Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Famous singer, began career in 1890s, widow of conductor Sir Hamilton Harty.
On the island
Eight records
Overture to The Marriage of Figaro
The overture to The Marriage of Figaro
The snippet from Swan Lake
"Mi chiamano Mimì" from La bohème
Nellie Melba's farewell at Covent Garden when she sang Mimi for the last time
It's my husband's work. It's a second movement out of his Irish Symphony. And I just adore it.
Nimrod (from Enigma Variations)
Orchestra conducted by Sir Thomas Beecham
Partly because I'm very fond of it, but also because I did a great deal of work with Sir Edward.
Winterstürme wichen dem Wonnemond (Spring Song) from Die Walküre
The spring song from Die Walküre, sung by Walter Hyde, in English.
Hallelujah Chorus from Messiah
Huddersfield Choral Society, Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Sir Malcolm Sargent
Because Messiah was one of the first oratorios I ever heard. It was in Gloucester Cathedral at the musical festival. But I was so impressed by that chorus. I never forgot it.
In conversation
Presenter asks
5:45You said you started your career as a violinist. What made you decide in the first place that music was your vocation?
I think uh from the fact that my parents were very intent amateur musicians and they had always had a great deal of music in their home. And it was the days when you made parlour tricks yourself. There were no concerts much to go to, perhaps one now and again, no pictures, nor anything of that sort, so you had to make music if you wanted to eat in your own home. And that was how I began. I started uh when I was five with a fiddle. A little quota fiddle. and progressed with that. Well then gradually I began singing one doesn't use your in it you know, just do it. And then I sang in a choral class in my boarding school. And that was really how it began.
Presenter asks
6:57What was your first professional engagement? Do you remember?
Yes, I do indeed. It was at a chapel or a church rather? On an Easter Sunday with a great full service and there was also an orchestra and the organ and we did the mess solonelle and I had to sing all the tenor parts because the tenor couldn't get the high notes.
Presenter asks
7:53You sang several times before Queen Victoria, didn't you?
I did indeed. The first time [I sang before Queen Victoria] was at her own diamond jubilee, when they gave a performance of the hymn of praise at St George's Chapel, Windsor, under Sir Walter Parrott. Madame Albany was the first soprano, Edward Lloyd the tenor, and I sang the second soprano part. I thought I was the earth.
The keepsakes
The book
a big dictionary, one of the old-fashioned dictionaries
I want a big dictionary, one of the old-fashioned dictionaries. You see, I'll never be short of reading then. Never. Because you know you never can stop when you once look at it.
The luxury
Presenter asks
10:21Where did you first meet your husband?
I met him in London. Here he was engaged to play for me at a concert. As my accompanist. … He helped me, of course, enormously with all the great roles that I did. And he taught me many things about orchestral scores so that I should know where things were especially heavy and where to reserve myself and such things, because I played roles which in many ways I expect were too big for me, like Isolde and things like that.
Presenter asks
12:29Do you think the standard of singing is as good now as it was when you started your career?
Honestly, no. I think there is still excellent singing in some ways. But what I would call the rank and file is so much more odd. … I do think that it's possible they all have to work too hard. They have to learn quickly, they have to do everything for themselves, they have to cook and housekeep and travel and nothing is very easy today. And I really think that has a great deal to do with it.
Presenter asks
13:10And what about the [stage] productions [today compared with the ones you saw]?
Oh, I think some are magnificent. … Many of them are infinitely better. I mean take a thing like the Trojans which they did lately at Covent Garden – magnificent show. And the new AI that they've done there is excellent too.
“I think uh from the fact that my parents were very intent amateur musicians and they had always had a great deal of music in their home. And it was the days when you made parlour tricks yourself. There were no concerts much to go to, perhaps one now and again, no pictures, nor anything of that sort, so you had to make music if you wanted to eat in your own home.”
“The first time [I sang before Queen Victoria] was at her own diamond jubilee, when they gave a performance of the hymn of praise at St George's Chapel, Windsor, under Sir Walter Parrott. Madame Albany was the first soprano, Edward Lloyd the tenor, and I sang the second soprano part. I thought I was the earth.”
“Pamina, I didn't like playing her at all. She had lovely music to sing, but I felt I was utterly unsuited to being a little girl and I was enormous and I didn't like playing with a little mother who was about three inches high, the queen of the night.”
“He helped me, of course, enormously with all the great roles that I did. And he taught me many things about orchestral scores so that I should know where things were especially heavy and where to reserve myself and such things, because I played roles which in many ways I expect were too big for me, like Isolde and things like that.”
“I do think that it's possible [today's singers] all have to work too hard. They have to learn quickly, they have to do everything for themselves, they have to cook and housekeep and travel and nothing is very easy today. And I really think that has a great deal to do with it.”