; Peter Buckoke, double bass.- COLLINS CLASSICS 14532.
- 3.
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Poem: Ozymandias
William Butler Yeats
Poem extract: The Second Coming
Federico Garc铆a Lorca trs Stephen Spender, J L Gili
Goring and Death (At Five in the Afternoon)
00:46Odaline de la Martinez
Song of the Rider
Performer: Marina Tafur, voice; Martin Allen, Percussion; Shelagh Sutherland, piano; Odaline de la Martinez, cond..- LORELT LNT103.
- 2.
Rainer Maria Rilke trs C F MacIntyre
The Panther
00:50Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim
Somewhere
Performer: The Dave Brubeck Quartet.- Valentine Music Limited.
- 10.
00:54Peter Warlock
The Curlew (Introduction)
Performer: Anna Tilbrook piano; Michael Cox, flute, Gareth Hulse, cor anglais.- LINN CKD296.
- 7.
George Crabbe
Poem: Frenzy from Sir Eustace Grey
ANGLO SAXON POEM trs Kevin Crossley Holland
Extract 聭The Seafarer聮
Mark O聮Connor
Strike from poem: Two Views of a Gannet
00:58Peter Maxwell Davies
Farewell to Stromness
Performer: Peter Maxwell Davies, piano.- UNICORN.
- 13.
Donald S. Murray
Poem: Lovemaking in St Kilda
01:03Benjamin Britten
As Dew in April
Performer: Choir of King鈥檚 College, Cambridge.- EMI.
- Tr6.
Anonymous. 15th Cent
Poem: Quia Amore Langueo
01:05Peter Warlock, William Butler Yeats
The Curlew (He Reproves the Curlew)
Performer: James Gilchrist tenor; Anna Tilbrook piano; Michael Cox, flute, Gareth Hulse, cor anglais.- LINN CKD296.
- 7.
14th century anon
Maiden in the Moor Lay extract
00:00Katherine Blake
Maiden in the mor Lay
Performer: Katherine Blake.- RCA 756005513592.
- 16.
A E Houseman
Poem: Goodnight
01:12Robert Schumann
Kuriose Geschichte (A Curious Tale)
Performer: Daniel Barenboim, Piano.- DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 4311672.
- 2.
PRODUCER'S NOTES: Somewhere or Other
Somewhere or other must surely be 鈥. everything and everyone we need to be happy鈥..or not. It may just be me, but like the horizon, that precious somewhere just keeps slipping away 鈥.听听
If anyone ever found their own perfect Somewhere or Other it was most likely our childhood self; Peter Maxwell Davies, William Blake, Orff, A A Milne and Dave Brubeck always transport me back there鈥. Hope they do for you too.听听听听听
The starting point for this mazy collation of music, song and words is Jan谩膷ek's composition 鈥業n the Mists鈥.听 This transports us to a magic world where anything is really possible or could be.听 And the first people we鈥檒l meet,听 down the valley and over the moon, are听 Christina and Gabriel Rossetti, brother and sister ; she yearns for the soul mate lost or never found;听 he鈥檚 sympathetic in a rather cool kind of way: 鈥業 know鈥 he says 鈥榖ut, very like, that is just the way it is鈥.
On we go, sailing听 now, over high seas,听 with no memory of where we cast off, nor of a safe harbourage ahead; maybe the Roman Road might give us a bit of direction though those storm clouds of thwarted passion look threatening鈥.yes, it鈥檚 Schubert鈥檚 Gretchen, spinning her life away, obsessed听 over her lost heart鈥檚 love鈥.but a moment later, shafts of sunlight as William Butler Yeats points out a听 sweet girl dancing on a lawn and Van Morrison glimpses something quite unforgettable through a foreign window.听
And there鈥檚 another thread in the weave, the sheer exuberance felt when contemplating the truly limitlessly vast scale of Somewhere or Other.听 Just think.听 Here or there anything can happen to anyone, and all the time something is happening everywhere and anywhere.听
There is an eternity in the moments polished, savoured and served up to us by our writers and poets and musicians 鈥nights languish, maidens despair, gannets dive in the moment the fish is dying says Mark O鈥機onnor, Freya Stark on her travels hears how fleas can cure whooping cough and even as Douglas S Murray鈥檚 Lovers on St Kilda fly like birds, Lorca鈥檚 friend is killed by a bull at five o鈥檆lock in the afternoon, and long years before that a curlew sang a lament over the Maiden on the Moor in her bower of roses . and lily flowers.
So the game of life, a curious story indeed, and no guaranteed happy endings鈥nvoked by Robert Schumann鈥檚 Kinderszenen and A E Houseman.
Producer: Jacqueline Smith
听
Broadcasts
- Sun 25 Feb 2018 17:30麻豆官网首页入口 Radio 3
- Sun 15 Nov 2020 17:30麻豆官网首页入口 Radio 3
The hidden history of plant-based diets
Books website
Get closer to books with in-depth articles, quizzes and our picks from radio & TV.