WHAT THE CRITICS SAID:
'Masterly, entertaining. By far the best of all the programmes I have heard celebrating W.H Auden's centenary... clear, precise, elegant, illuminating...archive in exact and well-chosen amounts. The choice of recording was exemplary, the script beautifully written and spoken. I have seldom spent half an hour in more rewarding company. Compaints? None.
Gillian Reynold, The Daily Telegraph.
PICK OF THE DAY **** Martin Hoyle, The Financial Times
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The Accidental Beauties of Silly Songs - Auden Centenary1x30'
In W.H Auden’s centenary year, Alexander McCall Smith explores the writer’s passion for music and song.
Auden collaborated with Britten, Stravinksy and Henze on opera libretti, but he also had a passion for popular forms such as jazz, blues and cabaret.
McCall Smith will look at the poet's friendship with Britten, and we will hear a wide range of music that he helped create as well as new interviews with the pianist Natasha Spender, widow of the poet Stephen Spender, the poet Peter Porter, Britten's publisher Donald Mitchell and others.
Presenter: Alexander McCall Smith Producer: Jo Wheeler Broadcast: 3rd April 2007 Broadcaster: |
