Benno Moiseiwitsch

Speaker 10:01

BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts. Hi, I'm Lauren Laverne. Welcome to this archive edition of Desert Island Discs. The programme was broadcast in October 1958. The castaway was the pianist Beno Moisevich, and the presenter was Roy Plumley. What you're about to hear was recorded off-air, so isn't of broadcast quality. You can find the complete list of the tracks chosen on his castaway page on the Desert Island Discs website. The music has been shortened for rights reasons. We hope you enjoy listening.

Presenter0:31

Our castaway this week is one of the world's greatest pianists.

Presenter0:35

Now very active in his 51st season as a counter performer, here is Deno Moisevich.

Presenter0:41

No.

Presenter0:44

Not in your own? Well, I have all my records chiefly because they said to me

Presenter0:49

After I made them.

Presenter0:52

With the few exceptions of Records Play.

Presenter0:55

Friends, I couldn't come with some collector.

Presenter0:59

How long ago did you make your own first record? Well, that was about 1915. And you've been recording ever since. In the old days, before the electric recording started.

Presenter1:09

Now how do you feel about this prospect of being dumped alone on a desert island? I'm not looking forward to it at all. You like having people around, don't you?

Presenter1:18

I like to have people, I like to have life, I like comfort.

Presenter1:22

Yes, none of which I'm afraid we can promise you on the island. How have you set about choosing these eight records that might make life a little bit better?

Presenter1:31

Well, since you sort of intend to kidnap me

Presenter1:34

I gave it a little thought and I decided I would rather choose some records that bring me into spiritual communion.

Presenter1:42

with friends that recorded them or composed them.

Presenter1:46

or lived in parts of the world.

Presenter1:49

Which has a special nostalgic memory. Yes. What's the first one you've got?

Presenter1:54

First one I have

Presenter1:56

Isn't music.

Presenter1:57

and accepted sense.

Presenter1:59

But I sort of visualize myself being custom.

Presenter2:03

island of yours and I know that I would be terribly miserable.

Presenter2:08

And that somehow brought me back.

Presenter2:10

To the gloomy, dark days of the war, when we were all suffering.

Presenter2:15

And

Presenter2:17

Went through cheerless days.

Presenter2:19

But we always looked forward to hearing a voice that always inspired us.

Presenter2:26

Confident.

Presenter2:27

Optimism.

Presenter2:29

And goods here.

Presenter2:30

I would like to hear that voice.

Presenter2:33

Yeah.

Benno Moiseiwitsch2:33

Right now.

Presenter2:34

Yeah.

Benno Moiseiwitsch2:34

It's like

Benno Moiseiwitsch2:36

that he will have to break us in this island or lose the war.

Benno Moiseiwitsch2:41

If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free.

Benno Moiseiwitsch2:45

and the life of the world may move forward.

Benno Moiseiwitsch2:48

into broad pandit uplands.

Benno Moiseiwitsch2:54

But if we fail.

Benno Moiseiwitsch2:55

Then the whole world

Benno Moiseiwitsch2:57

including the United States.

Benno Moiseiwitsch3:01

including all that we have known and cared for.

Benno Moiseiwitsch3:05

We'll sink into the abyss.

Benno Moiseiwitsch3:07

of a new dark age.

Benno Moiseiwitsch3:10

Made more sinister.

Benno Moiseiwitsch3:12

And perhaps more protracted.

Benno Moiseiwitsch3:14

By the light

Benno Moiseiwitsch3:16

I've perverted Siam.

Benno Moiseiwitsch3:19

Uh

Presenter3:19

The inspiring voice of Winston Churchill and an excerpt from one of his famous wartime speeches, this one was in June 1940.

Presenter3:28

What's your second choice, Mr. Moz?

Presenter3:30

My second choice

Presenter3:31

is a recording of a rehearsal by Toscanini. All the world knows that he was the greatest conductor that ever lived.

Presenter3:39

But few have a glimpse.

Presenter3:42

And the way he manages

Presenter3:44

and trains his orchestra and he's never happy, loses his temper until he reaches just what he wants.

Speaker 13:46

Never

Presenter3:52

And of course you generally hear just what he wants, but you don't know how he achieves it.

Presenter3:56

So this is a sample of the rehearsal.

Presenter5:06

Fascinating and unique glimpse of Toscanini at rehearsal, a very rare record which I'm afraid is not generally obtainable.

Presenter5:14

Coordinate.

Presenter5:15

Before we come to the next record, I would like to mention something which is not known to the world, and I'm sure they would be interested.

Presenter5:24

One day, then, Mr. Churchill.

Presenter5:26

Say to me that if you'd chosen

Presenter5:29

Music is a profession.

Presenter5:31

He would have liked to have been a conductor. Little did he realize that he really proved the greatest conductor of all time.

Presenter5:39

By the way he conducted his war cabinet, his ministers

Presenter5:43

If somebody

Presenter5:45

Playing out of tune.

Presenter5:46

Pick another member of the orchestra.

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Until he formed.

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Greatest combination.

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Members in the orchestra.

Presenter5:55

And with that, he achieved retirement.

Presenter5:58

Conducting

Presenter5:59

A great triumph, as we all know.

Presenter6:02

The very apt analogy.

Presenter6:05

Now what's your third record in the peak?

Presenter6:08

For the third record I would like the Brasileano or Brasileira.

Presenter6:13

Number five.

Presenter6:15

By Villa Lobos.

Presenter6:17

I had the pleasure of knowing personally. It's beautifully recorded and it reminds me so much of the exotic.

Presenter6:24

countries that I visited.

Presenter6:26

One of them was Brazil.

Presenter6:28

And the superb artist Lidusayao singing, that is.

Presenter6:33

Yeah.

Presenter7:29

Rachianas Brasilearas number five by Vila Lobos and I do agree with you about that last note.

Presenter7:36

Now, with Moisevich, at this point the the castaway is expected to undergo an interrogation about his early life. You were born in Russia, is that right?

Presenter7:45

Yes.

Presenter7:46

Where but

Presenter7:47

South, Odessa, a lovely town in

Presenter7:52

Well, I left it about fifty-four years ago, but I still have most lovely memories of the town.

Presenter7:59

Did you have many opportunities to hear music as a child? Were y were your parents musical?

Presenter8:04

Uh parents? No, they were not active musicians, but always very fond of music.

Speaker 18:05

No

Presenter8:11

The only member in the family, we were seven brothers and two sisters.

Presenter8:15

was one of my sisters that to play the piano.

Presenter8:19

And for my sins.

Presenter8:20

Somehow it was discovered.

Presenter8:23

Always

Presenter8:25

Tending is a fliveted.

Presenter8:26

to the piano when she was practicing.

Presenter8:29

How old were you when when you started studying yourself?

Presenter8:32

Ooh, about half past six. Half past six. And you started in a desert.

Presenter8:38

Studied for five years in Odessa.

Presenter8:41

Mm-hmm.

Presenter8:44

Then uh

Presenter8:46

Well, if I must confess.

Presenter8:49

I was expelled from Muslim.

Presenter8:51

Any great number.

Presenter8:53

Uh not because I was bad.

Presenter8:56

That's it.

Presenter8:57

Pupil

Presenter8:58

Yeah.

Presenter8:59

I was supposed to be very mischievous.

Presenter9:01

And one day they discovered that the brick from the gate was on the floor.

Presenter9:06

And I frivolously say that I did it.

Presenter9:10

Well, I was called before the directors.

Presenter9:13

And they said we made allowances for you all these years, but when you start demolishing the school, that is too much for you.

Presenter9:22

So they really punished me for three months or so. But meanwhile

Presenter9:28

Yeah.

Presenter9:29

messages with my brother that lived in London.

Presenter9:32

and they decided to send me to London to continue my studies.

Presenter9:37

And I went and played to Professor Doctor Cummings, who once said that he didn't think there was anyone in this country who could teach me.

Presenter9:46

and advised me strongly to go to Vienna, where the greatest cannot teacher Plishetsky live.

Presenter9:52

And I win.

Presenter9:55

And I stayed there for

Presenter9:56

Three seasons, about two and a half years. I wrote back in the summer of 1908.

Presenter10:01

Gave my first concert in Reading on the first of October, and here we are. Oh, let's break off there and have record number four. What's that going to be? For the fourth record, I would like you to hear an arrangement for the piano by a very great friend of mine.

Presenter10:17

Vladimir Horovich. Everybody knows he's one of the greatest pianists alive, but uh fewer people know that he's also a wonderful arranger.

Presenter10:26

And in this composition he

Presenter10:29

Practically out list list.

Presenter10:32

It's enormously difficult.

Presenter10:35

And we can hardly believe that two hands

Presenter10:38

can produce

Presenter10:40

Sounds

Presenter10:41

which resemble a band and it's called the Stars and Straps Forever.

Presenter11:47

Horoditz playing his own transcription of Stars and Stripes Forever.

Presenter11:52

Getting back to your career, Mr. Moisavit. You made your professional debut here in England, and England has been your base ever since. Yes.

Presenter11:59

I don't miss her.

Presenter12:01

That you've been all over the world since then. To start with, is there any European country which you haven't voted as far as you know? I shouldn't think so.

Presenter12:09

If there are any, they wouldn't interest me.

Presenter12:12

A member of course South Africa, Australia, the entire American continent, the Far East. Have you been back to Russia at all? No.

Presenter12:20

I've never been back since Ellis.

Presenter12:23

How many major works have you studied? How many are in your repertoire you ever counted up?

Presenter12:27

Well I couldn't tell you, except I know one thing, that I remember one year, I forget which year, but I've got it somewhere recorded.

Presenter12:34

At home is that plagued.

Presenter12:35

Twenty-one different concertos in one season.

Presenter12:39

How much practice do you do?

Presenter12:41

You do more now than you used to or less.

Presenter12:45

Ah well, I practice now as much as I can.

Presenter12:48

Of course it's a little difficult when you travel, but even so I travel with a dummy piano. Frankly speaking I didn't like the piano at all until I started with music.

Presenter12:58

And then I used to practice anything between six and eight hours a day.

Presenter13:03

With no constants to interfere and even now I practice as much as I can when I'm at home. Yours is a very dedicated profession.

Speaker 413:08

Yeah, that

Presenter13:11

Well, it's well worth it.

Presenter13:14

Think we'd better have record number five now.

Presenter13:16

Number five.

Presenter13:17

One of the great

Presenter13:20

Characters of this age. Somebody I shunned that wouldn't go on to hear when I was in America, people tried to drag me to go.

Presenter13:28

I said, no, it's better enough to go and listen to Gennis playing for two hours.

Presenter13:32

For somebody to make fun of the piano, I wouldn't do it, and for weeks and months I wouldn't go.

Presenter13:38

Eventually

Presenter13:39

I went.

Presenter13:41

And I completely fell under his spell. He's a wonderful personality, a natural wit, and he's just as much a funny man.

Presenter13:51

In private life as he is always the end.

Presenter13:53

And I very often stay with him. We often meet when he's here.

Presenter13:57

And I'm very proud of

Presenter13:59

No you can

Presenter14:00

I shall certainly need a laugh on the desert island.

Presenter14:04

So let's have

Presenter14:05

Okay.

Presenter14:06

Creeps.

Speaker 414:07

Time permits, I would like to squeeze in the minute walls by Chopin.

Speaker 414:15

This happens to be the first number I ever learned to play while my sister taught me the piano. She was my first teacher.

Speaker 414:21

The Minute Walls by Chopin.

Speaker 414:24

And it won't take long.

Speaker 414:45

That's all. She's only my half-sister.

Presenter14:48

The one and only Victor Borden.

Presenter14:50

And what next?

Presenter14:51

Next

Presenter14:52

I would like to play a recording.

Presenter14:56

Beshaleppin of his farewell in Boris Cordonal.

Presenter15:00

By Musovsky.

Presenter15:02

It is great music and Shalafin was a great artist. But it's more that I would like to be.

Presenter15:10

Transport it even for a short mile.

Presenter15:12

For the country where I was born.

Presenter15:15

And Musonsky was much more Russian.

Presenter15:18

composer than any rational composers

Presenter15:22

has enjoyed the Western culture. He was hardly cultural.

Presenter15:27

But he was the man and composer of the soil, as you're typically Russian.

Presenter15:33

that you invariably feel yourself being

Presenter15:36

He's gone.

Benno Moiseiwitsch15:53

Yes, for our killing, got him done, just as we have no

Benno Moiseiwitsch16:09

I was a motherfucker.

Benno Moiseiwitsch16:14

Yeah.

Benno Moiseiwitsch16:16

I'm not sure if I can do it.

Presenter16:37

The voice of Shaliapi.

Presenter16:40

Now Mr. Moisevich, you've told us that you hate the idea of being a castaway on this desert island. How are you going to manage in a practical sense to think it would app yourself?

Presenter16:49

Not at all.

Presenter16:50

And I'll never look after myself in a civilized country.

Presenter16:54

Still much less.

Presenter16:56

On an island.

Presenter16:57

You don't think you'll be very good at building shelter of yourself?

Presenter17:01

I wouldn't do a thing if you must kidnap me there.

Presenter17:04

You've got to provide me with a first-class cook.

Presenter17:08

And the valid

Presenter17:11

I I'm sorry, but it's in the contract and in the rules, you're there all on your own.

Presenter17:16

Can you cook? Uh no, I cannot cook. Uh can you fit? Listen, we haven't got much time to be much longer on the uh island.

Presenter17:24

So let's get over it. Let's get off this shameful selfie get back to music. Alright, number seven.

Presenter17:31

Out number seven, they would touch.

Presenter17:34

One person

Presenter17:37

was a great friend of mine.

Presenter17:39

I admired more.

Presenter17:41

than anyone as a man

Presenter17:44

as a composer and this again is

Presenter17:46

And I would like to hear the end.

Presenter17:49

of his rhapsody played by him.

Presenter17:53

He was of course the greatest pianist to my mind.

Presenter17:56

Ellie.

Presenter17:59

Backbone technique.

Presenter18:01

Paste.

Presenter18:02

Artistry.

Presenter18:04

and wonderful personality.

Presenter18:07

If I listen.

Presenter18:11

It will bring back very happy.

Presenter18:14

Moment

Presenter18:16

We used to spend together.

Presenter19:20

Sergei Rachmaninoff, playing the last variations in his rhapsody on a theme of tagoni. But now we've got to your last record, what is the eventual year?

Presenter19:30

Well

Presenter19:32

With my apologies and I blush.

Presenter19:35

It's like

Presenter19:36

From the sublime from the ridiculous.

Presenter19:39

But it happens to be

Presenter19:40

A recording mind.

Presenter19:43

A transcription by the Manila, of which I am very proud.

Presenter19:47

I never claim that I'm anywhere near at my mouth's level as pianist in everything.

Presenter19:53

But it so happened that I was asked to record my head session.

Presenter19:58

And I

Presenter19:59

Everybody was in good form.

Presenter20:01

And I finished my session about half an hour to spare.

Presenter20:05

And I was so delighted I started putting on my collar and getting ready to go with it.

Presenter20:10

My

Presenter20:11

Collaborator.

Presenter20:12

When he came out of the cubicle and said to me, well, that was fine, but listen, we still have half an hour to spare. What about playing something?

Presenter20:20

I said, no, I've done what I wanted to do and I don't want to anymore. He said, oh, just something. We don't have to issue it immediately. We'll give it in reserve.

Presenter20:29

I said, wait a moment.

Presenter20:31

Incidentally, I wanted to make this recording a schedule for

Presenter20:34

Man's failure, but they didn't think the stance of the term.

Presenter20:40

At this occasion I said, I'll tell you what I will do.

Presenter20:42

Just put on a master record and I'll play once through the schedule. If it comes off,

Presenter20:48

Good. If it doesn't, we'll go into detail about

Presenter20:52

Is it spanned?

Presenter20:54

Took my collar off again, sat down on the piano.

Presenter20:57

I started.

Presenter21:00

Four and a half minutes.

Presenter21:01

But there's not a moment's respite.

Presenter21:04

Yeah.

Presenter21:06

When I finished.

Presenter21:08

I put up my two hams.

Presenter21:10

And this is the result.

Presenter22:12

That brilliant recording of the schaltso from Midsummer Night's Dream.

Presenter22:17

Recorded you tell us with no rehearsal or preparation at all.

Presenter22:21

Well there are your records, Mr. Mojadevich. You've still got one more choice to make, and that's your luxury. Every castway is allowed to take one luxury to the island.

Presenter22:29

What would you like?

Presenter22:31

Well

Presenter22:32

I had my choice.

Presenter22:33

I'll take the luxury of nothing else.

Benno Moiseiwitsch22:36

Uh

Presenter22:38

I'm was thinking.

Presenter22:41

about a roulette table.

Benno Moiseiwitsch22:42

Yes.

Presenter22:45

It wouldn't provide me with any spiritual relaxation.

Presenter22:49

Certainly mental.

Presenter22:52

They were chiefly wanted because I hear

Presenter22:54

There are lots of systems.

Presenter22:57

in which I don't believe.

Presenter22:59

That would be great time for me to look forward to discovering something.

Presenter23:04

and forgetting the days and hours and years that I might be spending there. Yeah, and I promise if I do

Speaker 123:08

And that's

Presenter23:10

Achieve success I'll let you into my

Presenter23:14

The system system and the way.