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Press Releases
Celebrate the Rites Of Spring with Radio 3
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91Èȱ¬ Radio 3 broadcasts Rites Of Spring, a week of special programming across the schedule to mark the beginning of spring, exploring music, poetry and ideas connected with birth and rebirth, growth and ritual.
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The season starts with CD Review on Saturday 22 March 2008 – Rob Cowan assesses the wealth of available recordings of Stravinsky's The Rite Of Spring for Building A Library, providing recommendations for the best recordings.
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Rites Of Spring continues throughout the following week with spring-related music, poetry and prose on Hear And Now, Sunday Feature: Rites Of Spring, Words And Music, Afternoon On 3, Night Waves and The Essay: Fruits Of The Earth, with contributors as diverse as nature writer Richard Mabey, poet Choman Hardi and novelist AS Byatt.
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Spring and its associations with growth, hope and rebirth is something that has always inspired poets. Throughout the Rites Of Spring season, Radio 3 broadcasts a series of spring-related poems across the schedule including works by Chaucer, Robert Frost, Thomas Hardy, Alice Oswald, Seamus Heaney and William Wordsworth.
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Abigail Appleton, Head of Speech Programmes, Radio 3, says: "We hope listeners will find Rites Of Spring an exhilarating exploration of the music, literature and ideas inspired by the season across different cultures. It's a theme that Radio 3's unique mix of music and cultural programming can investigate in an entirely distinctive way."
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Nature writer Richard Mabey presents Sunday Feature: Rites Of Spring, an exploration of the natural phenomena of spring and their representations in art and literature.
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Richard visits the Chilterns, Norfolk and Suffolk exploring the influence of spring on the countryside and discusses with fellow nature writer Ronald Blythe how climate change has affected the season. Other contributors include scholar Jonathan Bate and artist Kurt Jackson looking at spring's cultural associations and reflections.
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On Hear And Now, Robert Worby examines recent developments in natural world sound art and introduces a performance of Edward Cowie's INhabitAT, a 91Èȱ¬ commission inspired by Cowie's favourite landscapes in England, Portugal and Australia performed by the 91Èȱ¬ Singers and Endymion conducted by Nicholas Kok.
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Night Waves broadcasts four letters on the huge range of traditional spring festivals across the world, demonstrating the cultural importance of the season in different societies.
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Novelist Adhaf Soueif writes about the Egyptian spring festival, Sham el Naseem; Calcutta-born novelist Sunetra Gupta describes the riotous and colourful Holi, celebrated by Indian communities around the world. Kurdish poet and writer Choman Hardi explores the memory and meaning of Nowruz, the first day of spring celebrated from Iran to the Balkans; whilst Beijing journalist Lijia Zhang describes spring celebrations in China.
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Throughout the week Afternoon On 3 (weekdays, 2.00-5.00pm) reflects the theme with performances of seasonally inspired music including Britten's Spring Symphony; Copland's Appalachian Spring; Schumann's First Symphony (Spring); Gwilym Simcock's Spring Step; Voices Of Spring by the Waltz King, Johann Strauss; Vaughan Williams' The Springtime Of The Year and Stravinsky's The Rite Of Spring.
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The Essay: Fruits Of The Earth contemplates why fertility has been such a powerful pre-occupation of art and ideas. Four writers, including AS Byatt and biologist Lewis Wolpert, explore diverse aspects of modern day fertility, from contemporary scientific experts to artistic figures whose work is replete with ideas about reproduction.
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Words And Music explores the theme of the circling seasons with poems and readings about birth, Easter, death and renewal.
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The symbolism of rebirth has been a strong influence in writings going right back through most religious texts to ancient Egyptian times, whilst the legend of the Phoenix rising from the ashes appears in literature throughout the ages up to the present day and Harry Potter.
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The programme features actress Josette Simon and includes poetry and prose by Sylvia Plath, William Wordsworth, William Blake, John Donne, Margaret Drabble, Fergal Keane and from the Bible, with music by Delius, Warlock, JS Bach and Saint-Saens.
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Notes to Editors
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Rites Of Spring broadcast schedule:
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- Saturday 22 March, 9.30-10.30am
CD Review: Building A Library
- Saturday 22 March, 10.30pm-midnight
Hear And Now
- Sunday 23 March, 10.15-11.00pm
Sunday Feature: Rites Of Spring
- Sunday 23 March, 11.00pm-midnight
Words And Music
- Monday 24 to Friday 28 March, 2.00-5.00pm
Afternoon On 3
- Monday 24 to Thursday 27 March, 9.45-10.30pm
Night Waves
- Monday 24 to Thursday 27 March, 11.00-11.15pm
The Essay
- Saturday 29 March, 9.30-10.30am
CD Review: Building A Library Simon Heighs on Haydn's The Seasons
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Radio 3 Publicity
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