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Only Connect

Mark Strong and Bettrys Jones with various kinds of connections from writers including Anne Sexton, Arthur Conan Doyle and Wendy Cope, plus music that ranges from Brahms to Kate Bush

"Only connect" is the epigraph to EM Forster's novel Howards End - and as the BBC broadcasts a series of programmes for mental well-being - it provides the inspiration for this week's Words and Music. We'll hear readings which describe attempts to connect with others and the pain when those attempts fail. The solace provided by seeking a connection with nature, communication with alien species, the ingenious process of deduction, the technology that connects us to one another, the associations we draw from treasured objects. And there are musical connections from Brahms, Kate Bush, Messiaen, Suzanne Ciani and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan among others. Our readers are Mark Strong and Bettrys Jones

Readings:

EM Forster – Howards End
Robert Browning – Two in the Campagna
Samuel Taylor Coleridge – To Nature
Paul Muldoon – Milkweed and Monarch
John Masefield – Up on the downs
Adrienne Rich – Face To Face
RS Thomas – They
Wendy Cope – For My Sister, Emigrating
Arthur Conan Doyle – The Stockbroker’s Clerk
Ivor Gurney – The Telegraph Post
Jenny Erpenbeck – Go Went Gone
Anne Sexton – When Man Enters Woman
John Keats – On First Looking Into Chapman’s Homer
Naomi Mitchison – Memoirs of a Spacewoman
George Herbert – Denial

Producer: Torquil MacLeod

5 days left to listen

1 hour, 14 minutes

Last on

Sun 11 May 2025 18:00
BBC Radio 3

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Music Played

Timings (where shown) are from the start of the programme in hours and minutes

  • 00:01

    Nico Muhly

    Books

  • 00:04

    Johannes Brahms

    Piano Trio no.1 in B major, Op.8 (2nd mvt: Scherzo: Allegro molto)

    Performer: Geoffroy Couteau. Performer: Amaury Coeytaux. Performer: Raphaël Perraud.
  • 00:11

    Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan & Michael Brook

    My Comfort Remains

  • 00:17

    Einojuhani Rautavaara

    Cantus Arcticus (1st mvt)

    Orchestra: Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra. Conductor: Leif Segerstam.
  • 00:25

    Sergey Rachmaninov

    The Sea and the Gulls (Etudes Tableaux, Op.39 no.2)

    Orchestra: Oregon Symphony. Conductor: James DePreist.
  • 00:34

    Olivier Messiaen

    Quatuor pour la fin du temps

    Performer: Raphaël Sévère. Ensemble: Trio Messiaen.
  • 00:36

    Mason Bates

    Wireless Connections (Mass Transmission)

    Performer: Isabelle Demers. Ensemble: Cappella SF. Conductor: Ragnar Bohlin.
  • 00:41

    Kate Bush

    A Coral Room

  • 00:47

    Towering Inferno

    Not Me (Kaddish)

  • 00:53

    Taj Mahal

    Queen Bee

  • 00:59

    Arthur Honegger

    Pacific 231: Mouvement symphonique no.1

    Orchestra: Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra. Conductor: Mariss Jansons.
  • 01:06

    Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith & Suzanne Ciani

    A New Day

  • 01:11

    Alex Roth

    Bridge of Sleepers (Ponticelli)

    Performer: Philippe Honoré.

Broadcasts

  • Sun 7 Jun 2020 17:30
    BBC Radio 3
  • Sun 11 May 2025 18:00
    BBC Radio 3

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