Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
A celebrated instrumental trio from the United States, the Beaux Arts Trio.
On the island
Eight records
Symphony No. 7 in A major, Op. 92: IV. Allegro con brio
NBC Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Arturo Toscanini
I think we decided on it uh mostly because uh I was influential with my two friends. I was part of that recording, I believe it's the NBC Symphony Orchestra.
Piano Concerto No. 4 in G major, Op. 58: I. Allegro moderato
Artur Schnabel with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Sir Malcolm Sargent
Now it was, as I started to realize, a combination that is not to be beat to hear one of the most beautiful pieces on the piano, played by a man who has played more beautiful to my mind than anyone else this particular piece, who transformed a scale into a musical pronouncement.
Cello Concerto in A minor, Op. 129: I. Nicht zu schnell
Gregor Piatigorsky with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Sir John Barbirolli
It's an old, old record on seventy-eight and uh it made an enormous impression on me at a point in my life when I wasn't sure I wanted to become a cellist, but after listening to this record I knew that the instrument was mine, that I had to spend my life with it.
String Quartet No. 8 in E minor, Op. 59, No. 2 'Rasumovsky': III. Allegretto
Well, I just this summer, uh, after not hearing or playing the work for a number of years, played Beethoven fifty nine, number two, the E minor quartet, and I found it so moving, so exciting, that I think on a desert aisle, well, this would be some solace for me.
Piano Trio in A minor: II. Pantoum (Assez vif)
it has a special meaning to me and actually it was my friend Bernie who always said when I touched a new piano I would try that particular theme and he would say, Oh, it's your theme song or something like that. And somehow it seemed to have developed into a theme song for me for a reason that I do love the movement.
Piano Trio No. 1 in B-flat major, D. 898: II. Andante un poco mosso
Alfred Cortot, Jacques Thibaud and Pablo Casals
which I find to be one of the great moments in Casals and Thibault's playing.
Kathleen Ferrier and Julius Patzak with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Bruno Walter
I heard Ferrier when she came to New York, and I was just swept off my feet by the vision of this lady and her voice. She sang Orfeo. But the work uh does lead from the Eduh, I think, since if I have to be stranded on an island is a kind of a summary of perhaps life and its experiences and what it has to offer, its joys and its sadness.
String Quintet in C major, D. 956: II. AdagioFavourite
Juilliard String Quartet with Bernard Greenhouse
It's something which all three of us feel is one of the great, great pieces in the not only the chamber music literature, but in all music. And we we were unanimous in this decision, very quickly decided that this was a great, great piece.
In conversation
Presenter asks
3:53Were your parents [Menahem Pressler] musical?
They loved music. My father played terribly the violin, and that's the first instrument that I started with was the violin. ... But it was seven when I started to play the piano.
Presenter asks
8:05Do you [Bernard Greenhouse] come from a musical family too?
Not really, no. We were four boys in the family. My father loved music very much. We had the old Victrola and all of the Caruso records and the the old uh favorites on seventy eight. And we had musical evenings and each of the four boys had to play an instrument as part of his musical education.
Presenter asks
14:21What about your [Isidore Cohen] musical beginnings?
No members of my family have ever been musical in any real sense. I remember being taken to the Second Avenue Jewish Theatre in New York, and sitting next to my grandmother she always hummed, and I decided that she was the most musical member of the family. But my cousin started to study the violin, and I used to be terribly jealous of him. ... So I uh convinced my parents to buy me a violin, get me a violin teacher, and that's how it all started.
The keepsakes
The book
Piloting, Seamanship and Small Boat Handling
Charles F. Chapman
My choice would be the Chapman book on small boat handling and seamanship. I find that there is an enormous knowledge to be had ... it keeps me interested continuously.
The luxury
a large packet of piano strings and violin strings
I'm going to ask to be able to take along a large packet of piano strings and violin strings, and I'm going to set up a trading post. And if my friends want a new A string for the violin, they're going to go out and catch a fish for me.
Presenter asks
19:05Who can tell me the story of how the Beaux-Arts trio came into being?
I think the idea originally was for the trio, it had no name at the time, to make records for one of the companies in New York, to do the complete Mozart trios. Um mister Guillet and and Menachem uh were searching for a cellist who would fit into the picture well, and they called me on the phone and asked whether I wouldn't come and have an evening with them of of Mozart. And that was the beginning of the trio.
Presenter asks
24:34What are your leisure pursuits [when you travel the world together]?
We've got one man who always finds the churches. That is mister Cohen ... But the interest for the restaurants, I think, is mutual. We all three do like to eat well, and we follow the maxim of Isai, who says, in order to play well, you've got to eat well.
“I can still remember, of course, that last minute when the screen opened and they said first prize. I had to pinch myself to say, is it me? and go send the telegram home to say I won the first prize, and that was actually the start in America.”
“I have one of the great instruments today of Stradivari. There are many Stradivari violins, fewer violas and fewer cellos, and mine is the Paganini. It was made in seventeen hundred and seven and one of the great masterpieces of The Greatest Master.”
“in a way, the misery of the war was responsible for my turning to music as a profession, because I had actually been a pre med student. And towards the end of the war, one day, when I was in Saint-Asaur-Orient area, cruising round in a jeep, I saw a a man with a violin and I convince him to trade me his violin for my gun.”