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Emma Fielding and Tayla Kovacevic-Ebong with readings from writers including Anne Sexton and Caleb Femi and music by Vivaldi, Astor Piazzolla and Ella Fitzgerald among others.

Is it the cruellest month or the time when sweet showers fall? There's an ambiguity about April with its changeable weather and promise of rebirth that's reflected in this week's programme. Readers Tayla Kovacevic-Ebong and Emma Fielding guide us into April's more beguiling realms with poems by Anne Stevenson, Laurie Lee, Ann Sexton and Caleb Femi that are full of flowers, possibility and the warmth of sun on skin, but then TS Eliot, Edna St. Vincent Millay and Philip Larkin turn up to reveal that darker, melancholic side - the feeling of loss made starker by burgeoning new life. That same tension and contradiction comes through in the music which includes works by Stravinsky, Ella Fitzgerald and Count Basie, C茅cile Chaminade, Prince (yes, sometimes it DOES snow in April), Manuel Maria Ponce, TesseracT and Astor Piazzolla.

Producer: Torquil MacLeod

Readings & *Music

*Gregor Joseph Werner - L鈥橝prile 鈥� I. Spring. Allegro
Robert Louis Stevenson - Flower god, god of the spring
Billy Collins - Today
*Ella Fitzgerald with Count Basie and his Orchestra - April in Paris
Laurie Lee - April Rise
*Manuel Maria Ponce - Chapultepec: I. Primavera
Robert Browning - 蜜芽传媒 Thoughts from Abroad
*Giovanni Croce - I diporti della villa in ogni stagione 鈥� La Primavera : Nella stagion novella
Thomas Hardy - Tess of the d鈥橴rbevilles
*Henri Tomasi - Printemps pour sextuour a vents
Caleb Femi - Here Too Spring Comes to Us with Open Arms
*Prince - Sometimes It Snows in April
Philip Larkin - An April Sunday brings the snow
*Anthony Burgess - Mr Burgess鈥檚 Almanack IV. Allegretto con grazia
Basil Bunting - Weeping oaks grieve, chestnuts raise
Edna St. Vincent Millay - Spring
*Nico Muhly - Spring Figures
*TesseracT - April
George Orwell - Nineteen Eighty-Four
*Igor Stravinsky - The Rite of Spring/Le Sacre du Printemps
TS Eliot - The Waste Land 鈥� I. The Burial of the Dead
*Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky - The Seasons Op. 37b 鈥� IV. April: Snowdrop
Robert Herrick - To Daffodils
Anne Stevenson - Swifts
*Astor Piazzolla - Las 4 estaciones portenas: I. Primavera Portena
*Antonio Vivaldi - Concerto No. 1 in E major 鈥淟a Primavera鈥� 鈥� II. Largo
Keith Douglas - Villanelle of Spring Bells
Anne Sexton - It Is a Spring Afternoon
*Max Beckschafer - Madrigali Veneziani: O primavera
Boris Pasternak (trans. Angela Livingstone) - Spring
*Niklas Sivelov - Symphony No. 3 Primavera 鈥� II. Adagio
*Cecile Chaminade - Pieces romantiques Op. 55 鈥� No. 1 Primavera
Geoffrey Chaucer - The Canterbury Tales 鈥� The General Prologue
DH Lawrence - The Enkindled Spring
William Shakespeare - Sonnet 98
*Judy Garland - April Showers

28 days left to listen

1 hour, 14 minutes

Last on

Sunday 18:00
蜜芽传媒 Radio 3

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Music Played

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

  • 00:01

    Gregor Joseph Werner

    L'Aprile (1st mvt: Spring: Allegro)

    Ensemble: Rheinisches Bach-Collegium.
  • 00:03

    Ella Fitzgerald

    April in Paris

  • 00:08

    Manuel Ponce

    Chapultepec (1st mvt: Primavera)

    Orchestra: San Luis Potosi Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Jos茅 Miramontes Zapata.
  • 00:13

    Giovanni Croce

    Nella stagion novella (I diporti della villa in ogni stagione - La Primavera)

    Ensemble: Gruppo Vocale Arsi e Tesi. Conductor: Tony Corradini.
  • 00:17

    Henri Tomasi

    Printemps

    Ensemble: Quintette Aquilon.
  • 00:22

    Prince

    Sometimes it snows in April

  • 00:28

    Anthony Burgess

    Mr Burgess's Almanack (4th mvt: Allegretto con grazia)

    Orchestra: Brown University Orchestra. Conductor: Paul Phillips.
  • 00:31

    Nico Muhly

    Spring Figures

    Performer: Matt Haimovitz.
  • 00:35

    TesseracT

    April

  • 00:37

    Igor Stravinsky

    The Rite of Spring

    Performer: Igor Stravinsky. Orchestra: Columbia Symphony Orchestra.
  • 00:45

    Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

    April: The Snowdrop (The Seasons)

    Ensemble: Philharmonische Cellisten.
  • 00:47

    Astor Piazzolla

    Primavera Portena

    Performer: Alfredo Marcucci. Performer: Philharmonische Cellisten.
  • 00:53

    Antonio Vivaldi

    Concerto in E major (La Primavera) (2nd mvt: Largo)

    Performer: Itzhak Perlman. Orchestra: London Philharmonic Orchestra.
  • 00:57

    Max Beckschafer

    O Primavera

    Singer: Franz Vitzthum. Ensemble: Ensemble Il Capriccio.
  • 01:02

    Niklas Sivel枚v

    Symphony no.3 (Primavera) (2nd mvt: Adagio)

    Orchestra: Malm枚 Operaorkester. Conductor: Joachim Gustafsson.
  • 01:06

    C茅cile Chaminade

    Primavera (Pieces romantiques, Op.55)

    Performer: Stephanie McCallum. Performer: Erin Helyard.
  • 01:10

    Judy Garland

    April Showers

Broadcasts

  • Sun 17 Apr 2022 17:30
    蜜芽传媒 Radio 3
  • Sunday 18:00
    蜜芽传媒 Radio 3

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