Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
An oboeist, widely regarded as the most famous oboist in the world.
On the island
Eight records
Conductor: Victor de Sabata. Reason: 'It's the most lovely moment and it sets the scene for the most perfect act.'
Reason: 'He is certainly one of the greatest artists, I think, alive today.'
I Call on Thee, O Lord (Ich ruf zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ)
Reason: 'It takes me back to my first introduction to my wife. She is a dancer and this was one of her most successful pieces of music.'
Rondo from Oboe Quartet in F major, K. 370
Reason: 'So when you hear this little rondo it's quite an accompaniment to the musical chairs.'
Reason: 'A lovely little tune with amusing words and lovely music from At the Drop of a Hat.'
Fire Music (Feuerzauber) from Die Walküre
Otto Edelmann with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra
Conductor: Georg Solti. Reason: 'It's the most wonderful piece of music.'
The Crowning (from the Coronation Service, 1953)
Various (including Handel's Zadok the Priest)
Reason: 'It really was the most wonderful, wonderful experience.'
The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba from Solomon
Conductor: Sir Thomas Beecham. Reason: 'Sir Thomas used to use it as an encore after the concert. He used to call it one of his lollipops.'
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:54How difficult did you find it to narrow your choice for the desert island down to eight records?
Well, I think it's the most difficult thing I've ever tackled. You see, after about fifty years of musical experience. One has amassed so much music and so much experience that it becomes almost impossible to choose one item from possibly seventy items.
Presenter asks
2:34You said you were practically born in a property basket. Your father was conductor with the Carl Rosa Opera Company, wasn't he?
Yes, for many, many years. And his father before him. With the same company.
Presenter asks
3:30How early did you begin to take a personal interest in music?
It was rather forced on me in the first place, I think, as most young children, about the age of seven when I learnt the piano, or thought I was learning the piano. Then, of course. I was attracted to the oboe... partly by design on my father's part, because every time the oboe played in the opera I was told that was the oboe until I got so accustomed to listening to it, you see, that when they said, Would you like to learn the oboe, I just threw myself at it straight away.
The keepsakes
The book
HM Nautical Almanac Office (published by)
You see, I'm a very, very keen sailor, you see, love sailing. I think a nautical almanac would be the perfect for me, because that is a feast of information for any person who sails. It tells you everything, making knots, tides, all about the tides at London Bridge. You see, I can say, well, it's six o'clock about in the evening. Tide at London Bridge will be high in about forty minutes' time. Very comforting thing to know on a desert island.
The luxury
I think the most perfect thing would be a camp bed. You see, I cannot lie on a beach without getting a a stone in the wrong position, right in my spine or something. So please let me have a nice camp bed and I don't ask for anything else.
Presenter asks
5:37What was your very first professional engagement, do you remember?
It's a long time ago now, but I do remember actually as if it were last week. I played for a week at New Brighton in the Winter Gardens. I was the only oboe in the orchestra, naturally. It was a very small orchestra. And we played seven concerts. And I think I received one guinea as a payment.
Presenter asks
9:36Have you any major musical ambition as yet unfulfilled?
Yes, I have a little collection of music, mostly concerti, by various composers. One, for instance, is from Spain, another is from Hungary, one from Czechoslovakia, one from Romania. And I would love the opportunity of playing those one day.
“I think it's the most difficult thing I've ever tackled. You see, after about fifty years of musical experience. One has amassed so much music and so much experience that it becomes almost impossible to choose one item from possibly seventy items.”
“I was attracted to the oboe... partly by design on my father's part, because every time the oboe played in the opera I was told that was the oboe until I got so accustomed to listening to it, you see, that when they said, Would you like to learn the oboe, I just threw myself at it straight away.”
“I got a bullet on the fifth of November and I was in hospital on the tenth and the armistice was the next day. So I timed it very well I think.”
“The amazing fascination I got every time I walked into that opera house because you got a a a smell of the stage, you got a smell of varnish, you got a smell of dust. And you got a smell of lemons and cabbages and oranges and bananas, do you know? All in one.”