Words and Music 21st December

[Anna]

I'm just catching this. It's so good. A sequence of poetry, prose and music on the theme of power, with readings by Sheila Hancock and Tom Hollander.

With poems from Percy Shelley, Ted Hughes, Rudyard Kipling and Margaret Atwood, as well as music by Prokofiev, Ligeti and Handel. More like this please!

And this was wonderful: "Kit Wright’s Ode to Didcot Power Station. Wright says that if he was going to have an ode, “why not go the whole hog and pull out all the stops with ‘thee’s and ‘thou’s and fairly antiquated language.”

Please note this programme contains strong language! http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00n6tl5

[Lateralthinking1]

Thanks Anna - this does look good and an appropriate programme for Radio 3 - Lat

[Chris Newman]

Thank you for this reminder, Anna. I had forgotten how years ago (when I was a kid even!) this programme used to introduce the most wonderful music and poetry. Whenever I heard it I always wanted to explore unknown avenues or to look again on those I had neglected.

For years I have forgotten it existed. It should be the sort of programme I deliberately avoid as it features snippets from music that I love and that I do not know: exactly the sort of thing that Breakfast and Classic FM do to bring me out in fits of apoplexy. However, the combination of words and music (and the useful schedule available afterwards) makes it so useful. And the combinations of readers and readings is always so sensitive. The clever segue from Shostakovich 8th String Quartet to the War Requiem was made so natural by the Amir Gilboa/Dannie Abse verse and the reading of the Wilfred Owen. Besides, I have been in love with Sheila Hancock since I was about ten.

Not many swear words though, despite the warning: one "bugger" in Kit Wright's poem about Didcot Power Station hardly counts. Auntie is so sensitive these days.

[Anna]

This is one R3 programme has has made me think - Whoa! forget what you are doing and listen to 75 mins. Then I saw, it is a repeat from 2009. Really good though, recommend.