Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Britain's most successful contemporary composer, known for spiritual music and being the only living composer in Classic FM's Hall of Fame.
On the island
Eight records
The Prize Song from Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
Plácido Domingo with the Orchestra of the Deutsche Oper Berlin, conducted by Eugen Jochum
My first one is um an opera by Wagner, the Master Sings of Nuremberg, which as is always the case with these these things, you can we can listen to it on different levels, but it's actually quite a funny opera. It's about a prize song. This is uh Domingo singing the the actual prize song.
Concerto for Violin, Oboe, and Strings in C minor, BWV 1060R
Well, my father's influence was huge and Bach was always being played around the house, the first composer I really heard. And as I said, I went on to play the oboe. So the oboe's been kind of a featured instrument in my life. My daughter-in-law, Rosie, is now an oboist, professional oboist. So this is a concerto, which I in fact played with my father conducting at one point. And Rosie's played it as well. I've heard her play it recently. It's a double concerto of Bach for Berlin and Oboe.
For the greatest of all jazz bands in my book, Jazz Groups, was the Miles Davis Quintet Sextet of the Sixties, which had great pianist Bill Evans, great saxophone players John Coltrane and Cannibal Adeli. This is an album called Kind of Blue, which is one of the seminal jazz albums. Hugely influential. And I spoke to Bill Evans about this. I met him in Runescots one night when he was playing there and he was tell me when they made it, they didn't think it was anything that special. They thought it was good, but not innovative. But um this is blue and green from from that album.
I've always been a great fan of kind of Steely Dan, which is the other side of not wanted label music again, but it's more in the kind of rock direction and particularly American style. And Donald Haygun's half of Steely Dan and fantastic songwriter and creator. And this is a track, The Goodbye Look, from his album Night Fly.
Adagietto from Symphony No. 5 in C-sharp minor
London Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Klaus Tennstedt
I'd have to take a Mahler Symphony because I think he's an absolute genius. So I've chosen the Adagetto from Mahler's V. During the 1980s there were a whole series of fantastic concerts in London by Klaus Tenstedt and the London Philharmonic Orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall. An amazing Mahler conductor. And I was actually present at this recording. I used to go to them religiously. So this is one I was at.
Such a large chunk of my life was involved in kind of jazz rock and jazz fusion. But I think one of the best composers in that genre was Georges Avenel and his band called Weather Report. And this is Berdlund. He drew on different cultures, again which I have some kind of empathy with. So this is Berdland from Weather Report.
Benedictus from The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace
London Philharmonic Orchestra, composed and conducted by Karl Jenkins
The seventh is I used to re listen to this programme as a boy when Roy Pomley was to do it, and I remember Elizabeth Schwarzkopf being on and she had eight of her own albums on it, and I always thought it the height of arrogance for anyone in this programme to have their own music, and now I'm going to do exactly that. It's the Benedictus from the Arman, a Mass for Peace, that was a millennium commission by the Royal Armories. If I were on this island it would remind me of in recording studios in London with orchestras and choirs and my son worked on it and have conducted it a lot, so it would mean something to me.
Trio from Act III of Der RosenkavalierFavourite
Um this is the trio from Strauss, Richard Strauss, uh Rosen Cavalier, the trio from the last act. I think it's possibly the most sublime piece of music ever written. Um That's a very good reason. Good reason. Yes, it is really. And the opera is a favorite of of my wife and my son and uh the family, so that's why I've had it.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:29Do you think of your audience when you compose?
No,'cause I think it'd be fatal to second guess what people want or what people like. I write for myself and it I'm fortunate in to a certain degree that my music is accessible.
Presenter asks
3:09What do you say to [critics who say your music is too commercial or bland]?
Well, why should one listen to, you know, the opinions of people who are kind of by nature what they do, less talented than I am, otherwise they'd be doing something. People who have fewer musical qualifications than I have and are more narrow-minded than I am. So I don't think their opinion is worth that much, really.
Presenter asks
13:42What do you think the job of a composer is?
Communication to a certain extent. To my mind, it's pointless being an artist if one doesn't have an audience. … If you don't engage with people through what you do, um it's a pointless task.
Presenter asks
The keepsakes
The book
It would make me think of the dinners I could be eating or might be able to eat when I get off the island.
The luxury
It was a toss-up between a comb from a moustache or a piano. ... The piano. And if I could live underneath it, but maybe I'm not allowed to.
How did you deal with [your father's death]?
Well, I went back to Wales and you know, sort of the funeral arrangements, those kind of things, what one had to. So I just dealt with it as one would, I suppose, just plow on. I mean, it was easy when I got back to London and started working again. You know, I wouldn't say I f forgot it. I mean, I still dream about it sometimes, but it was easier to manage when I was removed from the kind of Welsh culture around it.
Presenter asks
31:04What do you think your own father would make of [your musical success]?
I've already been thrilled, uh especially where I've ended up, which is more to where his his heart was musically.
“I write for myself and it I'm fortunate in to a certain degree that my music is accessible.”
“Why should one listen to, you know, the opinions of people who are kind of by nature what they do, less talented than I am, otherwise they'd be doing something.”
“To my mind, it's pointless being an artist if one doesn't have an audience.”
“I'm doing what I want to do. I'm en enjoying doing it. People like it. I make once again this emotional connection with people. People are moved by what I do. And I like to think what I do has some integrity. So that's fine. That's fine with me.”