The recording of Prince Charles reading Burns’ My Love is Like A Red Red Rose and My Heart’s In The Highlands has become an online success for BBC Scotland, with more than half a million hits. The former poem has proved the most popular with listeners, attracting 23,444 hits so far.
BBC Scotland’s Robert Burns archive online project was launched in January as part of the celebration to mark the 250th anniversary of Burns’ birth. Other contributing readers include First Minister Alex Salmond and actors Alan Cumming, Robert Carlyle and Robbie Coltrane. The Prince of Wales recorded two works during a visit to Dumfries House, in Ayrshire, which was built in the year that Burns was born.
Jeff Zycinski, head of Radio Scotland, says: ‘The involvement of Prince Charles gave the project a real boost, and his recitals attracted interest from all around the world.
‘We were especially pleased with the care His Royal Highness took during the recording session. He was very keen to give us a real, heartfelt performance. He’s obviously a busy man, but he kept stressing how important it was to get it right, not just the pronunciations, but the tone and the rhythm.’
So far, 169 of Burns’ works have been added to the online archive, with plans to increase this number over the next two years.
*Listen to Prince Charles reading Robert Burns
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