Fountains & lakes – 12/05/21

To listen press on the audio player below
(you can also download the file –
click on the three dots on the right):


Respighi visits the Trevi Fountains at midday:

Listen to all four fountains


Liszt – who was, apparently, a regular visitor at the Villa d’Este – does the astonishing feat of liquifying the piano:


More fountains and gushes of notes by Ravel:


Szymanowski, with a little help from Ovid, transforms the nymph Arethusa:

The three myths, a complete performance


Debussy in deeply reflective mood; helping us forget that the instrument has hammers:


More from Ovid; this time it’s Britten, who translates Narcissus from boy to flower:

I. Pan – 0:00
II. Phaeton – 1:50
III. Niobe – 3:22
IV. Bacchus – 5:19
V. Narcissus7:45
VI. Arethusa – 10:37


… more Britten – in collaboration with Tennyson – painting a Sublime landscape of castles, mountains, lakes and cataracts:

II. Nocturne: text
all of the Serenade for tenor, horn & strings


A love song by Messiaen: Le lac comme un gros bijou bleu

II. Paysage: text & translation
Poèmes pour Mi, the whole cycle


Two lakes of tears. Tchaikovsky, from Swan Lake

Fonteyn & Nureyev: Swan Lake complete


… and Bartók, from Bluebeard’s Castle:

Bluebeard’s Castle in its entirety


… and finally, Lyadov‘s enchanting Enchanted Lake:


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1 thought on “Fountains & lakes – 12/05/21

  1. Very evocative. Good to get a glimpse through the sixth door of Bluebeard’s Castle, an opera due to be performed last year by the WNO, but postponed (I hope postponed rather than abandoned) because of the pandemic. Tears indeed.

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