Mary O'Hara

Speaker 10:00

Hello, I'm Kirstie Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs Archive. The programme was originally broadcast in nineteen eighty one, and the presenter was Roy Plumley.

Presenter0:27

On our desert island this week is the Irish singer Mary O'Harda.

Presenter0:31

Mary, to you, apart from the loneliness, what would be the most frightening thing about being on a desert island?

Mary O'Hara0:39

Well, may I say first story that I wouldn't be frightened of the loneliness.

Mary O'Hara0:44

I would probably be very happy because I have

Mary O'Hara0:48

within me the resources that make it easy for me.

Mary O'Hara0:53

To be

Mary O'Hara0:54

Alone by myself.

Presenter0:56

Yes.

Mary O'Hara0:56

for any length of time.

Mary O'Hara0:58

So that wouldn't be a thing that would put me off at all.

Presenter1:00

Is there anything that would worry you particularly in the situation?

Mary O'Hara1:04

Well, I'd probably spend a great deal of my time making massive acts of self-abandonment to define Providence.

Presenter1:11

Yeah.

Mary O'Hara1:12

To either

Mary O'Hara1:14

You know, to get me out of it or to arrange things that would be livable.

Presenter1:15

Alright.

Presenter1:19

What would you want music to do for you, cheer you up, remind you of the past, inspire you?

Mary O'Hara1:24

Inspire me, I I think would be

Mary O'Hara1:28

its main function to recreate me too, to be a means of recreation.

Presenter1:33

Where do we start? What's the first one you've chosen?

Mary O'Hara1:36

Well, the first one is um music by Shono Rieta, who was one of our

Mary O'Hara1:41

greatest Irish composers who died in the last few years. And it's from Mishaira, which is film music that he wrote for Mishaira.

Mary O'Hara1:50

and this particular piece from it.

Mary O'Hara1:53

is called Kohrem, which means it's Gaelic and it means victory. And the reason I've chosen it is because it's based on one of our greatest, what you might call, classic folk songs.

Mary O'Hara2:07

Rochin thu.

Mary O'Hara2:09

It dates from about the seventeenth century.

Mary O'Hara2:12

It's very beautiful, the words and the music.

Presenter2:45

An excerpt from Sean O'Rearder's film music to the film Misha Era.

Presenter2:50

Played by the Radio Aron Symphony Orchestra.

Presenter2:54

What part of Ireland do you come from, Erie?

Mary O'Hara2:57

Well, I originated in the West. I was born in a place called Sligo, mm, on the west coast.

Mary O'Hara3:03

But I hasten to say that uh I did most of my growing up in Dublin, because I was sent away to boarding school when I was twelve.

Presenter3:10

Yeah.

Mary O'Hara3:10

Boarding School being in Dublin.

Presenter3:12

You come from a a large family?

Mary O'Hara3:15

A medium-sized four children.

Mary O'Hara3:18

Nowadays I expect it might be considered large, but in those days it was a

Presenter3:20

But in those days it

Presenter3:22

Your father was abroad a lot, wasn't he?

Mary O'Hara3:22

Your f

Mary O'Hara3:24

He was before I was born when the other children were little, I'm the youngest, and again during the war he was in India for five years.

Presenter3:32

Was there a lot of music in your home?

Mary O'Hara3:34

No, there wasn't. Um

Mary O'Hara3:37

My mother played the piano.

Mary O'Hara3:39

Well

Mary O'Hara3:40

I was just thinking about it the other day, and I realized that we didn't have any records in the house other than.

Mary O'Hara3:48

some of the very early ones that my parents must have had when they were first married and the machine they had they hadn't got round to getting a

Speaker 13:52

Uh

Mary O'Hara3:54

Um an electric.

Mary O'Hara3:56

thing. And they had one of the ones you wind up. Um they had popular songs of their early day, which would be um On the Isle of Capri is one of them. The other the one that I best remember is there was a verse Now Good Queen Bess was most sedate, with men she would not tarry.

Speaker 14:05

Uh

Speaker 44:05

That's a

Speaker 14:05

How defend the other

Mary O'Hara4:14

They say she never stayed out late, but asks Sir Walter Raleigh.

Presenter4:19

Ha ha ha ha ha.

Presenter4:20

Did you take to the piano?

Mary O'Hara4:22

I was taken to the piano at the age of eight and had lessons like my other two sisters did as well.

Presenter4:27

Thank you.

Presenter4:30

It was at the age of eight that you won your first singing competition, wasn't it?

Mary O'Hara4:33

Yes.

Mary O'Hara4:34

I was again sent in. These were things I never took upon myself. I was sent in for the competition.

Mary O'Hara4:41

And won it.

Mary O'Hara4:43

Which meant I was sent in again the next year and so it continued.

Presenter4:46

You began by singing Gaelic songs as a schoolgirl. Did you understand Gaelic? Was it spoken at all in in your part of Ireland?

Mary O'Hara4:49

That's a school.

Mary O'Hara4:53

Yes, it was compulsory in schools, it was our second language.

Presenter4:58

Now, you continued to sing in festivals and competitions, and then the family moved to Dublin. When did you start learning the harp?

Mary O'Hara5:06

When I was sixteen, in my last year at boarding school.

Presenter5:08

In in Dublin.

Mary O'Hara5:09

In Dublin, yes.

Presenter5:10

The knee hop

Mary O'Hara5:12

That's right, yes.

Presenter5:12

So what what is a knee hook?

Mary O'Hara5:14

Well, it's the same as a Celtic harp or an Irish harp, except that it's it's a smaller version.

Presenter5:19

Yeah.

Mary O'Hara5:20

The Celtic harp is a standing harp, about three and a half feet high.

Presenter5:24

Not like the the high orchestra.

Mary O'Hara5:26

Not like the orchestral harp has pedals. The little one doesn't. It has hand blades.

Mary O'Hara5:32

And my first lessons were on the knee harp.

Presenter5:35

And you did your first broadcast while you were still at school?

Mary O'Hara5:37

Yes, when I was sixteen, children at the mic.

Presenter5:41

Let's have your second record. What's that to be?

Mary O'Hara5:43

Well, I would like it to be John Baez singing.

Mary O'Hara5:47

All my trials.

Mary O'Hara5:49

Well, I have enormous admiration for her work. I discovered her uh in the early sixties.

Mary O'Hara5:54

And I was quite stunned by

Mary O'Hara5:57

Hearing her for the first time on an album, her first album, which was twenty nineteen, then.

Mary O'Hara6:01

And this particular song was on that first album that I heard.

Speaker 46:04

Got a little book with pages three

Speaker 46:11

And every page spells liberty

Speaker 46:21

Oh my triumphs, Lord.

Speaker 46:31

The EO.

Presenter6:34

All My Trials sung by Joan Baez.

Presenter6:37

Now, you left school at sixteen. You were in Dublin.

Mary O'Hara6:41

Oh, seventeen actually, I just didn't

Presenter6:42

At seven

Mary O'Hara6:42

Yes, I was just sort of seventeen in the beginning of that summer.

Presenter6:45

Had you any clear idea what you wanted to do?

Mary O'Hara6:47

None at all. I tried a few different things, but from the time I left school I was starting to uh do occasional broadcasts.

Presenter6:55

Did you think you could have a future as a singer?

Mary O'Hara6:58

I I didn't plan to become a singer. It's something that that sort of evolved and and took over almost of its own accord. And I tried not very enthusiastically, I tried various things. I went to the College of Art for a while. I did a course in beauty culture.

Mary O'Hara7:13

I did some modelling, and all this time they were in a way peripheral interests, because I was doing radio broadcasts, and this had started from the time I left school.

Presenter7:25

What was your fee for singing songs on Irish Commercial Radio?

Mary O'Hara7:28

Five pounds, I think, in those days. Which was a very rich reward. Well, five pounds a song. Five pounds a song. Yes, for the for the commercial stations. And you would you would also get five to eight pounds for

Presenter7:30

Yeah.

Presenter7:35

Yes, for the for the

Mary O'Hara7:41

A fifteen minutes, which would be about five songs. on the legitimate radio, if that's the right word.

Presenter7:49

I'm sure it must be. It sounds absolutely right. Now, among the various odd jobs you were doing, you acted in a university play.

Mary O'Hara7:59

Yes, it was uh a a production, a one-act play, The Undergraduates of University College Dublin.

Mary O'Hara8:06

I were putting on during a summer school.

Presenter8:08

And with another group of undergraduates, you went to the Edinburgh Festival and and that appearance had a considerable effect on your life.

Mary O'Hara8:15

Yes, that time I went as as a singer. I sang and played the harp in between three

Mary O'Hara8:21

one actiates plays being put on by

Mary O'Hara8:25

A group of amateur actors from Trinity College.

Presenter8:28

and Sir Compton Mackenzie was a great help to you.

Mary O'Hara8:31

Yes, he was enormously encouraging, and

Mary O'Hara8:34

Did everything he could to see that the BBC knew about it and.

Mary O'Hara8:39

The reviews, thank God, were very favourable anyway, and a certain amount of excitement and interest was generated by that appearance in the fringe production.

Mary O'Hara8:48

which resulted in my being asked back the following year as a as a guest at the official festival.

Presenter8:53

The official

Presenter8:55

Let's have your third record. What shall that be?

Mary O'Hara8:58

Alfred Deller singing the counter tenor duet from

Mary O'Hara9:02

Prestell's Commune Sons of Art, the particular piece, Sound the Trumpet. It's Alfred Deller and John Whitworth.

Presenter9:07

Uh

Mary O'Hara9:09

Alfred Deller. I have loved his work since I first heard it in the late fifties.

Mary O'Hara9:14

I'm a very keen admirer, and the thing about him is the timbre of his voice.

Mary O'Hara9:20

And he's involved in his singing, and yet.

Mary O'Hara9:23

There's that marvellously detached

Mary O'Hara9:26

impersonal in the nicest sense, sound that he emits, and I love the dynamic, especially of the

Mary O'Hara9:33

the the first sound, he starts quietly and then he swells out. The control is absolutely magnificent. And and another reason why I would like it is because it says in that particular bit

Mary O'Hara9:44

You make the listening shores resound.

Mary O'Hara9:47

And I won't be the only one listening to the music.

Mary O'Hara9:50

The shores would be listening and enjoying and and all nature around me, on my desert island.

Speaker 410:00

Snow.

Speaker 410:05

I'm a trumpet.

Presenter10:34

Sound the trumpet from Purcell's Come Ye Sons of Art.

Presenter10:38

Alfred Duller and John Whitworth. How slowly, Mary, your your career was beginning to take shape.

Presenter10:45

It was about that time that you met a young American poet, Richard Selig, who was a Rhodes Scholar in Oxford.

Presenter10:51

He was getting quite a lot of recognition, although still a student.

Mary O'Hara10:56

Yes, he was published quite a lot in Encounter and Now and Then in The Listener and um The London Magazine.

Presenter11:04

Now you encouraged each other in your respective careers, became engaged. Now Rhodes Cola isn't allowed to marry while he's still in residence, is that right?

Mary O'Hara11:12

Wasn't. The the ruling has changed now. They were very strict in those days.

Mary O'Hara11:17

Um we would have liked to have got married as soon as we became engaged, but obviously that wasn't possible. We did toy with the idea of doing it

Mary O'Hara11:26

Uh subrowser.

Mary O'Hara11:29

But um then we decided that no, we we we might as well do it in a more legal way.

Presenter11:34

A friend of his in Oxford was giving you some harmony lessons.

Presenter11:38

Who was that?

Mary O'Hara11:39

Good old Dudley.

Mary O'Hara11:41

Dudley Moore. He was a a friend of Richards, he was reading music.

Presenter11:42

Yeah.

Speaker 411:42

Uh

Mary O'Hara11:45

at the same college.

Mary O'Hara11:47

And uh I wanted to I had done harmony as a subject at school.

Mary O'Hara11:51

And I wanted to

Mary O'Hara11:54

Well, sort of do a refresher course in a way.

Mary O'Hara11:58

And I said to Richard, Can you find some one who would fit the bill? So he said, Yes, Dudley will come along, which he did do. He used to come at ten o'clock of a morning, and we'd have some lessons and some coffee and a great deal of fun.

Presenter12:12

How was Dartley as a teacher?

Mary O'Hara12:13

Dudley was very good, because I I was working and uh it was a very sort of sp sporadic business of of lessons.

Presenter12:20

Yeah.

Mary O'Hara12:20

But I did have a certain amount from him and

Mary O'Hara12:22

gained by it.

Presenter12:24

You and Richard married did you already know at that time that he was ill?

Mary O'Hara12:28

We knew um just a couple. We knew knew in December, and we became engaged in February. But I would like very much to point out that, as I say in my book, that it was not a shadow hanging over us, because Richard didn't look in the slightest bit I mean, he looked no more ill than an an Olympic champion does.

Speaker 412:47

There.

Mary O'Hara12:48

And uh he was e exceptionally healthy and vigorous and vibrant and

Mary O'Hara12:52

and energetic. And that was one of the ironies of the illness, that it didn't show. It was a good thing in one way, and we also went on living, as we had done, in top gear. That's the sort of temperaments we both had. So it didn't halt us in any way until just towards the very end.

Presenter13:11

You went to living in in the United States, which meant that you had to start your career, which had been going very well, all over again, Virginia.

Mary O'Hara13:18

Well, in a sense, no, because I had made my first long playing album for the Deco Record Company that summer, the summer we were married.

Mary O'Hara13:25

And so that was released in America around the time I arrived, or a few months later.

Mary O'Hara13:31

And I had other contacts through a very dear friend of mine, Joyce Grenfell. She notified

Mary O'Hara13:38

Ed Sullivan that I was coming across.

Mary O'Hara13:40

A result of which was I appeared on his programme.

Mary O'Hara13:44

So that in a sense I didn't have to.

Mary O'Hara13:46

Break that much new ground.

Presenter13:48

Tragically at that time in America, your time as a wife was very short.

Mary O'Hara13:53

Uh yes. Well, Richard died fifteen months after our marriage.

Mary O'Hara13:58

And I came back to this part of the world, to Ireland.

Mary O'Hara14:03

And my father was at that time with the United Nations out in Arabia.

Mary O'Hara14:08

and so I went to visit him, and stayed there for about four months.

Presenter14:11

You did a lot of travelling, in fact, at that time.

Mary O'Hara14:14

Yeah.

Presenter14:14

Did you find that travelling helpful?

Mary O'Hara14:17

Well, I didn't need the help of travelling.

Mary O'Hara14:20

I knew from the time my husband died that I wanted to go into a monastery.

Speaker 414:24

Mm-hmm.

Mary O'Hara14:25

I knew that this was what I must do.

Mary O'Hara14:27

It was a a vocation, a call to the monastic life.

Mary O'Hara14:32

And I spent that sort of interim period

Mary O'Hara14:36

I didn't want to sort of sit around.

Mary O'Hara14:38

not doing anything, and the obvious thing to do was to go on working and giving concerts and making records until such time as I would know By inquiry, etcetera., and by prayer, where it was I was to go, into what community.

Mary O'Hara14:52

And what order?

Presenter14:54

Well let's talk about that more fully in a moment. Let's have one more record.

Mary O'Hara14:58

Oh, my next one is in fact one that I heard for the first time.

Mary O'Hara15:03

In the monastery, it's from Karlorf's Carmena Burana, that very beautiful, very poignant and haunting, I think, soprano solo.

Mary O'Hara15:12

Intrutina.

Speaker 415:20

It to heat the battle beyond

Presenter16:09

Gunda Lajanovitz in a song from Karloff's Kamina Buran.

Presenter16:14

So, Mary, you had this feeling that you wanted to retreat and go into a uh a monastery. How did you go about such a thing?

Mary O'Hara16:22

Can I make small correction, right? Could we not say an advance rather than retreat?

Presenter16:27

By all means, yes, that's the thought.

Mary O'Hara16:28

Because that's really it's really what it is. You know, you're not taking a step back, you're taking a very, in a way, precarious step forward.

Presenter16:36

Hmm.

Mary O'Hara16:36

It's a great act of faith.

Presenter16:38

An act of faith, did you feel that by devoting yourself to the religious life you would feel more closely in touch with your husband?

Mary O'Hara16:46

Yes, that was undoubtedly uh a big element in it. We haven't got the time really to go into this, but it it's it's a complex thing.

Speaker 416:53

Hmm.

Mary O'Hara16:53

Um the love of God and the love of my husband were not they were separate things, and yet there's an interpenetration.

Presenter16:59

Yes.

Mary O'Hara17:00

And yet there there's no confusion.

Presenter17:03

Did you visit a number of monasteries?

Mary O'Hara17:05

I did, yes. I I think I visited five or six.

Presenter17:08

A number of different orders.

Mary O'Hara17:09

Yes, three different orders, I think. The Carmelites, the Benedictines, the

Mary O'Hara17:15

Cistercians.

Mary O'Hara17:17

and finally opted for a Benedictine monastery in the Midlands in England.

Presenter17:21

Y you say monastery and not convent. That is a Benedictine thing, isn't it?

Mary O'Hara17:25

It is, yes, because Benedict wrote for monks, whether male or female.

Mary O'Hara17:30

and the building where they live, their home, is called monastery.

Presenter17:33

Now the Benedictine is is a a closed order. It's almost a silent order, isn't it?

Mary O'Hara17:39

Well, there's a rule of silence, but you have a period each day, a period of recreation.

Mary O'Hara17:46

When the community converses freely and

Mary O'Hara17:49

in a relaxed manner at at just sort of

Mary O'Hara17:52

Well, what recreation is. I think everybody understands that term. And if there was need of your work to speak, then you did so.

Mary O'Hara18:00

or if charity dictated that you have.

Mary O'Hara18:03

words with someone then you

Mary O'Hara18:05

You knew when to speak and when not to speak.

Presenter18:08

What sort of work did you do?

Mary O'Hara18:10

A wide variety of work.

Mary O'Hara18:12

I worked um for some time in the kitchen, second cook. I worked in the department where they make and mend habits and the general clothing that the community wears. I worked as portress. I worked in the orchard.

Presenter18:25

You begin uh as a postulant that's not, as it were, a full member.

Mary O'Hara18:29

No, it's a sort of trial period. Then you become a novice still a trial period. Then you are in simple vows for three years. You are a member of the community, but you are not vowed for life.

Presenter18:39

Hmm.

Mary O'Hara18:40

And then you become solemnly professed.

Presenter18:42

What time did your day begin?

Mary O'Hara18:44

Generally about five and end at about nine, between nine and ten. So it is a a long

Mary O'Hara18:50

hard but fulfilling day. People have the erroneous impression that members of com of religious communities spend a lot of their time sort of mooning about and

Mary O'Hara19:00

sitting down or kneeling down and

Mary O'Hara19:02

not doing anything very positive, which is

Mary O'Hara19:05

A very mistaken idea. Because contemptitive communities such as ours

Speaker 419:07

Yeah.

Mary O'Hara19:10

Try to be self-supporting, and that requires a lot of physical hard work.

Presenter19:17

During our period when you used to talk, when you were able to talk among yourself,

Presenter19:22

Could you talk of the outside world? Was the outside world coming in at all? Did you listen to radio or something?

Mary O'Hara19:24

Okay, well

Mary O'Hara19:27

Oh no, we didn't have radio nor television, and that was a great blessing not to have. But we did take the Times and those who wished to could read it, the Daily Paper. We also had obviously the tablet, which is the International Catholic.

Speaker 119:39

Call me.

Mary O'Hara19:40

paper and and the herald so that one was aware of what was going on outside.

Mary O'Hara19:46

If one chose to be. And then, of course, a certain number of times a year you were allowed visitors, your family or your close friends.

Presenter19:53

Did you ever leave the grounds of the community?

Mary O'Hara19:55

Yes, I I had occasion to go to the dentist every now and then.

Mary O'Hara19:59

And uh so you also saw what was happening outside in the sense you saw fashions were changing.

Presenter20:04

Yes.

Presenter20:05

Let's have another echo, Mary.

Mary O'Hara20:08

Oh, this is a most marvellous one. It's Bach's double violin concerto. And I would love the um slow movement, second movement.

Speaker 421:02

Yeah.

Presenter21:12

The opening of the slow movement of the Bach double violin concerto in D minor, the soloists Igor and David Oistrach.

Presenter21:21

Why did you choose that?

Mary O'Hara21:22

Because I think it is one of the.

Mary O'Hara21:26

Greatest pieces of

Mary O'Hara21:29

May I call it love music ever written, whether it's human love or divine love.

Mary O'Hara21:34

I think, in fact, it's divine music.

Presenter21:37

Well, let's go back to your

Presenter21:39

Life story, Mary. You spent twelve years in that Benedictine community. Was your decision to come out into the world again a sudden one, or something that had been growing for a long time?

Mary O'Hara21:49

Well, my health broke down two years before I left.

Mary O'Hara21:52

And at the time I hadn't abs I had no notion whatsoever of coming out. In fact, I was determined to go on.

Mary O'Hara21:59

and very contentedly, I must say.

Mary O'Hara22:02

And then two years later, exactly the same thing happened. The um diagnosis by the two doctors was physical and nervous exhaustion.

Mary O'Hara22:11

And again a complete rest was recommended, in fact, more strongly.

Mary O'Hara22:18

than recommended, and then I began to realize that this was a sign.

Mary O'Hara22:24

that I must now end this phase and carry on from there outside.

Speaker 422:29

Yes.

Mary O'Hara22:29

So had it happened the first time I mean, uh as I say, I had no intention whatsoever of leaving. It was the fact that exactly the same thing happened the second time.

Speaker 422:29

So yeah

Mary O'Hara22:38

That's when it became clear to me I must go.

Presenter22:40

So you came out and and began to take up your singing again.

Mary O'Hara22:44

Yes. Um again I would like to say that there's a misunderstanding around that I came out to sing, and that couldn't be further from the truth.

Mary O'Hara22:53

My coming out had nothing to do with my singing.

Mary O'Hara22:56

But when I came out I obviously had to earn my living again.

Mary O'Hara23:00

The sensible thing was to

Mary O'Hara23:02

do what I had been successfully doing before, and see if it worked this time round, and thank God it did.

Presenter23:05

See you there.

Presenter23:08

And since then, of course, it's been the Festival Hall in London, Royal Variety Show, Carnegie Hall, New York.

Mary O'Hara23:14

Yes.

Presenter23:16

It's all been happening, really.

Mary O'Hara23:17

Yes, very happily so.

Presenter23:19

And you've recently written a book, you did mention it briefly early on, The Scent of Roses.

Mary O'Hara23:24

The scent of the roses

Presenter23:26

I'm sorry, the scent of the roses, it shows I haven't read it carefully enough.

Mary O'Hara23:29

Well, no, you you're not to be blamed because the publicity people got it wrong at the beginning and they dropped the second the.

Presenter23:35

It's a quote, of course.

Mary O'Hara23:36

It's a quote from a song by Thomas Moore, the Anglo-Irish poet of the nineteenth century.

Mary O'Hara23:43

Long, long be my heart with such memories filled As that vase in which roses have once been distilled.

Mary O'Hara23:49

You may break, you may shatter the vase, if you will.

Mary O'Hara23:53

But the scent of the roses will hang round it still.

Presenter23:57

And The Scent of the Rose is your book is doing very well. Yes. Another record, what not.

Mary O'Hara24:03

Um let's have Dan Hill singing Sometimes When We Touch.

Mary O'Hara24:08

I was doing quite a lot of work in Canada a couple of years ago.

Mary O'Hara24:12

And everywhere I turned this record was being played, and at first I didn't take much notice of it, and then it grew on me.

Mary O'Hara24:19

And uh every time I listen to it now I enjoy it anew.

Mary O'Hara24:22

Sometimes when

Speaker 424:22

Sometime

Mary O'Hara24:24

Uh

Speaker 424:24

Uh

Speaker 424:26

The honour stays to the measure

Mary O'Hara24:26

The a

Speaker 424:30

And I have to close my eyes and hide.

Speaker 424:38

I wanna hold you till I die.

Speaker 424:42

Till we both break down and cry.

Speaker 424:46

I wanna hold you till the fear in me

Speaker 424:50

Subside

Presenter24:53

Down a hill singing Sometimes When We Touch. Let's go straight into your next record, Mary.

Mary O'Hara24:58

Well it's going to be Handel's concerto for lute and harp in B flat.

Mary O'Hara25:05

And I've chosen it because

Mary O'Hara25:08

The very first

Mary O'Hara25:09

A record in my collection was given to Richard and me by my heart teacher in New York.

Mary O'Hara25:16

It was called The Art of Marcel Grandie, the great French harpist.

Mary O'Hara25:21

And

Mary O'Hara25:22

We played it and played it till it was worn out, and this was one of the movements from this concerto was on it. And about two or three years ago I came across this version.

Mary O'Hara25:34

The music has been edited by Thurston Dart and he has come to the conclusion that it was written for harp and lewd and not just harp.

Mary O'Hara25:41

And it's a an unfailing delight to listen to the

Mary O'Hara25:46

Joyous

Mary O'Hara25:47

Dialogue that's going on between the harp and the lute. Again, it's another kind of love music.

Presenter26:49

Part of the first movement of Handel's Concerto in B flat, opus four, number six, arranged by Thurston Dart for lute and harp,

Presenter26:58

and the soloist Desmond Dupre and Ocean Ellis.

Presenter27:02

Now, Mary, a short examination of your qualifications as a castaway. Do you think you could look after yourself?

Mary O'Hara27:09

Um well, you know the old cliche, necessity is the mother of invention, so I would rely heavily on that, and, as I say, the acts of self abandonment.

Presenter27:17

Have you ever done any camping up?

Mary O'Hara27:20

Never by myself. I have camped with um my husband, Schutzelig.

Presenter27:24

Yes. So you know know the rules you

Mary O'Hara27:26

Well, I mean, I I was just there. The things were done for me.

Mary O'Hara27:32

But I'd have to obviously have to fend for myself, and and perhaps I I'm more inventive than I.

Mary O'Hara27:37

Give myself credit, I don't know.

Presenter27:39

Will you try to escape? Are you a good swimmer?

Mary O'Hara27:41

I'm I don't think I'd bother, actually. I'm sort of okay as a swimmer. I'm not I I I wouldn't like to go very far.

Presenter27:49

No. You wouldn't trust yourself to a home made raft.

Mary O'Hara27:54

I quite honestly wouldn't, no.

Presenter27:57

I think you're so wise.

Presenter27:59

Record number eight.

Mary O'Hara28:01

Record number would be Mahler's

Presenter28:01

And your last.

Mary O'Hara28:04

Song of the Earth

Mary O'Hara28:06

It's the AB sheet.

Mary O'Hara28:07

That marvellous bit at the end which is

Mary O'Hara28:10

Resurrectional

Mary O'Hara28:12

And

Mary O'Hara28:13

So full of hope.

Mary O'Hara28:15

Enjoy.

Mary O'Hara28:16

and confidence.

Presenter28:18

And who sings it?

Mary O'Hara28:19

Janet Baker.

Mary O'Hara28:20

And it's this bit at the end.

Mary O'Hara28:22

I journeyed to my homeland, to my haven.

Mary O'Hara28:26

I shall no longer seek the far horizon.

Mary O'Hara28:29

My heart is still and waits for its deliverance.

Mary O'Hara28:34

The lovely earth, all everywhere, revives in spring and blossoms anew.

Mary O'Hara28:40

Shines the blue horizon.

Mary O'Hara28:43

Ever.

Mary O'Hara28:45

Ever.

Presenter29:45

Mahler's The Song of the Earth: Janet Baker with the Konzertgebau Orchestra conducted by Bernard Heitink.

Presenter29:53

If you could take only one disc of the H you played us, which would it be?

Mary O'Hara29:56

Oh, I wouldn't hesitate. I would have Bach's concerto for two violins and D minor the Largo.

Presenter30:01

Right.

Presenter30:02

And one luxury to take to the island with you, one thing of no practical use, but something that you'd like to have.

Mary O'Hara30:08

Well, do you think it might be possible for me to have what I can only describe as a tennis practice wall, with obviously the extras, you know well, not extras'cause they're essentials the tennis racket, the ball, and the ground bit.

Presenter30:23

Yes, indeed. You you're an enthusiastic tennis player.

Mary O'Hara30:25

Oh yes. Yes.

Mary O'Hara30:29

Great.

Presenter30:30

And this practice wall, but you'll have to promise not to use the practice wall as the main bearing wall of the hut you're going to build.

Mary O'Hara30:35

It couldn't possibly. I mean, I wouldn't know what to do with it as a building.

Presenter30:40

That's right.

Presenter30:41

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

Mary O'Hara30:45

It would be Tolkien's Lord of the Rings.

Presenter30:48

Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. Right, and thank you, Mary O'Hara, for letting us hear your Desert Island discs.

Mary O'Hara30:54

Thank you very much, Roy.

Presenter30:56

Goodbye, everyone.

Speaker 131:04

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