Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Composer and librettist, best known for his operas.
On the island
Eight records
Kyrie from Missa Bell'Amfitrit'altera
Choir of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, directed by Simon Preston
I would like to start with one of my favorite composers of all times, which is Orlando de Lassus, a composer that I think has been a bit forgotten and I don't think as appreciated as he should.
Prelude and Fugue in B-flat minor from The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1
I love to hear my my uh well tempered on the piano rather than on the clavi chord. Um I'm not a purist. And always the um clavi cembo, more often than not, sounds to me like squash marmalade.
String Quintet in C major, D. 956 (first movement)Favourite
Juilliard String Quartet with Bernard Greenhouse
I think it is perhaps one of the the greatest uh pieces of music ever written and one that always moves me immensely.
Interlude between the second and third scenes of Act One of Pelléas et Mélisande
Ernest Ansermet conducting the Suisse Romande Orchestra
Curiously enough, every time I hear Pelléas, although I've I've produced it myself uh quite a few times every time I hear it I I discover something new in it.
Quintet from Act 1 of Vanessa
I think that uh his opera Vanessa is one of the of the most beautiful contemporary operas written.
Choir of St John's College, Cambridge, directed by George Guest
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina
I think that Palestrina would do very well in a desert island. I I don't think one can get tired of Palestrina, especially if one has a good ears and can follow all the intricate uh design of of the part.
Excerpt from Act 2 of Tristan und Isolde
Kirsten Flagstad and Ludwig Suthaus
I feel that uh Wagner should be included for some of the lazy afternoons when I really feel intellectually uh lazy and want to to bask in some beautiful sensual sound.
Voi che sapete (Cherubino's aria) from Le nozze di Figaro
I've taken my favorite opera of Mozart, which is not Don Giovanni, but uh Nozze di Figaro.
In conversation
Presenter asks
3:18Whereabouts in Italy were you born?
I was born in a little village on the Lake of Lugano, or overlooking the Lake of Lugano.
Presenter asks
4:27What was your contribution to the family chamber music sessions?
Uh oh, I was then a little a little boy and while my smaller brothers and sisters had to go to bed by I think it was eight o'clock if I remember, I was allowed to to fall asleep in the uh music room and so I if I used to fall asleep every night at the sound of Beethoven and Mozart because my mother played badly but she had a very good taste and she always surrounded me with good music.
Presenter asks
8:08In fact, your mother took you away from the Milan Conservatory because you weren't doing well enough. Is that so?
Um yes, I was a a rather lazy student and my mother took me to Arturo Toscanini, who was uh m more or less a friend of the family, and uh asked him what she should do with such a unruly uh student. And Toscanini advised her to take me away from Milano, away from the family, and to abandon me in a sort of desert island which in this case turned out to be Philadelphia, which could very well be a desert island. You cannot imagine a duller place than Philadelphia. And there I was dumped by my mother at the age of sixteen. And I enrolled in the Curtis Institute of Music.
The keepsakes
The book
Kant or Wittgenstein
Perhaps a book of philosophy. I mean other Kant or of Wittgenstein or something to something that would take me a long time to figure out.
The luxury
you can play games with them. I can also read my future and know whether somebody's going to rescue me or not.
Presenter asks
13:00You like to direct your operas yourself?
Not that I especially like it. I don't like to abandon my opera when they are still infants and I like to nurse them myself, just like most psychologists think that children should be fed by their own mother at the beginning. So I be I believe that if if if a composer can present his own operas, he should do so. And I feel that I'm as good a a producer as most people are. As a matter of fact, I'm I feel I'm slightly better. So I I like to take care of my of my young children myself, at least for a while, then I'll let them go.
Presenter asks
16:15How did [the Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto] all start?
Oh, please don't ask me that, because people have asked me that again and again, and every time they ask me, I give a different answer, because I cannot remember myself why I started it. Why Spoleto? Why Spoleto actually because it was in the ideal town for a small festival. It had two enchanting theatres, nineteenth century theatres. Actually, one is almost eighteenth century theatre. And they were abandoned. The theater was small enough to be almost like a drawing room. And uh because Spoleto needed me and I wanted to be needed.
Presenter asks
22:53How well could you look after yourself on this island? You consider yourself a good Robinson Crusoe or not?
I think I could at this time of of of my life, I think I could very well take care of myself. When I was younger I probably couldn't have stood it because uh … first of all, because I'm a rather amorous person and uh I I think being alone in a desert island would have driven me crazy.
“I also don't I I very seldom play discs because just as I hate frozen food, I hate frozen music.”
“I love to hear my my uh well tempered on the piano rather than on the clavi chord. Um I'm not a purist. And always the um clavi cembo, more often than not, sounds to me like squash marmalade.”
“I don't like funerals and I I hope that when I'm buried I'm I'll be buried without any music or prayers or anything, just thrown into the earth and and uh done away with.”
“I don't like to abandon my opera when they are still infants and I like to nurse them myself, just like most psychologists think that children should be fed by their own mother at the beginning.”
“I've been trying to escape from myself all my life, so I certainly would try to escape from from a desert island.”