Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
An artist and Companion of Honour, best known for his paintings.
On the island
Eight records
Piano Sonata No. 3 in F-sharp minor, Op. 23
I discovered Scriabin who I thought was a marvellous composer all those years ago when I was about sixteen I suppose that'd be nineteen nineteen twenty that sort of date.
Symphony No. 5 in B-flat major, Op. 100 (Second Movement)
London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by André Previn
I've come to think that Prokofiev was one of the great composers of my youth who I didn't take enough notice of then, I think, and it's uh part of the Fifth Symphony, the Second Movement.
Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Op. 43Favourite
Vladimir Ashkenazy with the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by André Previn
I thought it was absolutely essential in Desert Island Discs to have one of the big tunes. And I thought a lot about which one, and I finally decided on the big tune in the Paganini variations, which is where the theme is reversed, you get it upside down, which is rather exciting, but it comes out in a very different and wonderfully opulent manner.
Ballade in F-sharp major, Op. 19
John Ogdon with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Louis Frémaux
Well, I'm a great one for French music, really. I love French music. I really love the French when they're nice. And I particularly love Foray.
Winter Words, Op. 52: VI. Wagtail and Baby
It's difficult to represent my views of Ben on one record, as you might imagine, because they're very strong and very long-standing. And I thought perhaps it would be fun to have a song from that song cycle called Winter Words to poems by Thomas Hardy, which incidentally no interest outside of the family, but they were in fact dedicated to Venery, my wife, and myself.
Poulanc, a composer which you might call in my middle period of musical appreciation, if it doesn't sound too swanky, was very important to me because he appeared in those Diagilef ballets in a very important position...
Earl Hines / Gennady Rozhdestvensky conducting the Shostakovich arrangement (Tahiti Trot)
Vincent Youmans / Dmitry Shostakovich
My seventh record is T for Two in two different versions. One by that great pianist, as I think, Earl Hines, who I used to try and imitate when I was in that amateur jazz band which I spoke to you about earlier. And the other version is by Shostakovich.
Symphony No. 89 in F major (Fourth Movement)
Philharmonia Hungarica, conducted by Antal Doráti
Well, my last record is my favourite composer, really, in in the long run, though I don't like to rule out Mozart, but it is in fact Haydn. Because in the last resort I'd rather be left with all Haydn's symphonies, I think, than all the works of Mozart, because I think they're very down to earth, very matter of fact, and about my standard in music finally.
In conversation
Presenter asks
4:46What were your interests as a boy?
Oh, sketching, really, and a bit of music, and trying to play the piano. ... Cycling. I loved cycling. ... I looked at nearly all the churches in Surrey on my bike before I was about fourteen or fifteen.
Presenter asks
6:33What impelled you to leave the law?
Oh, I never wanted to be in the law. It was simply a way of appeasing my father, who said that he would pay for me to go to an art school, if necessary, in Paris, as long as I qualified as a solicitor. ... I failed in the final the first time, at which point my father died ... But my mother took pity on me and she thought I was looking a bit neurotic and I b ought to go to an art school.
Presenter asks
10:08Who were your influences [during your abstract painting period in the 1930s]?
Oh, well Mondrian, Elion, Kandinsky, all the you know, the French painters who were in the public eye, then Leger, Braque, Picasso, they were all all the influences.
The keepsakes
The book
The Complete Works of William Blake
William Blake
I think it would have to be another great love of mine, which we haven't mentioned because there's been no reason to. It would be the complete works of William Blake.
The luxury
it would have to have a lot of roles with it, of course, all Beethoven sonatas, a great many of Mozart's symphonies, which I have omitted to play in this series, but uh I think it would be lovely to have a piano.
Presenter asks
How did you find the king and queen's reaction when you showed them your drawings of Windsor Castle?
The king looked at them without really the the queen was very appreciative throughout and she said, Oh, I like that very much and I like that very much and king didn't really speak a word until we got to the end and then he said, You seem to have been very unlucky with the weather. I I suppose it is awfully funny, but it seemed to me perfectly natural because you show up uh rather pale coloured buildings in the fleeting sunlight by putting black skies behind them.
Presenter asks
26:01Is photography a new interest of yours or have you done it [for a long time]?
No, I've done it ever since I went to look at those old churches on my bike at fifteen. I've used a camera. So it's another topographic game. I hope I've got a bit better since then. But um yes, it is. I I develop and print everything always here. Lucky enough to have a dark room.
“I never intended to continue being an abstract painter all my life. I knew that I had to have some connection with nature and natural appearances and things and architecture and everything in the long run. But abstraction was simply for me a way of trying to teach myself how to paint and how to use colour.”
“I think it would be a pianola. Because I find w with a piano you can not only play I it would have to have a lot of roles with it, of course, all Beethoven sonatas, a great many of Mozart's symphonies, which I have omitted to play in this series, but uh I think it would be lovely to have a piano.”