Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
A pianist.
On the island
Eight records
Well the first one on the pile is the St. Matthew Passion of Bach. Because it was one of the first great works I got to know. I was at school actually, at Warwick. And the music master there was a very good musician indeed, called Sidney F. Bates. And he acquired a shortened version of the Saint Matthew Passion, which he rehearsed with the school, and we performed this in the school chapel. I can't remember what the year was. It must be 1933, I should think. I was so overwhelmed at getting to know this work as they rehearsed it, or getting to know even a truncated version of it, that Bach meant something completely different to me after it. I'd rather regarded Prelude and Fields as something perhaps a little academic when I had fallen in love with the music of Beethoven and Wagner and Brahms and so on. But the St Matthew passion has got such a marvellously expressive human quality about it, the way the story of the passion is told. And I'd like to choose particularly the wonderful new harmonization that he gives in the last chorale, which is a chorale we've heard earlier in the Passion, but after the time of the crucifixion and so forth, this returns with the most amazing harmonies.
The keepsakes
No book or luxury recorded for this episode.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:03On what basis did you plan your very slender collection for the desert island?
I decided if I could have eight records, then I must have eight composers who meant something very special to me.
Presenter asks
1:15What's the first one you've chosen?
Well the first one on the pile is the St. Matthew Passion of Bach. Because it was one of the first great works I got to know. I was at school actually, at Warwick. And the music master there was a very good musician indeed, called Sidney F. Bates. And he acquired a shortened version of the Saint Matthew Passion, which he rehearsed with the school, and we performed this in the school chapel. I can't remember what the year was. It must be 1933, I should think. I was so overwhelmed at getting to know this work as they rehearsed it, or getting to know even a truncated version of it, that Bach meant something completely different to me after it. I'd rather regarded Prelude and Fields as something perhaps a little academic when I had fallen in love with the music of Beethoven and Wagner and Brahms and so on. But the St Matthew passion has got such a marvellously expressive human quality about it, the way the story of the passion is told. And I'd like to choose particularly the wonderful new harmonization that he gives in the last chorale, which is a chorale we've heard earlier in the Passion, but after the time of the crucifixion and so forth, this returns with the most amazing harmonies.
“The grammophone has formed a very important part of my musical experience.”
“I was so overwhelmed at getting to know this work as they rehearsed it, or getting to know even a truncated version of it, that Bach meant something completely different to me after it.”
“The St Matthew passion has got such a marvellously expressive human quality about it, the way the story of the passion is told.”