Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Eight records
Oh, because I've heard him play it and I like the way he played it so much. I love his playing. Beautiful piano playing.
I couldn't be lonely if I heard that on my Desert Island.
Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 61
I've chosen it because it's a concerto I love very much, especially That coming from the slow movement, that lovely slow movement into the last movement. I think it's a wonderful piece of writing and it's such a lovely work.
Closing duet from Der Rosenkavalier
Elisabeth Schumann and Maria Olszewska
that lovely duet at the end of The Rose and Cavalier.
Oh yes, several times. I met he was out in Africa not very long ago. Sent me the biggest bouquet of flowers anybody's ever seen. She could hardly get into our city hall, it was so huge.
It makes a lovely piano solo too.
Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 68, last movementFavourite
Herbert von Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
That beautiful Horn passage in it.
The keepsakes
The book
Leo Tolstoy
Well, if I had to have one book, I'd have one piece, because I've never had time to read that properly.
The luxury
Yes, I think that must be a billiard table. You're fond of billiards. Oh, yes, really. I've never been able to play much because you don't get a chance a woman never gets a chance of playing billiards, but I love it.
In conversation
Presenter asks
How good would you be at enduring loneliness on a desert island?
I don't think I would find it very difficult if I had books to read and.
Presenter asks
Whereabouts in Australia were you born?
I was born in Queensland, to a place called Toowa, up in the Darling Downs.
Presenter asks
How old were you when you started to play the piano?
Well, I actually started trying the piano when I was a year and nine months old, but I really played when I was three. I played quite a lot.
The recording
Timestamps play the recording from that turn
Speaker 1
BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts.
Speaker 1
Hello, I'm Lauren Laverne and this is the Desert Island Discs podcast. For rights reasons, the music is shorter than on the original broadcast. The presenter is Roy Plomley. I hope you enjoy listening.
Presenter
This week, ladies and gentlemen, our castaway is the veteran Australian-born pianist, Dr. Elsie Hall.
Presenter
doctor Hall, how good would you be at enduring loneliness on a desert island?
Dr Elsie Hall
I don't think I would find it very difficult if I had books to read and.
Presenter
Well, you're you're going to have the Bible and Shakespeare and one book that I'm going to ask you to choose later on, and of course your eight records. How did you set about choosing these eight?
Dr Elsie Hall
I just thought of the pieces that I would like to hear. I I think of what I hear in my mind when I've got nothing to do and I've always got music in my head. Do you play records a lot? No, I don't.
Dr Elsie Hall
What's the first one you've chosen?
Dr Elsie Hall
Horowitz playing a a scarletti sonata.
Dr Elsie Hall
Uh
Presenter
Why do you choose this?
Dr Elsie Hall
Oh, because I've heard him play it and I like the way he played it so much. I love his playing. Beautiful piano playing.
Presenter
Vladimir Horowitz playing a sonata in A major by Scarletti. What's your second record?
Dr Elsie Hall
Well, my second one is Susie, singing Claire de Lune Foray, which is a song I love.
Dr Elsie Hall
I couldn't be lonely if I heard that on my Desert Island.
Speaker 4
Is a glottid extant.
Presenter
Whereabouts in Australia were you born, doctor Ho?
Dr Elsie Hall
I was born in Queensland, to a place called Toowa, up in the Darling Downs.
Presenter
Yes.
Dr Elsie Hall
Yeah.
Presenter
What do you have?
Presenter
Your parents' musical?
Dr Elsie Hall
My mother very musical, my father not.
Presenter
How old were you when you started to play the piano?
Dr Elsie Hall
Well, I actually started trying the piano when I was a year and nine months old, but I really played when I was three. I played quite a lot. So you've been a piece of ninety years.
Presenter
So you'll be
Dr Elsie Hall
I suppose so. Getting oh, not quite now, Take, getting on.
Presenter
When did you first play in public?
Dr Elsie Hall
Oh, I first played in public at the Sydney University.
Dr Elsie Hall
And I played a Beethoven concerto, the first ribbon of number three, with the university orchestra, conducted by my old teacher, Professor
Presenter
Yeah.
Dr Elsie Hall
Uh
Presenter
Critschman. How old were you then?
Dr Elsie Hall
Yeah.
Presenter
Seven.
Dr Elsie Hall
Where did you study?
Dr Elsie Hall
Well, I studied first of all with Kristen in Sydney, and then when my mother took me to Europe when I was about nine, I suppose, I went to Stuttgart and I was at that very cruel system, the Leibiton Stock.
Dr Elsie Hall
And my mother realised that it wasn't doing my arm any good.
Dr Elsie Hall
And she took me away. I was there two years. Yes. And I played at various concerts. I played Mozart concertos. And I also played to the Queen of Wittenberg.
Dr Elsie Hall
I was sent to play to her'cause I was considered a wonderful little girl.
Dr Elsie Hall
Now I remember I was shocked later on in life when I realised that when she held out her hand, I didn't kiss it or curtsy, just shook it. Being an Australian, I didn't know any better, I suppose.
Presenter
When you left Stuttgart, where did you where did you go?
Dr Elsie Hall
We went var we went to London var Paris.
Presenter
What about your more general education at this time?
Dr Elsie Hall
Oh, well, that happened when I got to England. Then I had to go to school. I went to Clapham High School.
Presenter
Is
Presenter
And you were giving concerts in London at that time. I believe that George Bernard Shaw, who was then a music critic, gave you a very good notice at one of your London recitals.
Dr Elsie Hall
He did indeed.
Dr Elsie Hall
But he said that I ought to be shut away until I'd grown a little bit older, that I was too young to be playing.
Presenter
Another critic called you the Antipodean phenomenon.
Dr Elsie Hall
What did they do there? Horrible name.
Dr Elsie Hall
What's that?
Presenter
But your studies were not yet over, even after
Presenter
Yeah.
Dr Elsie Hall
Well um
Dr Elsie Hall
My studies really began when I went to Berlin to the Hoekschule. We did work hard there.
Presenter
Who did we study with that?
Dr Elsie Hall
I was with a man called Ernst Rudolph. He was a great friend of Flau Schumann.
Dr Elsie Hall
And he was a beautiful pianist, a very delicate man. He only took four pupils.
Presenter
You also studied with Joachim, the violin
Dr Elsie Hall
Well, I used to go and listen to all his quartet lessons, you know, and hear a lot of chamber music, which I otherwise would never have had the chance of hearing, I think.
Dr Elsie Hall
While you were at the Hochschule, you met Brahms, I believe.
Dr Elsie Hall
Yes, I did at one of the rehearsals, the orchestra rehearsals.
Dr Elsie Hall
Romes used sometimes to come and conduct the orchestra. They were all students, of course.
Dr Elsie Hall
And so Joachim called me over that day and introduced me to him, and I was very proud indeed.
Presenter
Who else did you meet? I I believe you met Madame Schumann, Clara Schumann.
Dr Elsie Hall
I went down to Madame Schumann to play. I won the Mendelssohn sependium in Berlin at the end of my time. I must have been perhaps about seventeen. And then I went to Madame Schumann and played to her.
Dr Elsie Hall
She was really nice, but she did say to me, You haven't got the physique to be a concert pianist, you're much too delicate. It rather annoyed me.
Dr Elsie Hall
Feeling I wasn't at all delicate.
Presenter
Did you have a a gay time in in Berlin when you were a student or was it
Presenter
hard work and strict application.
Dr Elsie Hall
Spring
Dr Elsie Hall
It was all work, but it was work one loved doing, you see. I mean, one had
Dr Elsie Hall
history and uh counterpoint, you know, and everything. I was singing, I used to take singing as a second subject. I always imagined I could sing. I used to think I'd be able to sing anywhere if the leading soprano was ill, that they only had to ask for me to go and I'd do any part.
Presenter
But they didn't ask it.
Dr Elsie Hall
Yeah.
Presenter
What a shame. Let's have your next day.
Dr Elsie Hall
Let's have your next day.
Presenter
What have you chosen next?
Dr Elsie Hall
The Beethoven Violin Concerta.
Presenter
Yes.
Presenter
Why have you chosen that?
Dr Elsie Hall
Well
Dr Elsie Hall
I've chosen it because it's a concerto I love very much, especially
Dr Elsie Hall
That coming from the slow movement, that lovely slow movement into the last movement.
Dr Elsie Hall
I think it's a wonderful piece of writing and it's such a lovely work.
Presenter
An excerpt from the Beethoven Violin Concerto with Arto Grumio as soloist.
Presenter
Now, Doctor Hall, you finished your studies in Germany by playing to Clara Schumann.
Presenter
Did you make any public appearances in Berlin?
Dr Elsie Hall
Yes, I played with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra with Joachim conducting. And then I also gave a recital at the Bechstein Hall in Berlin, had very good notices for that.
Presenter
Yeah.
Dr Elsie Hall
And quite soon he went back to Australia.
Presenter
Uh
Dr Elsie Hall
Uh
Presenter
Yeah.
Dr Elsie Hall
Yes, quite fairly soon. I had a season in London.
Dr Elsie Hall
And my mother thought I ought to go back to Australia, let Australia see what I'd done. I don't think Australia was very pleased, but still we did go back.
Presenter
Was there a lot going on in Australia?
Dr Elsie Hall
Oh yeah.
Presenter
Yeah.
Dr Elsie Hall
Yeah.
Presenter
On the musical scene?
Dr Elsie Hall
Oh yes, quite a lot of music and I toured all over Australia.
Presenter
You did some teaching, too.
Dr Elsie Hall
I did some teaching in Adelaide. I was nearly a year in Adelaide at the end of my time. Then after that, I came to England again.
Presenter
Yes. Did you find plenty of work awaiting you here?
Dr Elsie Hall
Yes, I did. I was very lucky.
Dr Elsie Hall
I was engaged almost at once to go and play at Worcester with Edward Elgar, and I played a Beethoven concerto there.
Dr Elsie Hall
And then I had numbers of engagements of one sort and another, and I played at the proms.
Presenter
Yes.
Presenter
And then you decided to go and live in South Africa.
Dr Elsie Hall
Well then I decided to get married, you know. Then I went to live in South Africa.
Presenter
Your husband's work took you there.
Dr Elsie Hall
He was interested in
Dr Elsie Hall
Getting curing in everybody of the fly, including animals. Latterly, he spent his life curing cattle of fly, and instead of them weighing about 120 pounds, they'd go to market weighing 900 and a thousand pounds. Great work.
Speaker 1
Okay.
Dr Elsie Hall
Very interesting.
Dr Elsie Hall
And you know, when you live in a fly country like that, you can't stay up there all the time. It's not safe.
Dr Elsie Hall
But now it's quite safe. It's all Northern Radio's clear of fly now. Practically.
Presenter
When you had a family, when you had children to look after, you moved down to Cape Town.
Dr Elsie Hall
Then we had a home in Cape Town.
Presenter
You did continue to come to Europe from time to time.
Dr Elsie Hall
Oh yes, we came fairly often to Europe when the children were quite small and my husband worked over here for a time. Then very often I used to go abroad when I could.
Dr Elsie Hall
And have lessons. I went over and had lessons once with Mitna and I travelled about. I had a very good time really travelling about. I was in London a lot too. I always got engagements when I came to England. It was very lucky, wasn't it?
Presenter
So you had the best of both worlds, looking after your family and your home. in South Africa and coming over here.
Dr Elsie Hall
South Africa
Dr Elsie Hall
I think so. I think you can really say that.
Presenter
Let's have your next record, number four. What's that?
Dr Elsie Hall
The Brahms song with Elizabeth Truman singing for Gabriel Sleepchin.
Speaker 4
I'm not sure if I can do it.
Speaker 4
Looted on it, my king.
Dr Elsie Hall
Yeah.
Speaker 1
Yeah.
Speaker 4
Oh sleep to the side.
Speaker 1
Yeah.
Speaker 4
Remove danger.
Speaker 1
Dangerous.
Speaker 4
Mahmerot, Marviron, Mahmiro Myter, Shaw Stitch next time He shall stick next time.
Speaker 1
You should not stitch this time.
Speaker 4
Uto di rit, miacou, pierce so hero.
Speaker 1
How
Speaker 4
Coffee noun from
Speaker 4
Best in mail, best in mail, for five.
Speaker 4
So Kaidi Sino Joe is it and feels
Speaker 1
Yeah.
Speaker 4
You don't say it.
Speaker 4
Yeah.
Presenter
During the last war, you travelled a lot.
Dr Elsie Hall
playing to the South African forces. Yes, I was sent up
Dr Elsie Hall
By the government to play to the troops. I went up just at the end of the war in 1944.
Dr Elsie Hall
I would have gone up earlier, but the um whoever was arranging it down in Cape Town, I forget now who he was, but one of the top men there wanted me to go up in uniform. I refused to go and play in uniform. I mean, you can't go and play to soldiers in that very unbecoming uniform dress. I said if I play to concerts, I want to have a nice evening frock on, let them have a
Dr Elsie Hall
A really proper concert. So he didn't want me to go up, but
Dr Elsie Hall
General Tyron, who was a great friend of mine and who was up there, you know, the head general there.
Dr Elsie Hall
He sent for me, he got me to go, so then I went, I went all over Egypt.
Dr Elsie Hall
Played at music for all and all those places there and went all the whole way down the coast to.
Dr Elsie Hall
Benghazi?
Presenter
Mm-hmm.
Dr Elsie Hall
to Bruce, all those places and then all over Italy.
Presenter
Yeah.
Presenter
And since the war you've been very busy in South Africa a as a pianist and as an impresario.
Dr Elsie Hall
Yes, in a way, I felt that one ought to bring out more music to Africa than one could get. I brought out the Amsterdam String Quartet.
Dr Elsie Hall
And the Leewingut Quartet who are lovely, and the Kidianos who are also lovely. Now somebody else has taken it over anyway. Too much hard work.
Presenter
And to celebrate your ninetieth birthday you made a long playing record.
Dr Elsie Hall
Yes.
Dr Elsie Hall
I had a wonderful concert. I thought I'd give a concert as a tribute to the people who'd helped me in my career.
Dr Elsie Hall
And I played something in memory of all of them. I played the Schumann Fantasy, and I played a Bach Patita.
Dr Elsie Hall
And I played Submitna.
Dr Elsie Hall
And some bronze.
Dr Elsie Hall
And then I had to play an encore.
Dr Elsie Hall
Well, that was rather difficult, so I thought, oh, I'll play Old Lang Syne. And I thought they'd all sing, but they didn't. Many of them cried. They were very touched by Old Lang Syne.
Presenter
That's a record number five.
Presenter
What should we have?
Dr Elsie Hall
The Rose and Cavalier, that lovely duet at the end of The Rose and Cavalier.
Presenter
The closing duet from De Rose and Cavalier, sung by Elizabeth Schumann again and Maria Olszetska.
Presenter
What shall we have next?
Dr Elsie Hall
Well, I think we might have a little bit of Noel Card now, don't you think so? We can have I'll see you again.
Presenter
Yes. Have you met Nerlkart?
Dr Elsie Hall
Oh yes, several times. I met he was out in Africa not very long ago.
Dr Elsie Hall
Sent me the biggest bouquet of flowers anybody's ever seen. She could hardly get into our city hall, it was so huge.
Presenter
Let's listen to him singing I'll see you again from Bittersweet.
Speaker 4
Time may I have it between But what has been
Speaker 4
Can't leave me now.
Speaker 4
Your dear memory Throughout my life will come to me
Speaker 4
Oh my woo.
Dr Elsie Hall
Yeah.
Dr Elsie Hall
Yeah.
Presenter
Are you a
Dr Elsie Hall
Practical purpose.
Presenter
Lesson Doctor Hall.
Dr Elsie Hall
Oh, I think so, yes. I sew and I do embroidery and cook.
Presenter
A drink.
Dr Elsie Hall
Do do you like copy?
Presenter
Uh
Presenter
What are your interests apart from music?
Dr Elsie Hall
Oh, mum, all m all my things are lazy things. I like playing bridge.
Presenter
Yeah, yeah.
Dr Elsie Hall
Am I gambling?
Dr Elsie Hall
I like horse racing, only I have no luck.
Presenter
Do you read a lot? Yes, I read a lot. What is the book you're going to choose for your Desert Island?
Dr Elsie Hall
Well, if I had to have one book, I'd have one piece, because I've never had time to read that properly.
Presenter
Yes, it's a good long book.
Presenter
Right, left have record number seven.
Dr Elsie Hall
Oh, that's to be sung by
Dr Elsie Hall
That beautiful man, Fisher Disco.
Presenter
Watch the song
Dr Elsie Hall
Stress extension.
Dr Elsie Hall
It makes a lovely piano solo too.
Speaker 4
The hove, the hove, the wise and I king, and kind of fortune but to make them.
Speaker 4
How Murmur Counting the degree and not a degree.
Speaker 1
Take after the
Speaker 4
I'm not sure if I can do it.
Speaker 4
Me, I would
Speaker 1
God
Speaker 4
Orange me
Presenter
The Richard Strauss tension.
Presenter
Sung by Dietrich Fischer Diskar with Gerald Moore.
Presenter
At the piano.
Presenter
What's your last record? What have you saved till the end?
Dr Elsie Hall
The last record which I'd like so much to hear is the last movement of the number one Symphony of Brahms.
Dr Elsie Hall
That beautiful Horn passage in it.
Presenter
And who's to conduct it?
Dr Elsie Hall
I think Karayan would conduct it.
Presenter
The Brahms first symphony, Herbert von Karian, conducting the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. If you could take just one of the eight records you've chosen, which would it be? It would be the Brahms Symphony.
Presenter
And you've told us which book you're going to take. One luxury to take to the desert island.
Dr Elsie Hall
Yes, I think that must be a billiard table. You're fond of billiards. Oh, yes, really. I've never been able to play much because you don't get a chance a woman never gets a chance of playing billiards, but I love it.
Presenter
Well, you'll get plenty of chance with war and peace in the evenings and billiards in the afternoon.
Dr Elsie Hall
Yes, it sounds an ideal life, eh?
Presenter
And thank you, Dr. L C Hall, for letting us hear your desert island discs.
Dr Elsie Hall
Well, thank you very much. I've enjoyed it enormously, and I hope I've done properly by you.
Presenter
You have indeed. Goodbye, everyone.
Presenter asks
While you were at the Hochschule, you met Brahms, I believe. What do you remember about that?
Yes, I did at one of the rehearsals, the orchestra rehearsals. Romes used sometimes to come and conduct the orchestra. They were all students, of course. And so Joachim called me over that day and introduced me to him, and I was very proud indeed.
Presenter asks
Who else did you meet? I believe you met Clara Schumann.
I went down to Madame Schumann to play. I won the Mendelssohn sependium in Berlin at the end of my time. I must have been perhaps about seventeen. And then I went to Madame Schumann and played to her. She was really nice, but she did say to me, You haven't got the physique to be a concert pianist, you're much too delicate. It rather annoyed me. Feeling I wasn't at all delicate.
Presenter asks
What did you do during the last war?
playing to the South African forces. Yes, I was sent up By the government to play to the troops. I went up just at the end of the war in 1944. I would have gone up earlier, but the um whoever was arranging it down in Cape Town, I forget now who he was, but one of the top men there wanted me to go up in uniform. I refused to go and play in uniform. I mean, you can't go and play to soldiers in that very unbecoming uniform dress. I said if I play to concerts, I want to have a nice evening frock on, let them have a A really proper concert. So he didn't want me to go up, but General Tyron, who was a great friend of mine and who was up there, you know, the head general there. He sent for me, he got me to go, so then I went, I went all over Egypt. Played at music for all and all those places there and went all the whole way down the coast to. Benghazi? to Bruce, all those places and then all over Italy.
“I didn't kiss it or curtsy, just shook it. Being an Australian, I didn't know any better, I suppose.”
“She was really nice, but she did say to me, You haven't got the physique to be a concert pianist, you're much too delicate. It rather annoyed me. Feeling I wasn't at all delicate.”
“I refused to go and play in uniform. I mean, you can't go and play to soldiers in that very unbecoming uniform dress. I said if I play to concerts, I want to have a nice evening frock on, let them have a really proper concert.”
“I played something in memory of all of them. I played the Schumann Fantasy, and I played a Bach Patita. And I played Submitna. And some bronze. And then I had to play an encore. Well, that was rather difficult, so I thought, oh, I'll play Old Lang Syne. And I thought they'd all sing, but they didn't. Many of them cried. They were very touched by Old Lang Syne.”
“I think that must be a billiard table. You're fond of billiards. Oh, yes, really. I've never been able to play much because you don't get a chance a woman never gets a chance of playing billiards, but I love it.”