Elisabeth Soderstrom

Speaker 10:00

Hello, I'm Kirstie Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Disc's Archive. For rights reasons we've had to shorten the music. The programme was originally broadcast in nineteen seventy nine, and the presenter was Roy Plumley.

Speaker 20:46

I am safe.

Speaker 20:50

I am safe.

Speaker 10:51

Hey, Lang!

Speaker 10:54

Pomer

Speaker 10:57

Across the sea

Speaker 21:01

I am sick.

Presenter1:03

Amen.

Presenter1:05

Stormy Waters. To be nicknamed

Speaker 11:10

Where are you? Yeah.

Speaker 11:12

To be free.

Presenter1:15

Sailing by Rod Stewart, and it's the first choice of our castaway this week, the Prima Donna Elizabeth Sodestrom. Elizabeth, why did you choose that?

Elisabeth Soderstrom1:24

Well, actually, to tell you that I have been sailing most of my life, so this idea with a desert island is something which is very

Elisabeth Soderstrom1:33

Yeah.

Speaker 11:35

Uh

Elisabeth Soderstrom1:35

I love the sea, but I fear the sea. I was brought up in boats.

Elisabeth Soderstrom1:41

Because we um used to live outside Stockholm.

Elisabeth Soderstrom1:44

and where there is a beautiful archipelago.

Elisabeth Soderstrom1:46

My father didn't have any sons, so I was the one who had to row his boat when he was fishing. You know, he was spin fishing for pikes. And we had a sailing boat. So when I was about eleven years old, I was sent to a course in navigation.

Speaker 11:53

Right and

Elisabeth Soderstrom2:04

To be able to handle the navigation on my own, and when I was twelve, I sailed the boat on my own.

Elisabeth Soderstrom2:11

And um

Elisabeth Soderstrom2:13

Then to to top it off, the whole thing, I married a naval officer.

Presenter2:17

So you haven't really got to worry very much about being a castaway?

Elisabeth Soderstrom2:19

Bucket

Elisabeth Soderstrom2:21

Well, I don't know. I mean, we have a great respect for the sea, as I said, but uh

Presenter2:26

Thought.

Elisabeth Soderstrom2:26

My husband has sailed from Sweden to the West Indies quite a number of times. You know how one gets from Sweden to the West Indies?

Elisabeth Soderstrom2:33

You sail south to the Canary Islands, and then you go further south until the butter melts, then you turn right.

Presenter2:34

Yeah.

Presenter2:42

Ha ha

Presenter2:44

All right. Now we've heard about your nautical background. What about your musical background? As a child did you hear a lot of music?

Elisabeth Soderstrom2:51

Yes, and I would like to give you a little example of what I could hear, which also is in the navel

Elisabeth Soderstrom2:57

and Viking tradition.

Presenter3:54

Grieg's Land Chening, sung by the Stockholm student singers.

Presenter3:59

You used to hear that in the house?

Elisabeth Soderstrom4:01

No, not in the house. But my father was a frustrated tenor. He wanted to have uh

Elisabeth Soderstrom4:07

song as his profession, but they couldn't afford it when he grew up, so he had to start working in in other business.

Speaker 14:14

Yes.

Elisabeth Soderstrom4:14

But he always sang at home, and he always took me to concerts where the male choirs used to.

Elisabeth Soderstrom4:22

perform things like this.

Presenter4:24

You were rather stage struck, weren't you? I believe you learned the whole of Hamlet at the age of fourteen.

Elisabeth Soderstrom4:30

Yes. I never thought of song as a profession. I I wanted to be an actress. So I um well, I l I learned Hamlet in in Swedish first and in English later.

Presenter4:34

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 14:34

Uh

Presenter4:36

Well then I

Elisabeth Soderstrom4:40

and uh I was very angry that I wasn't born a man. But then I read a book on Sarah Bernard, and she she actually performed Hamlet for the first time when she was sixty, so I've got a few years just left.

Presenter4:52

When did you start singing lessons?

Elisabeth Soderstrom4:56

Oh, when I was fourteen.

Presenter4:58

Was that your idea or your father?

Elisabeth Soderstrom4:58

That's alright.

Elisabeth Soderstrom5:00

And my father's. And my mother was a pianist. And she was also frustrated because she wanted to be a concert pianist, but she lived in the wrong part of the world. She was in Petrograd during the Revolution and she belonged to the White Sides. She had to get out.

Presenter5:15

Your mother is Russian, which accounts for the fact that you're a brunette, and we expect all Swedish ladies to be fair.

Elisabeth Soderstrom5:23

You're all

Presenter5:24

So you spoke already Swedish and Russian and then you added German. When did you

Elisabeth Soderstrom5:30

German and English, yes, we and and Latin, of course, I had for five years, and French for six. We had all these languages at school.

Presenter5:39

But you must have learned English. I mean, your English is so good, this isn't school English.

Elisabeth Soderstrom5:44

It's the language of Errol Flynn, I would say, because I I loved him.

Elisabeth Soderstrom5:49

passionately and I went to the movies and I saw for instance Robin Hood.

Elisabeth Soderstrom5:54

thirty five times Captain Blood thirty four

Elisabeth Soderstrom5:58

And the Seahawk something like twenty eight times. So I

Elisabeth Soderstrom6:02

And he had a very beautiful pronunciation. It was very good for me.

Presenter6:05

Yeah.

Presenter6:07

You would go on tonight and you could play Hamlet or Captain Blood or the Seahawk or any of these parts.

Elisabeth Soderstrom6:12

Yeah.

Presenter6:13

Yeah.

Presenter6:16

Now you went to music college.

Elisabeth Soderstrom6:18

No. I um had uh private uh singing lessons and then I um

Elisabeth Soderstrom6:26

I used to sing a lot at concerts. We had sort of benefit concerts.

Elisabeth Soderstrom6:31

trying to collect money for the foreign students who were refugees in our country during the war.

Speaker 16:36

Mm.

Elisabeth Soderstrom6:37

and on one of these occasions some one heard me and offered me a

Elisabeth Soderstrom6:41

The chance of singing Bastien Bastienne at the Drottenholm Court Theatre.

Presenter6:46

That's a lovely little theatre, I believe. I've never se never seen it. It's eighteenth century, isn't it?

Elisabeth Soderstrom6:47

I believe I've never seen never seen it.

Elisabeth Soderstrom6:50

Intact machinery, everything from seventeen hundred sixty-six.

Elisabeth Soderstrom6:56

And also the old sets are still there. We can use them.

Speaker 17:00

Mm-hmm.

Elisabeth Soderstrom7:01

And that's where I had my first chance to perform opera.

Elisabeth Soderstrom7:06

And after that I was caught.

Elisabeth Soderstrom7:09

They said, Why don't you um audition for the opera school? which I did.

Elisabeth Soderstrom7:14

And uh when I came to the opera school,

Elisabeth Soderstrom7:17

There was a big gap in the line of lyric sopranos in in the Royal Opera House. I was taken immediately from the opera school to the

Elisabeth Soderstrom7:24

Stage.

Elisabeth Soderstrom7:26

At I mean, I had my studies at the opera school, but in the evenings I would be on the real stage.

Presenter7:31

And what was your first role in the Royal Opera House?

Elisabeth Soderstrom7:36

I think it was the Second Lady of Magic Flew.

Presenter7:39

Mm-hmm.

Elisabeth Soderstrom7:40

But then also I did little things like pages in Tanhois or Loewengreen. Ball, Fran, Funesch and Bach Ugh be in there.

Elisabeth Soderstrom7:49

It was good because we were on stage always.

Presenter7:52

It sounds different. That was in Swedish, was it?

Elisabeth Soderstrom7:54

Oh. Yeah. What was the same?

Presenter7:55

Yeah. What was the same? Most of the repertoire in Stockholm is in Swedish. Is that right? Yes.

Elisabeth Soderstrom8:02

Yes, it still is, and at that time we did everything in Swedish. But uh now we have performances, for instance, of the ring in German and uh

Presenter8:04

And I did.

Elisabeth Soderstrom8:12

Uh we do, I think, Rigoletto and uh Tosca in Italian.

Presenter8:16

And there are also operettas in the repertoire.

Elisabeth Soderstrom8:19

Not so much now, but we used to end every season with Obrette.

Elisabeth Soderstrom8:23

when we played uh about sixty evenings in a row, which was also good training.

Presenter8:29

Let's have another record.

Elisabeth Soderstrom8:30

Well, you see, when it comes to bringing records on to a desert island, of course I have the great privilege of having all this music on the inside of my head, so I really I don't need to bring records of my favorite music. It's all going on all the time inside my head.

Elisabeth Soderstrom8:48

So I thought of being practical instead I'll do something on the desert island that I never have time enough to do.

Elisabeth Soderstrom8:54

when I was there on dry land.

Elisabeth Soderstrom8:57

as, for instance, learn the Finnish language.

Elisabeth Soderstrom9:00

So I thought yes.

Presenter9:01

Thought yeah.

Elisabeth Soderstrom9:02

I don't

Presenter9:02

Why the Finnish language?

Elisabeth Soderstrom9:04

Because I don't know Finnish, and I have sung songs by Sibelius and Kilpinen, for instance, in Finnish, the beautiful Luolnotar by Sibelius.

Elisabeth Soderstrom9:15

And I was so ashamed of not knowing the language. So I've said to myself, Whenever I get time enough, I'll learn Finnish. And do you think I'll have it time enough on the desert island?

Presenter9:22

And you think

Presenter9:25

I should think so, at any rate, the first few lessons.

Elisabeth Soderstrom9:28

Yeah.

Presenter9:28

And and it seems right being sort of half Swedish and half Russian. I mean Finnish is in the middle, isn't it?

Elisabeth Soderstrom9:35

Well, let's hear what it sounds like and see how long I have to stay on the island to learn it.

Speaker 29:40

Finnish may seem a little strange to English speakers when I say that this language doesn't have a verb to have.

Speaker 29:48

You might even wonder how it's possible to do without this verb. But there are many different ways of thinking about and expressing the same thing.

Speaker 29:56

Finnish makes use of the verb

Speaker 29:59

Hola.

Speaker 210:00

To be, to show possession. Instead of I have, the Finns say, roughly translated, by me is.

Presenter10:09

Now that was a part of a Finnish language course. Just a brief excerpt. There are a lot of sides, but we needn't play any more at this moment.

Elisabeth Soderstrom10:16

Yeah.

Elisabeth Soderstrom10:17

Kitos that means thank you.

Presenter10:19

Not a bit.

Presenter10:21

Your first visit to this country. When was that?

Elisabeth Soderstrom10:25

It was supposed to have been in'fifty six, but then I had a child instead, so I came in'fifty seven.

Presenter10:33

You've been of course to Glenbourne and the Covent Garden.

Presenter10:37

on a number of occasions. You were, of course, to have sung again at Covent Garden last month, but Der Rosen Cavalier was cancelled to our great regret. When were you there last at the Garden?

Elisabeth Soderstrom10:47

nineteen seventy two, I think.

Presenter10:49

What was that tell you?

Elisabeth Soderstrom10:50

Uh yes, the second round of Peleus.

Presenter10:53

For a number of years, of course, you had to share your career with the responsibility of bringing up a family. You you mentioned

Elisabeth Soderstrom11:02

Yes, I got three sons and one husband.

Elisabeth Soderstrom11:05

And uh I always travelled with this group plus on any.

Elisabeth Soderstrom11:09

So when my colleagues in America bought uh mink coats, I paid the tickets across the Atlantic Ocean for that whole group and I had absolutely no problem what should I should do with the rest of the money. That wasn't any luck.

Presenter11:24

You've sung in most of the principal opera houses in the world. Which are your favourite parts? I mean, narrowing it down, which composer is is nearest to your heart?

Elisabeth Soderstrom11:36

Well, I'm I'm very fond of both Strauss and Janacek, because apparently they suit my voice. But I mean, I've sung Mozart also half of my life and and loved it dearly. I think it's my duty to love the things most I'm doing for the moment.

Presenter11:46

I think

Presenter11:49

There.

Elisabeth Soderstrom11:49

Uh

Presenter11:49

Opera of course isn't the whole story you like to give recitals to.

Elisabeth Soderstrom11:52

Get the side to

Elisabeth Soderstrom11:53

But I must correct you a little, because I have really not sung so much opera abroad as other kind of music.

Elisabeth Soderstrom11:59

Because I wanted to first of all have a home in Sweden because of my family. My husband couldn't leave Sweden.

Elisabeth Soderstrom12:05

And um then I was very much involved with building up the new style of performing opera in my own country.

Elisabeth Soderstrom12:14

And I was very spoiled by doing that. So I didn't want to to go out on a career where I did sort of one night stand performances.

Presenter12:16

Yeah.

Presenter12:22

What do you refer to when you say the new style?

Elisabeth Soderstrom12:24

Yeah.

Elisabeth Soderstrom12:25

Well, where the uh the whole production is a unit of uh action, lighting and the musical part of it.

Presenter12:29

Uh

Elisabeth Soderstrom12:37

Wh which perhaps is more dramatic and and also ensemble work, if I may say so.

Presenter12:42

Yeah.

Elisabeth Soderstrom12:43

rather than stars standing next to each other competing.

Presenter12:48

Yes, one sees a lot of that.

Elisabeth Soderstrom12:49

Yeah. But most of my travelling at the beginning was done uh uh in concert form if I can explain.

Elisabeth Soderstrom12:56

And I did a lot of contemporary music. That was the thing that first took me to Germany, for instance.

Presenter13:02

Yes, you were in Cologne, I believe, for a long while.

Elisabeth Soderstrom13:04

A lot. A lot. Yes.

Presenter13:06

And you've sung the music of a lot of Swedish contemporary composers.

Elisabeth Soderstrom13:10

Yes, uh they they always tried everything out on me first.

Presenter13:13

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.

Presenter13:16

Let's have some more music. What next?

Elisabeth Soderstrom13:19

Yo on that island, of course. You know, when I sit down on that beautiful beach and think about what I'm missing, one of the things I'm missing is a good meal.

Elisabeth Soderstrom13:31

Because I really can't cook on that island, can I?

Elisabeth Soderstrom13:34

And then there's a lovely song about the French cuisine sung by one of my very, very favorite singers, Anna Russell.

Elisabeth Soderstrom13:43

Le beau parfaire la mour, c'est au promid.

Elisabeth Soderstrom13:53

Jeanerénieu Nang

Elisabeth Soderstrom14:01

Uh

Elisabeth Soderstrom14:05

A cruisin, et alison.

Presenter14:13

Adda Russell with a French art song, Je neve pas faire la mour I don't want to make love but I do want to eat.

Elisabeth Soderstrom14:17

Yeah.

Elisabeth Soderstrom14:20

Yes, and I'm very hungry. You see, I've learned a lot from this lady.

Elisabeth Soderstrom14:25

Yeah, there w there's one thing I've been fascinated by during my whole life and career, and that is where is the border between the very sublime and the parody.

Elisabeth Soderstrom14:36

And she has taught me what is ridiculous when we do a little too much in the singing. And very often when I'm on stage performing a thing

Elisabeth Soderstrom14:48

like a French art song, you know. And I think of her and I I try to remember not to do too much.

Elisabeth Soderstrom14:55

It's very difficult to sing in French, uh especially for Swedish people, and uh when I came to Covent Garden to work on Pellias in Melisande, for instance, we had a wonderful lady coaching us.

Elisabeth Soderstrom15:07

And after a few days she looked at me and said, Elizabeth, I don't know how much I can talk to you about, but can I say something? Yes, please.

Elisabeth Soderstrom15:16

I need your help.

Elisabeth Soderstrom15:17

And then she says

Elisabeth Soderstrom15:18

You do not have to look like a rabbit to sing in French.

Elisabeth Soderstrom15:23

That was one of the best advices I've had for years.

Presenter15:26

I believe this a rather sad occasion the very first time you sang Mais Lysende.

Presenter15:33

I I don't know which French opera house it was, but you found yourself with

Elisabeth Soderstrom15:35

Which will fall?

Elisabeth Soderstrom15:37

That was in Monte Carlo.

Presenter15:37

That was in Monte Carlo.

Elisabeth Soderstrom15:40

Well, I had never sung the part on stage before, so I didn't know what to do.

Elisabeth Soderstrom15:45

But I had read in the school that at a certain moment Peleas has to what you call, fondle her hair, caress her tresses. My tress was the most ghastly thing. which I lowered at exactly the wrong moment. That was when my Peleas turned his head backwards with a beautifully open mouth, looking up to me, and there he had my hair.

Elisabeth Soderstrom16:14

Your tresses

Presenter16:15

Your tress is in his mouth.

Elisabeth Soderstrom16:16

Leo.

Presenter16:17

Which shouldn't happen to any tenor.

Elisabeth Soderstrom16:19

I did not like it.

Presenter16:19

Uh

Presenter16:21

Yeah.

Presenter16:23

Can you learn a role quickly? Can you study quickly?

Elisabeth Soderstrom16:25

Yes, I can, if I train myself. And the things I learn very quickly I forget just as fast. But I mean, if if I know that I have a a deadline, I I I work uh more uh effectively.

Elisabeth Soderstrom16:40

If I know that I have half a year to learn a piece, then I I'm lazy.

Presenter16:44

And it takes that long.

Elisabeth Soderstrom16:45

Yes.

Presenter16:45

You have the advantage of having five languages at your command. It must be very difficult to learn a part in one language when you are used to singing it in another.

Elisabeth Soderstrom16:54

Yes, that can be very tricky. And I'm I'm very careful about the translations following the original language as closely as possible. Because otherwise I get into trouble. Then what happens to me on stage? I know the original.

Elisabeth Soderstrom17:07

And uh then I forget the translation and I start translating uh simultaneously when I sing.

Elisabeth Soderstrom17:14

Can you understand that?

Presenter17:15

Yes, yes, I can. I I can understand that problem.

Elisabeth Soderstrom17:17

It's not very comfortable.

Presenter17:20

Even more difficult must be to sing a part in an opera when you've been accustomed to sing another part. I mean you've sung, I believe, all three soprano roles in in Rosen Cavalier.

Elisabeth Soderstrom17:29

Yes. Well, uh there I had a horrible experience because I had been singing Marshallin and Octavian earlier in the year and I at the Met was supposed to sing Sophie.

Elisabeth Soderstrom17:39

And we had only one rehearsal, and that was with two ladies who refused to open their mouths during rehearsals.

Elisabeth Soderstrom17:46

So uh when it came to the trio I I was

Elisabeth Soderstrom17:51

Rather upset, to say the least. That's when I took my wig off and threw it on to the stage and stamped on it and and then they all noticed that I was there.

Elisabeth Soderstrom18:03

Uh

Presenter18:03

Uh

Elisabeth Soderstrom18:03

Uh

Presenter18:03

They would

Elisabeth Soderstrom18:03

They were

Presenter18:06

Another record piece, what next?

Elisabeth Soderstrom18:08

I wanted to uh cheer up the uh atmosphere on my desert island by something w to which you can make your morning exercises.

Presenter18:18

And what shall we have?

Elisabeth Soderstrom18:19

It's A Happy Polka by Shosz Takovich.

Speaker 118:41

Uh

Presenter19:20

A Happy Polka by Shostakovich from his ballet suite The Age of Gold and It's the Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra.

Presenter19:28

Do you have a discipline to keep yourself fit for a very grueling job? You talked about your early morning exercise. Yes.

Elisabeth Soderstrom19:35

Yes. Yeah, that that's why I have to have that record on the island, because I have to keep myself in shape, you know.

Presenter19:36

Do that.

Elisabeth Soderstrom19:41

And that keeping in shape is not only the physical one, but it's the psychical part of it. I have to be in a happy mood to survive the day.

Elisabeth Soderstrom19:54

Yeah.

Elisabeth Soderstrom19:55

And I'm very happy to be on this island for one reason, and that is that.

Speaker 119:55

Yeah.

Elisabeth Soderstrom20:00

I find it very tiring to travel around the world and live in big cities, where especially the the noise of the traffic very much upsets me.

Elisabeth Soderstrom20:10

Therefore I'm I'm looking forward to being on a desert island for a while.

Presenter20:13

Yes, just a a short one.

Elisabeth Soderstrom20:15

There's another thing I I don't have to listen to on my desert island, and that is the background music.

Elisabeth Soderstrom20:23

which is the worst pollution of our age, I think.

Elisabeth Soderstrom20:28

For us especially who walk around with a concert program to memorize, it's such a torture to hear the

Elisabeth Soderstrom20:37

how should I say, undefined.

Elisabeth Soderstrom20:40

music at the back of shops or hotels.

Presenter20:44

Musical wallpaper.

Elisabeth Soderstrom20:45

Yes.

Elisabeth Soderstrom20:47

Should I remind myself of what I'm happily missing by bringing one of these records?

Presenter21:52

Some background music.

Presenter21:54

A piece of background music called Regency Rake.

Presenter21:58

In Sweden you are appointed a court singer. Tell me about that.

Elisabeth Soderstrom22:02

Well, that's that

Elisabeth Soderstrom22:04

That's all it is.

Elisabeth Soderstrom22:06

No, I mean, nowadays it really doesn't m mean more than an honorary title. But in the old days it meant that uh

Elisabeth Soderstrom22:16

you had to perform at the court on royal command. Well, I I have been

Speaker 122:19

Yeah.

Elisabeth Soderstrom22:20

Singing for

Elisabeth Soderstrom22:23

my royalty is on on uh sort of state visits and uh when our present king married his queen then uh we gave a gala performance which I

Speaker 122:27

And uh

Elisabeth Soderstrom22:35

wrote. I'd composed it.

Presenter22:39

You were also a governor of of Swedish Broadcasting, and and you broadcast a disc programme very early in the morning.

Elisabeth Soderstrom22:46

Yes, I've I've been sort of doing disc jockey programmes uh for about twenty years, telling the Swedish people that classical music is not dangerous.

Elisabeth Soderstrom22:56

And it's it's especially not dangerous between five thirty and eight o'clock in the morning. That's when you need it to start your day. Yes.

Speaker 122:56

And it's it's it's

Speaker 123:02

Yeah.

Speaker 123:03

Yeah.

Elisabeth Soderstrom23:05

Yeah. That's early. It is a bit early for any sort of cleaners when you enter the radio house.

Presenter23:05

Uh

Presenter23:07

It is a bit early for insource.

Presenter23:11

Yeah.

Elisabeth Soderstrom23:11

Hehehe

Presenter23:13

You have recently published uh a video.

Presenter23:15

witty and perceptive book, in my own key. Not so much an autobiography, but a book about the job of a singer.

Elisabeth Soderstrom23:22

Well, it's a pamphlet actually.

Presenter23:24

Oh, it wasn't that.

Elisabeth Soderstrom23:25

Try trying to get a little bit of a message.

Presenter23:27

A hundred and how many pages?

Elisabeth Soderstrom23:30

Well, it was uh meant to be just a little answer to some of the most common questions we get over and over and over again.

Elisabeth Soderstrom23:38

about our profession. As for instance, how we learn things by heart and uh can we see the audience and

Elisabeth Soderstrom23:46

Doesn't ever anything wrong happen on the stage?

Presenter23:52

Well, it's highly recommended to anyone who's interested in singing.

Elisabeth Soderstrom23:55

Thank you.

Presenter23:56

Your next record, please.

Elisabeth Soderstrom23:57

Well, I wanted to give you a little idea about uh my problems about working at home.

Elisabeth Soderstrom24:05

where I'm surrounded by music of a different kind.

Elisabeth Soderstrom24:10

My sons

Elisabeth Soderstrom24:12

like classical music, but when they relax they listen to the other kind of music.

Elisabeth Soderstrom24:18

And my piano is in a room without any doors, so I'm used to learning new music and uh concentrate on my work while listening to something else, which is very tough.

Elisabeth Soderstrom24:31

And I was wondering if I could

Elisabeth Soderstrom24:33

I have this chance to give you a little idea of what it can be like.

Presenter24:36

Yes. So that on the desert island it would seem when you practiced your singing it would sometimes seem as if you were at home.

Elisabeth Soderstrom24:41

As if you were a

Elisabeth Soderstrom24:44

Uh

Presenter24:44

Alright, well let's play this

Presenter24:47

Pop record that you've borrowed from one of your sons.

Elisabeth Soderstrom24:49

Yeah.

Speaker 124:49

Mm.

Presenter24:57

Oh Darny Oofy Doo, I'm in love with you Donny Oofy Doo

Presenter25:03

I'm in love with you.

Elisabeth Soderstrom25:08

Ah.

Speaker 225:08

Boop.

Speaker 125:08

Uh

Speaker 225:09

Yeah.

Speaker 225:09

Hallelujah, hallelujah.

Presenter25:20

Well, that sounds, I'm sure, just like home.

Elisabeth Soderstrom25:23

Well, this also sounds like the inside of my head, because when I'm walking about in in life, you know, I've got all that music inside the head and and then it's confronted with what I hear on the outside.

Presenter25:34

I think we should thank your son, Jens, for lending us that disc, which is Denis Denis by Blondie.

Elisabeth Soderstrom25:38

Which is

Elisabeth Soderstrom25:41

I have a very wonderful memory of my son Jens. He was about four or five years old when I learned Macropolis case for the first time in Swedish. And I was sitting at home on a bright winter day.

Elisabeth Soderstrom25:53

We're trying to learn.

Elisabeth Soderstrom25:57

put out the light and shut your mouth. And it was very difficult, and I couldn't get in. I tried it over and over and over and over again, and I was so in it that I didn't see anything. Suddenly I looked up, and there were four little children of about four years.

Elisabeth Soderstrom26:11

old, in winter clothes, with rosy cheeks and open mouths, and my son Jens had invited them Come and take a look at mummy, she's so funny.

Presenter26:21

Of course, you're singing the Macropolis case with the Welsh Opera in London this month.

Elisabeth Soderstrom26:28

Yeah, this money.

Presenter26:29

Now you've recorded the Macropolis case recently, haven't you?

Elisabeth Soderstrom26:33

Yes, uh it was a recording which was done last year and came out just recently.

Presenter26:37

Okay, in the recording's in check. But of course you're singing in London in English.

Presenter26:42

There's a there's another Yanacek opera you've recorded.

Elisabeth Soderstrom26:44

Yes, we uh started this series with uh Katya Kabanova, conducted by Charles Makearas.

Presenter26:48

It didn't cut.

Elisabeth Soderstrom26:50

And uh the rest of the cast is Czech and um the orchestra is the Vinophilharmonic.

Presenter26:57

And a series of rare quotes you've done, a recital of Rachmaninoff songs with Ashkenazi, a lot of Rachmaninoff songs.

Elisabeth Soderstrom27:03

Okay.

Elisabeth Soderstrom27:05

We've done all actually. We've completed all the songs by Rachmaninoff, including the voice composed for Shaliapin.

Elisabeth Soderstrom27:14

You get my version. But uh it after the first record we did uh they said uh that they thought the combination of the two of us was happy, so they wanted to h have the whole series.

Speaker 227:16

Yeah.

Speaker 127:17

But

Presenter27:29

Good. And you have a a project for another Russian project.

Elisabeth Soderstrom27:32

Yeah, we're starting on Tchaikovsky now.

Presenter27:35

How many Tchaikovsky songs are there?

Elisabeth Soderstrom27:37

Well, I guess enough to see me through my old age.

Presenter27:41

Yeah.

Elisabeth Soderstrom27:41

Ninety or something.

Presenter27:43

Now we got your last record. What's that?

Elisabeth Soderstrom27:46

Well, I would like you to hear a piece which makes me feel very happy and in a good mood, and I'm sure you'll need it after this session. So I'd like to play Cesar Frank Symphonic Variations.

Presenter29:02

The closing passage of César Franck's Symphonic Variations, Clifford Curzon with the London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Sir Adrian Bolt. If you could choose just one disc, Elizabeth out of the eight that you've chosen, which would it be?

Elisabeth Soderstrom29:17

Definitely Shostakovich, for my morning exercise.

Presenter29:20

The Shastakovich Polka.

Elisabeth Soderstrom29:21

I need it.

Presenter29:24

And you're allowed to take one luxury with you?

Elisabeth Soderstrom29:27

When I travel around the world there's one thing I miss more than anything else, and that is my own bed.

Presenter29:32

Uh

Elisabeth Soderstrom29:32

Because when you sleep in hotel beds you get pains everywhere. And I don't like the idea of lying down on the sand.

Elisabeth Soderstrom29:42

I don't like to l s fall asleep on on a sandy beach. I don't know if it's sandy or rocky where I'm going to be, but

Speaker 129:42

I don't like

Elisabeth Soderstrom29:48

If I could bring bring my own bed, please.

Presenter29:48

If I could

Presenter29:51

All right. And until you get a good hut constructed, we'll let you have a little temporary shelter to keep it dry.

Elisabeth Soderstrom29:57

Thank you very much.

Presenter29:58

And one book, the Bible and Shakespeare are already there.

Elisabeth Soderstrom30:01

Yes, I'm very happy about that because I'm going to learn all the Shakespeare by heart, of course, you will realize if I have to stay t too long.

Elisabeth Soderstrom30:08

Uh but um I'm going to bring another book which I'm always bringing actually and I'm trying to get through it and I've never managed so far and it's uh Simon de Beauvoir The Second Sex. Right. It's the uh female Bible if I may say so. I mean

Speaker 130:25

Yeah, just keep it.

Elisabeth Soderstrom30:26

It is everything about women that you should know and

Elisabeth Soderstrom30:31

learn about. But I've never got further than the second page.

Presenter30:36

Simon de Beauvoir, the second sex. Would you like it in in French or Swedish or English?

Elisabeth Soderstrom30:43

In English, I think.

Presenter30:44

In English or right.

Elisabeth Soderstrom30:44

True.

Presenter30:46

And thank you, Elizabeth Soderstrom, for letting us hear your Desert Island Disc.

Elisabeth Soderstrom30:50

I'm very happy to have been invited to drown together with you.

Presenter30:56

Thank you. Goodbye everyone.

Speaker 131:05

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