George Thalben-Ball

Speaker 10:00

Hello, I'm Kirstie Young, and this is a download from the Desert Island Discs archive. For rights reasons we've had to shorten the music. The programme was originally broadcast in nineteen fifty nine.

George Thalben-Ball0:11

This is the B D C home service.

Speaker 10:17

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.

George Thalben-Ball0:28

Gevard Island Bish

George Thalben-Ball0:32

Okay.

George Thalben-Ball0:37

Each week we ask a well-known person 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? Assuming of course that you also had a gramophone.

George Thalben-Ball0:49

As usual, the castaway is introduced by Roy Plumley.

George Thalben-Ball0:52

How do you do, ladies and gentlemen?

George Thalben-Ball0:54

On our desert island this week is a very well-known organism, George Salvin Ball.

George Thalben-Ball0:59

Well, Dr. Talbin Ball, how do you feel about being cast away? Uh

Presenter1:03

I should hate it, you know.

Presenter1:05

I should know what to do.

Presenter1:07

Uh and I'm sure I shouldn't last very long.

Presenter1:11

I should either, I'm sure, be eaten by animals.

Presenter1:16

On the very dark night

Presenter1:18

or be drowned while trying to catch fish.

Presenter1:21

Or, uh, I suppose poisoned by eating the wrong kind of berries. I should be hopeless, in fact. That's a very pessimistic view. When you're not on a desert island, you play the grand third of love.

Presenter1:31

Uh very rarely.

Presenter1:33

And I very rarely listen to television or the wireless.

Presenter1:37

Did you find it a difficult job to choose these eight records to take into exile? Yes, indeed. I thought about it quite a lot and came to the conclusion that it would be a a good plan to have records of different qualities.

Presenter1:51

of instruments

Presenter1:53

That's all.

Presenter1:55

A vocal record.

Presenter1:57

But certainly not uh uh a duplication of records. What's the first one, you've chosen?

Presenter2:03

Well, I I I think perhaps the uh third concerto, Raf Maninov.

Presenter2:08

I am very proud to have played the concerto at its first performance in London.

Presenter2:14

That was when I was a pianist. This was the Royal College of Music during the end of the First World War and the conductor was Sir Charles Stanford.

Presenter2:24

Who would you like to play it on this record?

Presenter2:26

Sol's mouth and with part of the west.

Presenter2:28

Um

Presenter2:30

At a vigorous start, the finale.

George Thalben-Ball3:32

The opening of the finale to Rachmaninoff's concerto number three, played by Cyril Smith with the City of Birmingham Orchestra conducted by George Weldon.

George Thalben-Ball3:40

What's your second choice?

Presenter3:42

I think you know if I were on a desert island.

Presenter3:45

And I'll ask to live with the music of one composer only.

Presenter3:49

I would without doubt choose Bach.

Presenter3:52

What have you chosen from the bus?

Presenter3:55

Well, i if I may

Presenter3:57

From his astonishing wealth of wonderful music.

Presenter4:00

I should like to choose, I think, the double concerto.

Presenter4:04

And I um Mervy Oyster?

Presenter4:07

Uh perhaps the slow move

George Thalben-Ball5:14

The beginning of the

Presenter5:14

Second movement of our Double violin concerta played by David and Igo Oyster.

Presenter5:20

Doctor Thalpenboard, you're almost failing, aren't you?

Presenter5:23

Yes.

Presenter5:24

Well, I was born in that beautiful city of Sydney, and my parents were born in England, in the West Country, in fact.

Presenter5:32

Were your parents musical? Uh yes, both.

Presenter5:35

My mother was a church organist when she was a girl.

Presenter5:39

My father was an amateur musician, I I think of of considerable ability.

Presenter5:44

In fact, he conducted some concerts at the Crystal Palace for August Manns.

Presenter5:50

How old were you when you decided that music was going to be your career?

Presenter5:54

Well, I don't know what I ever did decide.

Presenter5:56

Uh I I suppose having been brought up in a musical family and hearing my parents playing regularly uh infused me to do uh the same thing. And um I think at a very early age, about four or five, something like that, I began a liking for music which um continued. Yes. Where did you study?

Presenter6:18

First of all, with that great organist, George Cunningham.

Presenter6:24

I was a piano pupil, he is, not an organ pupil, but through him I obtained an exhibition at the Royal College of Music.

Presenter6:33

and there took Gunner's first study and Organa's second study.

Speaker 46:38

Yeah.

Presenter6:38

Uh

Presenter6:39

What was your first engagement when you left the college?

Presenter6:42

August The Footfield Sabernacle.

Presenter6:46

The clergyman was

Presenter6:50

Sylvester Horne, who was uh who was very well known in those days.

Presenter6:54

Uh just as uh Kenneth, his founder is

Presenter6:58

Well, only these days. Yes, indeed. You were very young when you took that. Uh about fifteen. Yes. I lived there for about um two years, something like that.

Presenter7:07

And then um after that I went to a church in Barnes and from there to Paddington Parish Church.

Presenter7:12

And from there to the temple. Now, having achieved such distinction as a pianist, you've told us you gave the first performance in this country of Rachmaninoff's third concerto. Why did you s decide to change from the piano to the organ?

Presenter7:25

It was really the appointment of the temple which decided me.

Presenter7:28

Become an organism.

Presenter7:30

For how many years now have you been at the temple? Oh

Presenter7:33

Oh shit a long time. And of course you're still there today. Oh yes. And

Presenter7:38

There's one point I should like to say, if I may, that I think all young organ students should devote their early training to piano techniques.

Presenter7:46

There's no finer or more rewarding finger discipline for the organ than that provided by systematic and thorough counterpractice.

Presenter7:55

Now among all the records you've made with the choir of Temple Church there was one very famous one indeed. It's been on this island a good many times.

Presenter8:02

Master Ernest Luff is the soloist and Mendelssohn's Hear My Prayer.

Presenter8:07

I don't know how many countless copies that must have felt. Yes, it I believe is the record record. Are you going to choose that one to take on the island?

Presenter8:17

No, I think not. But

Presenter8:19

I should like a temple record to remind me of the many temple friends and choristers.

Presenter8:25

doing um this lonely and wretched existence on the island.

Presenter8:31

If I may, I should like to choose Mendelsohn's I Waited for the Lord.

Speaker 49:20

Come before you.

Presenter9:39

Mendelssohn's I Waited for the Lord by the choir of the Temple Church London and the soloist Masters Luff and Mallet.

Presenter9:48

Apart from being organist of the Temple Church London, you're also organist in the City of Birmingham, aren't you? Yes.

Presenter9:54

And you also have a post at the BBC here. Yes.

Presenter9:57

It's musical advisor for the vision department.

George Thalben-Ball10:00

Mhm. And we hear you very frequently on the air and daily service.

Presenter10:03

services and recitals.

Presenter10:06

Did you not also edit the BBC Salter and had a great deal to do with the production of BBC Hymn Books? Yes, I was responsible for the Salter and on the Committee of the Hymn Books.

Presenter10:16

Away from church music, of course, you've also done a very great deal of concert work. How many years, for instance, have you been playing at the Brahms now? I should think 40 years.

Presenter10:27

When I was quite young, you know, I started the problem.

Speaker 110:27

I'm young you

Presenter10:30

The forty eight consecutive years you haven't missed then? Uh uh yes, I think one or two. It was one I mobilized America.

George Thalben-Ball10:36

Yeah.

Speaker 110:36

Uh

Presenter10:37

Yes, that's a pretty good record. Let's have some more music.

Presenter10:41

Well, I'm torn between several choices.

Presenter10:44

Let's have part of the Elgar Chero concerto maybe.

Presenter11:46

Part of Elgar's Cello Concerto played by Paul Tortellier with the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir Malcolm Sargent.

Presenter11:54

Dr. Talban Ball, your organ playing has taken you to a good many parts of the world, hasn't it?

Presenter11:58

Yes, thinking it over, I've had a most wonderful life. I've been about the world.

Presenter12:02

Uh and played in America

Presenter12:07

Australia, South Africa and on the continent. You must have had to play on a very great variety of instruments.

Presenter12:14

Yes, and and some queer instruments too. Uh I must tell you one story. I was once invited to go to an opening of a cinema organ.

Presenter12:24

And um they asked me if I'd play the national anthem.

Presenter12:28

at the beginning of the

Presenter12:30

Entertainment.

Presenter12:31

Well, uh I agree.

Presenter12:33

And uh just as I was coming up on the lift

Presenter12:37

Uh I said to the open builder

Presenter12:39

Have you got in a good drum roll? He said, Yes, you press that pedal.

Presenter12:44

And so I did, but he didn't tell me that if I pressed it lightly, I'd get one effect. If I pressed it right down, I'd get something quite different. Well, in a not business way, I pressed this down.

Presenter12:54

And um

Presenter12:56

Every kitchen effect in the organ went off with a bang. We had motorhorns, bicycle bells. And I remember them beginning the national anthem, started with something in the corner going, coo-hoo, coo-hoo.

Presenter13:09

You must have wanted to find the button to press to take the organ down and get into the quick.

Presenter13:15

I suppose a strange organ must need a lot of getting used. This is like driving a new makeup car or something.

Speaker 413:19

Oh yeah, that's a good one.

Presenter13:21

On record number five.

Presenter13:23

I mentioned there's there may be some savages on this island. I don't know. Uh you know, but uh well if if

Speaker 113:27

Uh hello

Presenter13:29

If there are, I shall need to be prepared for possibly these

Presenter13:34

Scalp collectors who've never heard of Beethoven or Bartholomew.

Presenter13:38

Uh I must obviously have at least one rhythm record which in emergency

Presenter13:44

I could rush and put on whenever I saw these people stealthily approaching.

Presenter13:50

I have a great admiration, you know.

Presenter13:54

For fine technique.

Presenter13:56

in all forms of art.

Presenter13:58

Miss, I don't mean I enjoy technique for technique's sake.

Presenter14:02

Now uh an interesting record which I heard the other day

Presenter14:06

It's a piece.

Presenter14:07

For two from Bonia.

Presenter14:09

Played by the J and K combo of Pet.

Presenter14:13

In this record, the trombonists just have this

Presenter14:18

Fine, take peace.

Presenter15:24

He's for two tromboniums.

Presenter15:27

JNK and the Trombone Octet.

Presenter15:31

What's the next one?

Presenter15:34

I think there may be moments

Presenter15:37

When I should desire the tranquil qualities of chamber music and with its

Presenter15:42

Intimate pooling of the resources of solo instruments.

Presenter15:47

Moments when I shouldn't know what to do next, except perhaps

Presenter15:51

Bask on the on the sand.

Presenter15:56

Now at that time

Presenter15:59

I think chamber music would be most soothing.

Presenter16:02

I think I'd like some super

Presenter16:05

I'll settle for Schubert's trout quintet.

Presenter16:09

Uh say the theme and variation.

Presenter17:07

Part of Sugar Trout Quintet, played by Clifford Curvin and members of the Vienna Octet.

Presenter17:13

Dr. Calvin Ball, you took a very pessimistic view about your chances as a castaway at the beginning of the programme. Let's go into this in more detail. Have you any ideas on how you're going to live? Would you build a hut, for instance?

Presenter17:24

I shouldn't think I could uh build anything. Uh

Presenter17:27

There's so many things I feel I ought to do that I shouldn't know where to start.

Presenter17:34

I reminded of A. E. Mill Shipwrecked Sailor. Do you remember the words? There was once an old sailor my grandfather knew who had so many things which he wanted to do that whenever he thought it was time to begin he couldn't because of the state he was in.

Presenter17:47

And so in the end he did nothing at all, but basked on the shingle wrapped up in a shawl. And I think it was dreadful the way he behaved, he did nothing but basking until he was saved. Well, that was exactly what I should do. That sounds a very pleasant existence, it's rather a short one if rescue doesn't come. Let's get back to record.

Presenter18:05

I notice you haven't chosen an organ solo yet.

Presenter18:08

No. Of course there was there was a a certain amount of organ in the temple record uh and I'm not sure that I should uh if I were going to take eight records I should take an organ record because

Presenter18:19

I'd rather hear, I think, other sounds to remind me of things I should miss enormously. For instance, the the memory of the happy laughter people.

Presenter18:31

and their delight shown by their clapping

Presenter18:33

So I presume I should be unfortunately alone on this dreary island.

Presenter18:38

What what's going to bring you last time?

Presenter18:41

Well, uh because we haven't had the opera, and opera is very often exciting.

Presenter18:46

We'll have an off that.

Presenter18:48

Uh a madrat opera.

Presenter18:50

But uh on this occasion I should like to be produced by Victor Borger.

Presenter18:55

This, ladies and gentlemen, was the first part of the overture.

Presenter19:01

I hear the second part and that's the

George Thalben-Ball19:03

Yeah.

Presenter19:15

Well this little book is an export book.

Presenter19:19

We have in case we shoot one short of

Presenter19:23

Well that has never happened so we have a lot of fruits left over.

Presenter19:27

Now the curtain rises under tenor arrives.

Presenter19:31

He's a little tall fellow, he comes in.

George Thalben-Ball19:36

He comes in from the left in the single file.

Presenter19:56

He goes behind the tree right away.

Presenter19:58

Victor Borger and his one-man Les Art Opera.

Presenter20:02

What's your last one?

Presenter20:03

There's a beautiful spot somewhere Lynmouth Way where a path leads

Presenter20:09

leads to some rock.

Presenter20:11

And you'll go round these rocks and come upon suddenly the sea.

Presenter20:15

Whenever I visited that spot, it suggested to me

Presenter20:18

The dramatic beginning of Vaughan Williams' C-Symphony. As one who remembers the impact of this fine work upon the world at its first performance,

Presenter20:27

It's combination of voices and orchestra.

Presenter20:31

And I think the appropriateness of its emotions for this programme, it's might call it its salt sea emotions.

Presenter20:40

I should like to take this record too.

Presenter21:44

The Vaughan Williams C Symphony.

Presenter21:46

The Adrian Bell conducting the London Philharmonic Choir and Orchestra.

Presenter21:51

Well there are your eight records, Dr. Garvin Ball. If you would only take one of the eight, which would it be?

Presenter21:56

Without that, I think the C-similar problems

Presenter22:01

Yes, uh uh I'll come to that, all right. And every castway is allowed one luxury.

Presenter22:07

I think

Presenter22:08

A white rug.

Presenter22:11

Because it kept me warm at night and I could hoist it to the top of a long pole so the passing ship could see it and rescue me from this wretched island. Oh, happy day.

George Thalben-Ball22:19

Oh.

Speaker 122:19

Yeah.

Presenter22:20

You'll be like A. A. Miln basking old sailor wrapped up in a shawl. It sounds a rather useful luxury, but we'll let you get away with it.

Presenter22:27

And if you had one book.

Presenter22:29

Uh that's difficult to get.

Presenter22:31

I think I'd better have a book that might help me in my unfortunate plight. A book such as Three Men in a Boat or Robinson Crusoe or Swiss Family Robinson, something like that, I should think. All right, I'll plump the Three Men in a Boat and see how they got on.

Speaker 122:41

No.

Presenter22:44

As far as I remember, they didn't get on awfully well. But anyway, thank you, George Thalpenbault, for letting us hear your choice of desert islands.

Presenter22:52

Goodbye and thank you. Goodbye everyone.

Speaker 122:57

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

Speaker 123:01

For more downloads, please visit the Radio4 website.