George Eliot's World
George Eliot was a lifelong piano player and many of her novels and letters allude to it. The music includes works by Liszt, Handel, Clara Schumann and Tchaikovsky.
From meeting Clara Schumann to the piano playing doctor's wife in Middlemarch - Fiona Shaw, Ellie Kendrick and Philip Bretherton read from the novels, letters and journals of George Eliot, as well as responses to her and her work from the likes of Henry James and Virginia Woolf. The music is what she might have chosen to listen to including pieces by Clara Schumann, Bach, Liszt, Haydn, Handel and Purcell.
George Eliot played the piano all her life, was passionate about music and alludes to it many times in her novels and diaries. In her journal she talked of 鈥榤usic that stirs all one鈥檚 devout emotions blends everything into harmony 鈥� makes one feel part of one whole, which one loves all alike, losing the sense of a separate self鈥�.
She knew and was friends many composers including Richard Wagner, Franz Liszt and Anton Rubenstein. In 1854 Eliot was travelling across Europe and met a famous pianist and composer in Weimar. It was Clara Schumann, described by Eliot as 鈥榓n interesting, melancholic creature鈥�. In Eliot鈥檚 novel, Daniel Deronda, she quotes from Rossini鈥檚 Otello, where he set to music Dante鈥檚 words:
Nessun maggior dolore
Che ricordarsi del tempo felice
Nella misseria
There is no greater sorrow than to recall happiness in the midst of misery.
On the Free Thinking website Fiona Shaw shares her insights into George Eliot's Mill on the Floss with a panel chaired by Shahidha Bari /programmes/m000bf70
Producer: Fiona McLean
Readings:
Daniel Deronda
Woman in France
Silas Marner
Middlemarch
Simone de Beauvoir - Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter
The Mill on the Floss
Letter to Maria Congreve
Mr Gilfil's Love Story
Henry James - Letter to his father
Lady Ritchie - on George Eliot
W.L. Courtney - on George Eliot
George Eliot - from her Journal
George Eliot - from Self and Life
Edmund Gosse - on seeing George Eliot
Daniel Deronda
George Eliot- on Finishing Middlemarch
Middlemarch
Virginia Woolf George Eliot
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Music Played
Timings (where shown) are from the start of the programme in hours and minutes
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George Eliot
Daniel Deronda, read by Ellie Kendrick
George Eliot
Woman in France, read by Fiona Shaw
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00:00Johann Sebastian Bach
Sonata no 3 in G Major, Allegro
Performer: Yo-Yo Ma and Kenneth Cooper.- CBS CD37794.
- Tr11.
George Eliot
from Silas Marner, read by Fiona Shaw
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00:05Franz Liszt
Piano Concerto no 1 Allegretto Vivace
Performer: Daniel Barenboim, Staatskapelle Berlin.- DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 4779521.
- Tr9.
George Eliot
from Middlemarch, read by Ellie Kendrick
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00:11Clara Schumann
Trio in G Minor Tempo di Menuetto
Performer: Boulanger Trio.- ARS 38048.
- Tr2.
Simone de Beauvoir
Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter, read by Fiona Shaw
George Eliot
from The Mill on the Floss, read by Ellie Kendrick
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00:15Joseph Haydn
The Creation
Performer: Rodney Gilfry, Donna Brown, The Monteverdi Choir, John Eliot Gardiner (conductor).- ARCHIV 4492172.
- Tr11.
George Eliot
Letter to Maria Congreve, read by read by Fiona Shaw
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00:23Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Symphony no 1 Scherzo
Performer: Russian National Orchestra, conducted by Mikhail Pletnev.- DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 4499672.
- Tr3.
George Eliot
Mr Gilfil聮s Love Story, read by Ellie Kendrick
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00:31Fr茅d茅ric Chopin
Etude No 3
Performer: Murray Perahia.- SONY 88697648232.
- CD3 Tr11.
Henry James
Letter to his father, read by Philip Bretherton
Lady Ritchie
On George Eliot, read by Ellie Kendrick
W.L. Courtney
on George Eliot, read by Philip Bretherton
George Eliot
from her Journal, read by Ellie Kendrick
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00:35George Frideric Handel
Concerto in B Flat Major Allegro ma non presto
Performer: Karl Richter.- TELDEC 4509979002.
- CD1 Tr12.
George Eliot
from Self and Life, read by Ellie Kendrick
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00:39Henry Purcell
Dido and Aeneas
Performer: Anne Soffie van Otter, The Choir of the English Concert, Trevor Pinnock (conductor).- ARCHIV 4276242.
- Tr21.
Edmund Gosse
Edmund Gosse on seeing George Eliot, read by Philip Bretherton
George Eliot
from Daniel Deronda, read by Fiona Shaw
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00:51Anton Rubinstein
Cello Sonata no 1 Allegro moderato
Performer: Steven Isserlis, Stephen Hough.- RCA 09026682902.
- Tr7.
George Eliot
On Finishing Middlemarch, read by Fiona Shaw
George Eliot
from Middlemarch, read by Ellie Kendrick
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00:43Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Concerto no 23 in A Major Allegro assai
Performer: Murray Perahia, The English Chamber Orchestra.- CBS Records.
- Tr3.
George Eliot
After finishing Middlemarch, read by Fiona Shaw
George Eliot
from Middlemarch, read by Ellie Kendrick
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00:58Johannes Brahms
Quartet in G minor Intermezzo
Performer: Daniel Hope, Paul Neubauer, David Finckel, Wu Han.- DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 4794609.
- Tr7.
Virginia Woolf
George Eliot, read by Fiona Shaw
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01:07Franz Schubert
Symphony No 5 in B flat major Andante Con Moto
Performer: Berliner Philharmoniker, Herbert von Karajan (conductor).- EMI CMS7698842.
- CD3 Tr2.
Broadcasts
- Sun 24 Nov 2019 17:30蜜芽传媒 Radio 3
- Wed 23 Dec 2020 18:15蜜芽传媒 Radio 3
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