Nigel Kennedy

Speaker 10:00

Hello, I'm Kirsty Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs archive. For rights reasons, we've had to shorten the music.

Speaker 10:08

The programme was originally broadcast in nineteen eighty six, and the presenter was Michael Parkinson.

Presenter0:30

Our castaway today is a remarkable young man, once described as an unusual combination of classical musician and way out jazzer, a cross between Yehudi Menuin and Stefan Grappelli. He's an altogether unconventional fellow. When he made his debut at the Festival Hall, he was observed wiping his violin with his Aston Villa scarf. He's played concert halls, jazz clubs, pop venues, and subway stations. He is Nigel Kennedy. Nigel, your background is thoroughly musical. Could you just tell me exactly what it was in your family who played what?

Nigel Kennedy1:01

Yeah, my dad was a cellist. By the way, thanks for the intro, I'll give you the fiver later. And uh my grandad was a cellist too. So there was a lot of uh string stuff going on in the family before I turned up. And my mum was a piano player, so I got into piano in the beginning, you know, and started playing that when I was about four or five.

Presenter1:21

There can't be much doubt than what what you're going to do for a living, could there?

Nigel Kennedy1:24

I think there's a lot of doubt what anyone's gonna do for a living in this country. But like uh there was I didn't ever question it until I was like about twelve or thirteen, what I was gonna do for a living because you just don't worry about that when you're a kid. But I was interested in music and loved doing it.

Presenter1:42

The house was was obviously full of music all the time. Is there any early musical memory you have, one particular piece that you remember from those days?

Nigel Kennedy1:49

Well certainly piano is very close to my heart because there was so much piano music going on and that's what I started playing and possibly one of my favourite pieces which I'll always remember is the Chopin Nocturn which we're going to hear played by Arthur Rubinstein who is uh just such a beautiful pianist because there's a such a timeless aspect to his playing. He's not in a hurry to finish or just aiming at getting things technically right. He's like communicating what he deeply believes in.

Presenter2:18

Right, so that's your first choice.

Nigel Kennedy2:20

Think it'll do, mate.

Presenter2:21

Yeah.

Presenter3:22

When do you first start getting interested in the violin?

Nigel Kennedy3:25

Well, I started doing it as a kind of um side instrument because my mum told me and uh there were a lot of deterrents to playing the instrument because it's a very hard one to start when you're young. You know your armmates holding the violin in the right position all the time and you have to tune it up and you know generally get a lot of things sorted out before you even play a note and then when you play it it doesn't sound very nice. So I was playing it even when I went to Yehudi Menu in school but not considering it as my favourite instrument. But I went to Yehudi's school when I was about seven and with him being such a charismatic figure, you know, and me being a little kid, I wanted to copy what he was doing, so violin became very important to me very quickly.

Presenter4:08

Why is it that that children at that age, at seven, can do such extraordinary things with musical instruments, and yet in other art forms, say like in painting particularly, that the talent develops much, much later? Why should music have these precocious talents, do you think?

Nigel Kennedy4:22

I think maybe it's not that extraordinary when you think of a twelve or thirteen year old playing well, when you realise that they've been working very hard, maybe four hours a day at uh perfecting the technique of their instrument. I think anyone at anything, if they work four hours a day at something, can become good at it. And in music people just traditionally start young because some of the mechanical reflexes which you have to learn are much harder to learn when you're older.

Presenter4:50

What was it like though going as a seven-year-old and having your life dedicated, you say, four or five hours a day practice from that point on? Did it make you unhappy?

Nigel Kennedy4:58

Well, to tell you the truth, when I mentioned four or five hours I was talking about other people, not myself. I'd never get into that kind of scene at such a young age. I did a lot of listening, you know, and really enjoyed that, and that made me a much better musician, I think. And it's only um in the last ten years once I actually realized that I was going to be playing concerts and people wanted me to do them that I started working pretty hard to make sure that I was ready for them.

Presenter5:02

Myself

Presenter5:22

Do you get into trouble for your love of jazz at the menu in school?

Nigel Kennedy5:25

It definitely wasn't a kosher occupation when I was doing it at first. You know, I was being told all the time by my violin teacher I'd be pulled out of my exams if I carried on playing jazz in my practice time. But I think she was proven wrong on two counts because when I took the exam I got like 100% mark in it. And on the other hand Menuen turned up and said, you know, it's great he's playing jazz. It's good for him. It makes him get into music and realise it's a spontaneous occasion. And then suddenly everyone's attitude changed slightly about it.

Presenter5:54

Let's go to your second choice of record. Now, again, it's a fairly unconventional choice. It's the Endurie. Why Endurie?

Nigel Kennedy6:01

Well being a musician who plays, you know, on live occasions, I'm very much into music which captures the mood of the time when it's being done and also has something new to give whenever it's performed live. Now I went to a lot of Induri concerts when he was doing this particular number in betweenies from the album and enjoyed his live concerts more than any other concerts I was going to at the time and it's still a very strong memory for me.

Presenter6:26

Alberta T-Bel

Presenter6:32

With a carpenter bee

Presenter6:36

You give me a sham

Presenter6:39

Two things.

Presenter6:41

You take it from me.

Presenter6:43

Two days.

Presenter6:45

Oh darling, the show

Presenter6:48

Sweeties.

Presenter6:50

With a capital O

Presenter6:52

The tween is

Presenter6:54

Was there any any sense uh that uh you missed out on your childhood by going away from home at the age of seven and being dedicated to music from that point on? Do you look back and think, Well, I missed an awful lot through doing that?

Nigel Kennedy7:08

I'm not sure. I think many people might say that I still behave in a very immature way. So maybe I'm making up for it now. But it was quite a difficult atmosphere to be in a specialist music school with only forty students, you know, ranging from seven to sixteen. There was only three or four people my own age and I was the youngest bloat in the school when I went there and it was just, you know, I preferred eating home cooking and the atmosphere at home than being at a boarding school, but a lot of people have to put up with that and I think it can be quite a character forming experience in a way that you have to become pretty self-sufficient at an early age. I think it didn't do me any harm at all. You know, I mean actually playing the violin, it can be you're going off to a lot of places on your own and you've got to meet people and get to be friends with people real quick in every different place you go and I think possibly being forced into doing that at a young age helps me do it now.

Presenter8:08

So then you went to to New York to study at the Juilliard School. Was that an easy transition to make between living in London, menu in school and then over there to New York?

Nigel Kennedy8:16

It was certainly a different kind of environment, you know, like a kind of pastoral existence, listening to music, to being involved in a place which was like a centre of so many kind of avenues of existence. You know, New York's a very vital place. You get like three times as much done in one day as you do anywhere else, and I found it like a really much more stimulating place, but a little bit overawing because of like the aggressive attitude which so many people have. Yeah, you know, people are just gonna go out and get what they want and that's it.

Speaker 18:42

This front.

Presenter8:42

Uh

Speaker 18:42

Uh

Presenter8:42

It will have

Speaker 18:43

Yeah.

Presenter8:46

And you are mugged a couple of times.

Nigel Kennedy8:48

Well that helped my adjustment into the city, you know, uh these guys came up and surrounded me. I was walking in Harlem thinking, you know, no one's gonna hurt me, I've got nothing against anyone else and uh these guys came up and got my watch for nothing, like they didn't know what my fiddle was and they let me keep that. But uh the watch went and I'm sure they like uh missed all their appointments after that'cause it wasn't working man.

Presenter9:11

But how how important there was that stage for you musically in your musical development? Was it definitely important to you?

Nigel Kennedy9:16

Yeah, very important situation to be in because I was then put in a environment where there were a lot of good young musicians all playing very well in many fields of music within a very small area. So you can meet people and like discuss things with them and have arguments with them about like things which are important to you in music and like doing that I found uh I developed much more quickly than I would have done living maybe a more basically isolated musical existence over here.

Presenter9:45

Did you try and teach your fellow students any of your English ways? I'm thinking about particularly your sporting habits. I mean, you have the misfortune to support Aston Villa as a football club, and I know you like cricket.

Nigel Kennedy9:56

Well, I mean, we won't tell anyone what your illness is, man, because you can't talk about Barnsley on the air. But I mean, did you try and teach?

Presenter10:01

But I mean, did you try and teach them a game of cricket, for instance, over there?

Nigel Kennedy10:04

Well, I tried to get them to play, but they just didn't know what it was all about. You know, they're not into cricket, they all like start sleeping or going somewhere else in the middle of my sentence. You know, when I started talking about a game, soccer they were more into, and I got all the players to go down to Central Park, or you know, all the fiddle players and piano players to go down there. And there was this one Viennese bloke who was like really shocking. He came along in this trap suit which he'd bought especially for the occasion, you know, spotless. And whenever the ball came towards him, he'd get out of the way because he didn't want to get dirty, you know, a bit like Gary Shaw.

Presenter10:38

What about the fear of injury though? Has this ever sort of uh occurred to you, the thought that you might damage your hands badly one day?

Nigel Kennedy10:45

It has occurred to me that by worrying about it so much I might get so tense in my fingers that I strain a muscle. You know, I mean you can be so careful about things that you're more likely to do yourself an injury. I don't like keeping gold much'cause it's a little bit of a risky position to be in, but you can do all kinds of things. Playing the violin in a cold hall is more likely to injure my hands than doing anything else I do.

Presenter10:51

You know, I mean

Presenter11:08

Let's talk about influences now on your life. You talked there about the being at the Juilliard School, and I know that um you picked this next record by Isaac Stern, because Stern himself had a very profound influence on your life. In what circumstance was that?

Nigel Kennedy11:21

I think it was basically from hearing his records first of all that I realised that that's what I wanted to aim at in music. He's not worried about virtuosity for virtuosity's sake and uh he always states a phrase in the most simple, concise way possible. And uh he also has the most unparalleled understanding of the architecture of a piece. So he's got everything you want in music and none of the other unwanted elements. I've met him once or twice and within two minutes he's told me things which have been more valuable about my playing than you know times like I've spent five years with other teachers and learnt not half as much. That was good English, wasn't it? But anyway, I love his playing of this slow movement of the uh Sibella's concerto and that's what I've chosen.

Presenter12:01

Good.

Presenter13:08

When you were in uh New York, did your interest in jazz develop there? I mean, you've always been in jazz, I know, but that's the place for it, isn't it?

Nigel Kennedy13:13

Yeah.

Nigel Kennedy13:15

Yeah, I mean there's so much going on. I mean before I got to New York I was interested in other things but my style was more like Stephan Grappelli and I'd listened to Fats Waller and you know all the guys who knew Beethoven personally and uh once I got to New York I found out more about what was going on at the time and it had a direct influence on my style. You know, I stopped listening just to fiddle players and got into listening to jazz as music and you know, getting ideas from the music instead of just trying to do violin things on it.

Presenter13:45

Did you play much jazz while you were there?

Nigel Kennedy13:47

I did in fact because it was valuable as a education, but also it supplemented my income in a very positive way. You know, I had money in hand and could go out and spend it, which was great, because I got a lot of scholarships from English organisations and the dollar then suddenly plummeted from like two point five or something down to one point seven and I found myself not enjoying life so much and so I went out and played and uh it was great, you know, musical education because not only did it teach me about listening to calls, but it also made me oversleep through all of my theory classes at Juilliard which like wouldn't have taught me much anyway, you know. So I benefited double from there and I also had uh money to spend.

Presenter14:23

Yeah.

Presenter14:27

This business of financing uh yourself must have been very difficult. Am I r right in saying that you you bussed as well for a living? You you played on the streets outside subway stations and things?

Nigel Kennedy14:35

Well actually I found a more lucrative place to busk than a subway station. I found this place called Tiffany's on Fifth Avenue, like Diamondstall. And all these rich monsters would come out and like dump fifty dollar bills into my case, you know, and it was like uh good news. I mean I'd earn like maybe about hundred and fifty dollars in two hours, go and have a brilliant meal and pay off a lot of rent that way.

Presenter14:59

When you were in New York, did you meet any of your jazz heroes?

Nigel Kennedy15:02

I've managed to sit in with Stan Goetz and a lot of famous musicians. I met Jean-Luc Ponty there, who was like a great idol of mine. John McLachlan for the first time I met there. Stefan of course I continued to play with and in his group when he came over. I did my Carnegie Hall debut on half a bottle of whiskey with him. And uh it still didn't make me wear a flowery shirt though, you know. Um and I met a lot of really fine musicians who I would never have met over here.

Presenter15:30

What about Miles Davis? Because I know you're you're a particular fan of his and indeed you've chosen one of Miles' pieces for your next record. Did you ever get to meet him?'Cause he's a very reclusive man.

Nigel Kennedy15:39

I've tried very hard to meet him and uh his last festival hall concert um you know I I know the bloke on the doorway of the festival hall because I've played there quite a bit and uh he still didn't want to let me in really you know and uh I said well look you know I've got to talk to someone about it and he's saying no you can't go in but by the time he was saying that I was already in the elevator and like going up to Miles's dressing room because it was all locked normally you can get in really easy but this bloke's like really paranoid about people getting to him and he's been shot at you know in New York many times and you know had run-ins with the police and all kinds of unreasonable things have happened to him and anyway I got up to his uh dressing room and I saw this brilliant food you know it was like fantastic but then I just noticed that Miles his back had just gone into an elevator and I missed him by about fifteen feet you know and I was really ready like to uh it was such a brilliant concert I was ready to give up everything and like just to go in his audition for him and try and play in his group for a year and it would have been brilliant but here I am man still doing the same stuff so you'd have given up everything for that would you have to for that kind of musical experience to play with one of the greatest living composer players ever I think I would have given up many things to be in contact with that kind of musicianship.

Presenter16:39

Do to

Presenter16:40

You've given up everything for that would you have

Presenter16:52

What have we chosen then, uh Nigel of Miles Davis?

Nigel Kennedy16:54

I've chosen this piece which I think shows him to be very much like Isaac Stern in varieties in his music making and phrasing and structure. He was one of the first people to do this and the orchestration on this piece is wonderful. It's called All Blues.

Presenter18:06

Have you got a kind of a a purpose in life to break down the barriers in uh in music?

Nigel Kennedy18:10

And not

Nigel Kennedy18:12

No, not at all. I I mean I just know from being a musician that music is music and that uh the only way it should be categorised is alphabetically so you can go in and buy the Beatles or Boccherini or Bach or the Boomtown Rats in the same section of records. That's the only way you need to categorise things just so that people know where to go and find it if they've got a preference. But like I know that Bartot is much further removed from Mozart than Ravel is from Coltrane. So it's nothing which really worries me. I think it's an obvious thing which I don't need to prove to anybody. It only slightly disturbs me when people say he shouldn't be doing that because it's too much for him to do. And you know, things like that. It's all music to me and changing styles. If you can do it within classical music you can do it within any kind of music.

Presenter18:58

Now you like all kinds of music. You don't see any barriers in music. What don't you like in music? What do you really hate?

Nigel Kennedy19:05

Richard Clayderman, I think if like uh my record is on the same shelf as his that is a privilege I could do without.

Presenter19:13

All right, let's talk then now. You want me to answer that? Well, he's definitely not on your on your list, is he, on this desert island?

Nigel Kennedy19:15

You wanted an answer just in your mind, but it's different.

Nigel Kennedy19:20

No, I think the island would be divided in two then, you know.

Presenter19:23

Yeah.

Nigel Kennedy19:23

Uh

Presenter19:23

Then what is your next choice then?

Nigel Kennedy19:25

Well I think like Weather Report is more symbolic of the kind of music I like because they've taken you know elements out of all kinds of music and put them together in their own individual way and it's just a beautiful combination of uh all the good things in music and they're going to be playing a number called Three Views of a Secret.

Presenter20:45

Nigel, how do you balance your your various musical interests? I mean, how much time do you give nowadays to jazz, to pop, to the classical work?

Nigel Kennedy20:53

Well, it's been changing gradually since I suddenly discovered that, you know, all the advice I'd been getting about don't play jazz or pop music'cause it's bad for your career, I found out that was wrong. And so now I'm gradually finding more time to do more of the improvised music which is more my own thing. Last year I did like about 130 classical concerts which with the travel and uh getting back home and rehearsing for all of those things left very little time for me to achieve anything else. But now I'm cutting down and trying to spend one third of the year on my pop and jazz activity so that I've actually got time to get somewhere with it. And eight months of a year doing classical which is much more healthy anyway. I mean I've seen plenty of musicians who are doing classical music only, totally run up against a brick wall because all their inspiration is gone and they don't know what to do because they're just going from place to place repeating these concertos. So one needs a bit of time to have something coming in as well as giving it out all the time.

Presenter21:52

Do you get much reaction in the in the world of classical music, to people who meet you for the first time? What I'm thinking about is that you're quite the opposite of what I imagine a classical violinist to be. I mean, you're sitting here, you've got your leather jacket on, you've got the old Doc Martin boots on, you look about sixteen. I mean, d you're a very unconventional figure. Do people sort of throw their hands up in horror, faint, or whatever? I mean, what is their reaction when they meet you?

Speaker 122:06

Uh

Nigel Kennedy22:06

I mean

Nigel Kennedy22:13

Well, I find that the way I behave, like, gets rid of a lot of the kind of conformity and stereotype of behaviour which prevents musicians getting to know each other and I find that it doesn't do me any harm, you know, because like all of this calling people maestro very seriously and not talking about anything else but does this suit your desires, Maestro? I mean is the score perfect? I mean all of that stuff. You never get to know what on earth you're talking about, you know. I mean if you can just say that's great and can we go for this bit here and like do it in a certain way, then you can actually get some communication going on which is what music is all about. I mean there's only one conductor who I've worked with, I'm not going to tell you his name, I mean you can all guess, right? And he got really annoyed when I was discussing the score with him and calling him maestro and then I turned around you know in this restaurant and said to the waiter, hey maestro can you bring us some soup? I mean after that the bloke was like he wasn't so much into the score anymore you know I mean

Presenter23:05

Something of a culture shocker, I would imagine.

Nigel Kennedy23:07

Yeah.

Presenter23:08

Because they th then the two uh kinds of music you inhabit most of all, jazz and and classical, I mean, do you have to change uh from being the classical musician and then go to the jazz and then back again? Yes.

Nigel Kennedy23:17

Yeah, certainly, even just with the music, you know, like I'm having to live up to Beethoven's ideals when I'm playing his stuff and I've only got to live up to my ideals when I'm playing with other groups. So I find that there's more relaxation and, you know, you can get to a higher level sometimes quicker in jazz and the action you get from musicians is very different in the jazz world than the classical. I mean you've got to play well and you get respect once you've played well. And in classical music sometimes your reputation either goes in front of you in a good or bad way, whereas you're much more judged on the moment when you're playing jazz.

Presenter23:51

Do you use the same instrument in playing both kinds of music?

Nigel Kennedy23:54

No, I I use an an electric one which I can put through pedals or else just play straight through into the amplifier if I want to, which like solves the problem of having to come up with a feeble little violin and play into the same mic as a trumpet player's been using. And I don't like playing into a mic anyway'cause you're static and you've got to play into this thing, you know, and you can move around a bit when you're playing on an instrument which isn't uh rooted to the spot. So, I mean I use different instruments purely for musical reasons. I've got a group with guitars and fiddle where I use my you know, valuable one and it sounds very good for that because there's all kinds of different sounds you can make on an acoustic instrument which people really haven't thought much about on the violin, which I enjoy doing.

Presenter24:34

The valuable one, of course, is not the Stradovarius that I read about, is it?

Nigel Kennedy24:37

No, I'm actually using a Guadanini which uh works far better. I mean I think something happened to the Stradoveri along the line that he was left in a cold room or left in the wrong humidity or maybe he slipped up once or something and it doesn't quite work as well as it should and you know in front of an orchestra one's got to be playing to a certain dynamic all the time, but then one still wants all the different colours and things and for the instrument to be able to respond really quickly. And this Guadanini which I'm using now really does seem to I get on very well with it.

Presenter25:08

Right, let's go to your next choice of record then. What's that going to be?

Nigel Kennedy25:11

Well, as far as I'm concerned, music is meant to transport people from the world which they're having to put up with into something where time and you know the aggression and aggro which you have to put up with in normal life is like uh somewhere else altogether and you're in this new world and like Chrysler is the man on violin who really does this for me and I think for anyone else who hears him. And I think he's been quite lucky in his choice of accompanist on this record because he's playing with this bloke called Rap Maninoff who's pretty okay I think and they're playing the second movement of Grieg's third violin and piano sonata.

Presenter26:47

You're twenty-seven years old now, Nigel.

Presenter26:50

Do you ever think that that perhaps you'd have liked another career? I mean, you've been channelled this way ever since you were sort of four or five years of age. I mean, would you, for instance, like to have been a professional footballer, say?

Nigel Kennedy27:00

We've really got right down to it, man. I hope like if I have little kids, they'll be playing for Villa and not doing more scraping. I think sport is a very similar area to music, and I've always been jealous of the guys who have done it because, like, we only got a team together once at the menu in school. It was like not really much encouraged sport, and we lost six-0. The first goal for the other team was a back pass I did to the goalkeeper, which went through his legs, you know. I mean, it just wasn't cool as far as sport was concerned with me. And I've always wanted to have been able to do it and never have been able to get into it. And definitely would have liked a career in some sport or other, like, you know, football or cricket.

Speaker 127:24

I'm hit.

Presenter27:35

Yeah.

Nigel Kennedy27:35

Thanks.

Presenter27:36

Right then, let's go into your next choice of record, and this man's a particular hero of yours, isn't he?

Nigel Kennedy27:41

Well I've got two heroes. I mean Stern we've already played and Jean-Luc Ponty is like a great hero of mine too for the same reason in that you know I was in contact with two very powerful personalities Yehudi Menuen and Stefan Grapelli and it was very easy to kind of fall in with their way of playing and say yeah that's wonderful playing I'll be like them well Stone got me out of that with Menuen and Luc Ponty got me out of that with Rappelli and he showed like that a violin can be used more like a horn you know he's a jazz player nothing like Steph at all you know he's got his own identity it's to do with now and uh even though this record was made in the sixties it's a brilliant uh record and shows how much the violin has evolved. What's it called? It's called Canterlook Island this particular number and he did it with George Duke and a few other blokes.

Presenter29:24

Nigel, do you think you'd be any good at all on this desert island? I mean, would you enjoy it?

Nigel Kennedy29:28

Not really. You know, I don't like being in the sun. I think like, you know, sitting around on a beach is like the worst kind of occupation for a human being, you know. I mean, what on earth do you want to do that for? You know, I'm not like uh ashamed of being white and I've been like that the whole of my life and uh turning red doesn't do me any good at all.

Speaker 129:38

Peter?

Presenter29:46

Would you try to escape, do you think?

Nigel Kennedy29:49

Yeah, I think I'd try pretty hard because like having nothing at all to think about in the future is pretty dire. But I'm such a lousy swimmer that I'd uh probably try and dig a tunnel, you know

Presenter30:02

A tunnel from a desert gun. Nobody's thought of that before. Let's go now onto onto your final choice of music. It's Marvin Gaye. Why particularly Marvin Gaye?

Nigel Kennedy30:02

A tunnel from a desert garden. Nobody's thought of that before. Let's go now and see.

Nigel Kennedy30:09

Good.

Nigel Kennedy30:11

I love soul music and I think that in the area of popular music is really where things are still happening because in Britain maybe things have got a little bit producer orientated and I think really music is played by musicians to people and he was doing his records with live music in a more adventurous way than any you know high-tech production I've heard from over here and so I really love the music.

Presenter30:36

Uh

Nigel Kennedy30:36

What Cool. It's called What's Going On?

Speaker 330:39

Dreams of my mother standing here today.

Presenter30:43

What?

Speaker 330:44

Uh

Presenter30:44

Take it fly.

Presenter30:47

Wicked sound.

Speaker 330:50

Punish me for brutality.

Speaker 330:54

Come on, talk to me!

Speaker 330:56

You can see what's going on

Speaker 131:00

Uh

Speaker 131:01

Yeah, what's going on?

Presenter31:03

Hey, what's going on?

Presenter31:08

So Nigel Kennedy, we've got your eight records now in your desert island. Supposing there was some dreadful disaster and seven were swept away by a wave or melted in the sun, which would be the one record that you'd want to preserve from the age of chosen.

Nigel Kennedy31:20

Well that is very difficult to say. All the violin repertoire is like very close to my heart and that's the reason why I wouldn't choose it. So I think I'd choose the Anduri album because every number is great in the direction it takes and it's a lot of different directions. He's not one of these musicians who plays one way for a whole album and then brings out a different album and says haven't I grown? He can like get into a lot of different styles and it's a great album.

Presenter31:44

So in Durias there is a record. What about the book? You've got the Bible there and you've got the complete works of Shakespeare. Which book would you have?

Nigel Kennedy31:49

Yeah.

Nigel Kennedy31:50

I think I'd like use the Bible and Shakespeare to try and make a raft out of and uh take wisdom and read it. Wisdom? Yeah,'cause you can get into that and like it transports you in a different world just like reading all the any particular year of wisdom? I think I'd like take the latest because it's got all the stuff in, you know.

Presenter31:57

Wisdom.

Presenter32:02

And if it takes you to

Presenter32:09

All right, wisdom's your book then. And what about the the one luxury item that you're allowed on the island? What would that be?

Nigel Kennedy32:15

I think I'd take my fiddle so I can play through all the good repertoire. I wouldn't try and survive, I'd just play the violin, you know. That's all I can do, man.

Presenter32:24

Nigel Kennedy, thank you very much indeed.

Nigel Kennedy32:25

Well, thanks a lot.

Speaker 332:35

Desert Island Discs, which was created by the late Roy Plumley, was introduced by Michael Parkinson, the producer was Derek Drescher.

Speaker 332:44

Nigel Kennedy's first record was Chopin's Nocturne in D-flat, opus twenty-seven number two, played by Arthur Rubinstein.

Speaker 332:51

That was followed by In Betweeners by Ian Jury and The Blockheads.

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The excerpt from the second movement of the Sibelius Violin Concerto in D minor was played by Isaac Stern with the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Eugene Ormondy.

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The fourth record was Miles Davis's All Blues, followed by Three Views of a Secret by Weather Report.

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The excerpt from Grieg Sonata No. Three in C minor was played by Fritz Kreisler, violin, and Sergei Rachmaninoff, piano.

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The last two records were Conteloupe Island with the violinist Jean-Luc Ponty and Marvin Gaye's What's Going On?

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