Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
A BBC announcer and newsreader who retired after 37 years with the corporation.
On the island
Eight records
to evoke the past… to bring you great music, to give you uplift watches. Great music.
Barcarolle in F sharp major, Op. 60
because uh it has with it such a glorious sense of euphoria being caressed and rocked in the cradle of the deep.
Symphony No. 3 in E flat major, Op. 55 (Eroica) – opening
I was brought up on the three B's and a particular Beethoven. There is one particular thing that I cannot do without, and that's theoreka. The third symphony.
Jeg elsker Dig! (Ich liebe Dich!)
if ever on this island I was feeling lonely or unloved, I know exactly what antidote I should use, and it would be flagstart singing… In the original Norwegian words for I love you rather more beautiful than the hard German je ediskelde.
Cello Concerto in E minor, Op. 85 – opening
this was recorded by a young cellist whom I regard as one of the world's most important musicians in any sphere, Charlie Dupre.
I've chosen it more for the sake of the artist and music, although I love the song… there's something about this singing… which uh I can only call innocence… or perhaps vulnerability. Anyway, I find it absolutely heartrending.
String Quintet in C major, D. 956 – first movement (excerpt)
Amadeus Quartet and William Pleeth
if I were never rescued from a desert island, I would hope that with my last breath I would have the strength to get to the gramophone and put the needle down… at the slow movement… and fade away. But I do also very much love the First Movement.
Academic Festival Overture, Op. 80
my wife and I both love it. In fact, it was after giving her a record of this way back over thirty years ago, that on the same night I proposed and was accepted.
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:48When you got home at night, did you play records?
When I got home, I just went to bed. I was too tired in here.
Presenter asks
3:56Alvar, were you born in London?
Yes, Wimbledon Park, SW19.
Presenter asks
4:17You went to Oxford. What did you read?
Classics. With a view to work. Well, uh nothing of you really just uh to being educated at Oxford, I mean, which was the thing to do then.
Presenter asks
4:26What did you do when you came down [from Oxford]?
I came down bang in the middle of the slump, or this is the beginning of the slump, 1930, stunt gun in 1929, hadn't it, in New York. And I didn't know what to at all. I had, through the appointments board at Oxford, been lined up for a job at HMV, because the only thing I knew was that I wanted a job which had to do with music. … But unfortunately, they were actually not taking on new people. They were even finding some of their old people at that time, so that fell through.
The keepsakes
The book
(multi-volume, editor not specified)
Well, now, this is a matter of rationing, I suppose. I mean, I don't know how many volumes I can take. I know exactly what I want to take, but you may say it's too many. It's this is sixteen volumes. Is it one work? Yes. The Oxid English Dictionary.
The luxury
Oh yes, simple. Two packs playing cards, please, our door bridge. Bridge is hard. Playing bridge? Oh, no, I would simply arrange hands, you will see, and bid them in an imaginary way. But you see, the thing with bridge, it's picking out the bridge hands, you see, because one day you're going to get 13 spades.
Presenter asks
9:23What were the highlights in your pre-war career?
Well, uh one of the turning points in this difficult early stage was early 1934. … I was reading the news on the night that the obituary of Elgar was included. … everybody agreed that this had been a very good bulletin. … It was so important, I'd just fallen completely in love with the cello concerto, amongst others. … I always remember that. I remember also the abdication. Later, 1936, when I happened to be the chap on duty one afternoon … was hand for it and handed this momentous document … which we were to broadcast at three o'clock after it had been proclaimed in the House of Commons.
Presenter asks
18:17How well could you take to loneliness? Are you reasonably self-sufficient?
I think I'm fairly good at uh making do and mending or at improvising. … I'm not very practical. I can hear the family laughing like drains. … I think I would be badly afflicted by loneliness, to tell you the truth.
“I had, through the appointments board at Oxford, been lined up for a job at HMV, because the only thing I knew was that I wanted a job which had to do with music.”
“Went up Savoy Hill and [Lance Heaverkin] put me in front of a microphone, gave me something to read, disappeared at the cubicle. Came back literally in a flash and said, okay, no problem, your voice is suitable for the microphone.”
“I then proceeded to wait, uh knocking about as before, a bit of teaching, etcetera. … Next thing that happened was that uh I met the man was now a very distinguished BBC producer, Raymond Rakes, who had also been at Exeter College Oxford. And he said, What are you doing? I said, I'm out of a job. What are you doing? He said, Well, I'm just going on tour with an Italian marionette company as manager. And you're just the chap I'm looking for.”
“I was reading the news on the night that the obituary of Elgar was included. … It was so important, I'd just fallen completely in love with the cello concerto, amongst others. … Now wish I'd put over a good [obituary].”
“[Neville Chamberlain] was uh totally absorbed in this to him ghastly end to his efforts — he was a grief-stricken, despondent man.”
“I would hope that with my last breath I would have the strength to get to the gramophone and put the needle down at the slow movement to this work and fade away.”