The thirteenth-century musical fable translated and adapted for broadcasting by RENE HAGUE with music arranged from contemporary sources by DENIS STEVENS with MARIA KORCHINSKA (harp)
MAXWELL WARD (viola d'amore)
DESMOND DUPRE (viola da gamba)
Directed by Roy JESSON
Produced by DOUGLAS CLEVERDON Third broadcast
Little is known of the origin of the chantefable of Aucassin and Nicolette; it was probably written in Picardy about the beginning of the thirteenth century, but it differs widely In form and spirit from the heroic poetry typical of that region. The scene of the story -Beaucaire in Provence. Cartagena in Spain-and the deliberately sophisticated attitude towards romantic love suggest that it derives from the poetry of the troubadours, or even, beyond them, from the Arabic literature of Spain. It has, in fact, been suggested that the name Aucassin is simply the Arabic al-Kasim and that originally Nicolette was not a Saracen but a Christian slave. The story is a universal one - boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl.

† RUDOLF FIRKUSNY (piano)

or The Swiss Sofa, by Michael Campbell
Michael Campbell went for a sporting holiday last Christmas to Switzerland, but instead of the expected physical invigoration he found Jean-Paul Sartre in the high places. 'Hell is others' indeed, hence his departure. But the Hell of Huis Clos was too much altogether in this heaven.

Sonata in C major. Op. 119 MSTISLAV ROSTROPOVICH (cello) SVIATOSLAV RICHTER (piano) on a gramophone record

reading
The Hunting of the Snark by Lewis CARROLL