Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Principal conductor and musical director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.
On the island
Eight records
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
first you recorded with the City of Birmingham Orchestra
something strong, a little even savage, but also great fervor of the liberation
Le Boudin (March of the Foreign Legion)
The légionnaire walk very slowly … because of the desert
Requiem (Introitus: Requiem aeternam – Kyrie eleison)
first recording you ever made
Symphonie Fantastique, Op. 14 (Marche au supplice)
first really successful record of an orchestra
Peter Pears, English Chamber Orchestra / Benjamin Britten
the first time I conduct Les Illuminations with Peter Pears in Birmingham – that was really something I will never forget
Requiem, Op. 5 (Rex Tremendae)
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Chorus
a big event for the CBSO to record this Requiem
In conversation
Presenter asks
2:50What part of France do you come from? Was there a musical tradition in your family?
More or less, yes. But a strong desire of my father to make his both boys to learn music.
Presenter asks
3:25You volunteered at once when the war started?
No, I was too young to go … in thirty nine I was eighteen and I was caught … when I see first the English troop leaving the country and after that seeing the German troop coming for my age, it was terrible.
Presenter asks
5:26After the war, you went into the army?
Not so precise. All that little resistance camp gradually went to the normal army … I've been a guerrilla and after that I've been to fight against a guerrilla.
Presenter asks
8:58When eventually you were out of uniform, you were able to take up your studies after a long interval? Did you go back to Valenciennes?
The keepsakes
The luxury
No, I go back to Paris because my goal … was to go to the Conservatoire de Paris … I have to leave and … for the life I have to do something. And it was better instead to play in the instrument.
Presenter asks
10:25There was a tragedy involving the principal of the Conservatoire, Claude Delvancourt – how did that affect your concert?
Claude Delvancourt … has been very, very good for all the students during the war … And he he was killed in an accident. And finally this concert … I was conducting … in memoriam of him … in the front of all the celebrity musical in Paris, which gave me immediately the help to be well known.
Presenter asks
19:05What about opera – you haven't had a chance to do any, have you?
I missed a little that, but last year the Welsh National Opera offered me as guest to conduct The Pearlfishers … I was impressed by the English translation … 'your heart was never tuned to mine' – I think it's absolutely divine.
“It was strange because I've been a guerrilla and after that I've been to fight against a guerrilla.”
“I was fanatic at the time.”
“Everybody was laughing in the Foreign Legion saying, What are you doing here? Go to Monte Carlo. Are you conductor or captain in this Foreign Legion?”
“I've been burned forever.”
“This former old officer is to study the situation and to plan. I think I will react like that.”