David Rendall

Speaker 30:00

Hello, I'm Kirstie 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 nineteen eighty four, and the presenter was Roy Plumley.

Presenter0:29

Our castaway this week is the tenor David Rendell.

Presenter0:33

David, how would you face the idea of a desert island?

David Rendall0:35

Idea.

David Rendall0:37

With

David Rendall0:38

Enjoyment. I'm sure that it's going to be a wonderful place to get away from the pressures of this life. I mean, sort of being in this profession. I think I could get to grips with coping with being on my own and using that time for self-improvement. Did you find it hard to choose just eight records to take with you? I did. When, you know, you're involved in music for a living and being in it completely, sort of, day after day, and not only doing it, but living it, sleeping it. To pick eight gramophone records, it was

David Rendall1:11

Hard I want a nice.

Presenter1:13

Another eight, and then another eight. Well, you have narrowed it down. I'm sure it was pretty tough. What's the first one on top of that part? Life.

David Rendall1:19

The first one is going to be the soundtrack from The Chariots of Fire by Van Gellis. I've chosen this because when I was on one of my tours away from home in in America at the Metropolitan, I went and saw this film and was very, very homesick for England. My family wasn't with me at that time and I just needed to be with England and part of it and this took me home.

Presenter2:08

An excerpt from the soundtrack of Chariots of Fire. David, are you a Londoner? Yes, I was born in Hampstead.

David Rendall2:14

Of a mixed parentage. My mother is truly Welsh. And my father, well, he sounds like a Cockney, but I don't think he is. He's a Londoner, but not a true Cockney. A big family? I'm the middle of three children, an elder brother and a younger sister. Your mother sang in a Welsh choir, actually. She did indeed. Always trying to bring the valleys into her life. And I think there are more Welsh exiles in London than there are actually Welsh people in Wales. So there is a musical background on the family, or Welsh music at any rate. Yes, a certain amount of Welsh music, certainly with my mother. My father wasn't musical. I think he could have been had he had the opportunity. But my mother was singing in the Kingston Welsh Choir.

Presenter2:54

What were you going?

David Rendall2:54

What were you good at at school? Well, I was actually good at bricklaying. Bricklaying? Yes, and they taught you bricklaying in school? Yes, they did.

Presenter2:59

It taught

David Rendall3:02

We it was more of a technical school and we did engineering drawing, technical drawing, and part of the curriculum on this side was to master the

David Rendall3:10

techniques of building. And we had to do bricklaying and all the the things that go with it, laying the mortar, laying the bricks of course, and then screeding and putting the uh finishing touches on the walls, plastering, things like this. And we built all the building workshops, the pavilions and everything. What were you doing in leisure time? Did music come into it?

Presenter3:31

Pop music, anything like that?

David Rendall3:33

Yes, there was a sort of a popular and a pop feeling in my life. In fact, it started when I was in primary school one Christmas, in fact in my l I think it was in my last year. Well that Christmas three of us got up a skiffle group. I did some singing and I was, well, ten and a half, nearly eleven. And two of us from that skiffle group went on to the same secondary school and when I was fifteen we started a pop group. What did you do in the pop group? Well I was chief vocal, if you can call it that and I used to play the maracas and the tambourine and and occasionally for one number I used to play the drums which was great. I loved that. How long did the group last?

David Rendall4:10

About

David Rendall4:12

Two years, I think, maybe a year and a half. We changed a few members, but the basis of the group was the same. We used to do quite a lot of concerts, specialize in weddings, and we didn't do any funerals.

Presenter4:23

What was your first job? I mean, obviously you weren't going to make a living out of your skivel group. No. What did you do? I mean, you didn't take up building, construction, any of these things.

David Rendall4:32

No, I didn't. I was fortunate to have met somebody from the BBC through a friend of my father's, and I had seen him at work as a floor manager on in television, and I thought this is the job I want to do, so I applied to the BBC for a job, and

David Rendall4:48

Of course, didn't get the job I wanted, was put into a clerical position. So they taught you really to do office work? Yes, I was sent to a college in Hammersmith for six months, and I learnt typing and shorthand and general business studies.

David Rendall5:02

And after that I went to Television Centre to work in one of the Beebs departments called Central Services, where we used to issue people with stopwatches, cassette players, different things for outside programmes. And make sure you got'em back. Well, half the time we didn't, I'm sure.

Presenter5:13

Yeah.

David Rendall5:17

And then I had a transfer into the grammophone library. That was your idea? No, it was it was suggested to me that it was the best opening. More people got jobs as studio managers, floor managers that had had

David Rendall5:29

Training. It was like knocking at the front door, and this was standing in line down the footpath. It was like a waiting area.

Presenter5:35

Right, you're in your waiting area. Let's have your second record. What shall that be?

David Rendall5:40

That will be the uh Beethoven Symphony number six, the Pastorale, uh of which I like to play part of the third movement. It reminds me of

David Rendall5:49

Coming home to the country just

David Rendall5:52

Being part of mankind and nature. And which version would you like to hear? I would like to hear Zell with the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra, and this is rather important to me. I have a very dear friend who is playing Principal Horn on this recording, who's given me a lot of encouragement and a lot of uh support.

David Rendall6:08

and advice during my career. His name is Mike Bloom.

Presenter7:11

An excerpt from the Beethoven Symphony number six, The Pastorel.

Presenter7:15

The Cleveland Orchestra conducted by George Sell.

Presenter7:19

So you are working in the BBC grammar phone library, very close to Desert Island Disc, because of course we work very closely with the

David Rendall7:27

Well, very close. I used to, in fact, get the records out for Desert Island discs and test them for transmission quality so that they were ready for transmission when you used to come along with the castaway.

Presenter7:34

So that they

Presenter7:39

In those days I believe Ronald Cook was producer. That's right, Ronnie Cook. There's a story, David, that one day you were playing through for quality a disc of an aria from Verdi's Rigoletto, and Ronald Cook happened to be passing.

David Rendall7:53

Well, yes, you know, you've been reading the press reviews and uh you know how the press get hold of stories, but it's uh basically very very true. I was uh checking records for transmission quality in in one of the listening listening rooms and the record Cristo Quella I was listening to I thought that the transmission quality wasn't too good and I went and got another disc and it turned out that in fact it wasn't the quality, it was the particular tenor that was singing it I didn't like, it just sort of grated on my ears, although the castaway loved it. So I I played it a few times and you know hummed the tune, lard it and sung some of the words and was uh overheard by Mr Cook and uh was introduced as uh a follow-on from that to one of the studio managers, a chap called Larry Parker, who has remained a very, very close friend to this day. And they were the two that really encouraged me upon

David Rendall8:43

a career in classical music. I was asked whether I'd had my voice trained and had I thought of doing it and, you know, it was the farthest thing from my mind really. And they just encouraged me to go and

David Rendall8:55

learn and study. That same evening actually I was invited to dinner with uh Larry Parker and my leg was in plaster at the time and he was practically carrying me back to his flat. Wow. I tripped over a dog. But I d this is the second time it was in plaster. I'd I'd fallen down some stairs and broken it once, you know.

Presenter9:05

Why was that?

Presenter9:08

Oh, it couldn't happen to anybody.

David Rendall9:16

But uh this was the second time. But I went back to his uh house that evening and I said, Well, I'll I'll never get into any of these institutions. Yes, yes, like the Royal Academy or the Guild Hall. And he said, Don't be so silly. If you have a talent, these institutions have a duty to pay to develop it and to give you the opportunity. And I applied for

Presenter9:23

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

David Rendall9:38

Entrance to the Guild Hall and to the Royal Academy. My first uh audition was at the Guild Hall, but I had to take a written exam first. Well, I sat down and wrote my name and the date on this paper and folded my arms for the next three hours. I I I didn't know what a crotchet was, and I really had no idea about anything, and you had to do harmony tests and it was just very difficult for me. Then the next day, we had the practical test, after which you wait to find out if you're given a second opportunity.

David Rendall10:08

Well I was given a second opportunity.

David Rendall10:11

Not not to sing, but to speak with the people and they asked me that was the principal and the bursa and people like this and they asked me if I would return the following June, which was uh four or five months later to do another written exam and then I would have a place. So off you went to study. Yes. Let's have your third record. My third record is uh Schubert's Die Schoene Mullerin on this particular recording sung by Fritz vunderlich with Hubert Giesen at the piano. This is instrumental too. I I mentioned Larry Parker. That same evening he taught me my first songs and they happened to be the first two or three songs from Die Schoene Mullerin. I would like to play uh number seven from this recording.

David Rendall10:55

It's called Ungeduld, Impatience, when he sings Dein ist meinhertz, yours is my heart and.

David Rendall11:02

It will remain yours forever.

Speaker 411:17

Yeah.

Presenter11:26

Minus friends, it's fine.

Speaker 411:29

Some say no fan so

Presenter11:29

Yeah.

Speaker 411:33

I need help.

Speaker 411:38

Hey, he's my love.

Speaker 411:40

Who saw us here?

Presenter11:48

A song from Schubert's song cycle Die Schoene Müllerin sung by Fritz von der Lich.

David Rendall11:53

I'd like to say something about that actual song. When I was studying at the Royal Academy in my second year, part of my recital diploma I prepared the complete Deschoene Witherin. And at that time I hadn't really, you know, settled down, hadn't had a wife, girlfriend, well a couple of girlfriends. But it's how I met my wife. I asked her if she would like to go to my recital and she said, oh, I don't like singers. The singers are boring. She's not a singer. She's a pianist and a harpist. And she said she didn't like, you know, singers. She said, but I said, well, I'm having a party afterwards. Come to the concert. And she said, well, no, I don't think I'll come to the concert. I'll come to the party. So I said, well, if you don't come to the concert, you can't come to the party. Well, there she was sitting in the audience. And to see her face was just incredible. And well, we studied courting and then we got married. But shortly after that, every time we were courting, she would ask me to sing that particular song wherever we were, whether in the car or in her house or in her my flat or wherever. So I was always singing Deinistmeinhertz. Maybe it was just a little bit of security for her, I don't know, but it was wonderful practice.

Presenter13:02

Great.

Presenter13:03

Well, there you were at the Royal Academy of Music. You had to keep yourself were you were doing part time

David Rendall13:07

I'm dropped. Yes, at the time the only days that actually were free to do part-time jobs were Sundays and the only places that were open on Sundays were churches. So, well I lived in Westbourne Crove, all the shops were too, but uh churches were the place where one could make five pounds for a service and I did two or three, sometimes four on a Sunday jumping in. So I would make you know maybe fifteen to twenty pounds on a Sunday, which helped pay the rent and and food for the week.

David Rendall13:34

It's time we had your fourth record. What's that? My fourth record is going to be part of the Verdi Requiem. I'm going to play um part of the duet, the recordare. You have

Presenter13:45

A rather tragic story about this piece of music.

David Rendall13:47

I do. Um it's

David Rendall13:49

Again, another very important forming part of my career. I was again I was at the Royal Academy and I was being prepared to sing some of the choral concerts by Freddie Jackson, Frederick Jackson, who was one of the most well known choral trainers of our day.

David Rendall14:07

He'd picked me to do the Verde Requiem and we'd worked on it for months preparing it. And we finally came to the day of the performance when we had a rehearsal in the afternoon. And in the afternoon he really worked himself into a frenzy. He was really giving every ounce of energy he had and he told us a story of how a friend of his had died in Scotland while conducting this and he'd turned to his colleague and said that uh if ever I have to go I want to go conducting this or you know conducting another work I love as much.

David Rendall14:35

Well, that evening

David Rendall14:37

And it's uncanny actually because as many choirs as he trained for the Verde Requiem, this was his first public performance. And the evening came and we were all in line to go on and the s stage manager said, Okay, go So we usually go off in order, the soprano, the mezzo, the tenor and the baritone. Well I stood out of line, let the baritone go before me and I just took Freddie's hand and I said

David Rendall14:58

Good luck, Freddie.

David Rendall15:00

And he looked at me and said, Come on, don't be so silly, don't be so silly, on you go So I went on. I just felt something was wrong and something would go wrong. I d I don't know why, I just had this inner feeling. And halfway through the recordare I saw him uh leaning on the podium, his hands going white, his face wet and and his muscles sort of getting really tight. And I just threw the music stand away from his podium and pulled him down and lay him on the floor and

David Rendall15:27

I he he died in my arms.

David Rendall15:29

The performance of course finished and

David Rendall15:31

I never actually can listen to the birdie or even sing it now without feeling that that pain.

Speaker 416:34

Yeah.

Presenter16:37

An excerpt from the Everde Requiem, Leontine Price and Rosalind Elias, with Fritz Reiner conducting.

Presenter16:44

What was your first professional engagement, David?

David Rendall16:48

My first professional engagement was if we can disallow the choral society performances you do when you're a student, you know, sort of the complete Messiah, the Elijah, for sort of five and ten pounds a time. After you'd graduated. After I graduated.

Presenter17:00

Five

David Rendall17:03

The first job was singing with a chorus at Gleinbourne on the tour in nineteen seventy four, so I had a complete year of of actually no work when I left the Royal Academy. And the first job was with a chorus singing the off stage peasant in

David Rendall17:19

Ivgenyan Jegen.

David Rendall17:21

Yes. Then after that, my first solo role was in France with the

David Rendall17:27

Glindborn chorus uh singing the high priest in a Domineo.

David Rendall17:32

And the following year we were invited back and it was like being given an upgrade in the BBC. I was invited to not sing the High Priest, but to sing Idomeneo itself.

David Rendall17:41

Himself, rather.

David Rendall17:43

and very quickly to Covent Garden.

David Rendall17:47

Quickly to Covent Garden. Well, after that Idomineo actually, I went back to Glindbourne for the summer season to sing in the chorus and I understood Ferando in Cosifantuti. And then on the tour in the 1975, I sang the role of Ferrando. So that really was my first major, if you like, major breakthrough to do it with a major company. Covent Garden showed interest in me then and gave me my first job with them in the December of 1975 as the Italian tenor in Rosen Cavalier. A small part, but a very showy part. Very showy part. And it's more difficult to sing than a lot of other roles. I know that you're on the stage all night. Very exposed and difficult.

Presenter18:20

Yeah, but you're not.

Presenter18:21

Right.

Presenter18:24

The next company worked for the English National Opera and some cracking good parts there.

David Rendall18:30

I've been very, very lucky there, yes. The first thing I did actually at the English National was to be invited at short notice to do uh a royal gala. So this was sort of something as a f a feather in my cap, in a way, a royal gala, and it was interesting. Uh I was asked if I would sing the Saint-suplice scene from Manon, La Cené, and I said this was on the Wednesday, and I said, Yes, certainly.

Presenter18:51

Yeah.

David Rendall18:55

But I didn't know it. You see, I said I'd sing it. But I thought, well, I'll show them. I can do it.

David Rendall18:59

So I learnt it. I I spent the whole night learning it and had a a run through in the morning with the producer. It was staged as well. And then a dress rehearsal late morning and then a performance in the evening. And it was wonderful. Really, I ca I can't believe that I ever actually got through it from memory. But uh of the other roles I've done there are some really you know Laboheme, uh Rodolfo.

David Rendall19:19

The Marie Stuarda, Marie Stuart.

David Rendall19:22

It's time we had record number five. What's that?

David Rendall19:25

Number five is going to be Daslied von der Elde, Mahler.

David Rendall19:30

This again is a record which was introduced to me in fact before I started studying singing, and the voice of Fritz von der Lich has just been close to my ears and heart since then. So I'd like to play the opening of the first song, Das Trinklied.

Speaker 420:03

Slaughter being scared.

Presenter20:43

An excerpt from Mahler's The Song of the Earth with the voice of Fritz Vunderlich.

Presenter20:48

Now we don't want to start on a long list of operas and opera houses, but you have sung at most of the prestigious houses, for example, the Metropolitan New York.

David Rendall20:58

Yes, indeed.

David Rendall21:00

Um I've been very, very lucky to have made quite a few productions there. In fact it was very strange the way I I got my first contract. I was singing Don Giovanni in Marseille and it was the opening night. I was doing Don Ottavio and after the well, the end of the second act the intendant, the the general manager came running to me saying, I've just got you a contract at the Met I said I beg your pardon He said you've got a contract coming at the Met, I'm sure they're gonna book you I asked him why. He said well he was just speaking with the artistic director on the telephone and he asked who was singing and there I was transatlantic audition

David Rendall21:37

Tanaway and telephone. Marvellous. So I was given a a penciling contract for Cozy there and I I sang to them when I was in in New York and

David Rendall21:46

And I've had a a wonderful relationship with him ever since.

David Rendall21:50

And you work with some pretty prestigious conductors, Carrigan, for example. That's uh another

David Rendall21:56

Sort of story, if you like, being in the right place at the right time and what is luck. I was doing a concert in Munich, and I went to see my German agent with a gift of a bottle of whiskey from my English agent. She said, Go and see him. So I went to see him, and his secretary said, Well, you can't see him now, he's much too busy. He's trying to find a tenor for Carrie-Ann. I said, Oh, that's interesting. What sort of repertoire? Wagnerian or you know, Mozart or what? They said, Well, he's searching for a Tamino. So I said, Well, would you?

Presenter22:10

There are

Speaker 422:10

I bet she's

Presenter22:10

But

David Rendall22:27

Please ask the gentleman to put my name forward because I sing this repertoire.

David Rendall22:33

So she actually went in and mentioned it to him. He came running out and he said, Do you sing this? and I said, Of course. You know, this is my repertoire. In Germany they called it a fach. This is my fark So he telephoned Carrie Ann's secretary in Salzburg and that was on the Friday and on the Sunday I was singing to Carrie Ann in in Berlin.

David Rendall22:52

He was recording at the time and also they were making a film on his seventieth birthday.

David Rendall22:57

And

David Rendall22:58

While I was auditioning he said, Don't worry about the television cameras, they're making a film on me, but they won't interfere with you. So I'd started singing and I did the um Die Spildnis IS Bertzaben Schoen from the first area in in uh Magic Flute. And

Presenter23:10

Oh yeah.

David Rendall23:13

I saw him at the back sending, you know, the cameras and the microphones down and they filmed my audition to him. Then he came up and said to me that it was the finest Mozart singing he'd heard and gave me a twenty minute coaching in the middle of uh of his recording session and gave me, you know, concerts I made a film with him and, you know, some recordings and things. It was really

David Rendall23:34

Being in the right place at the right time and selling yourself story.

Presenter23:37

Yeah.

Presenter23:38

Now recently you've been singing Pinkerton with the English National Opera again.

David Rendall23:42

Mm-hmm.

Presenter23:43

Where do you go next?

David Rendall23:44

I go back to New York for a revival of Cosi Fantute. I made the new production with Kiri two years ago and now we're doing the first revival. The cast has changed somewhat. I'm working with an English conductor, Geoffrey Tate, who's wonderful, absolutely wonderful to work with. I love him dearly. I knew him from the garden. And a tremendous talent.

David Rendall24:05

So I'm really excited about that. That is followed by my first Wagner.

Presenter24:09

What's that?

David Rendall24:10

That's going to be Meistersinger. I'm going to sing David. I'm in preparation for this at the moment. I'm quite excited about it because it's a very lyrical role and it's lovely.

Presenter24:18

Yeah.

David Rendall24:18

Record number six. Record number six is going to be Pujini's Laboem.

David Rendall24:23

This was my first really overseas engagement. This recording is with Victoria de Los Angeles, UC Bureling, conducted by Sir Thomas Beacham. And I'm going to have the part in Act Three

David Rendall24:37

where Mimi has discovered Rodolfo telling Marcello that he really wants to be separated from Mimi, and he discovers her, you know, she she collapses and he picks her up and she sings her aria of goodbye and he says, Dum que proprio finita, then this is really the end.

David Rendall24:55

And this is just really great music and great theatre.

Speaker 425:01

Yeah.

Speaker 425:02

Appropriate thought.

Speaker 425:06

Then have I then shield?

Speaker 425:31

Here gorgeously, Lord of the Lord.

Speaker 425:42

Adioson Benioje.

Presenter25:54

You see Burling and Victoria Los Angeles in an excerpt from Act Three of La Boe.

Presenter26:00

How much recording have you done, David?

David Rendall26:03

I've done about, ooh, eight records, I think seven more seven or eight. A couple of other ones which have been put onto disc by German radio, you know, which were taken from broadcasts. But I think for commercial purposes, eight, seven or eight.

Presenter26:11

Yeah, we

Presenter26:16

Well, those discs are now in the B B C library, of course. I'll I'll take you down there presently to see if you still know your way about to see if you can find your own discs.

David Rendall26:21

Wherebo see if you can find your own discs.

Presenter26:24

Mm-hmm, and you live near Glenborn. Do you have children?

David Rendall26:30

Yes, I do. I have two children. Uh a son, Alexander, who's four and a half, and uh a daughter, Elizabeth, who will be two on the same day as me. So we have the same birthday. Yes, it's it's incredible, isn't it? It's very strange.

Presenter26:39

Really? You have the same birthday

Presenter26:41

But it wasn't it.

David Rendall26:44

She was going to be born, I think, on October the the twenty-fifth or something. And then I said to the gynecologist, I d I said I was going to be away.

David Rendall26:52

Because it we knew it had to be Caesarean section, so he said, Well, I'll bring it a week forward. So I cancelled all performances for that week so I could be there. And then I was in Boston a week before that, singing the Creation.

David Rendall27:04

And she went into labor and gave birth on my birthday.

David Rendall27:07

It was incredible. I mean, my wife creating in England while I was

Presenter27:08

It was

David Rendall27:11

I'm singing a creation in America.

Presenter27:14

How much time do you get at home? I know you're off to the United States quite soon. You're going to be there for quite a long time.

David Rendall27:14

I

David Rendall27:19

I'm going to be there actually until bar a week at home until next uh June when I come back for Covent Garden. So it's going to be seven months.

Presenter27:27

Do your family come and join you when you are away for a long time?

David Rendall27:28

We're away from

David Rendall27:29

We normally travel together, but now we're hitting, of course, schooling problems. Alexander is starting nursery school. We've

David Rendall27:37

booked him into a Rudolf Steine school which has agreed with us that uh we can take him he can do one term in England and one term in America or however long it needs to be so that we can be together because I think that the early years in a child's life they need to be with the family. You know, I mean school and and family should be as one.

Presenter27:57

Back to the Desert Island, then on record number seven.

David Rendall27:59

Record number seven is going to be a memory for me. It's going to be a cosifantal tea, a roll.

David Rendall28:05

Feranda, which I've sung, you know, I think about 150 times now in my career. It's the first recording I ever made, and I'm delighted to be in such great company as Kiri Takanawa, Frederica von Stade, Theresa Stratus, Jules Bastin, and Philippe Huttenlocher, with Aline Lombard conducting. It's going to remind me actually of all my friends, but also it's going to remind me of how I used to sound. And you know, one only grows and one hopefully keeps learning. And I need the memory of my progression to make me keep wanting to progress.

Speaker 428:42

What the same

Speaker 428:45

We were dreaming, my dream.

Speaker 429:00

I saw the pain of God.

Speaker 429:06

Yeah.

Speaker 429:15

Before people

Speaker 429:24

Sal Bobby

Presenter29:27

Alain Lombard conducting a very distinguished group of singers in an excerpt from Mozart's Cosifantutti.

Presenter29:33

Could you look after yourself on this island? I mean bricklaying and that sort of thing.

David Rendall29:37

Well, unless you fly the bricks in and the mortar, I think I'd have to make sort of sand castles and do something like this. Oh, but I think I'm pretty.

Presenter29:37

Well

David Rendall29:46

you know, dexterous and and handy, handyman around. I think I could adapt quite easily and and well, I wouldn't say not easily, nothing's gonna be easy on a desert island on your own. But I think I could get by, I could build a house, you know, or a hut or or, you know, which is sort of a something to cover me. Of course I'd try and build a raft, you guys get away.

Presenter30:06

Good

David Rendall30:06

Think about it.

Presenter30:07

About navigation. Would you know which direction to go in?

David Rendall30:09

Well, if I'm in the southern hemisphere,

David Rendall30:13

No, I think I'll just lie on the raft and look at the stars'cause it's such a wonderful sky. What's your last record? My last record is going to be a record from the record called The Unknown Code File with Therese Stratus. It's a record which I first heard when I was in Paris.

David Rendall30:28

And having worked with Therese and what a wonderful colleague she is.

David Rendall30:34

uh just sort of brings back this memory to me. She's a great giver, a great actress. She in fact took a whole year off in in in the height of her career to go and work with Mother Teresa in India. I mean this is to me just total commitment and

David Rendall30:48

An addition to her great artistry, and the song on this particular record uh is called Buddy on the Night Shift.

Speaker 430:57

With their body on the night shift.

Speaker 431:00

I hope you're feeling fine.

Presenter31:01

Feeling for

Speaker 431:03

I left a lot of work for you to do, All along assembly line. I wish I knew you better, But you never go my way.

Speaker 431:19

For when one of us goes on the job, the other hits the hale.

Speaker 431:28

Buddy on the night ship.

Speaker 431:31

Push those planes along.

Speaker 431:34

And when the sun comes out, I'll take your place. Oh, wide awake and strong. I'll follow you, you'll follow me. And how can we

Presenter31:52

Buddy on the Night Shift, a very unfamiliar courtweil song sung by Theresa Stratus. If you could take only one disc, David, which would it be?

David Rendall32:01

I think it would be Fritz von der Lich with Deschoene Mullerin. And one luxury. My luxury. Now this has been really bagging me. I mean there are so many things I'd want to take. I'd want to take the complete output of Bordeaux.

Presenter32:15

Do you have part of it? Part of it.

David Rendall32:17

Okay, Chateau Lascon then, 1966. Uh

Presenter32:21

Uh

David Rendall32:21

That's what I'll take. As a man who

Presenter32:22

As many as we allow.

David Rendall32:23

Yeah.

Presenter32:23

As many as you'll allow. And one book apart from the Bible and Shakespeare, which you'll find already on the island.

David Rendall32:29

I would like to take The Prophet by Khalil Gibran

Presenter32:33

Little book of philosoph

David Rendall32:33

Philosophical Sayings. That's right. It's a book which I discovered when I'm in America at a very vulnerable time and it's a very, very beautiful book which I think will actually help me get through the time of internment.

Presenter32:47

Right.

David Rendall32:47

Yeah.

Presenter32:48

And thank you, David Rendell, for letting us hear your Desert Island Disc. Thank you, Ryan. Goodbye, everyone.

Speaker 333:00

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