fbpx

The Nightingale

A nightingale starred in the BBC’s first ever live outside radio broadcast – dueting in May 1914 with Elgar’s favourite cellist Beatrice Harrison as she played in her Sussex garden. The public’s response was so ecstatic the concert was repeated every May until 1942 when it was halted amid fears that Germany would gain military intelligence from the background noise of RAF planes.

Among the very many creative icons who have referenced nightingales in their works are Homer, Ovid, Chaucer, Shakespeare, Keats, Wordsworth, Shelley, Beethoven, Liszt, Stravinsky and Hans Christian Andersen. But the much recorded 1939 song “A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square” is improbable. If a bird sang there at all, it was more likely a blackbird!

For further information on the nightingale and the Singing With Nightingales project please click here

Upcoming Events

Singing With Nightingales: Homecoming

Location: Online

Time: 10:30pm - 12am

12

apr

Singing With Nightingales: Festival

Location: Sussex

Time: 28th - 30th April

28

apr

Never miss a show...

Sign up to our monthly newsletter for the latest Nest Collective news and events

The Nest Collective

Never miss a show...

Sign up to our monthly newsletter for the latest Nest Collective news and events