The Spoken Word: Edith Sitwell

Edith Sitwell was the queen of twentieth-century English poetry, majestically attired in performance and distinctly regal in her delivery. Drawing on previously unpublished BBC broadcasts, this CD presents a complete programme from 1948 in which she discusses her poetry in great technical detail - illustrating her talk with performed poems and extracts - and a live poetry performance recorded at the Aldeburgh Festival of 1956.
 
Among the poems she reads are 'Aubade', 'Dark Song', 'The Youth with the Red-Gold Hair' and 'The Canticle of the Rose'. The collection is completed with a recording of 'Still Falls the Rain', perhaps her most popular poem, taken from a 1946 disc issued with the aim of improving cultural relations with the U.S.S.R.