Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Music writer and critic, longtime Sunday Times music critic (40+ years), connected to many 20th-century composers.
On the island
Eight records
New Symphony Orchestra conducted by Eugene Goossens
I decided I would go and see what Tintagel was like
Heard at BBC Symphony concert in 1932
Pelléas et Mélisande (duet "Je les ne")
Jacques Jansen and Irène Joachim
the one opera that I would not be without
BBC Philharmonic conducted by Edward Downes
If you were to remove me to a desert island tomorrow, I'd insist on taking that record with me
Christ der einige Gottessohn (chorale prelude from Orgelbüchlein)Favourite
my love of organ music
Pierre Bernac and Francis Poulenc
There was hardly a dry eye in the house when this was sung at Wigmore Hall after the war years
In conversation
Presenter asks
5:40You might have been a musician yourself – a bit of a prodigy on the piano, is that right?
Oh, never, never. I mean, that's when you know how bad you are... you play a dreadful sixpenny piano transcription of Ake Namur from the Travatore without knowing it has a middle section and and you play it and and and a flautist adds the middle section you don't know there is a middle section and you just curl up and then when he comes in with the tune again you join in. I mean this was awful. It was the beginning of critical wisdom to know how bad you are.
Presenter asks
10:36You once spent an afternoon with Delius, didn't you? What sort of an experience was it?
Well, I suppose it was really very wonderful. Everything centred round misses Delius. She was not at all like the Mrs. Delas portrayed in Ken Russell's film. Delius was old, tired, ill. But, my God, he missed nothing missed absolutely nothing. I remember we were asked whether we'd take tea or wine, well of course it would be wine, it came from London, and immediately he would order a bottle of Perrier water to be cooled and the wine to be cooled, and when it finally came, Mrs Dalis got some crystal glasses out of the dresser, and you hear Delis' voice saying, No, not those glasses, dear, the green glasses. So he missed absolutely nothing.
Presenter asks
The keepsakes
Did you have your own rules that you wrote by when writing music criticism? How did you make sure that yours was reasonably objective and interesting?
Well, I mean I have that problem all the time. The one's reaction to the music I heard was instantly, immediately subjective, if you wish. But if you have a performer, for example, or or even a new work, then you have to say, Well, how many out of ten would I give that for melody? How many out of ten would I give that for harmony? How many out of ten for rhythm? How many out of ten for colour, orchestration? Somehow or other you can build up your instinctive percentage.
Presenter asks
20:35But how hard should we, the ordinary listener, have to work at enjoying a piece of music?
With respect, I think that's rubbish. Your instinctive reaction to a piece of music must be emotional and subjective. To get to know a lot more about it will help. The more you know about a piece of music it does it won't spoil its enjoyment of that piece of music. But that's a secondary thing. I mean, you see, the music appeals to the heart, first of all. Then it appeals to the head, the intellectual content of it, and to the feet, there must be a dance element in it, and perhaps for something that lies between the feet and the heart, the sex.
Presenter asks
24:28You said that after the war composers all started wearing the same drab raincoats and became boring. What do you mean by that and why?
I mean the post-war composers wrote if you wish eight tone on or twelve tone music. You couldn't identify the composers. Whereas the composers of the school that I'm interested in, the Golden Age, as it were, whether it's English music or French music, which is really the first fifty years of this our own century. They wore not only their nationality, but their musical heart on their sleeve and they were instantly identifiable.
Presenter asks
28:06You apparently have a soft spot for Gershwin and for Shearing, is that right? But you don't think modern popular music has anything to commend it at all?
Not me, no, I stop with the Beatles or Pre-Beatles.
“It was the beginning of critical wisdom to know how bad you are.”
“The music appeals to the heart, first of all. Then it appeals to the head, the intellectual content of it, and to the feet, there must be a dance element in it, and perhaps for something that lies between the feet and the heart, the sex.”
“There is a man who appeals to the head, the heart, and the feet. No sex in the music.”
“When I was blessed, that's when I came to life.”
“It would be time to not have to listen to music I didn't want to listen to or to read things I didn't want to read.”