Please consider Hugo Wolf's orchestral song "Elfinlied".  Being just under
5 minutes it might be easier to use in a radio program than a bigger piece.
This Elfinlied bears no relation to Wolf's Moerike Elfinlied which is far
better known.  This Elfinlied, (for soprano solo, female voice choir and
orchestra) is based on "You spotted snakes with double tongue" from
Midsummers Nights Dream.  Here it's "Bunte Schlangen zweigezungt, Igel,
Molche, fort von hier!"

This song, and the Lied des transferierten Zettel (Bottom Transformed)
were both composed on 11 May 1889, and are all that remain of a planned
opera based on Shakespeare's play.  The stage markings still remain on the
manuscript.  Frank Walker, the great Wolf authority, says of it "This is
an exquisite thing comparable with the fairy music in Berlioz Damnation of
Faust: the orchestral texture is like gossamer, and glistens and sparkles
with all the mysterious activities of an enchanted wood at night.  The
leaves rustle with invisible movements, the nightingale sings, and in the
background is heard the magic horn of the jealous Oberon ".

It's so sweet that you could almost get hyperglycemic listening to it, and
I confess that I sometimes think of twittering bluebirds and pink blossoms,
like in a 30's cartoon.  But it's utterly exquisite.  Well handled it has
a freshness that aerates the sweetness, and the orchestration is as
delicate as the singing.  The chorus, "Nachtigall mit Melodie sing' in
unser Eiapopei!  Eiapopeia!  Eiapopeia" weaves the voices and playing
together ingeniously, effortlessly lyrical.

I only know two recordings of this, both available from www.jpc.de.
Barbara Bonney sang a lovely piano version at the climax of the recent
Wigmore Hall Centenary Gala.

Anne
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