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Clive Myrie in conversation with news correspondents. He and John Suchet share stories to reveal the power and significance of music when reporting from conflict situations.

Clive Myrie is in conversation with news correspondents about the music they’ve heard whilst reporting from the front line. With his own extensive experience of covering wars, and his personal love of opera and jazz, Clive and John Suchet share stories to reveal something of the power and significance of music when working in extreme conflict situations.

Former ITN newsman, Beethoven expert and music presenter, John remembers playing an LP in his hotel room of Maria Callas singing Carmen whilst reporting on the 1968 Paris Revolution. Playing Rodrigo's Aranjuez concerto on his Walkman whilst witnessing the horrors of the 1979 Iran revolution. Having Wagner's Entry of the Gods into Valhalla in his head during the 1980 Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. And in 1984, he says: I was heading east from Cyprus to Lebanon, the only passenger on a ship that was steaming towards Beirut: a city in the grip of civil war. At midnight, I went up on deck. I could see a red haze on the horizon; we were travelling towards it. I took my battered old Walkman out of my pocket and played Beethoven's ‘Eroica’ Symphony.

Producer: Natalie Steed
Executive producer: Rosie Boulton
A Must Try Softer Production

56 minutes

Last on

Sat 20 Jul 2024 13:00

Music Played

  • Georges Bizet

    Seguidilla (Carmen)

    Singer: Maria Callas. Orchestra: National Theater Opera Orchestra of Paris. Conductor: Georges Prêtre.
  • Richard Strauss

    Variation 3 (Don Quixote, Op. 35)

    Orchestra: Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra. Conductor: David Zinman.
  • Joaquín Rodrigo

    Concierto de Aranjuez (2nd mvt: Adagio)

    Performer: Julian Bream. Orchestra: Monteverdi Orchestra. Conductor: Sir John Eliot Gardiner.
  • Johann Sebastian Bach

    Fugue in C major (Well-tempered Clavier, Book 1 no.1)

    Performer: Daniel Barenboim.
  • Richard Wagner

    Entry of the Gods into Valhalla (Das Rheingold)

    Orchestra: The Cleveland Orchestra. Conductor: George Szell.
  • Chris Barber

    Ory's Creole Trombone

  • Ludwig van Beethoven

    Symphony No. 3 in E flat major, Op. 55 'Eroica' (Finale)

    Orchestra: Berliner Philharmoniker. Conductor: Sir Simon Rattle.

Broadcast

  • Sat 20 Jul 2024 13:00

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