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Classical music to lift the spirits

Music for a journey of discovery.

Today's mixtape in our positive mental health week is about that fundamental human journey we all take at various times in our lives: discovery. Poulenc's jolly, mythical Embarkment for Cythera kick-starts our half hour, morphing into music by the Abbess Hildegard of Bingen, beautifully updated and reaching back and forth between the millenia: music that has inspired explorers of new age ideas as well as the feminist movement. John Cage's In a Landscape next: the American composer's piano essay meanders in a still wilderness of searching beauty. Borodin next and then Mozart, a composer who retained his childish fascination for discovery. Then comes Berlioz's Harold in Italy, the viola doubling as Harold, our hero wandering in the Abruzzi pennines; the healing power of nature is writ large in this piece. Staying in a world of enchantment, our 'discovery' journey ends with Ravel's masterpiece Fairy Garden, ending on a note of incomparable beauty and love.

30 minutes

Music Played

  • Francis Poulenc

    L'embarquement pour Cyth猫re

    Performer: Seta Tanyel. Performer: Jeremy Brown.
    • CHANDOS.
  • Hildegard von Bingen

    O virtus sapientiae; Dixit Dominus; O virtus sapientiae

    Singer: Victoria Couper. Ensemble: Sinfonye. Director: Stevie Wishart.
    • DECCA.
  • John Cage

    In a landscape

    Performer: Noel Lee.
    • American music for piano: Noel Lee.
    • Harmonia Mundi.
    • 13.
  • Alexander Borodin

    Serenata alla spagnola

    Ensemble: Borodin Quartet.
    • Teldec.
  • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

    Divertimento in F major K.138 (1st mvt)

    Orchestra: Freiburg Baroque Orchestra. Director: Petra M眉llejans.
    • Mozart: Divertimenti.
    • Harmonia Mundi.
    • 11.
  • Hector Berlioz

    Harold in Italy, Op.16 (Serenade)

    Performer: Lise Berthaud. Orchestra: Op茅ra de Lyon. Conductor: Leonard Slatkin.
    • Berlioz: Harold en Italie.
    • Naxos.
    • 3.
  • Maurice Ravel

    Mother Goose Suite

    Performer: Martha Argerich. Performer: Nelson Freire.
    • DG.

Broadcast

  • Thu 21 May 2020 19:00

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