Forum des auditeurs passionnés et critiques de France Culture

Charles Aznavour contained multitudes. The quintessentially French outsider. The struggling bohemian and king of light entertainment who could fill the Albert Hall. His life and career explored across five Essays.

This ballad of a working man's dream of escape, an escape that can never be truly free from the boundaries of self and one's own despair.
'What makes the song so powerful, so gripping? For one thing, anyone can relate to its sentiment. Who has never stood on a crowded tube train, staring out of the window at a travel advert showing white sand, blue waters, palm trees in the breeze – and wished to be transported there instantly?. The song buttonholes you, calls out to you, pleads with you: take me away with you, please. And at the same time, you feel what the docker feels – his entrapment in a dead-end life, his sense of monotony and alienation, his burning desire for escape and flight.'

Written for a musical, La Bohème was one of the songs Charles Aznavour most loved to sing. He recorded versions of it in French, English and Italian, and he performed it right up to the end of his life. It’s a whole history of Paris in its title alone. When Aznavour performed the song in later life, he’d sing it while miming the gestures of a painter and a sculptor, using a handkerchief as a prop. It was a huge hit for Aznavour, its nostalgia for young love wrapped up in an entrancing tale about the artistic past of Paris proving an irresistible combination for generations of listeners.

This was the English version of his "Les plaisirs démodés". He sang it on his 1973 BBC Special, where it was an instant hit, resonating with an audience nostalgic for times past in what was a difficult year of social strife in Britain. The Old Fashioned Way was on the British charts for 15 weeks.

Aznavour était la quintessence de l'outsider français, mais en 1976, il a créé une chanson qui parlait de ses racines et de la douleur et de la disparition de la génération du génocide arménien de 1915. Une chanson qui l'a rendu encore plus populaire auprès de la diaspora arménienne. Puis, en 1988, un tremblement de terre massif a frappé la terre natale de ses parents, et il a écrit Pour Toi, Armenie. Le documentariste Nare Mkrtchyan explore le passé arménien du chanteur et son influence sur son œuvre.
Ils étaient si semblables : Aznavour et l'Arménie. Tous deux fragiles et petits par la taille mais géants par l'esprit ; remplis de luttes et pourtant jamais prêts à abandonner leur rêve d'une belle existence, croyant au pouvoir de l'amour même au milieu de la cruauté humaine et de la noirceur".

Traduit avec www.DeepL.com/Translator (version gratuite)

Aznavour was the quintessential French outsider, but in 1976 he crafted a song that spoke to his roots and the generational pain and loss of the Armenian genocide of 1915. A song that only further endeared him to the Armenian diaspora. And then in 1988 disaster struck with a massive earthquake in his parents' land of birth, and he wrote Pour Toi, Armenie. The documentarian Nare Mkrtchyan explores the singer's Armenian past and its influence on his work.
'They were so similar: Aznavour and Armenia. Both fragile and small in size but giants in spirit; filled with struggles and yet never willing to give up on their dream of beautiful existence, believing in the power of love even in the middle of human cruelty and darkness.'

Petroc Trelawny presents Radio 3's classical breakfast show, featuring listener requests and the Friday poem.

A vitally important disc, full of humanity and compassion while remaining uncompromising in its musical delivery.
Colin Clarke

We met composer Sadie Harrison (born 1965) before on Classical Explorer - her piece Fire in Song was featured on the disc for clarinet and strings.

The title of this newest disc refers to Harrison's Pasture and Storm Project: music for left-hand alone pianist, begun in early 2020 and finished in Autumn 2022. Two events had a major effect on the composer: inevitably, the pandemic, but also the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban. Various people have been further inspirations: a young pianist with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome, a chance meeting with two amateur pianists, both of whom were rehabulitating after suffering right-sided strokes. The pianist Nicholas McCarthy was born without a right hand; he became the first one-handed pianist to graduate from the Royal College of Music.
The title comes from the writings of American cell biologist Kenneth Raymond:
The piano's world encompasses glass-nerved virtuos (sic) and stomping barrel-housers in fedoras, it is a world of pasture and storm, of perfumed smoke, of liquid mathematics.
Landscape is at the core of this album, whether that is the three works doirectly related to Afghanistan (Kabul, 'When I woke at midnight'; The Nightingales of Afghanistan; I kiss the earth); ... the people of His pasture (Scenes from the Luttrell Psalter); Work Songs for the Land (the bonus download) and I sha'n't be gone long (The Pasture) relate to living and working in pastoral landscapes. Explorations of psychogeography seem to be at the heart of the work here, it seems (the word has wider and deeper resonannces than the Wikipedia article implies). Other works, Round Dances and The Book of Storms, touch upon and share these ideas. (...)

Philaunet(https://regardfc.1fr1.net/t13p890-bbc-radio-3-radio-4#38821) a écrit:BBC 3 Breakfast Friday - Petroc's classical picks [26 05 2023]

Petroc Trelawny presents Radio 3's classical breakfast show, featuring listener requests and the Friday poem.

Concert live donné dans le cadre de la première Master class d’improvisation qui a eu lieu du 17 au 19 juillet 2017 autour de l’orgue renaissance (1557) de Saint-Savin en Lavedan.
Sietze de Vries, organiste de la Martinikerk de Groningen (NL), a improvisé sur divers thèmes :
- Veni Creator : 3 versets dans le style gothique
- Psaume 33 : Partita
- Vierge de la Montagne : Suite de danse
- Une jeune fillette : Partita

A slighted lover begins to plot an elaborate revenge.
Last of five darkly comic tales by Roald Dahl.
Dramatised by Stephen Sheridan.
Storyteller ...... Charles Dance
Gladys Ponsonby ...... Sarah Badel
John Roydon ...... Jonathan Keeble
Janet de Pelagia ...... Katie Scarfe
Director: David Blount
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4, first broadcast in December 2009.

Cantique de Syméon en français et en latin « Nunc dimíttis servum tuum Dómine » composé par l’Évangéliste Saint Luc (Lc 2, 29-32) à l’aide des textes d’Isaïe et chanté ou récité tous les soirs à l’Office des Complies avant le repos de la nuit.

« Nunc dimíttis servum tuum, Dómine, * secúndum verbum tuum in pace,
« Maintenant, Seigneur, Tu peux laisser aller Ton serviteur, * en paix selon ta Parole, (...)

Philaunet(https://regardfc.1fr1.net/t13p890-bbc-radio-3-radio-4#38821) a écrit:BBC 3 Breakfast Friday - Petroc's classical picks [26 05 2023]

Petroc Trelawny presents Radio 3's classical breakfast show, featuring listener requests and the Friday poem.

Sorry, this episode is not currently available depuis aujourd'hui (30 jours en ligne pour la majorité des émission de la BBC), il faut donc se retourner vers Internet pour trouver  les pièces mémorables diffusées dans l'émission.

Violinist Karen Gomyo brings a unique playlist to Inside Music, with an array of sounds including a violin that sounds like a cricket, the multi-stringed Indian violin and a cedar flute echoing through the canyons of the vast American Southwest. Karen also brings her musician’s insight to some firm favourites by Grieg, Beethoven, Sibelius and Elgar and introduces music played by violist Hiyoli Togawa that will get you in the mood for a good spring clean.

A series in which each week a musician explores a selection of music - from the inside.

A Tandem Production for BBC Radio 3

Dans ces dix émissions, l'écrivain Richard King parcourt la côte britannique pour rencontrer des personnes qui y vivent et y travaillent - une suite de portraits ancrés dans des lieux distincts, qui s'assemblent pour former un portrait alternatif du Royaume-Uni : une image oblique de la nation dessinée à partir de la bordure côtière.

Philaunet(https://regardfc.1fr1.net/t13p890-bbc-radio-3-radio-4#38821) a écrit:BBC 3 Breakfast Friday - Petroc's classical picks [26 05 2023]

Petroc Trelawny presents Radio 3's classical breakfast show, featuring listener requests and the Friday poem.

Sorry, this episode is not currently available depuis aujourd'hui (30 jours en ligne pour la majorité des émission de la BBC), il faut donc se retourner vers Internet pour trouver  les pièces mémorables diffusées dans l'émission. (...)

Anoush (opera) Anoush (also Anush, Armenian: Անուշ; Russian: Ануш) is a five-act opera composed by Armen Tigranian, based on the homonymous poem written by Hovhannes Tumanian in 1892. Originally composed in 1912, it was first performed in Alexandrapol, but it had to wait until 1935 for its full professional staging at the Armenian National Opera Theater. Until nowadays, Anoush remains in the repertoire of the theater. The opera has special importance to Armenian musical history as one of its most significant accomplishments. Being a work of national character, Anoush was the first opera truly inspired by Armenian folk music and culture, and it is perhaps the most popular Armenian musical and theatrical work. The opera is about the tragedy of a peasant girl (Anoush) whose short love affair ends in loss and death because of conflict between her lover (Saro) and her brother (Mossy). Plot The tragic love story is set in a typical 19th century Armenian village. Anoush is a young village woman who falls in love with a shepherd, named Saro. One evening, at a village wedding celebration, Mossy, Anoush's brother, and Saro fight in a friendly wrestling match. However, instead of letting Mossy win, as is the prevailing custom, Saro violates the local code of honor and humiliates him by pinning him. Enraged, Mossy vows to destroy Saro, who is now his enemy. Eventually, Mossy shoots Saro dead, and from this loss, Anoush becomes insane with grief, and ends her life by throwing herself off a cliff. (From Wikipedia)

The opera has special importance to Armenian musical history as one of its most significant accomplishments. Being a work of national character, Anoush was the first opera truly inspired by Armenian folk music and culture, and it is perhaps the most popular Armenian musical and theatrical work.
The opera is about the tragedy of a peasant girl (Anoush) whose short love affair ends in loss and death because of conflict between her lover (Saro) and her brother (Mossy).
From a shelter in Artsakh during the height of the 2020 war, children reimagine the story of Anoush, the famous poem by Toumanyan that they have grown up with. Anoush becomes their escape, their fears, their dreams, and their lives.

Kyrylo Tkachenko vit à Kiev. Dans son essai, l'historien se pose une question à laquelle des milliers d'Ukrainiens sont confrontés : Faut-il aller à la guerre ?

Tkachenko aborde cette question d'un point de vue subjectif. Dans le même temps, il tente d'expliquer dans ce texte pourquoi les Ukrainiens ont décidé de ne pas se rendre sans combattre.

L'auteur aborde les peurs primaires de la population ukrainienne, qui se sont réveillées face à l'invasion russe, et se demande si la participation à une guerre défensive peut également être justifiée rationnellement.

Traduit avec www.DeepL.com/Translator (version gratuite)

Depuis plus de 15 mois, les forces armées ukrainiennes résistent à la supériorité numérique de la force d'invasion russe. Mais tous les Ukrainiens soumis à l'appel sous les drapeaux ne sont pas prêts à se battre. Plus de 6 000 Ukrainiens en âge de servir dans l'armée ont bénéficié d'une protection en Roumanie depuis le début de la guerre, selon les chiffres fournis par l'autorité roumaine chargée de l'immigration. Certains ont quitté l'Ukraine pour échapper à l'appel sous les drapeaux. D'autres ont servi sur le front avant de déposer les armes. La Roumanie a une frontière de 600 kilomètres avec l'Ukraine, difficile à franchir. Il faut choisir entre une courte traversée à la nage d'une rivière rapide ou une longue marche à travers des montagnes enneigées. Un certain nombre de ceux qui ont essayé sont morts en tentant l'aventure. Nick Thorpe s'est rendu dans la région frontalière pour rencontrer des hommes ukrainiens qui ne veulent pas participer à la guerre.

Traduit avec www.DeepL.com/Translator (version gratuite)

For more than 15 months the Ukrainian armed forces have held out against the superior numbers of the Russian invasion force. But not every Ukrainian man subject to the draft is willing to fight. More than 6,000 Ukrainian men of military age have been granted protection in Romania since the beginning of the war, according to figures supplied by the Romanian immigration authority. Some left Ukraine in order to avoid the draft. Others served on the front before throwing down their weapons. Romania has a 600-kilometre border with Ukraine, which is difficult to cross. The choice is either a short swim across a fast-moving river or a long trek over snow-covered mountains. A number of those who’ve tried have died in the attempt. Nick Thorpe has been to the border region to meet Ukrainian men who don’t want to fight in the war.
Presented by Nick Thorpe
Producers Tim Mansel and Mircea Barbu
Production coordinator Helena Warwick-Cross
Music Caspar Thorpe
Studio mix Neil Churchill
Series editor Penny Murphy