Nicolai Gedda

Nicolai Gedda0:00

Hello, I'm Kirstie Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs archive. Unfortunately, this episode is incomplete. We still hope you enjoy what we can offer.

Nicolai Gedda0:11

For rights reasons, we've had to shorten the music. The programme was originally broadcast in 1969.

Presenter0:20

Each week, a well-known person is asked the question, if you were to be cast away alone on a desert island, which eight gramophone records would you choose to have with you?

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As usual, the castaway is introduced by Roy Plumley.

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This week, ladies and gentlemen, our castaway is a singer, the international tenor Nikolai Gedder.

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Mr. Gedder, are records important in your life? Do you collect them? Do you play them a lot?

Presenter0:47

Yes, I do.

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I um

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Collect records I do, and I I love to listen to them.

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What do you want your Desert Island records to do for you? Are you choosing them to remind you of the past or to cheer you up or both?

Presenter1:04

I would uh sometimes uh love to think.

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of the past,

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And uh after that I would uh like to have some relaxation, so I would uh listen to something that is not too serious, too classical.

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What's the first one you have there?

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Don Cossack chorus. Yes.

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Well, uh

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Then I would uh listening to this, I would think about my father.

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who was uh Don Cossack himself.

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And uh

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Maybe also because this chorus was the first group that I was very as a boy also very interested in and and listened to their music and their singing with great joy.

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The first Psalm of David sung by the Don Cossack Square. Were you born in Russia? No.

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I was born in Sweden. I've I've never been in Russia.

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You spent your childhood in Sweden? That's right. Except for a few years, uh

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four or five years when we were in in uh Germany. Yes.

Nicolai Gedda3:01

German

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What was that? Uh my father was was a chorus master.

Nicolai Gedda3:03

Uh my f

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In the um

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a Russian church in Leipzig. Mhm. I believe you sang in his choir.

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As a child you showed already outstanding musicianship.

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What did you do when you left school?

Presenter3:21

When I left school uh in s in Sweden I had to go to the military service and where I was a year and then uh

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And then I worked in a bank.

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and I started my singing lessons quite late.

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with the Swedish tenor.

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Karl Martin Uhrman.

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You wanted to be an operatic turner right from the start. No, I didn't. I didn't have any thought.

Nicolai Gedda3:41

Yeah.

Presenter3:44

that. I just wanted to learn how to sing and uh was extremely interested in the technique of singing. But uh I never thought I I would be able to sing on opera operatic stage.

Presenter3:59

And it just happened so that I uh during my studies in the conservatory, uh two of my teachers started the project th for my um debut in the Stockholm Opera.

Nicolai Gedda4:08

Yeah.

Presenter4:10

Yes. What was your debut? It was the uh French opera comic by uh Adolphe Adon, Le Postillon de l'Anjumeau. Yes. This has a very high turner range, doesn't it, Le Postillon? Yes, yes.

Nicolai Gedda4:19

Yeah.

Presenter4:20

Have you sung the other very high turner roles, William Tell or Ipuri Tani? I have. I have recorded William Till and I have I have sung Ipuritani in uh

Nicolai Gedda4:25

I have

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Um in concert form.

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And um

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I s I still have um a a great facility for the the top notes and and uh here in in London I have I had

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sung the um Benvenuto Cellini, which uh which also is very high.

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Well let's have your second record now. What should we have?

Presenter4:53

Mm. The second record is uh G.

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He was always my idol.

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From the beginning I thought that uh the Italian way of singing was the only right one.

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And um of course on that early stage I

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I didn't object to to sometimes uh his lack of of taste and I thought was the most beautiful. Of course I changed my mind later on. What is he singing on this record? Uh he sings the sailor song from from Balo in Muskre by Verdi.

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Uh

Speaker 45:36

And more

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Famyostinosi, turnover.

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Oh Travila Murme Travila Murmi.

Speaker 46:15

Love a

Presenter6:27

Gee Lee singing an aria from 30s.

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Unbalo in Mascara.

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As I

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mentioned my favorite um

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male singer. I would also like to talk about my uh favorite female singer and it is

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Victoria de Los Angeles.

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uh whom I always admired, uh not only as a singer but also as a human being. She is a wonderful girl and um a lovely character.

Speaker 26:54

Uh

Nicolai Gedda6:54

Yeah.

Presenter6:55

For her disc.

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She's uh singing um a song by a composer called Daza.

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It's a Spanish song of the Renaissance.

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Victoria de Los Angeles.

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Now, getting back to your career, Mr. Gedder, you made your Stockholm debut. You were still a student at this time, weren't you? Yes.

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And I after my debut I still had to continue my studies at the conservatory. What did that first performance lead to?

Presenter8:30

Well, the result was that I was engaged at the Stockholm Opera.

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where I actually didn't stay very long. Why was that? Because uh I was lucky enough to uh make uh a very important audition and it was for Walter Legg, who uh

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Listen to me just I think a month after my debut.

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He was um

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Uh looking for voices for recording.

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Uh a complete recording of Boris Godonov.

Speaker 28:59

Mm-hmm.

Presenter9:00

and he and the conductor Isai Dobrovan.

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listened to me and I was

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I was engaged on the spot. Yes. After that came, the other things came one after another. I was uh

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Um it make made my debut at the Paris Opera beginning.

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Well, nineteen fifty-four.

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and then came Coven Garden in London, where I I sang Rigoletto.

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and uh concerts, important concerts in Vienna.

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And so on. Yes. Well, your U United States debut.

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That that was 1957.

Nicolai Gedda9:34

Yeah.

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In New York at Metropolitan Opera.

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And you're now in your, what, twelfth or thirteenth consecutive season at the match.

Presenter9:43

Yes, I uh I finished.

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my twelfth sea season this year.

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What are your favorite roles?

Presenter9:52

I rather prefer doing a complicated character, uh like um for instance Hoffman is is is my favorite. In the Tales of Hoffman. The Tales of Hoffman, yes.

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Or um Benvenuto Cellini, those interesting um and colourful characters. Let's have your next record now.

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Now the next record is Turandot.

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I love the music and I think it's uh it's an

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A very uh beautiful

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Opera

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Which part of it should we hear? Last act, confrontation between uh

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Lieutenant Kaloff and um

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Two Randolph, who's singing. It's Bilgit Nielsen and Franco Correlli.

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Duet from the last act of Tiran Dot sung by Birgit Nielsen and Pranco Corelli.

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We've been talking about

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The operatic side of your career, Mr. Gedder. You you are one of the few opera singers who

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Successfully do a whole evening's song recital. This is now quite a considerable part of your career, isn't it? Oh yes, it is very important.

Presenter11:55

What are your future plans? Where are you going next, after London?

Presenter11:59

After London I I take a few weeks of vacation, uh which I spend in Switzerland.

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And uh then I have uh some concerts. Uh uh there's still um Berlioz celebrations going on. Of course. I sing um uh the Trojans and uh

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the Requiem.

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by Bellius in Rome and Milan,

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And um I appear in several of European festivals, um in two of Scandinavian, Helsinki and um Bergen.

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and the Munich Festival, the Salzburg Festival.

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And the idiom borrow.

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Where is your home now? Is Switzerland your home?

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Well, I uh settled down there because um

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Mm. But but still, of course, I consider consider Sweden as my home. I have my roots there. But uh for a singer the climate is not so good.

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And um I also have an apartment in New York because uh I wouldn't stay in a hotel there, being there so so so long.

Presenter13:06

Each season at the Metropolitan Opera.

Nicolai Gedda13:10

Unfortunately, we cannot play you the Castaway's next choice.

Presenter13:13

How to make up a fire or cook or things like that. And that's your excuse for not being able to put a shelf up or anything of that nature. Exactly.

Nicolai Gedda13:18

I'm not sure.

Nicolai Gedda13:21

Exact exactly.

Presenter13:23

Now on a desert island, I certainly would after listening to the the records I certainly would just

Presenter13:29

Die.

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No good at cooking, not the touching. No.

Nicolai Gedda13:32

Tushing

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Would you try to escape?

Nicolai Gedda13:33

Would you try to escape?

Presenter13:36

I don't think so.

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During the time you survive, what other record would you like to hear?

Presenter13:44

Zorba would be yes, would be uh

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The one that would cheer me up a little. The beginning of of this album.

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is is the vacation atmosphere there that is uh lovely with uh and of course uh my wife being

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Being of Greek origin, I feel close to it.

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A theme from the soundtrack of Zorba the Greek.

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Now we come to your last record. You haven't chosen one of your own recordings yet. Are you going to?

Presenter15:18

No.

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I wouldn't listen to myself on a desert island.

Presenter15:24

Uh when I listen um to my recordings uh I usually do it uh when I am alone.

Presenter15:31

Well, I certainly am alone. I'm alone on a desert island. But I do it more as a study, not for pleasure.

Speaker 215:37

Mm-hmm.

Presenter15:38

Uh I uh

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Listen to a recent recording of mine.

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in order to see if it's good, if there is something that I can develop, if it's something that I can do better.

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And it is actually studying, not really any pleasure. Critically, I'll listen to it. So what is your last one? The last one is The Beatles. Why?

Presenter16:01

Well, I think uh their music uh gives us a serious artist uh a lovely, a wonderful relaxation.

Speaker 216:45

That was love.

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I don't know.

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Hope you will enjoy the show.

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Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, Sergeant Brad.

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Home live on the side.

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The Beatles and Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

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If you could take only one disk of the eight tube play dus, which would it be?

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Well

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I think it would be the Russian song.

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Because uh I would certainly

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like to have some consolation to my soul.

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A Song to My Son

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And one luxury to take to the island with you.

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Something of no practical use.

Presenter17:35

Well, on the desert island I sh I would of course uh take advantage of the sun and I would uh like to have a nice stan before going away.

Presenter17:47

Uh so I I would like to um be comfortable. I would take a rubber mattress with me.

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And one book, assuming that you already have the Bible and Shakespeare.

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I

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think I would take something by

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Dostoevsky, who is my favorite author.

Speaker 418:08

Right will have to be.

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Uh anything uh

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by him the Karamazov brothers.

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Or uh

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The idiot.

Presenter18:19

Right, we'll have those two bound together for you. And you'll have them in Russian, of course. Certainly.

Presenter18:25

And thank you, Nikolai Gedder, for letting us hear your Desert Island Discs. Thank you. It was a pleasure to be with you.

Presenter18:31

Goodbye, everyone.

Nicolai Gedda18:40

You've been listening to a podcast from the Desert Island Discs Archive. For more podcasts, please visit bbc.co.uk slash radio four.