Private Passions - Fleur Adcock

Michael Berkeley meets award-winning poet Fleur Adcock, who was born in New Zealand but has spent most of her adult life in the UK. Words feature prominently in her musical choices, which include songs by Purcell, Britten, Kurt Weill and Bessie Smith, two pieces of sacred choral music and the opening brass fanfare from Janacek's Sinfonietta. Playlist: M Berkeley The Wakeful Poet (Music from Chaucer) (pub OUP) Beaux-Arts Brass Quintet BBQ BBQ 003, Tr 10 Duration: 00m25s Purcell: Nymphs and Shepherds Manchester School Children's Choir Halle Orchestra Hamilton Harty (conductor) (rec 1929) Two Way Family Favourites EMI CDEM 780377-2 CD2, Tr 9 Duration: 03m14s Bessie Smith: Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out With Ed Allen (cornet) Clarence Williams (piano) Cyrus St Clair (tuba) (rec 1929) Bessie Smith CLASSICS 897, Tr 16 Duration: 02m56s Britten: Dirge (Serenade for tenor, horn and strings) Peter Pears (tenor) Barry Tuckwell (horn) London Symphony Orchestra Benjamin Britten (conductor) Britten LONDON 436 395-2, Tr 5 Duration: 03m44s Kurt Weill: Mack the Knife (The Threepenny Opera) (Recorded September 28, 1955) Louis Armstrong and his All-Stars Mack the Knife NAXOS CD 8.120831, Tr 20 (in on music 00m03s) Duration: 03m17s Gillian Whitehead: Hinetekakara Richard Nunns (taonga puoro) Tuhonohono: Ashley Brown (cello) Ben Hoadley (bassoon) Ingrid Culliford, Alexa Still (flutes) Panuke kit e rangi ATOLL ACD 107, Tr 3 Duration: 04m40s Gace Brule: A la doucour de la bele seson Margaret Philpot (alto) Music for the Lion King HELIOS CDH55292, Tr 3 Duration: 04m52s Monteverdi: Nisi Dominus (Vespers of 1610) Taverner Consort, Choir and Players Andrew Parrott (conductor) Monteverdi EMI CDS 7470788 CD1, Tr 13 Duration: 04m49s Janacek: Sinfonietta (1st mvt, Allegretto: Fanfare) Philharmonia Orchestra Simon Rattle (conductor) EMI 566980-2, Tr 1 (begins 00m04s) Duration: 02m19s Faure: In Paradisum (Requiem, Op 48) Choir of St John's College, Cambridge Stephen Cleobury (organ) Academy of St Martin in the Fields George Guest (conductor) DECCA CD 436 486-2 CD1, Tr 7 Duration: 03m40s.