Ruggiero Ricci

Ruggiero Ricci0:00

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

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For rights reasons, we've had to shorten the music. The programme was originally broadcast in 1983.

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And the presenter was Roy Plumley.

Presenter0:31

On our Desert Island this week is the violin virtuoso Ruggiero Ricci. mister Ricci, you spend most of your year travelling. Do you take tapes with you? No, I carry um a transistor.

Presenter0:44

Yes. Tune into the FM station.

Presenter0:47

Usually I look for local

Presenter0:49

You like to listen to music. Unfortunately. It's a habit.

Ruggiero Ricci0:53

The habit.

Presenter0:54

During those precious few weeks in the year when you're at home, do you do you play discs?

Presenter1:03

And uh there's not much time left.

Presenter1:07

Sometimes it takes me weeks just to get to my own uh sometimes I have to hear test pressings or something.

Presenter1:13

You're teaching now at the University of Michigan. Yes, yeah. So that means you're living up there and it's a cold country, yes. It must be a bit cold after Florida where you've been for so many years. Yes, it was. Big change.

Ruggiero Ricci1:15

Yes, uh

Ruggiero Ricci1:19

And we have

Presenter1:24

It's all my old clothes out.

Presenter1:28

Did you throw all your old records? Or have you kept them all? I've got the old seventy eights, you know, but you know, on the new turntable I got it, it's it only has forty-five and thirty three. Ah, well you need a new turntable. You can get them the place that's keep changing your stylus. Although last time I was in London I bought one of those antique uh you know, once you wind up they have a big

Ruggiero Ricci1:42

I guess you have to keep changing the style.

Presenter1:50

horn on You you use that sometimes? Well, they haven't assembled it yet because we just moved and uh it's not even unpacked. But it looks fantastic in the living room. It's got a great big horn. Very decorative. That's where they got the you know, Victor got the

Ruggiero Ricci2:00

Uh

Speaker 22:00

Decorative

Presenter2:03

You know, the dog listening to the horn, his master's voice, that's really that's right. And uh Heifitz has one in his.

Presenter2:09

I think it's positive in his garage actually. And he's got a sign on his front door.

Presenter2:14

I guess he doesn't like people to disturb him. So it says Beware of the Dog.

Presenter2:20

There's no dog there, but he doesn't want anyone knocking.

Ruggiero Ricci2:21

No dog there, but

Presenter2:25

On your desert island you'll have just eight disks, so you find it very hard to select eight.

Presenter2:31

Yes, just so many, Willie.

Presenter2:33

And p and when people ask me which record of mine I like, I'm really

Presenter2:37

I'm stuck. Maybe because I don't like any of them. I don't know.

Ruggiero Ricci2:39

Problem in the

Presenter2:41

You've been recording for a good long time, haven't you?

Presenter2:47

Uh one of my agents counted up and said five hundred, but I don't think that's correct. But I have made an an awful lot of records, yeah. Now which of your chosen eight are you going to play first? Delandovska. Vanderlandovska.

Presenter3:01

I think that if I were on the island that uh actually the box you could listen to the most. And which one of the preludes are we going to hear?

Ruggiero Ricci3:02

I think

Ruggiero Ricci3:07

Uh

Presenter3:11

The one they used for Ava Maria, you know. Ah. Yes, the first prelude.

Presenter4:17

Van der Landofke playing the prelude from the first prelude and fugue in C major by Bach.

Presenter4:24

Whereabouts in the United States were you born? San Francisco. Your parents had immigrated from Italy. How long had they been on the West? Oh, my father.

Ruggiero Ricci4:32

Oh my

Presenter4:34

He went to America when he was eight.

Presenter4:37

My my mother was born on the west coast. She was born in San Francisco, right? She was in that big earthquake there. Was she? She always tells me about it, yeah. Uhuh.

Presenter4:46

My grandfather lives in what they call North Beach, that's an Italian section of

Speaker 34:50

Mm.

Presenter4:50

San Francisco. My father was in the American Army in what they call Presidio. It's a part of San Francisco. It's an army base there. And I was born.

Presenter4:59

In an army base. What part of Italy did your father come from? He was from Abruzzi.

Presenter5:05

That's sort of in the m middle Aquila is it's the main town there. It's a m kind of mountain region, but there's so many mountains in Italy anyway it's hard to distinguish.

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Right, now you were in this army base. Were you a big family? Oh, yes, there were seven. Seven? Yes, and my father had some kind of mania.

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I don't know how he learned the trombone, nor the fiddle,'cause I don't think he ever had a teacher, I guess he told himself. Then he started each child.

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On uh on another instrument, he started my sister on the piano.

Speaker 35:36

Uh

Presenter5:36

He started me on the fiddle and he started my brother on the drums and then George played cello later. Then he started my sister, older than me, she played

Presenter5:46

a trumpet. In fact, somebody felt sorry for her and bought her a flute. And there was father on the other side. And then after that, yeah. Then after that there were uh two sisters.

Ruggiero Ricci5:52

I didn't have to then.

Presenter5:58

younger than me and uh he started them both on the fiddle. After that he went fiddle crazy, started them all all on the fiddle, but uh actually left playing with only George, my brother, uh myself and my sister Emma, who plays in New York City Metropolitan Opera in New York.

Presenter6:15

And George is younger than me, but he's already retired. So you had this sort of family orchestra? Yes, we did. Did you hear it? Only in the very beginning whenever

Ruggiero Ricci6:22

Yes, we did.

Presenter6:24

Yeah. Did you hear a lot of military music too?

Presenter6:28

No, because my father uh got out of the um army when I I was a baby. I was living down the coast, I lived in a place called San Bruno.

Presenter6:36

When I wouldn't had started playing band and somebody told my father to take me to Persinger because Persinger

Presenter6:41

Uh started manual and

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Your father, of course, had bought your first violin. A very small one, wasn't it? Well, yes, I suppose he bought it. I don't know. He stole it. Yes. That's a small one.

Ruggiero Ricci6:47

My

Speaker 36:51

That's a small one.

Presenter6:53

Did you practice willingly? Did you enjoy practicing? Well, I don't know. I uh

Presenter7:00

I think I should like it. I didn't have much choice about it. You didn't think you ought to be out playing with the other kids while you were indoors doing your Oh, yes, but you see there were a whole bunch of us, so since all my brothers and sisters had to stay in and

Ruggiero Ricci7:06

Oh yes.

Presenter7:13

Practice.

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I didn't feel so bad. I think if they were out playing and I had to practice that I would feel abused, but Uh

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And my brother used to hook up all kinds of gadgets. Uh he used to read a book and uh and put two plates of metal under the floor and my father would go up the stairs and step on the carpet. It would ring a bell in my brother's room and my brother would throw the book off the stand and start practising.

Presenter7:36

Oh, the family alarm system, all right.

Speaker 37:39

Yeah.

Presenter7:41

What's your second record?

Presenter7:44

Although I think the

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Mozart, F major sonata with Oistrak and Padura Scott. And I like to choose uh

Presenter7:53

something else for Reustra rather than what he's always associated with, which is usually Russian music. Because I think that in his earlier days he w his style was more Russian. But I didn't notice so much in it later, like his Schubert scenario and so on, Mozart, it's it's more uh classical. You couldn't say that it was Mozart played a la Russ. I mean the taste was good, it was a beautiful playing.

Presenter8:20

Which section of it were you going to hear? I think the um theme and variation second movement. And if you listen.

Presenter8:27

You will hear probably the first tango.

Presenter8:30

ever written it. And the second half of the variation is a

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Ta-da-da-da-da, pa-pa-pa-da-da-da, pa-pa-pa-da-da-da. Is it is a real tango? Cradle, yeah.

Speaker 38:39

Is it real?

Presenter9:40

That was delightful a piece of early tango music by Mozart, part of the sonata in F major for piano and violin, Koerkel three seventy seven, David Oystrack, and Paul Badura Skoda.

Speaker 39:43

Yeah.

Presenter9:52

Now, you were showing exceptional promise in that little musical factory with the alarm system. What was the next step? You were sent to

Presenter10:02

Per single?

Presenter10:04

Yes, well I had a hand kind of a crazy uh

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thing. It was Persinger, then I went to uh

Presenter10:10

A Russian teacher who was a concert master from the New York Philharmonic was Piastro. Piercinger, he had launched Young Young.

Ruggiero Ricci10:17

That's right.

Presenter10:18

Yeah.

Ruggiero Ricci10:20

Uh

Speaker 310:20

E risk

Presenter10:22

And in those days there were quite a few. Most of them have disappeared, but there was a whole string of them.

Speaker 310:24

Yeah.

Ruggiero Ricci10:25

Uh

Presenter10:27

Now, Yehudimanuin preceded you, but just two years. But you knew him, of course.

Ruggiero Ricci10:30

Yes, by two years.

Presenter10:34

Yes, but not very well. You know, we were both home practising. You're just yourself. Yes, just coming in and out. Yes. We didn't uh play tag together or anything like that.

Ruggiero Ricci10:38

Yeah.

Presenter10:45

How old were you when you made your debut, when you first played in public?

Presenter10:49

Well, I was like Yehooti. I was supposed to be eight, but I was ten.

Presenter10:54

This was public relations, was it? Yes. You can automatically knock two years off of any prodigies or add two years to what they say. And they like to make incidents. Like I remember coming to London in nineteen thirty two, that was my debut here.

Speaker 311:09

Yeah.

Presenter11:10

And they interviewed me, of course, so naturally they asked me a question about Yuri.

Presenter11:15

Now, I used to at that time, you know, there was no jealousy. I used to love him. I thought he was terrific.

Presenter11:20

They said, What about your hoodie?

Presenter11:23

And they printed in the paper that I said, Oh, but he's so old Yehudi is what? About two years ago. He's two years older than I.

Speaker 311:30

He's two years older than I.

Presenter11:33

I've seen a photograph of you at eight or ten at your debut with bobbed hair and a velvet Lord Fontelroy suit, and that that kind of helped. I mean, it must have made you feel rough. Oh terrible. Because in those days the kid had long hair, you know, he was a sissy.

Speaker 311:43

You're all terrible.

Presenter11:48

And I had not only long hair, I had uh moles and a fiddle case which was two hundred percent sizzy. I mean, the kids used to make

Ruggiero Ricci11:55

See.

Presenter11:57

fun of me on the street. So I d I didn't associate with children, only my own brothers and sisters. I was a little bit afraid of uh

Presenter12:04

Outside kids, I felt uh inhibited or a little bit

Presenter12:08

Freakish with them. Well, luckily, of course, you had a big family. But you you had to go to school. Oh, were you educated? I had private tutoring. Mm-hmm.

Ruggiero Ricci12:14

Now what you

Speaker 312:15

Yeah.

Presenter12:17

And men went there too. Yeah. You couldn't practice five hours a day and go to not not do the routine that we did. So

Presenter12:24

After your debut in San Francisco you went to New York? No, that and New York was the official debut. It was nineteen twenty nine. I played

Ruggiero Ricci12:29

Yeah.

Presenter12:32

Mendelssohn. There was a bit of fuss in New York. The authorities thought you were you were a bit young to take that kind of strain.

Presenter12:39

Yes, well, I you see, I was with the guardian and my and my parents uh said she was exploiting me.

Presenter12:47

Oh, I think every prodigy or you could say they're exploited because if you make a child work five hours a day and play in public and earn money, in those days you could keep the money

Speaker 312:47

I think every

Presenter12:58

The parents could keep the money that the child earned.

Presenter13:01

Later they had a law which called the Jackie Coogan Law. Yeah. So they couldn't uh

Speaker 313:04

Yeah.

Ruggiero Ricci13:04

Yeah.

Presenter13:05

Uh Shirley Temple was the first one who could keep her money. Before that, you could put a child to work and take the money, and it's not possible anymore. Maybe that's why they know more prodigies. Partly

Presenter13:18

Who was your hero? There you were in New York for the first time, mixing with professional musicians. Who did you want to meet most? Oh, well, I suppose his fellow players were.

Presenter13:29

Uh

Presenter13:30

Yehodi was a hero when I was

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Uh seven years old, eight years old, then was

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Well, the same thing on Heywitz, uh Chrysler. I knew all of them. When did you first meet Chrysler?

Ruggiero Ricci13:42

Did you first meet crap?

Presenter13:43

I think I was twenty nine or thirty. I played for He and Teebo.

Presenter13:48

And there's a photograph

Ruggiero Ricci13:48

The third graph are

Presenter13:50

Einstein

Presenter13:52

Well, that was a little later. About thirty one. There's a photograph of you playing to Einstein. You sitting all alone in a chair in the middle of the room. Right, yeah. Must have been quite an ordeal to play to one distinguished gentleman, just quite alone like that. Well, you know, and if a child doesn't pay any attention, I

Speaker 314:06

And you know that

Presenter14:09

Mm. Didn't bother me at all. Mm-hmm.

Speaker 314:11

Yeah.

Presenter14:12

Edmund when I played for Einstein he

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wanted to play on my fiddle, because I guess he never played on his strad. It wasn't really my violin. I was borrowing it anyway. But he asked if he could play some notes on my fiddle.

Presenter14:23

And uh he

Presenter14:25

He took it and improvised a little. I didn't recognize his playing, but it was it was nice, it was okay. He could play. Yeah.

Ruggiero Ricci14:29

Mercy.

Presenter14:32

You know, when he used to play string quartets, or he tried to play string quartets. Of course he was not a very experienced reader, because he just fiddled around for himself. So the joke is that the one of the quartet players said to him, Professor, you have to learn how to count.

Speaker 314:48

Uh

Presenter14:48

Uh

Speaker 314:48

Uh

Presenter14:48

Hehehehe

Presenter14:49

Right, let's have your third record.

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I think uh Piergorsky, Don Quixote. I think yeah, I think anyway, I think that Pietro Gorski, he was a character, he was a fun character. I think he was kind of a Don Quixote.

Speaker 314:55

Reckon Span.

Presenter15:02

himself. I love the story about him. He played in Hong Kong once and a a mouse ran across the stage while he was playing and he jumped off his chair and chased the mouse with his cello ball, trying to hit the mouse.

Presenter15:16

Oh, he sounds like a man who enjoyed some fun. Yeah, he was. Right, let's listen to a section of that.

Ruggiero Ricci15:19

Uh

Presenter16:23

An excerpt from Don Quixote by Richard Strauss, Piatogorsky with the Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Charles Munch. Now your first trip to Europe, I see, at the age of fourteen, and you have been travelling ever since, all over the world. Yes, except for three years in the army.

Presenter16:40

It's funny, I was in the Air Force for three years and it was the only three years of my life that I didn't fly. And I've been flying ever since. They grounded me. You know, I never I wasn't a pilot. They gave you quite an imposing title, I believe. Oh, I don't know. Entertainment science. Oh, yes, entertain

Ruggiero Ricci16:51

Yeah.

Speaker 316:51

Yeah.

Ruggiero Ricci16:55

Oh yes, and

Presenter16:58

What did you have to do? There was an orchestra. We played everything. We played classical things. We had terrible conductors.

Speaker 317:04

Yeah.

Presenter17:05

We played jazz. I played solos for the cadets. Uh we made background music for

Presenter17:15

A lot of uh

Presenter17:17

Films like it was one called Memphis Belle. Oh, yes. That's a very distinguished film. Yeah, that's right, the Air Force film, yeah. And uh others. Yeah, a whole bunch of army films. One of them was with a very funny incident was with Dmitry Tyumkin, you know, he's written a lot of movies called yes.

Ruggiero Ricci17:35

King Osis

Presenter17:37

The big tall Russian with quite a large stomach would have

Presenter17:41

belt around his stomach and and we had one take which was very difficult to make. It was a battle scene with large explosions going off. And the cord had to fit with the explosion. You see the conductor had earphones. And we had to do it several times because sometimes it wasn't together. So we do it again. Finally we got it all the way through. It was a good take, and it comes into the climax. The last chord, the whole orchestra's playing tremble double forte, and Jumpkins got his arms way up in the air, waving his fingers like crazy, and when he put his hands up,

Presenter18:14

He he pulled his stomach up and his pants fell off, and he fell right down to the floor, and he was standing here standing here in his underwear, and it broke up the whole orchestra. That was ruined another thing.

Speaker 318:17

Two hundred standing here.

Speaker 318:22

Yeah.

Presenter18:25

Tell me about the jazz you played. Was it small group or was there a big band? No, no, they did have small groups.

Ruggiero Ricci18:29

Now not

Presenter18:31

But I couldn't do that. That's not my I can't do that.

Ruggiero Ricci18:35

You are not a jovialist.

Presenter18:38

I have my fetal I knew, Joe Rodi. I want to see you.

Presenter18:41

in New York, about a year before he died, and he told me he had a

Presenter18:44

He had a violin concerto. Did he? Yes, he told me he wanted me to play it, but never got around to. I gathered they used to put you in in in the second row. In the orchestra, because having been a soloist all your life, you'd never had to become a very quick and efficient sight reader. I is is that? Yeah, I mean when you play in an orchestra you have to learn when not to play, you know. That's the first thing you have to learn.

Ruggiero Ricci18:59

I didn't have

Ruggiero Ricci19:01

That's why.

Ruggiero Ricci19:05

That's the first yes.

Presenter19:07

And now I'm all right. I can't sit now. In fact, I think it did me some good because I know

Presenter19:13

How far I can stretch with a conductor before he gets lost. Well, apart from the concerts you gave during your three years in the service, how many concerts have you given?

Presenter19:23

Oh, I guess it's well over five thousand. Five thousand.

Presenter19:27

That's a lot of concerts to prepare for. Well, I think the best thing is I I haven't missed one yet.

Ruggiero Ricci19:30

Yeah.

Presenter19:32

I probably missed the next one though.

Presenter19:34

Record number four. What next? Oh, uh I like to play record where my brother plays, with Jenny Turrell. My brother didn't uh do too much career on a cello because he didn't want to travel and so he used to do a lot of commercial work in New York and he used to be on first call so whatever with the cello solo and anything. He used to call my brother and Jenny Turrell was doing this Russian uh album and they my brother did the cello solos. What would you write? It's called Doubt.

Ruggiero Ricci20:00

What would you like to do?

Speaker 320:16

We made this fallen in give us the trust.

Ruggiero Ricci20:22

Yeah.

Speaker 320:25

My sin is my terror, yes.

Ruggiero Ricci20:28

It's the rational

Speaker 320:34

Happy.

Speaker 320:38

Press the rock.

Speaker 320:52

Yes.

Presenter21:03

Jenny Tourell singing a Russian song by Glinker called Doubt with Giorgio Ricci playing the cello.

Presenter21:11

You're renowned for the size of your repertoire, Mr. Ricci. How many concerti have you? I've played about fifty, but I don't keep that many going. I keep about forty, forty-five if they give me enough notice. Well, forty to forty-five full-length works to keep in your head is I I think pretty much. I don't keep all of them. Like she knows there. He knows that I don't play for memory. I put the music up because it's twelve tone. There isn't time to keep them all up. I'd have to limit my repertoire much more if I played them all for memory. Some of the contemporary ones I I read. Yeah.

Speaker 321:47

Uh

Presenter21:48

I asked Joyce to that too once. I said, Do you uh but if you think from memory, you said nothing more or no.

Presenter21:53

And it was Paganini who started that, playing for memory.

Speaker 321:57

Hmm.

Presenter21:57

But but he played on his own things.

Presenter21:59

But I found there was a reason he played for memory.

Presenter22:03

His eyesight started to go.

Presenter22:06

And that was it. So he he was forced, like Toscanini. Toscanini couldn't.

Ruggiero Ricci22:09

Let's go.

Presenter22:11

He had to memorize the scores, you know. And because of that, because of Paganini's example, all other violinists are supposed to play from memory. Yes, he caused a lot of work by his fading eyesight. You feel a sort of affinity with Paganini. You've made a very close study of him. Oh, yes, I played a lot of his work. As a matter of fact, I started uh right after the Army. First album I did was Paganini Recital. You were the fascinating. And he did fascinate me, you know.

Ruggiero Ricci22:37

You would have to be a little bit more.

Presenter22:39

to know if if he really was such a great

Presenter22:43

technician and I started to study his works and and I did learn a lot about the violin from practising um knuckle breaking uh pieces that he wrote for the fiddle because they're uh not normal technical, a lot of them are

Presenter22:57

Acrobatic.

Presenter22:59

sort of contortionist.

Presenter23:00

You were the first person to record all his caprices. How many others?

Presenter23:05

There are twenty four, although they've found another one since, so you could say there are twenty five. One was written much later, it's called Caprice Allier. But in a normal set of his Caprice Salier

Presenter23:15

Twenty four, yeah. I was the first one that did them, uh, in the original solo. They were some of them were done with piano accompaniment up to that time.

Ruggiero Ricci23:22

Yeah.

Presenter23:23

And you've, I hope, done the recently discovered one so that you've got the whole set. Yes, I've got.

Presenter23:28

You're very fond of playing solo concerts with no accompaniment at all. That must be much more challenging.

Presenter23:34

It's much more difficult. I think I can start doing that in the army.

Presenter23:39

They used to, uh used to give shows for the cadets and then they'd suddenly call on me and say, We should play something. I used to have to stand up and play old caprice or something for the

Presenter23:49

cadets. So sometimes it was the perpetual motion of Bagneti. Of course you had to play rather a s snappy number because they wouldn't listen to anything that was it might be boring

Presenter24:03

What first performances have you given that you like to think of?

Presenter24:07

I think the most uh important one was probably Hinastera concerto, which I played a lot in the States, in Europe, uh South America and Australia.

Presenter24:17

Well, I played also uh a couple of English ones. I played Alexander Gare, mm, Chero. I gave the first performance we was at Los Angeles and New York in the States. Oh, I also played it in Edinburgh and uh

Speaker 324:22

Mm-hmm.

Presenter24:32

Then I played the Gerard Sherman concerto.

Presenter24:36

You've made all these records. Where do you like to do most of your recording? I would like to do them at home.

Presenter24:42

'Cause you don't have so many problems. Usually when you go into a hall

Presenter24:47

You have noise

Presenter24:49

Yeah.

Presenter24:50

Well, it's it's fairly noisy in some homes. You'll get aircraft flying over and Oh, yeah, it depends where your house is. The house I have now is on top of a hill. There's nothing around, just trees, so

Ruggiero Ricci24:54

Oh yeah.

Presenter25:00

Maybe the crickets will get in the way, but But I actually did some uh records in the early days that I gave to uh Decca, English Decca. I I did uh Pakarini Recital.

Presenter25:12

I did Prokofi Sonata, I did Sarasati recital, I did the engineering, editing and playing.

Presenter25:18

And uh I liked it much better. I if I didn't like it I could throw it out.

Presenter25:23

You like to record straight through. You don't like doing it all in bits to be pasted together. No, well, I.

Ruggiero Ricci25:28

Yeah.

Speaker 325:28

Now

Presenter25:29

Funny, I'm not a fiddle player for bits anyway. I'm not so good on the short take. I'm much better on the long haul. When I get running, I much rather do a whole movement and take that movement and then maybe they can put in a couple of splices, but I'd rather go right through. And it bothers me a lot if I get with a conductor and every few bars he stops and he talks to the orchestra and I never can really get running hot. It's like playing with a cold engine. Yes. After war, the first work I did for Decap was Tchaikovsky Concerto in uh

Presenter26:00

King Fey Hall and was cold, didn't have any heat.

Presenter26:05

In those days, I think after the war there was a problem getting places heated. I was freezing. I think I'd bring my coat on.

Presenter26:12

A little here near me.

Presenter26:14

Let's have record number five. What have we got now?

Presenter26:18

Oh, here I have Ivids, D Monabrook and Shadow. I think he made that one. He made so many good records here in

Presenter26:26

In London he was in terrific form.

Presenter26:29

In any way I associate him with these romantic virtuoso concertos.

Speaker 327:28

Uh

Speaker 327:29

Uh

Presenter27:34

Part of the Bruck second violin concerto in D minor, Jascha Heifitz with the R. C. A. Victor Symphony Orchestra conducted by Isler Solomon.

Presenter27:44

Tell me about your instruments. How many do you earn?

Presenter27:48

Well, some of them I've sold off. I have just the main instruments ordinary.

Presenter27:54

I have to study only

Presenter27:57

The Vium, uh and I have a few new fetals, I have a very good, excellent new violin.

Presenter28:03

Two. How many do you travel with you?

Presenter28:06

Well, I bought a new fiddle on this trip, so actually I have at the moment I have three with me. What's the one you you bought, a new one? Yes, I bought one in in Nice. It's Italian name, but it's made in France. It's very good. It sounds like a trombone. It's uh I think it must be the loudest violin in the world. Maybe when I get in a very bad hall Here's it. Where do you keep them? Are you very fussy? I mean, in a plane, if if it's a bit rough, do you keep them in your lap? No, I should put them in the overhead. There's an overhead compartment that closes, but one time uh

Presenter28:39

You do have even their problem. We fell once I was in the seven four seven. It fell four thousand feet or five thousand. I don't remember, it dropped like a stone.

Presenter28:47

And then it it's like it hit something. It w it was just air, I guess, and then it dropped again at a couple of thousand feet.

Presenter28:53

And uh at that time I had a new fiddle with me plus

Presenter28:57

My Gonaria had a bellini fiddle.

Presenter29:01

which is actually a copy of Menuin's Goneri. And uh I was teaching in Juilliard and one day I I got by the window and the light and I took a look at the fiddle and I suddenly saw there was a long crack in it.

Presenter29:13

alongside a fingerboard, which you couldn't notice unless you turned the fiddle in a certain light.

Presenter29:17

And I realized that when that plane

Presenter29:20

Fail.

Presenter29:21

The jolt must have uh there's a post in the film gives it

Presenter29:26

Uh the jolt uh cracked the top.

Presenter29:29

But it was a lucky crack because it went right along the grain.

Presenter29:33

Does jet lag worry you? I mean, you're doing so much travelling. Can you manage to get a day or two on the ground before before I'm going to go?

Ruggiero Ricci29:39

That always

Presenter29:42

I'll tell you it's it's worse the next day.

Presenter29:45

Now I can play the day arrive.

Presenter29:47

Second AM

Presenter29:49

So tired.

Presenter29:50

Usually when you ride you can't sleep anyway because your hours are all off and

Presenter29:54

And coming East it bothers me more. Coming to Europe, not so much going the other way. How much practice do you put in when you're travelling?

Presenter30:02

Oh, it's it's hard to say. Some days none, you know, that the day I travel.

Presenter30:08

I would say about two hours sometimes.

Presenter30:11

If I sit and maybe and I don't have any orchestra rehearsals, maybe three.

Presenter30:17

Well, one of the records you've chosen is a particularly interesting one, and this seems to be the right place to put it in. In fact, you played fifteen very rare violins on one day for this recording. That's the most fun I ever had recording. I was like, Well, I'll never be able to do it again.

Ruggiero Ricci30:30

Hmm.

Ruggiero Ricci30:32

Exactly.

Ruggiero Ricci30:34

Yeah.

Presenter30:34

I mean, you today you couldn't possibly collect those.

Presenter30:38

Uh, the Warlitzer Company, you know, did a hill of New York. They don't exist anymore, but they had a large collection and they assembled these fiddles for me. So it was

Presenter30:48

Difficult in t you could never collect that group of violence anymore today because they were all

Presenter30:53

Uh dispersed violin shops at that time had many more, you know, a a shop would have five or six strads. If you go now, we say a lot of fiddles. But nowadays if you can find one or two in the shop, you're lucky. A lot of people buy them now as an international. That's right, not so much, yeah. And everybody's waiting for you to die so they can buy your fiddle.

Ruggiero Ricci31:07

A lot of people buy them now as an international.

Ruggiero Ricci31:10

But

Ruggiero Ricci31:12

Pages.

Presenter31:18

Charming. Right. Well, these fifteen marvellous fiddles. What sort of value would you put on fifteen instruments of this sort?

Presenter31:26

Well, I remember now how many strands of gornari's there. You see, my gornari is I'd say half a million dollars. Mm mm. That'll be about two hundred and fifty thousand pounds, I guess.

Presenter31:39

And you've got about four or five grenades on here, plus strads.

Presenter31:44

I don't know what we've come to. Millions.

Presenter31:47

Well, which is the one of these fifteen, the sound of which you would like to hear now?

Presenter31:52

Well, it was one of my favorites. It wasn't actually mine, although mine is a great fiddle, and maybe mine in in a in a big hall.

Presenter32:00

would fit the bill better. But this one, there's a guneri, it's called a plowden, which has such a beautiful quality and I tried to fit the piece to the fiddle. So I chose a Mozart piece for this for this violin.

Presenter33:14

Your own recording of a Mozart Adagio played on a guaneri dated seventeen thirty five, The Plowden.

Presenter33:22

Now you have your home now in uh in Michigan, where you're teaching at the University. How much time do you get there in the course of a year? This year I didn't get there very much because when I took that post I was already booked for trips, you know, to Europe. Like this trip is six weeks.

Presenter33:37

In the future I won't stay away.

Presenter33:39

Six weeks is too long to stay away from pupils.

Presenter33:43

That's why I'm limiting it.

Presenter33:45

In the future just at three weeks, maybe four weeks. Anyway, I'm getting tired of traveling so much. I don't like to be away for that long a period.

Presenter33:54

You have five children. How many of them are musicians?

Presenter33:57

Four. Four. Mm-hmm.

Presenter34:00

That's a pretty good record.

Presenter34:02

Yes.

Presenter34:03

Well, you never know what they're gonna choose. Well, no, one is a dancer, actually. She's a ballet dancer. And your wife is a journalist. Where did you meet?

Presenter34:11

met on a boat. Uh she was on a cruise going around the world and I was uh

Presenter34:16

Playing conscience on the boat. So you must have a tolerant view of the press. Do you always read your press notices?

Presenter34:23

Yes, if I would see one, I would read it. I mean, I I wouldn't just throw it aside without looking. Usually you get me angry, or But I'm not one of those people to say, Oh, no, I never read them.

Presenter34:34

Right. Record number seven. Oh, well, I took the Martha Argrich, uh, first Tchaikovsky concerto, which is a concerto I'm a little bit tired of hearing, but she is such a fabulous performance, hair raising, and he's a f f fantastic pianist.

Presenter35:48

Part of the last movement of the Tchaikovsky First Piano Concerto, Marta Agarisch, with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Kirill Kondrashin.

Presenter36:00

Now you've had to look after your hands all your life, haven't you? You haven't been able to take up carpentry or anything of that sort.

Presenter36:07

No, I I'm but I'm careful. I wouldn't use a power saw, I suppose. But I did play uh baseball. I think that's really where they could do the

Ruggiero Ricci36:11

My

Presenter36:15

Damage. Although I've no I've never taken any special uh care. I'm not very fussy with my hands. I'm just wondering how you're going to get on on this desert island. We've dumped you there. You've got to look after yourself.

Speaker 336:21

Yeah.

Ruggiero Ricci36:26

Uh

Speaker 236:26

You've got to look after yourself.

Presenter36:28

Do you think you could manage? Could you rig up some sort of shelter?

Presenter36:32

Oh, I think so. Yeah.

Presenter36:34

I didn't find a cave somewhere. Ever done any fishing? Not since I was a kid, I think in in Wisconsin. And and you caught something?

Ruggiero Ricci36:41

You call

Presenter36:42

Yes, I think so. Yeah. Right. Ever done any sailing? Do you know about small boats? Well, I've done it, but I'm Hyphais is is the sailor. He loves to sail. I mean, he knows how how to do it. I'm I'm just a passenger.

Presenter36:54

Would you try to escape?

Presenter36:55

Or would you set it up? No, because I would drown. You just wait there and hope that we come and get you.

Ruggiero Ricci36:56

No, because I would drown.

Speaker 336:58

Yeah.

Presenter37:03

Right.

Presenter37:04

What's your last record? Your eighth? Well, I think that if you were to start there, you'd have once in a while you'd have to laugh, you know.

Presenter37:10

Otherwise you start crying for yourself.

Presenter37:14

Split my side, says Bike Jones.

Presenter37:17

Uh William Tell Overture. I think he's a terrific talent. I know it's crazy, but he's a talented man.

Speaker 237:24

Now the horses are approaching the starting gate and uh

Speaker 237:34

Stoo Chan going to the front. Cabbage is second on the rail. Beautiful Linda is third by a length. And a Fetelbom. Around the first turn, Stoo Chan is still in front. Cabbage is second by a hitch.

Speaker 337:49

Can't be fired. Uh

Speaker 237:50

Uh

Speaker 337:50

Yeah.

Speaker 237:50

Beautiful Linda is third, and uh Beetlebomb.

Presenter37:55

Spike Jones and his City Slickers, their version of the William Tell Overture. I wonder if Rossini would recognize it. Um if you could take only one disc out of that eight, which would it be?

Speaker 338:01

Hmm.

Presenter38:07

Oh, I think I would take Bach, because I think you can listen to Bach.

Presenter38:10

The whole routine failed.

Ruggiero Ricci38:11

Domino.

Presenter38:13

And one luxury to have with you, just one object of no practical use that it would give you pleasure to have.

Presenter38:19

I guess the fiddle wouldn't be of any practical use, but at least I know what something I would take that Blowdon Gorneri'cause they can't buy it anyway, they don't sell it.

Ruggiero Ricci38:27

Yeah.

Presenter38:29

You will have it somehow. And one book, you've already got the Bible and the works of Shakespeare.

Presenter38:37

Well, I think I take the letters of Beethoven. The letters of Beethoven, right.

Presenter38:42

And thank you, Ruggiero Ricci, for letting us hear your Desert Island disc. Fun being on this island, but I'm glad to get off. Goodbye, everyone.

Ruggiero Ricci39:16

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