Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
A soldier, a scholar, and a writer.
On the island
Eight records
Non so più cosa son, cosa faccio
This sound, this gorgeous voice of a sorcious young woman playing a very pert page in white satin breeches with a dear little sword, this captivated me more than I can say
This takes me back to being at Geelong Grammar School and and when I was lowered up to Melbourne, and where I heard once the inimitable Sophie Tucker, whom I shall never forget.
Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 77: I. Allegro non troppo
Jascha Heifetz with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Fritz Reiner
Something that has always moved me greatly, and that is Bramzi's violin concerto.
In those very, very early thirties I used to think most highly of Leighton and Johnson, and I'd like to have some of them, and in particular the Birth of the Blues.
String Quartet No. 13 in B-flat major, Op. 130: V. CavatinaFavourite
I now want to choose, out of these last great quartets of Beethoven, the Cavatina out of Opus one three O in B flat major, the fifth movement
Dichterliebe, Op. 48: I. Im wunderschönen Monat Mai
Schumann setting of a little poem of Heine Heine in Dichteliebe which has only two verses and is wonderfully beautiful.
Piano Quintet in A major, D. 667, "Trout": IV. Thema - Andantino - Variazioni I-V - Allegretto
Paul Badura-Skoda and the Barylli Quartet
I speak not only as a Schubert addict, but also as a passionate fisherman and somebody devoted not only to the pursuit of the salmon, but the pursuit of the tribe too
Götterdämmerung: Brünnhilde's Immolation Scene
Kirsten Flagstad with the Philharmonia Orchestra, conducted by Wilhelm Furtwängler
I'd like Brunhilde's immolation in the last scene of the last act of Goethe Demmerung, which encapsulates really the whole of the ring, that magnificent, magnificent tapestry.
In conversation
Presenter asks
4:16What did you want to be as a schoolboy?
Oh, um nothing very much. I wanted to see what happened, really. I've never wanted to be anything very much. I've only taken it as it came along.
Presenter asks
4:31Why did you decide to [join the army]?
I read greats, and because I was by that time persuaded that there was going to be a war. and we were all going to get killed in it, and it seemed to me tidier on the whole to get killed as a professional than as an amateur. I decided to take the king's shilling
Presenter asks
11:21How did you get out of Holland eventually?
in a canoe down the Vaal, towards the mouth of the Vaal, where the North Bank was in German hands, and the South Bank was in the hands of our own. people, our own friends. In fact, it was the Eleventh Azars, a regiment I knew almost as well as my own, into whose hands I came, in a canoe, in the stilly light of dawn, one morning in february, nineteen forty five.
Presenter asks
The keepsakes
The book
A Thousand and One Gems of English Poetry
Charles Mackay
I'll settle for the Thousand and One Gems in the Eighteen Sixty Eight Edition.
The luxury
Two dozen bottles of Château Latour 1962
I'll settle for two dozen of Chateau Rotour nineteen sixty two.
When you withdrew from the army, what happened?
Well, it was a bit of a struggle to withdraw. I had been invited by King's College London to come to them as principal, and I wanted to do this. Uh but um the Ministry of Defence found certain difficulties there and uh I had to uh Take a fairly firm line to be allowed out. and to become Principal of King's College London. into which I came in nineteen sixty eight.
Presenter asks
17:10What was your objective with [The Third World War]?
Well, it certainly wasn't a forecast. What one aimed to do is to tell a cautionary tale. to set up a possible model. Of the way events might develop in the next few years. and to hang on that possible model A warning that unless we seize the opportunity to put ourselves into a better defensive posture. That if events moved in this sort of direction, we could find ourselves. in bad trouble
“I read greats, and because I was by that time persuaded that there was going to be a war. and we were all going to get killed in it, and it seemed to me tidier on the whole to get killed as a professional than as an amateur.”
“once you show that you're on the same side with people, they will be on your side too. And one of the reasons why we had no Trouble in Kings College London was that there was no Uh we and they on the establishment, there was just ourselves, and from the inside track you can lead people anywhere, whereas from the outside track you may attempt to lead them in vain.”
“What one aimed to do is to tell a cautionary tale. to set up a possible model. Of the way events might develop in the next few years. and to hang on that possible model A warning that unless we seize the opportunity to put ourselves into a better defensive posture.”