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Last broadcast on Sun, 15 Aug 2010, 22:45 on BBC Radio 3.
Synopsis
A journey around provincial France, as Jonathan Firth and Haydn Gwynne read poetry and prose by Paul Verlaine, Gillaume Apollinaire, Elizabeth David and Peter Mayle, with accompanying music by Ravel, Berlioz, Canteloube, Cécile Chaminade and Charles Trenet.
Producer's Note
Words and Music this week takes to the Route Nationale, as Charles Trenet celebrates the joy of the open road. We stop off in La Rochelle, where Charles Tomlinson describes a town shimmering in spring light, and delight in the cheerfulness of Michel Legrand's 'Les Parapluies de Cherbourg'.
Provincial France has so often inspired artists, including van Gogh; Henri Dutilleux's 'Timbres, Espaces, Mouvement, reflects the whirling effects of the painter's landscape'La Nuit Étoilée', painted when van Gogh was in an asylum at Saint-Remy in 1889; its starry background was first depicted in his 'Café Terrace at Night, 1888', a scene described by Mary O'Donnell's poem of the same name.
It was in the early-1950s that Elizabeth David introduced the culinary joys of life in provincial France to a wider British audience, in her French Country Cooking, whilst a slightly more bemused take on local life is found in Peter Mayle's 'A Year in Provence'. Provence also features in our musical depictions of rural France: in Ravel's 'Matinée de Provence', and Jean-Claude Petit's theme for the historical drama 'Jean de Florette'.
I also wanted to show the contrast between our often carefree sense of a country that many of us only visit for holidays, and the harshness that can be experienced in daily life. There is an uncompromising cruelty in the geography of Jacques Dupin's 'Even if the mountain' (also evoked in Messiaen's depiction of the Alps in the introduction to his 'Chronochromie'). Guillaime Apollinaire's 'Autumn Crocuses' warns of danger underlying a seemingly innocent scene. In 'The Noise of Bars' Paul Verlaine paints a picture of a tough life, and in an extract from Flaubert's 'Madame Bovary', we feel the frustration that even in a relatively comfortable provincial life we can still be left wanting.
But overwhelmingly, I am left with the sense of colour and life to be found in the many musical depictions of provincial France, in Millhaud's 'Suite Française', Séverac's 'En Languedoc' and 'Le Chant de la Terre', and as we close, in Victoria de Los Ángeles fine performance of 'Obal, din loui Limouzi', from Canteloube's 'Chants d'Auvergne'.
Producer: Lisa Davis
Music and featured items
Timings are shown from the start of the programme in hours and minutes.
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00:00
Charles Trenet — Route Nationale No 7
Performer: Charles Trenet
Columbia/EMI 7465672, Tr13 -
00:02
Charles Tomlinson
La Rochelle read by Jonathan Firth
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00:03
Heather Phillipson
Le Parc read by Haydn Gwynne
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00:03
Déodat de Séverac — En Languedoc, A Cheval Dans La Prairie
Performer: Izumi Tateno, piano
Finlandia 8573-87181-2, Tr10 -
00:07
Elizabeth David
French Country Cooking (extract from introduction) read by Haydn Gwynne
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00:09
Maurice Ravel
— Matinée de ProvencePerformer: Choeur & Orchestre de Paris-Sorbonne, Dennis Rouger (Chorus-Master), Jacques Grimbert (Conductor)
Marco Polo 8.223755, Tr10 -
00:13
Duncan Forbes
Gironde July read by Jonathan Firth
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00:14
Michel Legrand — Les Parapluies de Cherbourg
Performer: The Flemish Radio Orchestra, Michel Legrand (Conductor)
Silva Screen Records SILCD1185, Tr1 -
00:20
Gustave Flaubert
Madame Bovary (extract) read by Haydn Gwynne
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00:21
Traditional — Wie Schön Bist Du (Comme Tu Es Belle)
Performer: L’Ensemble National de France
SOW 90133, Tr2 -
00:23
Arthur Rimbaud, translated by Martin Sorrell
To Music read by Jonathan Firth
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00:25
Darius Milhaud
— Suite Française Op. 248, BretagnePerformer: Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo, Georges Prêtre (Conductor)
Brilliant Classics 9007/2, Tr25, Disc 2 -
00:29
Peter Mayle
A Year in Provence (extract) read by Jonathan Firth
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00:30
Jean-Claude Petit — Jean de Florette
Performer: Jean Claude Petit
Milan CD CH241, Tr1 -
00:33
Kate Bingham
Beaujolais read by Haydn Gwynne
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00:34
Henri Dutilleux
— Timbres, Espaces, Mouvement avec Interlude, InterludePerformer: BBC Philharmonic, Yan Pascal Tortelier (Conductor)
Milan CD CH241, Tr11 -
00:35
Guillaume Apollinaire, translated by Oliver Bernard
Autumn Crocuses read by Jonathan Firth
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00:38
Mary O’Donnell
Café Terrace at Night, 1888 read by Haydn Gwynne
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00:39
Georges Bizet
— L’Arlésienne – Suite No 1, MinuetPerformer: Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Sir Thomas Beecham (Conductor)
EMI CDC-7 47794 2, Tr6 -
00:42
Paul Verlaine
The Noise of Bars read by Jonathan Firth
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00:43
Pascalle Monnier, translated by Cole Swensen
Summer read by Haydn Gwynne
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00:44
Olivier Messiaen
— Chronochromie, IntroductionPerformer: The Cleveland Orchestra, Pierre Boulez, (Conductor)
Deutsche Grammophon 445 827-2, Tr1 -
00:48
Jacques Dupin, translated by Paul Auster
Even If the Mountain read by Jonathan Firth
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00:50
Cécile Louise Chaminade — La Lune Paresseuse
Performer: Anne Sofie von Otter (Mezzo-Soprano), Bengt Forsberg (Piano)
Deutsche Grammophon 471 331-2, Tr2 -
00:53
Paul de Roux, translated by Stephen Romer
The Cold Again read by Jonathan Firth
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00:53
Déodat de Séverac — Le Chant De La Terre, Prologue
Performer: Izumi Tateno (Piano)
Finlandia 8573-87181-2, Tr1 -
00:55
Jacques Réda, translated by Stephen Romer
Autumn Distance read by Haydn Gwynne
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00:56
Joseph Canteloube
— Obal, Din Lou LimouziPerformer: Victoria de los Angeles (Soprano), Orchestre de Concerts Lamoureux, Jean-Pierre Jacquillat (Conductor)
EMI 7243 5 66978 2 9, Tr5
Broadcast
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Sun 15 Aug 201022:45
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