Percy Kahn

Percy Kahn0:00

Hello, I'm Kirsty Young, and this is a download from the Desert Island Discs archive.

Percy Kahn0:05

For rights reasons, we've had to shorten the music. The programme was originally broadcast in 1958.

Percy Kahn0:13

This is a recording as it was being broadcast rather than the studio recording, and for that reason you may hear some interference and some degradation in the sound quality.

Speaker 20:24

Desert island disc.

Presenter0:33

Each week, a well-known person is asked the question.

Presenter0:36

If you were to be cast away alone on a desert island, which eight gramophone records would you choose to have with you, assuming of course that you also had a gramophone?

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As usual, the week's castaway is introduced by Roy Plumley. How do you do, ladies and gentlemen?

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There can be few men with a richer store of musical memories than our castaway this week.

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Composer, tenor, pianist, and accompanist to many great singers and instrumentalists all over the world, here is Percy Carr.

Presenter1:03

Welcome ashore, mister Cant.

Presenter1:05

Have you kept many souvenirs of your career in the form of gramophone records? That were a big collection? Oh yes, I have many. As a matter of fact, I've made hundreds, many in New York. Yeah. With Nisha Elman and other artists, and also a great number here.

Presenter1:22

Well how do you feel about the prospect of of leaving that collection and and going off alone to this desert island?

Percy Kahn1:22

And how do you

Presenter1:27

Well, I hate it.

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I hate loneliness. I like the cheerful company and I'm afraid it's going to be very difficult. Well, we'll hope it's just a short exile. You waved goodbye to your family and you're off to this desert island with just eight records tucked under your arm. What's the first one? The first one I've chosen is the Rachmaninoff Concerto number two in C minor, which is played by the composer, who I consider one of the greatest pianists in the world. Yes. And also Stokovsky, the conductor.

Presenter2:01

I studied with him at the Royal College of Music when he was an organist there and I was an organ scholar. You knew Rat Maninoff too, didn't you? Yes, he came to the Knickerbocker Hotel in New York when I was rehearsing with Misha Elman several times accompanied by Pavlova and sat and listened to our practicing. Very distinguished audience.

Percy Kahn2:07

You knew

Presenter2:23

It was certainly. Well, I'm afraid you can't take the whole of this concerto. Which part would you like? Oh, I'd like to hear the Allegro Scherzando from the third movement. That comes right at the end of the movie. Right at the end, yes.

Percy Kahn2:33

The water.

Presenter3:36

The closing minutes of Rach Maninoff's second piano concerto played by the composer. What's your second choice, Mr. Carr? Well, I would very much like to hear Tetritzini singing the bell song from Lachme. You played for her very often, didn't you? Very often. She was a great coloratura singer.

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And I feel I must tell you this story, which happened at the Albert Hall in 1920.

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Um when she sang this aria.

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She has to trill on the top.

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B at the end

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And

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Mount to the top E in out.

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Well, she'd been away some time uh abroad.

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And when she returned, she was received with such wonderful enthusiasm, and she was so overcome by this reception,

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That

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She trilled on the stop B.

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And not a sound came out for the last top E. So I walked off the platform.

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and practically off the platform when she ran after me.

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and brought me back promptly on the piano stool,

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And asked me for the cord. I gave her the cord and she

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Trilled on this top E magnificently. She had a most marvellous trill, as you will hear, and sang the top E with the most wonderful sound.

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And the audience went wild.

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Well let's hear the record.

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The Voice of Luisa Tetruszini.

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Mr Cohen, how did your career start? What decided you to become a musician?

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I think because my parents were both very musical.

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And wanted all the boys and girls to learn music. How many of you were there?

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There were five of us all together. And how many became musicians? Three of us. That's a very good average.

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How old were you when you started learning music? I was seven.

Percy Kahn6:28

I'm a

Presenter6:31

Yeah.

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What did you learn the piano? Yes, I learnt the piano. And uh a Reverend Charles Everett heard me sing and play and was so impressed that he uh

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It took me to the Royal College.

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About music?

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and uh where I sang and played for Sir George Grove and Doctor Parrott. They were both very much impressed and uh Sir George found me a teacher.

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For the piano.

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And uh Doctor Parrott wanted me to sing in his choir at Windsor.

Speaker 27:05

Peter?

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No, my tutor

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Charles Everett. I was singing his choir and uh I couldn't

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Except at Sir Walter's offer. You couldn't let him down. I couldn't let him down. No.

Percy Kahn7:18

No.

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So yeah.

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I had this new teacher and I made great progress.

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And in the meantime, Mr. Arthur Pepin took over the teaching of me.

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Uh the piano and he taught me the organ.

Speaker 37:35

Uh

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Uh

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And uh eventually

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I won at a free open scholarship at the Royal College of Music for organ and studied with Sir Walter Parrott. You were at the Royal College for what, four years? For four years. In the meantime I was running up and down the country singing, you see, soprano. I had a wonderful voice, they say.

Percy Kahn7:47

Yeah, what the hell?

Speaker 27:52

Yeah.

Presenter7:55

And I sang at the pantomime in Liverpool Shakespeare Theatre and also at the Palace Theatre in London Shaftesbury Avenue for which I got £20 a week, both for the pantomime and the Palace Theatre. It was a lot of money in those days. Yes, it was. And when you had finished your years at the Royal College, what happened to you then? Sir Walter wanted me to go to Sydney Cathedral as organist.

Percy Kahn8:12

And when

Presenter8:19

But I didn't want to bury myself there as an organist. I wanted to see the world.

Percy Kahn8:25

Yeah.

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And so I started accompanying. Yes. Well, having got you started in the the main part of your career as an accompanist, I think we might break off and have the third record. What's that going to be?

Presenter8:36

The third record is going to be Le Faba Day.

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By Misha Elbatten, played by Misha Ellman and myself. Yes, you were in companies to Mischa Ellman for a long time, weren't you? Yes, for seven years.

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Well let's hear you're both together playing Les Fafa de.

Speaker 28:52

Uh

Speaker 39:23

Uh

Speaker 39:50

Um

Presenter9:55

Misha Ellman playing Les Fafa Day with you accompanying him. Mr. Carne, let's hear about some more of the famous artists that you've accompanied in the past. Well, I have accompanied Caruso very often and he was the greatest of all tenors, greatest of all singers.

Presenter10:12

Is he uh a pleasant man to work with?

Percy Kahn10:12

Has he uh

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Pleasant Veddy

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I I enjoyed working with him immensely. At the Knickerbocker Hotel, I went and sang some of my songs to him, some of my compositions, and uh he was very, very pleased with an arv maria which I had uh uh set.

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Uh to music.

Speaker 310:32

Uh

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And he said, Oh, I'll make a record of that if you can write an obligato for Misha and we'll record it next week. So we did.

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We met in a special room rigged up for him in Thirty Second Street and uh

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We began the recording.

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Caruso wasn't pleased with his singing.

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Michelle

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Wasn't pleased with his uh uh playing the second time, you see, we had to repeat it.

Percy Kahn11:01

Yeah.

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The third time

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Well none of us were very pleased.

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So we had to repeat it a fourth time.

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And it was so wonderful.

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and so beautifully done that I jumped from my my piano stool, clapped my hands together wildly and said, That was perfectly splendid.

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And so I spoilt the record. The recording had still gone on, naturally, in those days, you see.

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Caruso took it all in good part and laughed heartily and went over to a screen there, knocked his head against the screen and regardless of fatigue, of course we had to do it a fifth time.

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And this is the one you're going to hear now, the Arvina Rio record, with Mishaoma playing the violin obligato and myself at the piano.

Speaker 311:57

Somebody

Presenter12:55

Well that's a record that's been taken to this desert island before.

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What are we going to hear now, mister Carne?

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Well, I would like you to put on Paras's aria.

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From Solojincy's Fair by Mrs. Gay

Percy Kahn13:08

Zog

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Sung by Odas Lobot Skya. Yes, why'd you choose this?

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Well, I choose it because

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I was the first to play for her when she came from America, when she sang under the name of Ode Carreno.

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She sank first in England at the Hippodrome Brighton.

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and then at the Palladium.

Speaker 313:32

Uh

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and I was her accompanist there.

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And uh Lionel Powell, the impresario, heard her sing.

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and was so delighted that he gave her an international celebrity concert.

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when she assumed her own name Odyslavodskaya.

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I toured with her naturally.

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Many times.

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And

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I think this record is a very wonderful one.

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I think I should enjoy hearing her sing it.

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because uh it's so cheerful at the end that I almost got up and danced when uh she sang it.

Speaker 314:29

So much keep me with me.

Speaker 314:34

Oh, make sure to take a look at me!

Speaker 314:46

Why did you find it more?

Presenter15:12

Yes, that's a very gay song.

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So now we've come to disc number six.

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Disc number six, I would like you to put on Neumannwagen by this.

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Played by Simon Barrea.

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who I consider possess the greatest technique, piano technique, in the world.

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He assisted on one of uh Richard Tauber's

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Tours with me.

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And he played this piece. It was so marvellous.

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And

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When on tour with Tetratsini on her farewell tour,

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In thirty-three

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Um Piati Gorski, the famous cellist who was assisting at this concert, told me that Hodovitz had told him

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That uh

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Barair could do more with four fingers than he himself could do with his ten.

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That's a very fine recommendation. Let's listen now to Siemen Barra.

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Playing Norman Reagan.

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That's certainly a dazzling performance.

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Now there's a very important question that always crops up in this program, Mr. Khan. How are you going to look after yourself on this island?

Presenter17:27

Well, first of all, I should be very lonely and uh I think I could manage that all right.

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I once gave Sandow, the strong man, some singing lessons and he in return taught me some of his famous exercises and I think I should be able to climb a tree and get some coconuts.

Presenter17:50

I'm still very agile at seventy-seven. Splendid. Um are you a fisherman? You live by the sea. Do you ever go fishing? No. Uh the only time I fished was uh on Picted Sound.

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with uh the mayor

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Uh on his launch.

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And the first time I had a wonderful catch. Well, let's have that your fisherman's luck continues. Well, you've got some coconuts and some fish. Could you cook them?

Presenter18:16

Yes, I could. My wife says I'm quite a good cook. I can c scramble an egg and I should be able to make a fire with a f a flint or something. Yes, oh you're going to be all right. Let let's get back to music. Let's get to record number seven. Well number seven is I strage me miner.

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I keep

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You in my heart.

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By Richard Strauss.

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Sung by Richard Tauba. Yes. You were Richard Tauba's accompanist and coach right up to the time of his death, weren't you? Yes, I spent 15 thrilling and happy years with him.

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and during that time travelled the five continents of the world.

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He was a great uh artist, a great singer.

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great musician and a great conductor.

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And you could have made a living at any of those callings.

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His father was the director of the Chemnitz Opera House, so he was brought up on music as it were.

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Well as the souvenir of that fifteen years, let's listen to you both in this recording of the song.

Speaker 319:25

Yeah.

Speaker 319:31

Roger mine ameen of all of whom in my house are no deems in the meeting.

Percy Kahn19:32

I mean the horn of all

Percy Kahn19:39

De Maharno deems in only

Speaker 319:45

Uh oh

Speaker 319:59

Lost glory to me, God

Speaker 320:02

Oh yeah.

Speaker 320:04

Shimirdashi do

Presenter20:16

And after that record by Richard Tauber, we come to your last one.

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Number eight. What's that?

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Well, I would love to hear the nightingale and the rose.

Percy Kahn20:25

Uh Uh

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By Muzovsky, sung by Rosa Poncell.

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She was uh a wonderful artist, a wonderful singer, and she sang with Caruso in the last opera he ever appeared in at the Metropolitan La Jouève.

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But this song is simply wonderful. The tone is so beautiful and so perfect. She's such a great artist. By the way, it's my wife's favorite record.

Presenter21:50

You've certainly chosen some lovely records to take with you on this island, Mr. Cant. You've still got one more choice to make. Every castaway has one luxury. What are you going to take with you?

Presenter22:00

Well, it's very difficult to say.

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Because I should be very, very lonely there.

Percy Kahn22:04

Lonely

Presenter22:05

And I think I would like to take a tape recorder with a big supply of batteries. And what you're going to put on it.

Percy Kahn22:11

With a big

Presenter22:14

I want to

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Uh sing some melodies.

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which I can record.

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and compose music to them when I return if if I can get safely off the island and also I want to listen to the birds' beautiful voices.

Presenter22:31

So we can look forward to some more songs that you've composed when you get back from the island.

Presenter22:35

That would be a pleasure. Well, thank you so much, Percy Count, for letting us hear your choice of Desert Island Disc. Not at all. I enjoyed it.

Percy Kahn22:36

Well, thank you so much.

Presenter22:42

Our little talk together. Goodbye, everyone.

Speaker 222:52

The guest in today's recorded programme was Percy Kahn, the interviewer Roy Plumley, and the producer Monica Chapman.

Percy Kahn22:59

You've been listening to a download from the Desert Island Discs archive.

Percy Kahn23:03

For more downloads, please visit the Radio4 website.