Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
English-born baritone who has spent much of his life associated with Wagnerian music.
On the island
Eight records
Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Otto Klemperer
Having spent so much of my life being associated with um Wagnerian music, I think it's particularly apt to take this with me on a desert island.
Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125 'Choral'
London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Carlo Maria Giulini
when I performed it in Lisbon with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, When the the whole audience after we returned and was the tremendous applause they started to sing the the choral section of the uh the symphony. That was splendid. And uh we had to give an encore.
I've always been a very very great admirer of uh of Frank Sinatra and feel that you know in his era he was a very very great artist.
Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg: Hans Sachs' MonologueFavourite
Norman Bailey with the Vienna Philharmonic conducted by Sir Georg Solti
The one concession that I'm I'm making to my own singing is um the recording which I just made with uh Sergei Ok Sholty.
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:29How would you meet the challenge of loneliness? With dread or excitement?
I think to a certain extent with dread. I'm not a person who likes to be completely cut off on my own. I'm not a a great person for going into crowds, which seems strange because I appear in front of of several thousand people each time I sing.
Presenter asks
5:57What caused the change of heart and the swing over to music?
Well, basically, when I took the singing lessons and my teacher suggested that I should take it up professionally. I think this reawakened the um the taste for the theatre that I'd had before. Again I I had uh certain doubts about exclusivity of religion. And um this combination really took me to music.
Presenter asks
10:35What do you look back on as the first big opportunity?
I've really had a systematic build up of of my career. So each particular event was uh Just one step up the ladder, but I suppose in 1967 when I sang at La Scala Milan for the first time, that was my real international break. It was a modern opera. by Um Dallopicolin, which was the story of Job.
The keepsakes
The book
Baha'u'llah and Abdul-Baha
I'd like to take uh a book which is a compilation of uh the writings of Baha'u'llah and Abdul Baha
The luxury
Well, I love mathematics. They always say that music and mathematics, the parts of the brain, are closely linked. Indeed. And uh, you know, I'm quite likely to sit there and and calculate how many grains of sand there are on the beach.
Presenter asks
14:53About what? Eighty percent of your work nowadays is Wagner. Did you find this constricting?
Well, I must say that it's at times it's uh it's a little tiring because um you get home so late after the performances. Because the operas are so long, the rehearsals are so long as well. But uh recently I over the the last four or five years I've returned again to to singing quite a number of the um The Verdi uh baritone roles.
Presenter asks
18:46You gave up your religious studies at university. Do you still have a religious faith that would help you in such an ordeal as trying to escape?
I've been a Baha'i. For approximately twenty years. Yes. … That's right, yes. Uh my pianist, my companist was a a Baha'i. The concept of progressive revelation, that each of the the great messengers of the past, the religious messengers, um brings a message for mankind at a certain time. And because society changes, then the challenge made amen. is uh is different, and the answers are given in according to his needs. Uh there are certain spiritual laws, of course, um such as the relationship of man to his his fellow man, which are eternal. But the the social laws, they change according to the the circumstances.
Presenter asks
21:49If you could take only one disc of your eight, which would you hang on to?
I think possibly the Die Meistersinger von Neuenberg. Not to hear myself singing. But so much of my um my life has been associated with this particular opera.
“I think to a certain extent with dread. I'm not a person who likes to be completely cut off on my own. I'm not a a great person for going into crowds, which seems strange because I appear in front of of several thousand people each time I sing.”
“I think I was the first British singer ever to to sing the role. In fact, I think I was almost the first non-German singer to to do the role. I found that uh I was the the second youngest Hansach ever.”
“I've been a Baha'i. For approximately twenty years. … The concept of progressive revelation, that each of the the great messengers of the past, the religious messengers, um brings a message for mankind at a certain time.”
“I would like to take a a pocket calculator with me. … Well, I love mathematics. They always say that music and mathematics, the parts of the brain, are closely linked. Indeed. And uh, you know, I'm quite likely to sit there and and calculate how many grains of sand there are on the beach.”