Programme Index

Discover 11,128,835 listings and 282,366 playable programmes from the BBC

BEGINNING life in a very humble way, Lully was one of the comparatively few musicians who amassed considerable fortune. His career reads like a romance, from the day when he was picked up at about the ago of ten by the Chevalier do Guise for his niece, Mdlle do Montpensier who had asked for ' a pretty little Italian ' to teach her the language. His playing of the violin soon attracted the notice of influential people, and he rose from one post of distinction to another until he had the whole of musical France very securely under his sway. He was an astute courtier, knowing well how to make his way among the intrigues of the Palace, and enjoyed the favour of his King to a degree which has seldom-been equalled in the history of music. But the manner of his death was as unlucky as the rest of his career had been fortunate. Conducting, in the Royal presence, one day, he struck his foot with the baton and the trifling injury, in the hands of an incompetent surgeon, grew so serious as to prove fatal soon afterwards.
Although this beautiful song, a typical example of his gracious and dignified style, is so often sung, it is clearly one of those evergreen favourites which no repetition can stale.

Sombre Woods - Lully, art. A. L.
I triumph, I triumph - Carissimi

THOSE who saw Reinhardt's magnificent production of The Miracle at Olympia in London in 1911, have no need to be reminded how large a share of its success it owed to Humperdinck's impressive music. Wholly unlike the far bettor known Hansel and Gretel, though it is, it has the same feeling of belonging as of right to the scenes which it is illustrating, and it is of itself such effective music that it is still welcorned apart from its text, on the concert platform.

5XX Daventry

Appears in

About this data

This data is drawn from the Radio Times magazine between 1923 and 2009. It shows what was scheduled to be broadcast, meaning it was subject to change and may not be accurate. More