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How Pleasing the Pain Is

As part of the 91热爆's focus on disability this month, marking the 25th anniversary of the Disability Discrimination Act, Hannah French explores musical depictions of pain.

Pain, a near-universal experience in one way or another 鈥 from toothache and physical agony, to lovelorn loss, and searing grief. We all have our own methods of relieving it....that's if we want to. It鈥檚 one of the building blocks of human emotion, of human expression, and to depict it in art, and especially music has been the artists obsession since time immemorial. Whether distilling emotion in tones when words fail or moving an audience to tears, we return to it time and again, because on some level we all experience the artistic beauty, the pleasure of pain, the need to feel the raw emotion laid bare.

As part of the 91热爆's focus on disability this month, marking the 25th anniversary of the Disability Discrimination Act, Hannah French explores musical depictions of pain from composers such as William Cornysh, Claudio Monteverdi, Thomas Crecquillon, Purcell, Biber and Handel.

59 minutes

Music Played

  • Thomas Crecquillon

    Alix avoit aux dens la male rage

    Ensemble: Egidius Kwartet.
    • Etcetera Records.
  • William Cornysh

    Woefully Arrayed

    Ensemble: Stile Antico.
    • HARMONIA MUNDI.
  • Luca Marenzio

    Crudele, acerba

    Ensemble: La Venexiana.
    • GLOSSA.
  • Carlo Gesualdo

    Io pur respiro in cosi gran dolore

    Choir: Collegium Vocale Gent. Conductor: Philippe Herreweghe.
    • PHI.
  • Claudio Monteverdi

    Lamento d'Arianna

    Choir: Concerto Vocale. Conductor: Ren茅 Jacobs.
    • HARMONIA MUNDI.
  • Claudio Monteverdi

    Lamento della Ninfa

    Ensemble: Concerto Italiano. Conductor: Rinaldo Alessandrini.
    • NAIVE.
  • Henry Purcell

    Music for a while Z.583

    Singer: Iestyn Davies.
    • SIGNUM CLASSICS.
  • Giovanni Battista Pergolesi

    Stabat Mater

    Singer: Barbara Bonney. Singer: Andreas Scholl. Orchestra: Les Talens Lyriques. Conductor: Christophe Rousset.
  • George Frideric Handel

    Pianger貌 la sorte mia (Giulio Cesare)

    Singer: Danielle de Niese. Orchestra: Les Arts Florissants. Conductor: William Christie.
    • Decca.
  • Jean鈥怭hilippe Rameau

    Lieux Funestes [Dardanus]

    Singer: Bernard Richter. Ensemble: Pygmalion. Conductor: Rapha毛l Pichon.
    • Alpha Productions.
  • Marin Marais

    Le tableau de l'operation de la taille

    Ensemble: Orpheon Consort.
    • ORPHEON.
  • Dieterich Buxtehude

    Vulnerasti cor meum (Cantata VI: Ad Cor) [Membra Jesu Nostri)

    Choir: Choir of Trinity College, Cambridge. Ensemble: Newe Vialles. Ensemble: Orpheus Britannicus. Conductor: Andrew Arthur.
    • RESONUS.
  • Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber

    Sonata VI: The Agony in the Garden [The Rosary Sonatas]

    Performer: Andrew Manze. Performer: Richard Egarr.
    • HARMONIA MUNDI.
  • George Frideric Handel

    La脽t diese Tat nicht ungerochen / Uns盲glich ist mein Schmerz [Brockes-Passion]

    Singer: Tim Mead. Ensemble: Academy of Ancient Music. Director: Richard Egarr.
    • AAM.
  • Johann Sebastian Bach

    Es ist vollbracht [St John Passion]

    Singer: Damien Guillon. Orchestra: Bach Collegium Japan. Conductor: Masaaki Suzuki.
    • BIS.

Broadcast

  • Sun 8 Nov 2020 14:00

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