Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Interior designer known for a trailblazing international portfolio since the late 1960s, including ski lodges, palaces, hotel suites, and bank headquarters.
On the island
Eight records
Vienna State Opera Chorus, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Herbert von Karajan
Cause of the hereafter which you need to contemplate if you're on a desert island.
is and was a legend in Egypt. It's said that four million people went to her funeral. And that's the sort of music is something that that reminds me of my childhood'cause it was in the background. It's very nostalgic.
Tosca: Vissi d'arteFavourite
Maria Callas, Orchestra of La Scala Milan
I think that Maria Carlas was remarkable because of her determination to excel. She was so wholehearted in her love of music, and seeing her in Tosca at Covent Garden was something extraordinary.
Donella Vanoni was an actress who played Brecht, and then became a sort of national institution really. So she's the sort of um coutume of of Italy. And it always reminds me of my youth and the fact that I wasn't tremendously happy in Milan.
Ariadne auf Naxos: Orchestral Introduction
Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, conducted by Kurt Masur
Well, on the desert island one is going to indulge in quite a lot of nostalgia, and I am going to think about going to Salzburg, which I have been going to for very many years. and where Richard Strauss was a revelation.
Ian Bostridge is a tall, lanky fellow. who I think was an academic who started to sing, and I got to know about him early on in his career. Although I've never met him, I had a great feeling of pride when I saw him in Salzburg on the stage. And he has a very moving voice.
Symphony No. 3 in F major, Op. 90: IV. Allegro
Philharmonia Orchestra, conducted by Arturo Toscanini
I love brahms. And I'm hoping I'm going to get a musicophilia when I get onto this island.
Cello Sonata in A major: IV. Allegretto poco mosso
Jacqueline du Pré and Daniel Barenboim
She's pursued excellence, and she died very young, Jacqueline Dupre. And she plays the cello like no one else has ever played that I know of or will ever play again. She moves me every time and I'm never bored. So she's essential on the island.
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:49How much of an influence has [your cosmopolitan childhood] had in the way you design?
I think it gives you a much wider outlook and it makes you comfortable in different cultures. And also we're never quite conscious of when things kick in, but they're there. It's developing the eye.
Presenter asks
1:49How do you know that your choice is the right choice?
Well, there is that thing, you know, the John Betchman ghastly good taste, that's more offensive. Good taste. Ghastly good taste, you know, when it's completely predictable. It's a sort of received opinion. If you have bad taste but you it has spirit, if it has energy, if it has reflects your personality, it doesn't matter about good taste. Their surroundings are their surroundings and they must be comfortable in their surroundings.
Presenter asks
6:46How much did you see your parents from the age of eight onwards?
Not very much, but we we would go on holiday together, or they would come and see me. It was all quite a long way away then,'cause when we first went we'd go in a seaplane. That Landed on the Nile in Khartoum, spend the night and then go in a Dakota to Asmara.
The keepsakes
The luxury
sketchbook and lots of pencils
Well, I'm going to have a sketch book and lots of pencils, and I'm going to end up drawing like Matisse or Picasso, if not Michelangelo.
Presenter asks
17:14What has given you that confidence [to go into design]?
I think looking and reading and sharing that interest with the friends that I had at the time.
Presenter asks
24:45How do you work out [what kind of life your clients want to lead]?
Well, you can tell an awful lot by what people were. And also, you know, w w where they've lived their lives and what the influences might have been or not been. All that counts.
“If you have bad taste but you it has spirit, if it has energy, if it has reflects your personality, it doesn't matter about good taste. Their surroundings are their surroundings and they must be comfortable in their surroundings.”
“I was obedient to my destiny.”
“I think that they're very deep, and friendship counts for a lot, even though the family might count. It's not predominant in the same way that it might be in Italy.”