Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
He is a novelist.
On the island
Eight records
Sinfonia Concertante in E-flat major, K. 364Favourite
Isaac Stern, Pinchas Zukerman, and the English Chamber Orchestra conducted by Daniel Barenboim
I'd like to start with the Mozart Sinfonia Concertante. I won't give you the number. Yes. But it's Stern and and Zuckerman and Barenboim, and I like this.
This has to do with loving, which I had to learn, of course, after I came out of the monastery. I learnt fairly fast, I think.
This has a little bit of a history, if I can. Tell you about it. I went to see Camelot in New York on the night that Moss Hart, the late Moss Hart, was going in after two heart attacks. carve out fifteen minutes out of an already running show that had cost a couple of million dollars.
it's not very familiar. It's called Santa Lucia Luntana, distant Santa Lucia, and it's the song of the immigrants who left Naples in their hundreds of thousands to go to America.
Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor, Op. 26: II. Adagio
Yehudi Menuhin with the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir Adrian Boult
this is a contemplative moment for me. It's the second movement.
this one is from a lady that I like very much and admire very much, though I've never met her, but if she's listening to me now, I'd like her to know it.
this one ends. with the words Al Alba Vincero. When the dawn comes, I shall conquer. It's an operatic version. of we shall overcome
the lady who sings it in that strange, sexy voice of hers is an old favourite of mine, Lynnis John's.
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:31Is music a major interest of yours?
Yes, it is. I'm uneducated in music in the sense that uh I've had no formal training. Uh I wanted to play the violin when I was uh a student of the Christian Brothers and the teacher was a horror. Uh he terrified us all. And so I didn't learn the violin.
Presenter asks
0:51Do you use music as background when you're working?
Every day I go into this study and I begin the day with either Mozart or Haydn. simply because they're nice orderly people, and as a creative person, I hope, I'm often confused. I've got a head full of characters that I can't make any sense out of. And so this ninth, eighteenth century order where everything went by the rules, even music, is a help.
Presenter asks
3:16Tell me about the [Christian Brothers] order and what it stood for.
The order was founded in Dublin by a man called Edmund Ignatius Rice, who was a layman. It was to educate poor children. It was founded on A narrow theology. rigid discipline and great dedication. They were very good teachers, except they used the strap and they used methods of of persuasion. Both with pupils and with their postulants, which I presently find very repugnant.
The keepsakes
The luxury
Presenter asks
4:09How did you come into contact with [the Christian Brothers]?
Well, I was living in a place called St Kilda, which was a large Irish Catholic community. They were the resident educators. and I was sent to the Christian Brothers. They followed a method of recruiting for their own orders. They sent around a brother postulator to preach to the young students the value of religious life, the vocation of a Christian teacher. And having a rather unhappy home life at that stage and being rather in my uncertain teens. I followed what I thought was the call and entered the order.
Presenter asks
7:10There must have been a great contrast [between the monastery and] the Australian Army. They call it now culture shock.
Yes, there was a great culture shock. The language was different. The conduct of life, love, sex and the absence of evening and morning prayers was a little bit of a shock, I must confess.
Presenter asks
25:53Do you ever worry that you might be passing on dangerous ideas?
I discussed this at great length before I wrote it. I discussed it with the security authorities and also with public health people. Who said this scenario is known to all terrorist groups. In answer to your question, I try not. To pass on. dangerous ideas. I try to comment on the fact that these possibilities exist and are known.
“I can't write to vocal music. I have to write to orchestral music because There is a person behind the voice. That that's evocative music for me.”
“The one thing I knew I could do was write. I wrote poetry, I wrote textbooks for the teaching of languages, I wrote articles for in-house magazines, anything and everything.”
“I try to comment on the fact that these possibilities exist and are known. But as for saying, Oh, look, here's a new way to knock off Charlie, uh no.”
“One of the problems we're hearing about about uh and disturbances in this place and that, and people beating each other up. is because nobody says I care.”