Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
International concert pianist whose career spanned seven decades.
On the island
Eight records
Piano Quartet No. 2 in A major, Op. 26
The first record which I chose today, I think it was the Piano Quartet of Brahms. It is the A major, you know, because it is the least popular of the three.
String Quartet No. 7 in F major, Op. 59 No. 1 (Razumovsky)
And this very quartet which I chose remained in my mind with all the remarks he made and the heavily way he played it. I cried when I heard it for the first time. And I think the second movement is one of the most incredibly beautiful ideas of Beethoven.
I heard it as a young boy by Arthur Schnabel at the piano and his wife Therese Baer. I sang it in Berlin and I was absolutely overcome. I think that was my very first absolutely shattering impression of sugar.
Concerto for Orchestra, Sz. 116
This again has a sentimental background for me. I have known Bartock quite well... It was heartbreaking. And then came the concerto which expresses all that, you see, for me. It's a great work.
Piano Concerto No. 24 in C minor, K. 491
I invariably somehow put my finger on the C minor because I think it shows the real Mozart, not the Baroque Mozart, but the Mozart who did even outdo Beethoven in some ways in his simplicity and this incredible economy of notes and so much music put into it.
Nocturnes
Well, the nocturnes of Chopin would be my choice if you cruelly would just pin me down to those eight and not nine or fifty thousand records. Especially if there's a lovely night, you know, the moon shining, a lovely girl next to you is better still my wife, of course.
String Quintet in C major, D. 956Favourite
I asked my wife If I am dying in a decent way... That she would play a record of this quintet to me, the second movement of this quintet to me.
Piano Sonata in B-flat major, D. 960
I consider him the brother, he's more male than than than the sonata. This sonata I played very late in my in my life. So it belongs Again to the family of The Chamber Music for Listening at Home. And I adore this work absolutely beyond anything I can say. I love to play it. It's each time a great experience and an honor to put my fingers on it.
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:55Could you endure prolonged loneliness?
I would like only to survive in the same condition as I'm living now. And I must say I'm grateful to Providence or to all the gods, whatever they are above us. To have reached my age in the condition I feel to be, you see, is I can still run, even I can run.
Presenter asks
2:48On what terms are you choosing your eight records? Are you choosing nostalgically or to give you great performances?
Music to cheer you up. Again, you see, you pin me down to something. I'm a man of of of moods. I learned from my friend Picasso something very precious. I was very astonished to see him painting always the same subject for about a month or two months. I told him, aren't you bored to do that every day? He said, What are you talking about? He was furious with me. He said, What a silly thing to say. I change every minute. The sun is different every minute. Every day is a new life for me. Everything is new again. I'm I'm a completely different person. And this picture Is every time absolutely different because I see it with other eyes. I'm another man.
Presenter asks
7:17As a very small child, did you hear a lot of music in your home?
I never heard any music at all. I had three sisters, much older than I was. They were already young ladies, they were eighteen, nineteen. And they had piano lessons, but without being very musical. And I played really better than my sisters when I was three. I played all their pieces much better.
The keepsakes
The book
Not recorded.
Presenter asks
8:55In the first years of your career, did you ever know poverty? Were you ever hard up?
Terribly hard up I was even pushed into almost suicide at the age of twenty.
Presenter asks
9:22What do you think was the turning point in your career? What was the best thing that happened?
Well, there you are again on that limiting me. Every day was the best thing that happened. Every hour. Yes. Always. I wouldn't give one single moment of my life for another one.
Presenter asks
22:45If you could take only one of the eight records you've chosen, which would it be?
I think I will take the quintet of Schubert. because I probably will die of boredom, you know, in general, being only there with one record. And I wanted to die listening to it, as I told you before. So that would help both of us.
“I would like only to survive in the same condition as I'm living now. And I must say I'm grateful to Providence or to all the gods, whatever they are above us. To have reached my age in the condition I feel to be, you see, is I can still run, even I can run.”
“I learned from my friend Picasso something very precious. I was very astonished to see him painting always the same subject for about a month or two months. I told him, aren't you bored to do that every day? He said, What are you talking about? He was furious with me. He said, What a silly thing to say. I change every minute. The sun is different every minute. Every day is a new life for me. Everything is new again. I'm I'm a completely different person. And this picture Is every time absolutely different because I see it with other eyes. I'm another man.”
“I cried when I heard it for the first time. And I think the second movement is one of the most incredibly beautiful ideas of Beethoven.”
“Terribly hard up I was even pushed into almost suicide at the age of twenty.”
“Every day was the best thing that happened. Every hour. Yes. Always. I wouldn't give one single moment of my life for another one.”