Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
2 appearances
He is a guitarist and lutenist.
On the island
Eight records
String Quintet in C major, D. 956Favourite
Hollywood String Quartet, Coert Reher (cello)
To me it is perhaps the greatest piece of music that has ever been written.
When I am Laid in Earth (Dido's Lament)
hearing Kirsten Flagstad sing Dido's Lament has been perhaps one of the most moving experiences I've had in music.
After two minutes of this, I was absolutely convinced that the guitar was going to be my life.
Quintet of the Hot Club of France featuring Django Reinhardt and Stéphane Grappelli
This man has been a tremendous inspiration to me.
Peter Pears (tenor), Julian Bream (lute)
One of the things I would like to remember very much would be my acquaintance and work with my colleague Peter Pears.
one of the most exotic pieces of music I know.
Concerto for 4 Harpsichords in A minor, BWV 1065 (after Vivaldi)
Johann Sebastian Bach (after Antonio Vivaldi)
to my mind it's one of the happiest pieces I know.
String Quintet in G minor, K. 516
if the first is my favorite piece of music ... then surely this next piece is my second best.
String Quintet No. 4 in G minor, K. 516
Pro Arte Quartet with Alfred Hobday
I have chosen one piece which actually had a tremendous impact on me because it was almost the very first piece of Mozart I ever heard.
Django at his best, I think ... is a phenomenal musician. It just so happens that there's one lovely record of Django not only playing the guitar, but also playing the violin, which I think is uh a very unique record.
One of the groups that I loved and I thought was ... just as remarkable as the Proartie quartet, but in jazz, was the Benny Goodman quintet
Sonata No. 9 in F major (The Golden Sonata)
Catherine Mackintosh and Monica Huggett
hearing these, I was simply staggered how beautiful the music is, and actually how well they play it, too, and how nice these old violins sound, after modern violins.
Cleveland Orchestra conducted by Lorin Maazel, with Robert Vernon
what I find so uh attractive and wonderful is the immense imagination that Berlioz had ... For colour ... and the passion that drives his music along and the energy.
If My Complaints Could Passions Move
to do all these beautiful Elizabethan lute songs with an artist such as Peter has been extraordinary for me. And so ... I've always had a special affection for Peter and the Alborough Festival too, and I would always like to remember that on my desert island.
I was always an avid fan of the Beatles, from their very beginning almost ... when you really get to know their music, it really is extraordinary how ... Not only beautiful it is, but how very remarkable it is in really pure musical values.
String Quartet No. 12 in C minor, D. 703 (Quartettsatz)Favourite
it seems to have ... Such drama and pathos, and it has that lovely, limpid, romantic quality which is so typical of Schubert in his very mature quartets.
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:57How do you feel you could face up to the solitude of a desert island?
Well, I must say it's a frightening thought. I don't think I could [face] up to it without some form of music or an instrument or grammophone or
Presenter asks
1:09What sort of test did you apply in selecting the eight records?
I don't know. I I found that it was very difficult because there are so many possibilities. But on the other hand, I thought the great thing was to find something that would take me back to the most enjoyable and the most illuminating and exciting experiences of my life in London. Yeah.
Presenter asks
3:24Was there a lot of music in your family?
There was some. My father was an amateur musician. He played the piano by ear in two keys, G flat and A flat. And he also played um the guitar, jazz style ... in order to make a little extra money, he ran a small dance [band] in the vicinity of um Hampton on Thames.
Presenter asks
The keepsakes
The book
Traditional
It is the poetry of that book. And also it's the natural philosophy which intrigues me. My God, on a desert island it'd be pretty natural, wouldn't it?
The luxury
I've always wanted to write some poetry, and I have never yet been in the sort of frame of mind to be able to get down to it and do it.
What was your first professional engagement?
I think on Saint Cecilia's Day, which is November twenty second, nineteen forty six ... on that day I kicked off ... I played at a very distinguished Russian Prince and Princesses party in Knightsbridge ... I was given what I now consider a little tiny fee. But at that time I never forget when I received this cheque, I thought I owned the world.
Presenter asks
9:51How old an instrument is the guitar?
Well the guitar goes back ... possibly up to the ninth century ... it was first brought over here officially in the seventeenth century ... The guitar is one of these curious instruments that has suffered at the whims of fashion.
Presenter asks
12:29What's for the future? Where are you off to next?
Well, I've got quite an exciting season next season. First I have quite a time in Russia. Three weeks in Russia. My first visit to Russia, which I think will be very exciting. And then it seems now that I fly from Moscow to New York and spend about two months in America. and then I come back for about a fortnight and then I go to Holland and Germany and Switzerland and Poland.
Presenter asks
0:33How well could you endure solitude, all alone on this wretched island?
Well, I probably could um endure it rather more than a lot of people, because well, in my profession I am nearly always playing on my own, and travelling on my own ... And for the last nearly twenty years I've lived right out in the country, away from what would seem ordinary civilization, and and I rather enjoy that.
Presenter asks
1:26Did you have any plan in choosing this meagre allowance of just eight discs?
Well, I found it very, very hard to do ... For example, a composer like Mozart, who I probably adore more than any other, I could have chosen at least twenty, twenty five pieces ... But I have chosen one piece which actually had a tremendous impact on me because it was almost the very first piece of Mozart I ever heard.
Presenter asks
3:22Did [your father] put you to the guitar, or did you take his guitar and start to play it?
Well, I think actually I took his guitar, because you see, he worked in the daytime, and sometimes when I wasn't at school, the guitar was always laying around ... And um I used to play with this guitar, while he was away, of course ... And one day my father came home early from work and caught me playing his guitar, and I thought he was going to be absolutely furious ... Instead, he smiled and he said, Well, you know, if you are keen about it, uh I'll start you off.
Presenter asks
6:56Do you remember your very first professional engagement, where you were paid any kind of fee at all, for performing in public?
Well, my first job in which I got ... two guineas was for playing at a private function in London ... At the home of Prince and Princess Galitzin ... I remember this very well because there was a lot of food. And you know, uh in the war we had such little rations that it was absolutely incredible to see all these uh chickens and plates of beef and so forth. So, in fact, uh I ate a great deal after playing and was promptly very ill.
Presenter asks
26:29Why did you do [the book with Tony Palmer] that way instead of you writing it?
Well, you know, I see things through my own eyes, and I've been giving concerts for so many years now. There are certain things I just accept as normal. But, you know, another pair of eyes can see sometimes the fatuousness of certain things. And also, I think a book of this nature has got to have pace. And it needs somebody of Palmer's ability to be able to get the framework of the book together so that everything hangs together well and has a sort of racy pace to it.
“To me it is perhaps the greatest piece of music that has ever been written.”
“hearing Kirsten Flagstad sing Dido's Lament when I am laid in earth has been perhaps one of the most moving experiences I've had in music.”
“After two minutes of this, or less than that, I was absolutely convinced that the guitar was going to be my life.”
“one thing I must never do, that is bring the guitar within the shadows of the Royal College of Music.”
“This man has been a tremendous inspiration to me.”
“I've always wanted to compose a little bit ... And I've never had the sort of repose, and I find that being on this desert island would ensure me of at least that.”
“I couldn't visualize a life that was without the guitar really.”
“The great thing is not to break a nail. And I so I do a lot of things that I would normally do with my right hand. I'd do with my left hand. I've I've trained myself to do it that way.”
“I think that on a desert island I would have the silence and the repose.”