Sir John Pritchard

Speaker 30:00

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

Speaker 30:05

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

Speaker 30:11

And the presenter was Roy Plumley.

Presenter0:30

This week, our castaway is the Distinguished Conductor, currently Chief Conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Sir John Pritchard.

Presenter0:38

Sir John, do you play music at home? After hearing it all day long, do you play discs when you've got a

Sir John Pritchard0:43

Oh, yes, I do. And usually, since I don't have time to go to

Sir John Pritchard0:48

chamber music or or song recitals or things like that. I love to catch up on that repertory which I was really brought up with. My father was a professional violinist, taught me to play in string quartets, string trios, much against my will. I wanted to play the piano, but no, there was no place in chamber music, in his opinion, for a piano. So I had to play the viola and I remember all those works so well that I very much like to play them.

Presenter1:16

Have you a big collection?

Sir John Pritchard1:18

It's in various parts of the world. The trouble is the record that I want to hear is always somewhere else. Uh

Presenter1:23

Well, you've got a miserable ration of just eight on your island. What's the first one you've chosen?

Sir John Pritchard1:30

Well, the first one is from Verde's opera in Balloon Maskera, and this has a special place in my affections because it marked my debut at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, more years ago than either you and I will be kind enough to recollect now. But it was the opening of the season, and it was a very great thing for a young conductor to be entrusted with this work.

Sir John Pritchard2:15

Uh

Presenter2:54

An excerpt from the first act of Verdi's Balloon Mascara, Luciano Pavarotti and Helen Donat.

Presenter3:01

Now you said your father was a violinist, a professional musician. He played an orchestras, did he?

Sir John Pritchard3:07

Yes, he played many years ago in many London orchestras when the orchestras were not quite as firmly set up as they are now. He was what is called an inspired freelance player.

Sir John Pritchard3:16

Uh

Presenter3:16

And you learn the piano.

Sir John Pritchard3:18

Yeah.

Presenter3:18

Piano in secret.

Sir John Pritchard3:19

Yes, I learned the piano in si with the collaboration of my mother. I don't know why, it seems a very Victorian proceeding now that you have to conceal things from your parents, but I certainly did from him. But it was partly a question of time, because he wanted to allocate all my free time to studying and practising the violin. And I always remember when he got near to his actual death, and I had already established myself as a conductor, and he said to me, Oh, you've done pretty well, but you should have been a fiddler.

Presenter3:47

Did you take it as a matter of course right from the beginning that you were going to be a musician of one order or or another, either on strings or the piano?

Sir John Pritchard3:57

Far from it, because we had so much music in the house, in the home, and usually it was associated with the thought of this dreaded half an hour per day of terrible studies on the violin, which I didn't appreciate. I liked naturally the general sound of music and of singing and of the effect of big orchestras which we could hear on the radio and so on. But I never thought of that, and I was much more interested in school and in other places with the written word. I thought I would be a journalist. This would be the finest thing that I could be. Did you go to music college? I did go to the Royal College of Music for a short time. And uh my father, as usual, got in the way because he was always saying you learn nothing there. And uh I don't know how right he was, but the trouble was that he interfered with the proper period of time that one uh has to attend in order to get benefit from any scholastic establishment. And he would send me off, he would speak to an Italian conductor and say, Can I send my young son over to you and he will study and I did as a young boy. I went away with opera scores and sat in at rehearsals in La Scale, Milan, uh through the kindness of various visiting maestries. Well, that was marvelous. It was a marvellous experience, and that's where I first began to get a grounding in Italian and also in Italian ways, and I think being drawn to singers.

Presenter5:18

Now you had to go off to war service before you could really start your career.

Sir John Pritchard5:21

Well, the war of course interrupted the actual progression of careers for so many people, but nevertheless the fact that I was actually sent uh as a replacement for somebody in a commercial office when the war had actually stopped, we were still required to do national service of of a type, and I was located in Derby, which had a great group of young musicians, many have made their names since, young professionals who had been in the forces, posted as I was to strange parts of the world, as it were, or of England. And naturally we fell into making music together. And this led to my very first conducting experience, which was with a small and indeed amateur string orchestra in Derby. But we managed to have some very good players who were biding their time to get back to their professional freedom and were only too happy to come and play music. And I was there as a pianist and a viola player, and to me it was a very great surprise when I was elected, as it were, to conduct the very first concert of the Derby String Orchestra. Later, because of the interest of the BBC in provincial music making, the Derby String Orchestra broadcast very much under my direction. And I always remember when I came down still as a young man that a music publisher meeting me said, Good heavens, I've heard your name so much on the radio, I thought you must have a long grey beard.

Presenter6:49

Well, that was a very promising start, even though it was virtually an amateur orchestra.

Sir John Pritchard6:54

Yes.

Presenter6:55

What's your second record?

Sir John Pritchard6:57

My second record must bring in the beloved and indispensable name of Mozart. And when you come to consider what you want to hear of Mozart, people say to me, Which of the operas do you enjoy conducting best? Well, the old hoary answer, the one that I'm actually conducting at the moment, is so very true. But in the period of reflection and tranquillity, if one ever gets it, I'm sure that one turns eventually and finally, as it were, to Don Giovanni.

Presenter7:17

Uh

Speaker 47:17

Uh

Presenter7:17

Uh

Sir John Pritchard7:29

and, indeed, to that wonderful, final scene when the Commendatore confronts Don Giovanni and brings him to his doom.

Speaker 47:52

I mapped I did a best of Indian

Speaker 48:26

Go see.

Speaker 48:30

No C.

Presenter8:36

Cesari Sieppe singing Mozart's Don Giovanni in the closing scene of the opera, with Kurt Birmer as the commendatore and the Vianna Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Joseph Cripps. So John, your first operatic experience came, I think, in 1947 when you were invited to join the staff of Gleinborn as a repertoire. It was a singer who recommended you.

Sir John Pritchard8:59

Yes, it was Roy Henderson, famous as the teacher of of Kathleen Ferrier. And again that arose from the work that I had been doing in the North Midlands of England, because I gave a performance, a rather famous performance now, in retrospect, of the Elijah of Mendelssohn. And it turned out to be the actual last performance of that work, where Roy Henderson had sung it hundreds of times. But it so chanced that in Utoxeta, Staffordshire, he elected to sing the last one of his career. And he, of course, regarded that occasion with very great affection. I remember afterwards he was I think he was struck by the fact that I tried to treat the work as a young man and his vast experience helped me as a very dramatic piece, almost like an opera. Anyway, he was sufficiently impressed the next day to say, well, you should you know you should write to my friend John Christie at Gleinborn because Gleimborn is this year embarking on an immense undertaking as artistic centre for the Edinburgh Festival. It was the very first Edinburgh International Festival. And he said, if you can get there, you will see conductors such as Foot Wangler and Brune Walter. I don't know who the people would be there, but also the Gleimborn Opera is going and they're going to take Macbeth and Figaro, and it'll be a wonderful experience for you. And so I remember sitting down and writing a rather cheeky postcard to John Christie, implying that if he acted quickly he might get my services, which he did.

Presenter9:51

Yeah.

Presenter10:34

He's like portraying.

Sir John Pritchard10:35

Yeah.

Presenter10:35

Uh Yeah.

Sir John Pritchard10:36

I think so.

Presenter10:36

Yeah.

Presenter10:37

To be a repertoire, of course, is a wonderful way to to learn the repertoire.

Sir John Pritchard10:41

Yes, and it must be remembered that still, although I was wanting to be a conductor, I still was concentrating on the art of piano accompaniment. To me it would have been a wonderful career to follow, however distantly, in the steps of somebody like Gerald Moore. I loved working with singers, I loved playing for singers. So therefore it was an extension of this to sit in the room and coach singers as a repetiteur. Actually my first work at Glimbaugh was rather that of a chorus repetitor. I was assistant to the chorus master and by the various ramifications of the operatic situation I made a quick recovery from that unfortunate position and managed to get myself into the really conducting sector of the operation.

Presenter11:25

But

Sir John Pritchard11:26

It's a terrible thing to think what a huge slice of one's life can be spent with such intense pleasure and appreciation. I mean this has been vital to my career, the whole thing, and I look back very much also to my work for, at that time, Fritz Busch, who just himself returned to Gleimborn after the war, and the fact that I was associated with him on restoring one of Mozart's most important operas, which had been relatively unheard, so that Gleimborn gave the first professional performance of a Domineo in this country. I worked closely on that.

Presenter12:10

Your first chance to conduct at Glinborn came suddenly and in the middle of a broadcast performance.

Sir John Pritchard12:16

Yes, it was again of Don Giovanni, in which I have been working closely with Fritz Busch as his assistant. I think he was a humane and wonderful man.

Presenter12:24

Take

Sir John Pritchard12:28

He used to drive one very hard, but then he would think, Well, I think perhaps you should have a little relaxation and he said, Everything is fine, we have the broadcast tonight, why don't you go off and have a holiday? And I couldn't imagine where I could go, because Glanbourne at that point was my life and I was indeed living there. And so, with a great stretch of the imagination, I went twelve miles down the road to Eastbourne to s to spend a a few days at the hotel. And I was actually swimming in the sea, thinking my thoughts, I must admit, were full of the broadcast which was taking place about five thirty in the afternoon. I was having a late swim. It must have been one of those rare occasions when the English Channel was warm. And men came with loud hailers along the beach saying, Pritchard, Pritchard, Pritchard and I I couldn't imagine what had happened. I was in fear and trembling and came out dripping wet, of course. And uh I was bustled into towels and rushed in a car to Glenbourne because uh Doctor Bush was conducting the first part of Don Giovanni.

Sir John Pritchard13:33

He became very ill feeling, and all he could manage to mutter was get Pritchard, get Pritchard, so that I arrived just in time for the end of the first act. Of course, once the conductor has started the first act of Don Giovanni, there's nothing he can do. He's trapped there for an hour and twenty minutes. So he managed to get through it. He came out looking grey and green and white and ill. I climbed into some evening dress and and conducted the second part, which again was very helpful for my career in a sense because uh on the broadcast this uh

Presenter14:00

Bye.

Sir John Pritchard14:05

A surprising substitution was widely noticed in all countries of Europe.

Presenter14:10

It was being broadcast all over the country.

Sir John Pritchard14:11

Yeah.

Presenter14:13

Europe Yeah.

Presenter14:14

And when he died a year or two later you you took over some of his performances.

Sir John Pritchard14:18

Well, I did and uh well, he actually died after the Edinburgh festival season, and at the next opening of the season we gave a memorial performance of Ida Mineo for Fritz Busch.

Presenter14:31

In due course you became musical director of Gleinborn. As a festival opera house with a short season and only five operas, are there special problems?

Sir John Pritchard14:40

Well, the the problems are more I would say of the international shortage of singers who are actually willing nowadays to give up the intensive rehearsal time which contributed to the excellence of the standards of Gleinborn. Therefore you had to find a group of artists, which Gleinborn was very successful in doing.

Sir John Pritchard15:02

who however they moved around on the opera circuit in the bigger spheres were very happy to come in May, June and July and spend a nice time in the country and really concentrate. I'm not suggesting they came merely to put their feet up and to have a relaxed time, but of course the fact that they were far from the usual telephones and telegrams and things which are beset an opera singer, and the fact that they rented little cottages in the country and went into Lewis to buy spaghetti and so on, made a totally different outlook for them. They were very happy with the atmosphere and the possibilities of working there.

Presenter15:37

It is a wonderful place.

Sir John Pritchard15:44

Let's have your third record now. What's that to be? Well, I've been speaking about uh I Domineo and the fact that I conducted the memorial performance for Fritz Busch. I had worked with him closely on it in the previous season when, as I told you, it was the first professional performance. It was an immediate and important success. And we're going to hear Padre Giermanni, the first aria for Ilia in Idomineo. And who shall sing it? Sena Urinak, who was unforgettable in the role.

Speaker 416:33

From the surviving.

Speaker 416:37

I give a good moment.

Speaker 416:53

Yeah.

Speaker 417:03

A deal of worth of sleep.

Speaker 417:09

Here

Speaker 417:15

Yeah.

Presenter17:20

Sene Jorinatz singing the opening aria of Mozart's E Domineo,

Presenter17:25

The production at Leinbourne which you conducted, Sir John.

Presenter17:30

Now you were invited to be guest conductor at the Vienna State Opera, and probably because of that you were invited to conduct at Cotton Garden.

Presenter17:39

Hundreds of performances you've conducted there through the years, including some first productions of British operas.

Sir John Pritchard17:46

Yes, I think naturally of the coronation opera, Britain's Gloriana, which was, shall we say, a successe de scandal at the beginning because of the nature of the story, but later has been greatly appreciated in revivals of the English national opera after many years. It's a beautiful score, and of course had a wonderful part for Sir Peter Peirce and Joan Cross as the Queen. Another very important premiere which I conducted there was Michael Tippett's Midsummer Marriage. Again, a score which has taken time to lay a hold on people's imagination. But I think all of us who are concerned I remember that Richard Lewis and Joan Sutherland were in the the first production of this opera

Sir John Pritchard18:34

We knew that we were in the presence of absolutely inspired composition. We knew that from the beginning.

Presenter18:40

Have you ever ever added up how many operas you've conducted altogether?

Sir John Pritchard18:44

No, I s I've always keep that for the long winter evenings and the long into winter evenings, uh but it must run into hundreds.

Presenter18:53

What are we going to have next? We've got to record number four.

Sir John Pritchard18:56

Well, apart from the beloved figures of Verdi and Mozart, I think that one of the great influences in my whole musical life was my encountering the Italian maestro Vittorio Gui at

Sir John Pritchard19:10

Granbourne.

Sir John Pritchard19:11

He was, as it were, the other side of the coin of the equally humane and wonderful Fritz Busch. He came there and he started to show us, and to show us in England especially.

Sir John Pritchard19:25

How Rossini operas should be played. It was as simple as that. He had veneration for Rossini, he had a wonderful library of original manuscripts, he knew more about the actual authentic text of Rossini's course than any man living, and in himself he embodied a lot of the grace and style which we always associate with Rossini's music. I suppose I learned from Vittorio Gui that wit in music needs a refined touch.

Sir John Pritchard20:02

Uh to me, the one opera which uh opera buffer, which Rossini wrote to a French text, Le Contorie, it has a very special place in his output. I find the music spins along with wonderful wit and grace and style and speed. But one of my favourite moments in the opera occurs at the end of the second act, when there is an inspired trio.

Speaker 420:30

Pray despénce, je son potre.

Speaker 420:37

Ah

Speaker 421:06

Four sinners.

Presenter21:32

A trio from Act Two of Rossini's Le Conde d'Orie, the Kleinborn production conducted by Vittorio Guy, and the singers were Juan Ontina, Sari Barabash, and Cara Canemaya.

Presenter21:47

And we've been concentrating so far, Sir Don, on your operatic work, but

Presenter21:51

At the same time you're also doing a vast amount of concert work.

Presenter21:55

You conducted the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic. You were with them for quite a few years. Oh, yeah.

Sir John Pritchard21:59

Oh yes, I was appointed music director there, and uh every conductor needs one place, one important orchestra, where he establishes his main repertory. And I looked to Liverpool with joy for two things. First, the fact that it gave me the opportunity of working with first class orchestra throughout the requirements of an enormous repertory of classical works. I came late, you know, to the symphonies of Beethoven, but gradually I subjected the public of Liverpool to my interpretations of those symphonies. And of course that is something that no amount of study of the scores can help you with. Once you are out there doing your first performance of the Arroca Symphony, that's it and the public are going to expect a moving experience. So you know the demands on you. Liverpool helped me to meet those demands over a very wide repertory and also enabled me to embark, as it were, on one of my favourite pursuits, which is the encouragement of contemporary music, without causing it to be a pain to the public. And we did establish this well known series called Musica Viva, in which at a time when in London it was very difficult indeed at a festival hall to hear anything other than a Rachmaninoff piano concerto followed by a Beethoven or Brahm symphony and I say that advisedly In Liverpool we did run a series of contemporary programmes done in a very informal way and with a certain amount of musical appreciation, if I can call it that, a certain amount of description of the music, and we introduced to the public a a really surprisingly varied repertory of works of the twentieth century. Musica viva was an important thing, I think I'm right in saying, in the music of this country.

Presenter23:56

And then you came south to the London Philharmonic, where you were conductor for several years. You went to Australia with the with the LPO, with Sir Malcolm Sargent. Have you any special memories of that trip?

Sir John Pritchard24:09

Well, I always remember dear Sir Malcolm, who was such an expert in the grand intercontinental tours. He was full of the the kind of wisdom that he gained over many of these journeys. Uh he wasn't too pleased on that particular tour, because naturally he was a much more famous figure, but uh nevertheless I had been appointed the music director and chief conductor of the London Philharmonic, and I was going on my first visit. He was somewhat annoyed, I think, that the press and the media generally paid perhaps a little more attention to the newly appointed conductor than to the revered and regular visitor. I think I can say that. I always remember he said to me, My dear boy, always use the laundries in the High Commissioner's residences. They're by far the best. Don't let your shirts go anywhere else.

Presenter25:00

There never was a better dressed conductor. That's true. The vast amount of travelling you've done, said you once went to Japan twice in eight days. And you've conducted in China?

Sir John Pritchard25:11

Yes, that was one of the greatest tours we ever gave. It was the first visit of a Western symphony orchestra to China since the Cultural Revolution. And it did mean it was frightfully important because we were playing Brahms and Beethoven, which had been denied to the public for more than ten or twelve years. There was a whole generation who were hearing, for example, Ida Handel play the Brahms violin concerto. They were hearing that music for the first time in their lives. They came music students and especially people connected with orchestras in China were given priority of admission. They came from vast distances in order to hear those concerts. Orchestra players tend to be a little, shall we say, hardened about their experiences touring, but I've never met a member of the the London Philharmonic who doesn't refer to that tour.

Sir John Pritchard26:02

with bated breath as one of the greatest experiences of their lives.

Presenter26:06

How do you spend your time on these long plane trips? Do you sleep or read novels, study scores?

Sir John Pritchard26:12

No, I I never studied scores. I don't believe in that. So uh usually I read. I always take an absolute library of books with me on the plane.

Sir John Pritchard26:21

And some of my colleagues are noted for the fact that they conduct performances silently of whole symphonies in the front seats in which they which they occupy. But I love these occasions as spreading, as it were, the feeling of camaraderie between the conductor and the players of the orchestra. It's very nice to walk down the plane and talk to people in the orchestra whom in rehearsals you have a very cursory uh acquaintance with. One gets to know people on these tours.

Presenter26:47

Smith

Presenter26:49

Of course.

Presenter26:51

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

Sir John Pritchard26:54

Well, I have a great affection for the big band sound. You know, the popular music of the dance music of the twenties to me is a fascinating also the lyrics which one can enjoy. And I would very much like to have

Sir John Pritchard27:11

This number of

Sir John Pritchard27:13

Roy Fox, over my shoulder goes one here.

Presenter27:16

This was recorded in the thirties, little later than the twenties you would tell me.

Sir John Pritchard27:18

A little later reminds one of the twenties.

Speaker 427:27

So over my shoulder goes one hair. Over my shoulder goes two hairs.

Speaker 427:42

Oh

Speaker 427:44

One cares, two cares, three cares, four cares. Over my shoulder goes it all.

Presenter27:53

Roy Fox in his orchestra playing Over My Shoulder from the film version of Evergreen and the vocal was by Peggy Dell.

Presenter28:02

Spending so much time travelling, being on the international circuit, means that ordinarily you don't have to be based in London.

Presenter28:08

So you've opted for Monte Carlo.

Sir John Pritchard28:11

Yes, Monte Carlo is a pleasure spot, which I unfortunately visit much more rarely than I visit London. That's the way life is. I I've always loved France, and of course Monte Carlo is a kind of adjunct of France in a way. It's now becoming so overbuilt that I seriously wonder whether the pedestrians will be permanently banished from the scene, because the demands of car parking and of high-rise buildings and so on are so great that when you stand above Monte Carlo and look down, you think, well, Hong Kong has somehow got switched over to the Mediterranean. But I like it more for the position in which it stands relative to Italy, which I love, and relative to the south of us and to Provence, which I love very much. And I think in the middle there is a nice spot to be. I'm sure of it. Record number six.

Sir John Pritchard29:06

Among the premieres which I mentioned having given at Covent Garden was uh of course the Midsummer Marriage of uh Michael Tippett. And a very early recording which I was able to make was of the important series of dances, the ritual dances he calls them which occur in the opera. So we will hear the last the ritual fire dance, as it is, from those dances from Midsummer Marriage.

Presenter30:36

The fourth of the ritual dances from Tippett's Midsummer Marriage, The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden Orchestra, and You're Conducting Yourself.

Presenter30:45

You're now chief conductor of the B B C Symphony Orchestra, which is going to have a busier time now because the proms are just starting.

Presenter30:53

You're among old friends, of course, with that orchestra.

Sir John Pritchard30:56

Yeah.

Presenter30:56

Yeah.

Sir John Pritchard30:56

Yeah.

Sir John Pritchard30:56

Oh yes, I've been working with them for many years. It's a special group, and when I was uh asked to undertake this office, which I now have, I think my feelings of pleasure were

Sir John Pritchard31:10

Very specially coloured by the fact that I remembered so many good friends who had spent a lot of their professional life in the BBC studios. Of course, the BBC Orchestra has a dual role to play public concerts, especially the promenade concerts and the winter season, the festival hall. But the vast amount of music which goes out from the BBC Symphony Orchestra has impressed me since in the short time I've been with them really now in this position. The number of letters I get from people around the country who write in and are listening to our studio broadcasts. This gives me the greatest pleasure because the players themselves, you know, sometimes feel they're sitting looking at the all-demanding microphone in an empty studio, and the feeling of excitement of a good performance comes, but it comes at one degree of distance. And the fact that there is a vast public listening is difficult to bear in mind. Therefore, I feel that the rough and tumble of the orchestral profession in London is a little bit also one degree removed from the BBC Symphony. I'm not saying that they are specially favoured, but it does enable a very specially family feeling to grow up between the players. They go so often to the same studio, which of course they complain about. But this is also a faculty of the family to complain among themselves. I think that's what appeals to me about the orchestra, the fact that I feel when I come there, I'm

Presenter32:32

This is awesome.

Sir John Pritchard32:44

Back at home I'm with the family.

Presenter32:47

Precord number seven.

Sir John Pritchard32:49

One of the joys of being at the head of a big symphony orchestra is that in planning the programmes and also in one's work in the opera house you can have a special pleasure in recognising surprising talent of one order or another. You can find a young pianist, a young violinist, a young cellist who you realize somehow has the authentic spark. Now this is an excitement for a a conductor, but I do remember you know I've always been attracted to the symphonies of Carl Nielsen and with the London Philharmonic I did a whole series of these and I remember particularly his third symphony and more or less by surprise realizing that he needed two singers in the second movement. He needed a fairly high baritone and a soprano.

Sir John Pritchard33:44

I looked around and was recommended by various agents. Obviously one could not offer to the greatest sopranos in the world a passage of about thirty two bars for very important, beautiful cantilena without words, a lovely vocalese, but it must be given to an up and coming singer. Now the up and coming singer that I remember in connection with the symphony was Kiriti Kanova. And in this particular passage which we're going to hear there are several beautiful high B flats. And I remember seeing this striking and beautiful girl. I d I think I'd only met her once before. But in the festival hall she produced one after another of these glowing, wonderful sounds, and I remember seeing the expression on the faces of the orchestra and of the audience as they heard this rapturous voice for the first time in a public hall. But alas she hasn't recorded it. At last she hasn't, but uh it still will remind me if I hear the music of that very important occasion, years ago at the Royal Festival Hall.

Presenter34:52

All right. Whose version shall we listen to?

Sir John Pritchard34:55

Well, as the two singers on this particular recording, Felicity Palmer Soprano and Thomas Allan Barritone are the two singers I greatly admire, I would like to have the London Symphony Orchestra's performance, which is conducted by Francois Heybrecht.

Presenter36:10

part of the second movement of Nielsen's Third Symphony.

Presenter36:14

The London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Francois Heybrich,

Presenter36:17

and the singers Thomas Allen and Felicity Palmer.

Presenter36:22

Now some questions that must be asked, Sir John. How efficient would you be as a castaway? Are you a handy person?

Sir John Pritchard36:29

Not at all. I'm not good at tying knots. I can't make part of a tree into anything useful except a walking stick. And walking stick is handy, that might be handy, but I feel the first few weeks would be

Presenter36:38

With that point we have

Presenter36:41

Yes, you've got to get up some kind of shelter and you've got to find some food.

Sir John Pritchard36:46

Yes, that would be the thing. I think that uh I would hope for a a certain number of fruits and maybe root vegetables to be surprisingly present. And that I could live on for a while. Later I would have to

Presenter36:52

Yeah.

Sir John Pritchard37:01

Learned fish, that's the only thing. Would you try to escape? I rather doubt it.

Sir John Pritchard37:07

I've always been extremely patient, and I think I would rather wait for that distant plume of smoke on the horizon.

Presenter37:17

Exactly.

Sir John Pritchard37:20

Well, I've mentioned so many of the names in music of people who've been important to me and have influenced my musical training and my development. One of the first of those was the German conductor Fritz Busch, who came with Karl Ebert to Gleimborn and really founded its first excellence beginning from 1934. He later came back after the war when I came to Gleimborn and he took special care of me artistically. His vivid sense of rhythm and his impeccable ear for detail meant that in a Brahm symphony you heard things you never heard before. And I think I would like to

Sir John Pritchard38:05

conclude my choice with a part of the last movement of Brahm's Second Symphony, which instances absolutely his uh immense vivacity combined with a classical poise.

Presenter39:23

The closing passage of the Second Brahm Symphony

Presenter39:26

Fritz Busch conducting the Danish State Radio Symphony Orchestra.

Presenter39:30

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

Sir John Pritchard39:36

I think without hesitation, Mozart's son Giovanni.

Sir John Pritchard39:40

Yeah.

Presenter39:40

And you're allowed to have one luxury on the island, one object of no practical use which would give you great pleasure to have with you.

Sir John Pritchard39:48

I think as I might be limited on the side of the food, I would love to have standing there over the years a bottle of a superb wine. I do love wine. And naturally,

Sir John Pritchard40:02

one would think, with my love for France and for Provence and so on, that I would like to take one of the great French wines. But no. I would like to have one of those beautiful wines which come from Tuscany. You know,

Presenter40:18

And there's no need to confine yourself to just one bottle to look at longingly. We'll give you a cask or two.

Sir John Pritchard40:24

Oh, that's wonderful. Well, then I would like to settle for the Vino nobli di Monte Pulciano, because this is a great little wine.

Presenter40:34

Fair enough, we'll arrange it. And one book apart from the Bible and the complete works of Shakespeare.

Sir John Pritchard40:41

Well, you know, having been so long at Glimborn, which was founded by an amiable and indeed greatly gifted English eccentric, John Christie, I think I would like to settle for the Lucia novels of EF Benson.

Sir John Pritchard40:57

because if you're kind enough to allow me the version which one can get in America in which all the books are under one cover, I would have a gallery of English village life, headed by the inimitable Lucia, which would keep me from becoming morbid.

Presenter41:15

Write The Lucia novels by E. F. Benson. And thank you, Sir John Pritchard, for letting us hear your Desert Island Discs.

Sir John Pritchard41:23

It's been a great pleasure to enable me to go over so many beautiful scenes from the past and the present.

Sir John Pritchard41:31

Goodbye, everyone.

Speaker 341:57

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