WORDS and MUSIC
with narrators:

CHRISTOPHER RAVENSCROFT
ANN PENFOLD
In these programmes, readings narrated by Christopher Ravenscroft and Ann Penfold are woven around music by the composers and their contemporaries.
HAYDN
HIS YEARS IN LONDON
BEETHOVEN
MAN & MUSIC
SCHUMANN
TURBULENCE & FRIENDSHIP
MOZART
MUSIC, LIFE AND LETTERS
SHOSTAKOVICH
WAR & PEACE IN STALIN’S RUSSIA





HAYDN – HIS YEARS IN LONDON
Haydn made two journeys to London in the 1790s. Describing them as ‘some of the best years of my life’, Haydn had an enormously successful time, composing, performing, teaching, travelling, meeting royalty and falling in love. There are many contemporary accounts and letters that describe in detail these wonderful years, where he composed 10 celebrated ‘London’ piano trios.
BEETHOVEN – MAN AND MUSIC
The English Piano Trio presents a programme with music from the piano trios and piano sonatas, interspersed with Beethoven’s revealing letters and contemporary accounts.
SCHUMANN – TURBULENCE & FRIENDSHIP
Robert Schumann’s emotionally turbulent life is unusually well-documented, not least because both he and his wife Clara kept diaries. The revealing and entertaining entries provide and insight into his music, his psychology, his friendships with Mendelssohn, Wagner, Liszt and Brahms, and of course his marriage to Clara, mother of their many children, as well as one of the greatest pianists of her age. The music is from works by both Robert and Clara Schumann, Brahms and Mendelssohn.
MOZART – MUSIC, LIFE AND LETTERS
Mozart composed six magnificent piano trios and two piano quartets. He also wrote letters to family, friends and colleagues. These letters are not only accounts of his work and travels, but also a revelation of an inner world of his joys, worries and emotions. They portray his humour and wit, and make compulsive reading and listening. These readings are woven around movements from his piano trios and piano quartets. The English Piano Trio is joined by viola player Susie Meszaros.
SHOSTAKOVICH – WAR AND PEACE IN STALIN’S RUSSIA
This opens with extracts from the great Russian poet Anna Akhmatova (1889 -1966), evoking the pre-revolutionary Russia of her youth. She described the outbreak of the 1st world war in 1914 as the start of the twentieth century. In this haunting programme, portraying Russia in the 1930s and 1940s, the music largely features Shostakovich’s works, including the 2 piano trios. Part of the great Tchaikovsky trio is also heard and the text is interspersed between the music. Akhmatatova dedicated her poem ‘Music’ to the composer. When Shostakovich was asked why he did not set her words to music he replied “I am not worthy of her talent”.
Christopher Ravenscroft is best known for playing Inspector Mike Burden in the long-running TV series based on Ruth Rendell’s Inspector Wexford novels. As well as regular appearances in many other TV programmes, he has worked extensively with the RSC, in the West End and in regional theatres.
Ann Penfold has played many Shakespearean roles with the RSC, the English Shakespeare Company, and in leading theatres and the West End. She has also numerous TV appearances.