Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
A conductor, best known for his performances with orchestras.
On the island
Eight records
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:44Do you think you could endure loneliness?
I think I can live for a few months there. I would like to be in a beautiful desert island. For a few months.
Presenter asks
4:05Now it's said that you decided to be a conductor when you were eight, is that right?
Yes, seven or eight. I remember the first concert I heard in La Scala … I remember I was back home and decided to be a conductor.
Presenter asks
6:25You were still a small boy when the last war started. Do you remember some bad times because things were very rough in the occupation?
Oh yes, I remember everything, we did nothing. My mother especially had some trouble because the little child was living with us.
Presenter asks
8:37What was your first professional engagement as a conductor?
The keepsakes
The luxury
Well, I conducted the first complete concert with the Symphony Orchestra and the first opera after fifty eight.
Presenter asks
16:41Could you very briefly tell us the strengths and weaknesses of these four great orchestras [La Scala, Vienna Philharmonic, London Symphony, Chicago Symphony]? Where does one excel and another one?
Mm scala orchestra, for example, is for me one of the greatest opera orchestra … when they have to follow, I think the scalar orchestra have something special. … Vienna Philharmonic they have great great tradition for romantic repertoire … but a London Symphony can do everything, there's no limit. … Chicago is a great orchestra. Very flexible too.
Presenter asks
28:13How well could you look after yourself on a desert island? You already have an island home, don't you?
Oh, you mean when I got some in Sardinia? Yes. … Are you good, Scarman? … Sailing? Not very much. I was fishing when I was a child … Would you try to escape? I think if I have a few months free to stay there, that would be fantastic, then after that I will build up … a sailing boat? No, it's simple, I think. Selling boat, yeah, a motorboat I think would be more complicated.
“I think really for me it was the greatest conduct I heard in my life. I heard Toscanini, it was fantastic, but the impression of maybe for Wrangler when I heard it was the tension during the rehearsals, during the concert, even before I started music, it was incredible.”
“the origin of my name is Arab. They come from twelve hundred when the Arabs they went to Spain in Sevilla and they built Alcazar and the tower.”
“I was playing organ to get some money … I was playing for hours and hours and sometimes the priest come to me to say, 'Now you stop' But I say, 'No, I don't I have to finish the piece' So I was continuing to play for hours So that the result was after one or two times I played in the church was ending, it was finished.”
“This is not uh really music. And I don't know why they gave me the first prize, because I didn't connect very well.”
“I think the spirit of uh this orchestra is something unique. There's no limit, really. And everybody believes what it's doing. That sometimes in professional orcas it's not exactly the same. Maybe you can find ninety percent of the orchestra, but not a hundred percent.”