Edith Sitwell

Edith Sitwell was the queen of 20th century English poetry, majestically attired in performance and distinctly regal in her delivery.

Drawing on previously unpublished BBC broadcasts, this CD presents a complete program from 1948 in which she discusses her poetry in great technical detail - illustrating her talk with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 USSR.