Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Clarinetist, saxophonist and broadcaster who spent most of his professional life in symphony orchestras.
On the island
Eight records
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Sir Thomas Beecham
The first one I'd like to be one of the very first pieces I did play with Sir Thomas Beecham and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
String Quintet No. 3 in G minor, K. 516Favourite
This quintet ... has meant a lot to me and to my family because my wife's a viola player and we spent a lot of our spare time as students and a little later playing this sort of music ... and this being a work for two violas, I would be playing second viola on the clarinet and my wife first viola, and this was a family affair.
Violin Concerto in D minor, Op. 47 (Slow Movement)
Isaac Stern, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Sir Thomas Beecham
This is a thing of particular significance because my son was born in 1951 ... a message was handed in to a recording session at EMI, where we were recording the Sebelius Violin concerto ... Sir Thomas made a speech. We then started with the slow movement which has a clarinet duet to start it ... it takes me right back to that very instant after the announcement of the birth of this son, Tim.
Nocturne in D-flat major, Op. 27, No. 2
I came back after about half an hour, found the place completely in darkness. And Solomon was practising. For his own delight he was playing the D flat nocturne of Chopin, and it was the most incredibly private audition of this man purely enjoying himself, and I would like to remind myself of that wonderful moment.
The Marriage of Figaro: Barbarina's Aria (L'ho perduta, me meschina)
I should like to remind myself, I think, of this delightful ... activity at Blindborn, and also my favorite composer, Mozart, by playing Barberina's Tiny Aria from Figallo.
I'd like this to reflect my interest in jazz, because I am interested in jazz, but it certainly wouldn't be a clarinet record I'd take with me because that would be too frustrating to have to actually analyze a clarinet record while not being able to play.
String Quartet No. 14 in C-sharp minor, Op. 131 (Opening Fugue)
This to me epitomises how a composer can take a form in music, like a fugue, which is a dullest ditchwater thing really, but by the treatment of it make it into almost a lament, and the incredible way that this great composer, at the end of his life, could get this fugue ... to mean so much, is I think something I should like to remind myself of.
Paul Tortelier, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Sir Thomas Beecham
It was when Strauss was in the studio and when the young Tortellier came to record Don Quixot with this magnificent orchestra as a young man and with Strauss and with Beecham there, he was able to achieve, I think, something quite tremendous. And I feel that this would remind me of the beginning of the whole thing.
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:33Is it going to be difficult to take loneliness [on the island]?
I think I would find it extremely difficult to take loneliness ... I would not like being on a desert island alone, because I really do believe that one human being without another has no significance whatsoever. I think it's a dead loss.
Presenter asks
2:42Why did you start to play the clarinet?
Purely because there was one in the house ... My father, who was an amateur player, he was a builder, and he did play the clarinet ... and at the age of about four I discovered this delightful toy and ... I made it mine and that was it. Like climbing Everest. You have to do it because it's there.
Presenter asks
3:20What was your ambition? What did you want to be?
Well, obviously I did want to be a musician, but at that time, which was in the late twenties, [with] talking films having just appeared, unemployment among musicians was very serious, and therefore it was silly to even try to be one ... So I decided I was going to be a schoolmaster, and in particular I wanted to be a teacher of physical training
The keepsakes
The book
A volume of two or three books
Charles Dickens
I think I'd like to explore some Dickens if I could. A volume of two or three of his books would be lovely.
The luxury
Could I please have a piano of some sort? It needn't be a new one, it could be quite old, as long as somebody could have left inside it a few of the Beethoven sonatas.
Presenter asks
9:39How had you got into the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra?
I had been mingling with musicians as a sort of semi-professional ... somebody must have hinted to Sir Thomas that there was a clarinetist around who might be ... suitable. And ... to my astonishment one day the telephone rang ... A voice said, mister Brimer, I believe you play the clarionet. This is Sir Thomas Beacham ... and he did want to hear me play the clarinet. And that was the beginning of the whole thing.
Presenter asks
15:44After you left the Royal Philharmonic, you went to the BBC. Was that an improvement or not?
Well, nothing could be an improvement on the ARPU, as it was on Beecham's Day ... The BBC did not suit me particularly because I like the variety of orchestral playing and I like the variety of places. I hate to go to the same seat every day ... It was a cloistered occupation and I didn't appreciate it so much.
“I really do believe that one human being without another has no significance whatsoever. I think it's a dead loss.”
“He would then almost sculpt the work in front of your eyes. It was like seeing somebody creating an image. He did it all by gesture, and it was a most remarkable thing, the way he could actually take a work and present it by gesture.”
“I do actually quite enjoy playing avant-garde music, but I hate rehearsing avant-garde music because it's terribly time consuming and ... quite painful.”