Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
A royal duchess known for her sense of fashion, charitable work, and patronage of the Leeds Piano Competition and the Royal Northern College of Music.
On the island
Eight records
Piano Sonata No. 15 in D major, K. 284
I played it when I was about twelve in the school hall with my parents listening. And I know I played the first chord wrong, but never mind, I'd love to hear it.
Symphony No. 6 in B minor, Op. 74 'Pathétique': II. Allegro con grazia
Philharmonia Orchestra, Guido Cantelli (conductor)
I had a crush on him really, and I would be allowed by my parents to go and listen to him whenever it was possible.
I would love to hear Francis Jackson, who played at my wedding, playing the tuba tune.
Double Violin Concerto in D minor, BWV 1043: II. Largo ma non tanto
Yehudi Menuhin and Georges Enesco, Paris Symphony Orchestra, Pierre Monteux (conductor)
I bicycled out to Ansbach in North Germany to a Bach festival and for the first time in my life I saw and heard Yehudi Menuhin. They were playing the Bach double violin concerto, and I would love just to hear the adagio.
Che gelida manina (from La Bohème)
Placido Domingo, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Sir George Solti (conductor)
I heard Placido Domingo singing the part of Rodolfo, and from then on I formed a lovely friendship with him and an enormous love of opera.
Cello Concerto in E minor, Op. 85
Jacqueline Du Pré, London Symphony Orchestra, Sir John Barbirolli (conductor)
I met Jackie… we formed a wonderful friendship. She was always laughing, always happy. I visited her most weeks. I was very lucky to have been with her just a very few hours before she died. If I asked to have a piece of music played by Jackie, it has to be the Elgar cello concerto.
I thought if I was on a desert island, although I love dancing, I thought I needed something to make my head bob up and down and my feet dance up and down, so I'd like to hear the Beatles with Maxwell's silver hammer.
Ave verum corpus, K. 618Favourite
It's really been the most difficult one to choose of all. Good singing with a choir. There is so much we sing that I would love to have chosen. But I think there's one piece which Mozart sums all the coral works up with. It's Muti conducting the Ave Verum Corpus. This piece has a particular fascination for me because it was written in one of the very last few months of his life, so it has a particular meaning to me.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:04Does the idea of being cast away on a desert island appeal to you in any way at all?
It appeals to me enormously. Just at this very moment, just before Christmas, I can think of absolutely nothing nicer than being a castaway on a desert island. with no timetables to keep to and just lying and Being myself.
Presenter asks
4:45So music had attracted you from a very early age, had it?
Yes, I think from a very early age. I remember a lovely Victorian musical box my father had, which I now have. And I remember listening with my ear on it. It was only about three, listening and feeling the vibration of the music coming through. That's my first sort of feeling of music. It's that musical box of my father's.
Presenter asks
10:32May I ask how that meeting [with the Duke] came about?
Yes, we met at a private party, actually. Not in Yorkshire. It was a strange meeting. I had heard a lot about him I had read a lot about him in the papers. And uh We became friends very quickly. And of course with him being stationed up near me Near my home in Yorkshire. He came over often and uh He for the first time in his life. began to realize, too, that there was such a thing called the country. He'd never known the country before, and my father whom he came to love very dearly. having not had a father himself. Well, I believe his father died when he was six. He gained, I think, another father. and my father played an enormous part in his life. I think he would say himself he taught him what the countryside was all about.
The keepsakes
The book
Reader's Digest Do-It-Yourself Manual
Reader's Digest Association
Reader's Digest Do It Yourself manual, 'cause I feel that might be incredibly useful on a desert island.
The luxury
I think I'd like a solar powered lamp, so that I can have light in the darkness and of course read through the long dark nights.
Presenter asks
20:01Were you aware that people were copying you [your fashion]?
Not really, no. I've always loved fashion and When we were first married I think a fashion I loved was Very much the romantic. Slightly old-fashioned. clothes. I I I love them. and I still do on certain occasions. But you also were, I remember, the very fashionable I think you were the the first member of the royal family to shorten your skirts, as it were. I mean you should know, yeah. I was seen in Oxford Street in a mini skirt. Very, very well. It was a mini skirt, wasn't it? About as many as there can be, but manyer than other members of my family had gone to at that stage. But were you embarrassed when it became a a public business? No, but when I look back at photographs of myself in those closed eyes I I can't believe I really did it.
Presenter asks
25:04You trained, too, as a Samaritan, didn't you?
Yes, I did. I didn't want to be patron Samaritans unless I actually became a Samaritan. And I did I did the course, I did train, and I actually worked at St Stephen's Wa W Walbrook for a short time, and enjoyed it enormously. And then the things I was being asked to do grew in number and I found that I couldn't simply go every Wednesday morning as I was doing. And it was with a great sadness that I actually stopped doing it. I'm very involved with the Samaritans, but I'm now not answering a telephone any more.
Presenter asks
26:38You talk to the dying, don't you? You visit hospices around the country. What can you say to them?
Yes, I do. I suppose That is probably what I do actually more than anything else. But what then can you say? What then can you offer? I've never had to think. What should I say? Is they the ones who were? Ill. are the ones who give you the confidence to talk to them. That is the most remarkable part. of hospice work. They give to you much more than you can ever give to them.
“I get very emotional about music.”
“I failed to get into the Royal Academy of Music, which was one of my big disappointments.”
“I remember shaking his hands and not washing my hands for a week afterwards.”
“I can't believe I really did it.”
“They give to you much more than you can ever give to them.”