Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Musician and Artistic Director of Opera North.
On the island
Eight records
Béatrice et Bénédict: Overture
London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Colin Davis
One of the things I would miss was humour. I do appreciate humour. I hope I dispense a little of it myself. Now we know that humour is a very hard thing to express in music. So what I would like is a piece of music that would get the next best thing to humour, which is wit. And to me about the wittiest piece of music ever written is the overture to Beatrice and Benedict by Berlias
Christmas Oratorio, BWV 248: Sinfonia (Pastoral Symphony)
Another thing I would miss on a desert island, I think, is the seasons, as we have them in Great Britain. And uh Christmas time is a very attractive time of year. I would very much like the Pastoral Symphony, which opens part two of Bach's very wonderful Christmas Oratorio, a favourite work of mine.
Margaret Price, Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Sir Georg Solti
Well, another thing that I would miss on a desert island is of course women, and, of course, most of all, my wife. And to me there's no piece of music that sums up everything that is marvellous about women. than the Willow song and Ave Maria from Verdi's Otello.
London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Antal Doráti
It is Russian because one of the other things I would miss, of course, on the desert island is children. ... And I suppose some music that I associate more than almost any other with children. is Tchaikovsky's quite wonderful, Faberge-like Nutcracker ballet
London Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Sir Adrian Boult
One of the other things that I would greatly miss on a desert island, as I already hinted, is the theatre, and in particular Shakespeare. I've always been a passionate Shakespearean, and one of my favourite pieces of music is Elgar's Falstaff.
Sonata for Flute, Viola and Harp
Something else that I would miss on a desert island would be the feeling of belonging to the great European tradition of civilization, with all its achievements and products. In terms of music, it seems to me that few composers have refined their technique and written with more sensitivity and style and subtlety than Debussy.
The Midsummer Marriage: Ritual Dances
Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, conducted by John Pritchard
This is again, something to do with living in Britain. I think I would miss very much a feeling of the English countryside. which I've become increasingly fond of as the years go by. And also combined with that, I think it very exciting being alive In the nineteen eighties with all that is going on. and musically speaking, of course, to me the outstanding creative figure. who is still living, is Sir Michael Tippett.
Symphony No. 9 in C major, D. 944 "The Great"Favourite
New York Philharmonic, conducted by Bruno Walter
This would be the last and in some ways the most obvious thing that I would miss on a desert island, which is music itself. And no piece of music, I feel, can sum up that whole concept more than Schubert's Ninth Symphony, the Great C Major.
In conversation
Presenter asks
3:11Were you born in Wales?
Now I was born in London. ... Both my parents are a hundred percent Welsh. Both are well speaking. And I spent most of the war in Wales, in very rural Wales in fact.
Presenter asks
3:43Was there a lot of music in your home as a child?
No, none, really. ... I spent it in a very primitive farm, without electricity or gas, hardly running water, with my mother and sister while my father was in London. And my mother is much more literary than musical, so I actually heard no music whatsoever.
Presenter asks
4:58Was it while at school that you discovered Russian music and literature?
Yes, it was, and again it was largely because of this man, Arnold Foster. ... He was always urging this on me, and it didn't take a lot of urging.
Presenter asks
9:43Was it opera that interested you most from the start?
The keepsakes
The book
Jules and Edmond de Goncourt
Well, I I would in fact read the Shakespeare a great deal, and also the Bible. It's about time I looked at that again. So as a complete contrast to those two, I'd like a book that combines chattiness with some thought-provoking ideas. And I'm very fond of the so-called journals of the Gonkhur brothers. Jules and Edmond Du Goncourt. I'd like to take their journal.
The luxury
Not recorded.
Now I wouldn't say that. I've always been equally drawn to opera and to the symphonic repertoire. But I'm extremely fond of the theatre, of the straight theatre, as well. I've always been passionately fond of theatre, so I suppose it was only natural. that I should go towards the opera house.
Presenter asks
18:36How long were you given to get [Opera North] going?
Not very long, really. I suppose after an awful lot of On, off, on, off, hot, cold. ... The Final. OK was given, I think, in about September 1977. ... To open in November 1978.
“I can remember the very first minute in which I heard a piece of classical music, and I was eight at the time. ... It was in Chobham, a little school in Chobham, outside Woking, and it was the magic flute overture. And that had an instant impact, it was. Instant.”
“I honestly think if I could only take one luxury I'd prefer to take none.”