Private Passions - Handel Week - Tom Wright, David Almond

As part of Radio 3's Handel Week Michael Berkeley recalls nine previous guests who are passionate about aspects of Handel's music. They include Tom Wright, Bishop of Durham, and writers David Almond, Kirsty Gunn, Patrick Gale and Janice Galloway. Plus cartoonist Posy Simmonds, journalist Fergal Keane and actor Dominic West, as well as the National Theatre of Brent, who bring the programme to a conclusion with the Hallelujah chorus. Playlist: M Berkeley: The Wakeful Poet (Music from Chaucer - pub OUP) Beaux-Arts Brass Quintet BBQ BBQ 003, Tr 10 00.25 Handel: Comfort ye (Messiah) John Wakefield (tenor) London Symphony Orchestra Colin Davis (conductor) Philips 438 356-2 CD1, Tr 4 02.39 Handel: Verdi Prati (Alcina, Act 2, Sc 11) Ruggiero ...... Teresa Berganza London Symphony Orchestra Richard Bonynge (conductor) DECCA 475 519-2, Tr 11 04.22 Handel: Where'er you walk (Semele, Act 2) Leontyne Price (soprano) Philharmonia Orchestra Henry Lewis (conductor) RCA 09026 61246 2, Tr 6 05.53 Handel: Dominus a dextris tuis (Dixit Dominus) Margaret Marshall, Felicity Palmer (soprano) Richard Morton, Alastair Thompson (tenor) David Wilson-Johnson (bass) Monteverdi Choir and Orchestra John Eliot Gardiner (conductor) Erato ECD 88072, Tr 6 07.20 Handel: Concerto grosso in B flat, Op 3, No 1 (1st mvt) Vienna Concentus Musicus Nikolaus Harnoncourt (conductor) TELDEC 4509 95500-2, Tr 1 02.50 Handel: Let the Bright Seraphim (Samson) Kathleen Battle (soprano) Wynton Marsalis (trumpet) Orchestra of St Luke's John Nelson (conductor) SONY CLASSICAL SK 46672, Tr 1 05.27 Handel: Lascia ch'io pianga (Rinaldo) Ewa Mallas-Godlewska (soprano) Derek Lee Ragin (countertenor) Les Talens Lyriques Christophe Rousset (conductor) TRAVELLING K105, Tr 6 03.57 Handel: Zadok the Priest Organist and Choir of the New Apostolic Church of Cape Town NAC CDSE7, Tr 2 04.51 Handel: Hallelujah Chorus (Messiah) Royal Philharmonic Chorus and Orchestra Thomas Beecham (conductor) RCA 09026-61266-2 CD1, Tr 16 03.33.