Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
A singer, best known for her many recordings and concert performances.
On the island
Eight records
La flûte enchantée (Shéhérazade)
She will sing La Flutenchante from Shihrazad by Ravel.
Whenever I hear this record. Even in a studio with a very prosaic surrounding I get the goose pimples.
Ich muss wieder einmal in Grinzing sein
Lotte Lehmann singing a Viennese song I Must Be in Grincing once again.
I remember that I heard him sing this in the Teatro de l'Olimpia.
It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)Favourite
Let's do it. Let's not hesitate. Let's play that little piece. It's called It Don't Mean a Thing If You Ain't Get That Swing.
Time to turn to serious matters, which is certainly the song of Mignon, Kenstudas Land, Wuditzie Troenenblühn, von Hugo Wolf.
String Quintet in C major, D. 956: II. Adagio
I would love to hear a small portion of the Adaggio, where I think you can compare it like a not a ride through the heavens, but a glide through the heavens from one cloud to the next cloud on the shifting harmonies.
Ich kann's nicht fassen, nicht glauben (Frauenliebe und -leben)
The last record I think should be Kathleen Ferrier, of course, Life from Edinburgh with Bruno Walter at the piano.
In conversation
Presenter asks
6:17What was the first time that you ever sang in public? Was it a school concert?
Probably it was a school concert, Jaba. My first concert with an audience that were not schoolmates or teachers was in the Museum of Rotterdam, Bohemonds, this lovely museum.
Presenter asks
6:32When did you make up your mind that music was to be your life?
To be your life that is very nicely put, because I thought it was my life always, but not it would be my life on stage. That came by itself. I never expected to make a career. And I wanted to sing, that was all, and I wanted to sing well, therefore I took lessons and tried to develop my musicality. But um then after winning these prizes … you get in the business, so to say, and now I am where I am. But I never planned that, but I felt that I had to sing.
Presenter asks
10:32Tell me about Pierre Bernac. What did he look like? What sort of man was he?
I always said I loved him dearly. He has the face of a cocker spaniel. … He could be hard with people and desperate. Well, I presume he had reason to be desperate, uh, that happens. But he could also be very funny, and into his eighties he could sing a phrase so beautifully. And so clearly, one phrase, not the whole song, but just one phrase, and make absolutely clear what he meant, so that I could do it my way.
The keepsakes
The book
Paul Verlaine
I think I would take the poetry of Verlaine and mainly the songs of course that were set by Debussy and Foray.
Presenter asks
17:29Your accompanist must be tremendously important to you, to have the right kind of relationship, the right kind of sympathy with your accompanist.
Yes, and musical tastes. Yeah. I am very happy to have found Rudolph Janssen. He is a compatriot, and we also worked with the same teacher, Felix de Noble, who must be quite well known here in London, too. He was a great accompanist. … We hardly have to rehearse. We do the piece, of course, you want to check on certain points. And even a piece as hard as, let's say, La Bon chanson by Fourier, we did it once and said afterwards, why did we do it? We could have gone on stage right away. We have the same ideas. Yeah. Very happy. I hope he's happy with me.
Presenter asks
19:20Do you sometimes talk to the audience at a recital?
If there is a reason, well there's one reason always, of course, to make them feel at ease and make them not think, Oh my god, this uh singer high on the stage and so high with art and so she's also a normal person and can just talk to them about the background of the songs. And of course when I do these little cabaret programmes from time to time I make some jokes in between because I think that belongs to the kind of programme.
Presenter asks
29:31On this desert island, could you look after yourself? Are you a practical lady? Could you build a shelter of some sort?
No, I don't think I could do that. I'm very practical in what they call the civilized world of planes. And managers you know, there I'm uh considered rather practical, but on an island, no, no.
“I believe in hearing the people sing and play themselves, and I hate a little bit that thing of steel. Right, like it is now before our nose, huh? A thing that doesn't react.”
“I never expected to make a career. And I wanted to sing, that was all, and I wanted to sing well, therefore I took lessons and tried to develop my musicality.”
“He has the face of a cocker spaniel.”
“You feel when Yves Montan sings as if you are personally being embraced by that man. His whole radiation is so warm and it was a great experience.”
“I would take my own record and throw it in the water.”