Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Pianist made Wigmore Hall debut at 10, orchestral debut aged 15 with Sir John Barbarolly, resumed after widowhood, still tours.
On the island
Eight records
Violin Sonata No. 5 in F major, Op. 24 ('Spring'): I. Allegro
Yehudi Menuhin and Louis Kentner
Well, the scene immediately goes back to my childhood, where my mother and father all the time played violin and piano, and particularly the spring sonata by Beethoven, which I adored and adored.
The Sleeping BeautyFavourite
London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by André Previn
When I want to give myself a treat, I take myself off to the ballet, and so I have chosen for my second record The Sleeping Beauty by Tchaikovsky.
Music, and particularly film music, brings back memories. So I've chosen for my record the marvellous film Casablanca with Humphry Bogart and Ingrid Bergman set in The Last War.
Tosca: Act II (Scarpia's death scene)
When I first played at the Albert Hall, on the same programme was the great baritone Tito Gobby making his first appearance in England. So I have chosen for my next record Gobby and Callas singing in Tosca, and I think their performances of Tosca, especially the second act, are legendary.
Fantasia in F minor for Piano Four-Hands, D. 940
Dolly and I we played four hands, one piano, and it was a most beautiful combination because we loved each other very much. And I think that as a duo forehand playing is really like chamber music. You have to have great balance and great rapport.
Piano Quintet in F minor: I. Molto moderato quasi lento
Clifford Curzon and the Vienna Philharmonic Quartet
A work that I would go anywhere in the world to play, I love it so, is the Cezanne Franc Piano Quintet.
Philadelphia Orchestra, conducted by Eugene Ormandy
When my daughters, Crystal and Gloria, were very young, I took them to a concert at the festival hall, and there was an absolutely miraculous performance of La Mer by Debussy. After the concert, it was a lovely night in May, and we walked over the bridge to Charing Cross Underground, so happy and so full of joy, that that performance of Le Maire has shimmered over the years and is my next record.
The Blue Danube (concert arrangement by Schulz-Evler)
Well, I couldn't go on a Desert Island without a recording of my great Maestro Kentner. And so I've chosen a concert arrangement of Strauss's Blue Danube.
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:22What was your first concert dress like?
It was a marvellously made dress, and the actual way it was made, I still have dresses made today for concerts. It had an underdress of silver lamy, and then it had a very large skirt that when you sit down, you flick over the piano stool. It was very marvellous, but I never really cared for the bodice, but I was too intimidated to tell the French fitter that maybe it wasn't right.
Presenter asks
6:20Did you ever look at other girls and wish you could be ordinary like them and not at the piano?
Oh, yes. I remember one particular occasion. I'd been to Gertrude Ajulet for a lesson. ... And I was waiting at the 31 bus stop to go home, and I can remember seeing girls laughing and passing, swinging tennis rackets. And then I felt wistful and thought of how easy not to have the, I suppose, responsibility. How easy life would be if you could just go and play tennis. But of course, that feeling was very temporary.
Presenter asks
7:25How did your first big public performance, aged ten, at the Wigmore Hall come about?
Well, there used to be all over the country some Murdoch piano showrooms. They sold pianos and music. And they had a competition every year. and the prize was the Whigmore Hall.
The keepsakes
The book
Alan Walker
A desert island would be the perfect place to immerse oneself in it.
Presenter asks
14:59Can you explain how it felt the first time you went to [Louis Kentner] and decided you would become teacher and pupil?
Oh, it was quite extraordinary. Going to Kentner and that first time was like golden doors opening, or a dirty window being wiped clean that you could see through. And when I played to him, he said that I played with all the experience of the experienced concert artist, but without the thousand and one things that go to make up a pianist. And I have ever since then tried finding those thousand and one things.
Presenter asks
29:38Did you ever consider remarrying, or did you put the piano back first in your life?
Well, I never made rules about not marrying. But ... I think it was too complicated, really. You know, music and children. And maybe I didn't want to replace my husband.
“My definition of love is when the piano becomes second.”
“Going to Kentner and that first time was like golden doors opening, or a dirty window being wiped clean that you could see through.”
“I felt in a way I was living with twenty-five per cent of myself.”
“Being a pianist is very solitary, because you work for hours on your own. But you're not really solitary, because you have you have music.”