Gratitude
Rory Kinnear and Pandora Colin read from Lytton Strachey, a film star's letter to the composer Mancini, and Yeats in praise of teachers, with music by Beethoven and The Kinks.
Rory Kinnear and Pandora Colin read diary extracts from 1945, recalling visits to see the royal family waving from the balcony of Buckingham Palace and the pubs extending their licensing hours for a programme exploring gratitude on Remembrance Sunday. We hear from Hadley Freeman’s book House of Glass, recalling the trains sent from France to America laden with gifts after the US had sent France food trains in the Second World War. Gratitude to medical staff is much on our minds at the moment so we picture Florence Nightingale, depicted in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem Santa Filomena ‘A lady with a lamp shall stand / In the great history of the land’. Plus poems about our feline friends and the benefits of childhood piano lessons - as well as a thank you letter from Audrey Hepburn to the composer Henry Mancini. And in a reading by Clive James, a poem in which he gives thanks that "the book of my enemy has been remaindered".
The soundtrack includes Beethoven, writing in thanks for the restoration of his health after illness, a very grateful Pharaoh created by Verdi and The Kinks, who are just thankful for The Days.
Producer: Georgia Mann
Readings
Welcome Morning - Anne Sexton
Extract from I Hear You Say So - Elizabeth Bowen
Pied Beauty - Gerard Manley-Hopkins
Extract from Eminent Victorians - Lytton Strachey
St Filomena - Henry Wadsworth-Longfellow
Gratitude To The Unknown Instructors - Yeats
The Book Of My Enemy Has Been Remaindered - Clive James
Extract from The House of Mirth - Edith Wharton
Extract from Twelfth Night - Shakespeare
Audrey Hepburn’s Thank You note to Henry Mancini
Extract from We Shall Never Surrender: British Voices 1939-1945 - Penelope Middelboe and Christopher Grace
Extract from House of Glass - Hadley Freeman
Extract from Wild Gratitude - Edward Hirsch
Extract From My Own Life - Oliver Sacks
Extract from Hope Is The Last To Die - Helen Birenbaum
Thanks In Old Age - Walt Whitman
Last on
Music Played
Timings (where shown) are from the start of the programme in hours and minutes
-
00:00
R. Nathaniel Dett
Morning Barcarolle
Performer: Clipper Erickson.- Direct To Tap, DTR 9807.
-
Anne Sexton
Welcome Morning, read by Pandora Colin
00:01Sammy Cahn & Nicholas Brodszky
How Do You Like Your Eggs in the Morning
Performer: Dean Martin & Helen OÂ’Connell.- Techniche, OMP, B004B3GW2C.
Elizabeth Bowen
Extract from I Hear You Say So, read by Rory Kinnear
00:07°Õ°ùä»å
Sweet Nightingale from album: Short Sharp Shanties: Sea Songs Of A Watchet Sailor, Volume 2
Performer: Sam Lee & Jackie Oates.- Wild Goose, 5016700114126.
Gerard Manley-Hopkins
Pied Beauty, read by Pandora Colin
00:11Ralph Vaughan Williams
5 Mystical songs, no.5; Antiphon (Let all the world)
Choir: Corydon Singers. Orchestra: English Chamber Orchestra. Conductor: Matthew Best.- Hyperion, CDS44322.
00:14Felix Mendelssohn
Lied ohe worte Op. 109 for cello and piano
Performer: Antônio Meneses. Performer: Maria João Pires.- DG, 4790965.
Lytton Strachey
Extract from Eminent Victorians, read by Pandora Colin
Henry Wadsworth-Longfellow
St Filomena, read by Rory Kinnear
00:18Alex Woolf
Extract from The NHS Symphony
Choir: The Bach Choir. Performer: The Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Choir. Conductor: Mark Austin.- 91Èȱ¬ Recording.
Yeats
Gratitude To The Unknown Instructors, read by Rory Kinnear
00:21Beethoven
Sonata for Piano, Op. 2 No. 1, 1st Mvt.
Performer: Alfred Brendel.- Decca 4782118.
Diane Wakowski
Extract from Thanking My Mother for Piano Lessons, read by Pandora Colin
Clive James
The Book Of My Enemy Has Been Remaindered, read by Clive James
00:28The Kinks
Days
- Sanctuary Records Group.
Edith Wharton
Extract from The House of Mirth, read by Pandora Colin
00:33Frank Loesser
Baby ItÂ’s Cold Outside
Performer: Buddy Clark & Dinah Shore.- From The 1940s, Volume II (16 Most Requested Songs), Sony, 5099704510927.
Shakespeare
Extract from Twelfth Night, read by Rory Kinnear
00:35John Rutter
Blow, blow, thou Winter Wind (When Icicles Hang)
Choir: The Cambridge Singers. Orchestra: City of London Sinfonia. Conductor: John Rutter.- Collegium, CSCD516.
00:39Henry Mancini
Theme from Breakfast at Tiffany's
Orchestra: Cincinnati Pops Orchestra. Conductor: Erich Kunzel. Choir: The Henry Mancini Chorus. Conductor: Henry Mancini.- Telarc, CD-80183.
Audrey Hepburn
Audrey HepburnÂ’s Thank You note to Henry Mancini, read by Pandora Colin
Penelope Middelboe and Christopher Grace
Extract from We Shall Never Surrender: British Voices 1939-1945, read by Rory Kinear
00:43°Õ°ùä»å
I Had A Lover
Performer: Kapela ze Wsi Warszawa.- Manteca ?– MANTDCD224.
00:47Mack Gordon & Harry Warren
Chattanooga Choo Choo
Performer: Glenn Miller Orchestra.- Castle Communications , CCSLP 185.
Hadley Freeman
Extract from House of Glass, read by Pandora Colin
00:49Maurice Chevalier
Fleur de Paris
Performer: Maurice Chevalier.- Galaxy Music, 3888032.
00:52Domenico Scarlatti
Sonata (Kk.30) in G minor "Cat's fugue"
Performer: Scott Ross.- Erato, ECD75401.
Edward Hirsch
Extract from Wild Gratitude, read by Rory Kinnear
00:56Al Rinker & Floyd Huddleston
EvÂ’rybody Wants To Be A Cat
Performer: Phil Harris, Scatman Crothers, Liz English, Thurl Ravenscroft, Lord Tim Hudson, Paul Winchell, Vito Scotti, and Robie Lester.- Walt Disney Records, WD 115632.
00:58Beethoven
Extract from Heiliger Dankgesang eines Genesenen an die Gottheit, in der lydischen Tonart
Performer: Takács Quartet.- Decca, 470 849-2.
Oliver Sacks
Extract From My Own Life, read by Rory Kinnear
Helen Birenbaum
Extract from Hope Is The Last To Die, read by Pandora Colin
01:05Isaak Dunayevsky
Extract from Fishing On The River
Performer: Vera Brynner.- Monolit.
Walt Whitman
Thanks In Old Age, read by Rory Kinnear
01:08Tessa Lark
Appalachian Fantasy
Performer: Tessa Lark.- FHR 86.
Broadcasts
- Sun 10 May 2020 17:3091Èȱ¬ Radio 3
- Sun 14 Nov 2021 17:3091Èȱ¬ Radio 3