A beautiful selection of classical music inspired by our feathered friends! Blue tit, robin, lark, nightingale, cuckoo, blackbird and linnet find musical expression alongside exotic pelicans, a bluebird and some imaginary birds. Listen too for the dawn chorus expressed in music and the thieving magpie!
Spring from The Four Seasons
Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741)
Baroque Festival Orchestra conducted by Alberto Lizzio
1. Allegro
2. Largo e pianissimo sempre
3. Allegro (Danzo pastorale)
4. The Cuckoo, Louis-Claude Daquin (1694-1772), Martin Souter, piano
5. The Dawn Chorus, Jean-Philippe Rameau, Martin Souter, piano.
6. The Lark in the Clear Air, Traditional, Ian Giles
7. The Pelican, Thibaut de Navarre (1201-1253), Matthew Spring, hurdy gurdy
8. On Wings of Song, Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847), James Gregory, flute, Martin Souter, piano
9. Bird as Prophet, Robert Schumann (1810-1856), Martin Souter, piano
10. Tit Willow, Gilbert & Sullivan, Hamburg Radio Symphony Orchestra, David Croft
11. Little Bird, Edvard Grieg (1843-1907), Martin Souter, piano
12. Ah, Robin, Anonymous, Serendipity
13. Dou way Robin, Anonymous, The Oxford Girls' Choir
14. The Nightingale in Love, Part 1
15. The Nightingale in Love, Part 2
16. The Linnet
17. The Nightingale Victorious, (Francois Couperin 1668-1733), Martin Souter, harpsichord
18. The Blackbird, Anonymous, Jon Banks, harp
19. The Bluebird, Charles Villiers Stanford (1852-1924), The Cherwell Singers conducted by Julia Craig-McFeely
20. Sumer is Icumen In, Anonymous, The Oxford Girls' Choir
21. Overture to The Thieving Magpie, Gioacchino Rossini (1792-1868), Philharmonia Slavonica conducted by Henry Adolph