Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Businesswoman of the Year who, after her husband's death, built an empire from cattle, construction, transport, and ten West End theatres.
On the island
Eight records
Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 77: II. Adagio
Yehudi Menuhin with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Rudolf Kempe
Possibly I've listened to the third movement of this more in my life than the second one because I as I've got older I've started to become more interested in slow movements, but I used to be frightfully uh uh in touch with the third movements of all the concertos I have in my portfolio, which are all pretty upbeat and rousing, but as I get older I think my musical taste is orienting me more to slow movements.
Peter Schulthel's work is tremendously evocative of the Australian landscape. John Williams I have met, he is quite one of the nicest people, and this would remind me of what wonderful things human beings can be, and also of Australia.
Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat major, Op. 73 'Emperor': III. Rondo: Allegro
Edwin Fischer with the Philharmonia Orchestra, conducted by Wilhelm Furtwängler
It's very significant to me, this piece of music, because I remember very clearly watching my mother. She was washing up at the time listening to this piece of music and crying. And at that time we didn't have a grammar phone. And I asked her what what on earth she was you know, why are you crying, mummy? sort of thing. And uh she said that this was so beautiful. and she knew she wouldn't hear it again for a long time. So she was sad, and I think that that it was the first time I really realized that music could move someone in such a way.
I've been trying to think of what I would miss if I was on a desert island, and obviously the main thing I'd miss would be people. And I have been fortunate in my life in having many close male friends in the truest sense of the word. I actually have about six men who call me mate, and I love it. And many of them have had wonderful voices. Now Richard Burton was not a man in my life, but he has got a wonderful voice. So I think I would take Richard Burton reading parts of Under Milkwood.
Cello Concerto in E minor, Op. 85
Jacqueline du Pré with the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Sir John Barbirolli
It's very moving, very soulful, and of course the the Jacqueline Dupre story is a story we all know. And Sir John Barberaley I once heard conduct The orchestra in Western Australia when I was a very small child, and he made it sound so wonderful.
This musical was first performed at the Perth Festival in 1990. I went about three times. It was a most moving experience. I was asked afterwards if I would be interested in establishing a theatre company in Australia which would use multi-racial casting, which would perform the work of Aboriginal writers as well as other Australian writers. So we set up Black Swan and two years later we actually put Brand New Day together again and took this Aboriginal rock musical to towns like Maury in northern New South Wales which have dreadful race problems. and showed the people of Mauree Aborigines being Creative, being clever, being funny, being optimistic.
Fidelio, Op. 72: 'Mir ist so wunderbar'Favourite
Adolf Dallapozza, Manfred Jungwirth, Gundula Janowitz and Lucia Popp
I think it's beautiful. I like to sing along with it. I would take Fidelio with me on this Desert Island because it's well it's Beethoven and it's my favourite opera, but also it's in German. And I studied German at school for five years and I reckon by the time I'd been on this Desert Island for a couple of years I'd be able to sing the whole thing, whereas if it was in Italian I wouldn't have the faintest idea what they were saying.
String Quintet in C major, D. 956: II. Adagio
Emerson String Quartet with Mstislav Rostropovich
I think this is arguably the most beautiful piece of music ever written, and many of my friends and I would like this to be played. at our funerals. It's the slow movement of Schubert's string quintet in C major, I play it constantly. It's very sad, so I'm going to be quite sad.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:13Was there ever any doubt in your mind that [taking over the business] was what you had to do?
It wasn't actually anything that I really thought about. I just did it.
Presenter asks
2:35How different are you, as a widow of fifty-three, from the wife you were at, say, forty-three?
Oh, I think very different. I think I'm more confident. I'm more possibly more me. You know, it was a it was a role that I played, the company chairman's wife. And I wasn't really play acting and I don't regret anything that I did in those twenty-five years. But I think that I am a more independent by definition I'm I'm a more independent Forceful person. There's nobody telling me what I should or or shouldn't do or how I'm expected to behave. I just do what I want to do.
Presenter asks
6:25Why didn't you need [all those possessions] alone, whereas you did need them when Robert was alive?
Um, I didn't need them. He did. … I used to say these things are called possessions,'cause in the end they'll possess us. Robert was the most profitable division that Hatesbury had, if you like, and he could service the debt by ringing stockbrokers and doing a few deals. I don't have that ability. I don't have that interest.
The keepsakes
The book
Randolph Stow
I've decided to take a great Australian book called Tourmalane, written by Randolph Stowe. It's terribly evocatively written in terms of descriptive passages, but it is a universal story. And it's also a novel which Black Swan adapted for the theatre for the festival in 1992 and was stunningly successful. And so it would remind me of lots of friends and happy experiences. But basically it would remind me of Australia.
The luxury
I think I would not be allowed to take my piano. I mean, I'd like to take my piano and hope that somebody like Harvey Keitel was washed up and wanted lessons. But uh Could I take a piano, but if that was too big for our vessel I think I just I would take a jar of Vegemite.
Presenter asks
11:35You decided to really subjugate yourself to [Robert], didn't you?
Yes. I don't think I'd ever do it again, but uh I don't regress it.
Presenter asks
19:41How would you characterize the essential differences in the way you run [the business]?
It's totally different. Robert was a really a one man band. The way I've described it is Hatesbury was like a pyramid with Robert at the top. and many people paying homage. and they worshipped him and they had him on a huge pedestal. I would like to think that I'm down at the bottom of a pyramid and that I can motivate people, make them feel good about themselves, hopefully inspire them to achieve their maximum potential.
Presenter asks
31:49Do you, despite your gregariousness, despite that group of friends, do you also suffer from loneliness?
There's a time sometimes at the end of a concert when people are pairing up with their partners and going off home, when I think, Oh God, I'm going home to an empty house again.
“I used to say these things are called possessions,'cause in the end they'll possess us.”
“I felt that he had a special talent, a special brain. And my job was to facilitate the use of that brain, and wake making cups of tea and so on was not what this man was put on the planet for, and so on. Now It's a bit of a nonsense, and I wouldn't do it again.”
“We don't make our money with money in Haydesbury. We make it with people.”
“I think it's really bad to make people feel that they have to do it. I wonder, though, you were saying that you spent a lot of your time not with them when they were younger because they were at boarding school and you were travelling with Robert. I wonder if, in a funny kind of way, you're almost closer to them now than when they were young. I probably am. I mean, I I resent not having been with them when they were in those formative teenage years.”