Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
2 appearances
Flamenco guitarist, called its saviour for restoring flamenco's deep emotional roots.
On the island
Eight records
I would like to choose some music associated with that atmosphere, and I've chosen the Agnus Dei from Beethoven's Missa Solemnis.
She introduced me to the French songs which I now love… particularly Charles Aznavour, and particularly this song which we used to listen to at that time.
Prelude, Fugue and Allegro in E-flat major, BWV 998Favourite
I would like to take with me, in fact, a masterly, a wonderful performance of some of the Bach lute music played by John Williams.
Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 77 (first movement)
Itzhak Perlman, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Carlo Maria Giulini
I love the fiddle as well, and I love Itzhak Perlman, so I'll have the Brahms concerto.
Waltz No. 7 in C-sharp minor, Op. 64 No. 2
I came to Chopin and other composers… and particularly played by Dinu Lipatti.
Killing Me Softly with His Song
I suppose if I was in an island all of my own, without female companionship I think I take with me perhaps the second best thing. I take a beautiful voice, Cleo Laine, singing a beautiful sexy song, killing me softly with his song.
My last record is associated with the period of the year which I really love, perhaps most in the year. And that is the Christmas time.
Potro de Rabia y MielFavourite
Camarón de la Isla with Paco de Lucía
Indeed, it's it's uh a very important flamenco record for me. It's it's by Camarón de la Isla. Uh he only died very young at forty one or forty-two, I think it was, a few years ago. But he revolutionized uh flamenco, which has been a very serious tradition for many years, but he kept the purity and yet put it forward a great deal.
Missa O Magnum Mysterium: Kyrie
Choir of Westminster Cathedral, directed by David Hill
When I was at school It was a a Catholic school with priests and and we used to assist mass and church almost every day, every other day actually. And I remember the the musical atmosphere there. particularly in in spring when you could see the patio outside and the smells and the music there was very inspiring.
Piano Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp minor, Op. 27, No. 2 ('Moonlight'): I. Adagio sostenuto
when I was a teenager I started to get f seriously interested in music and uh I enrolled a magazine which um provided uh a record, a small record, every week or every month, whatever it was. The the funny thing is that it came when it came to Beethoven, it said and you're going to experience the anguish and the loneliness of of Beethoven's heart. And the Moonlight Sonata was playing at that point when they spoke, and it really hit me.
La Vida Breve: ¡Allí está! ¡Riyendo!
Monero de Falla is a wonderful composer who is a classical composer, of course, but actually was inspired very strongly by the flamenco elements that that are unique and and very emotional. Uh so he in a way he enlarged the spectrum, the the panoramic view of flamenco with his orchestrations.
Lute Suite No. 4 in E major, BWV 1006a: III. Gavotte en Rondeau
I have a great friend um who's happens to be the best guitarist around, John Williams. Um uh he's we've been friends for many, many years and he plays Bach beautifully. He plays all kinds, everything b beautifully. Um he produced this wonderful production of Bach Lute Suites, which is a masterpiece I think, uh, which is something I couldn't do without.
Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18
Rafael Orozco with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Edo de Waart
it is by compatriot of mine, Rafaelo Roscoe, who sadly died a few years ago. But he he died young. He was a brilliant pianist from Cordoba and he really was good at playing Ramaninov.
Mercedes Sosa, accompanied by Ariel Ramírez
This is a wonderful singer called Mercedes Sosa from Argentina singing a song by a great composer Ariel Ramirez. They're both people whom I know. And this particular samba that Mercedes Sosa sings is really beautiful. It refers to a a poet, Lady Alfonsina, who sadly I mean it's a sad story. She committed suicide by walking into the sea.
Requiem in D minor, K. 626: Kyrie
Vienna State Opera Chorus and the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Karl Böhm
It's Mozart. I I'm going to choose his Requiem because it's such a monumental piece. Uh it's a little bit tragic as well, but I I suppose um I'm not unhappy about that. I I think Even music which is dark and and has got um that kind of feeling is happy as well, you know, because the making of music is the realization of those ideas uh to me is is is a happy event.
In conversation
Presenter asks
2:06How efficient do you think you would be as a castaway?
Now and then I like the challenge to to have to make something which is not there. Um Like a shelter, for instance. Exactly. Could you make that? I'm sure I could, yes. I I don't know how, but I certainly I would I would do something like that. … Well, all I can say is that I would stick it out for a while. I just don't know what would be better. I think for a for a time I would try to stay.
Presenter asks
5:29What was the hardship when you were a child?
Yes, I'm afraid so. You know, my my my father didn't really help the family very much. He was uh perhaps too independent. He wanted to try all sorts of things all the time without succeeding, I'm afraid. As a result, my mother had to look after us for quite a long time and things went too easy with nine children. So … You know, we were poor.
Presenter asks
6:46Were you doing another job by day when you left school, or could you keep yourself by playing the guitar?
No, no, I was working the first office I went to was uh a lawyer's office and and after that a store's office, you know, doing administrative work, which I hated. … Yes, I had to earn some money. What I really enjoyed came after my my job, you know, which was the guitar.
The keepsakes
The book
Las mil mejores poesías de la lengua castellana
Various
I think I'm going to take an anthology of poetry which I have the thousand best poems of the Spanish language. So I'll have plenty to read there.
The luxury
What do you think about the possibility of taking one of these virtual reality modules or something? I've heard about these things that you jump in and you experience all kinds of things.
Presenter asks
15:23Must be a little complicated explaining flamenco to the Japanese?
Yes, I I must say I I I never tried actually. All I tried when I was playing there was to say a few words of, you know, a salute just to say hello, I'm here. … Because somebody tries to explain it in the programme, I suppose. … Yes, of course, yes. Mind you, they they're terribly interested and and well up in in flamenco music in Japan. They're very, very interested. It has got on so well.
Presenter asks
16:45There is a connection with jazz in the rhythmic side and improvisation side?
I think so. I think there is even more than that. I I think the the cultural conditions are very parallel, I find, you know, why music evolved, you know, in the United States at that time and why flamenco evolved in Andalusia. I think this uh lament uh thing, this cry is present in both.
Presenter asks
20:07How many guitars do you own, Paco?
Ooh, about ten. All Spanish guitars, of course.
Presenter asks
5:54How did your mother fend for you [when your father didn't support the family]?
She had a a a vegetable stall in the market and poor thing she she used to get up at four or five in the morning every day to, you know, to bring the the food.
Presenter asks
6:55At what point did you think, 'I really care about [the guitar]'?
I was more in into myself and uh my brother had a guitar, he was older than me and and he played with friends and that. There was a guitar in the house, so I tinkled the guitar and and uh I immediately felt that it it it it was a kind of help for me to express, to to say things. I remember one specific uh occasion when I was only a kid and and I saw another boy, an older boy than me, walking along my street, passing my door in Cordoba, and he was playing a particular falcette, a particular um melody of of soleares in Flabenco, which I still remember and is the most beautiful thing I had heard in my life then. And that actually turned me and and I I decided at that point I must learn that.
Presenter asks
11:42How do you explain the fact that you touch these sort of cold Northern Europeans [in London]?
Well, I don't think they're cold actually. Um I think they're actually quite sensitive. And also it would be people who who were used to going to concerts and experiencing um music of all kinds. Uh perhaps not so much the case in my surroundings in Spain.
Presenter asks
19:47What does it really mean [to be called the saviour of Flamenco]?
Well, yes, I mean, I love flamenco. I'm very deeply committed to my music, to my culture, my tradition. The point is that a long time ago actually, I saw companies that were sort of being popular and and trying their best to to bring flamenco out, but actually making it more superficial, m making it easier and sort of finding gimmicks and things. And and after I had a little bit of recognition as a soloist, then I decided that I was going to establish a company, or at least I decided to try and establish a company that would have the proper ingredients of my music and and and take it seriously.
Presenter asks
24:11What have you learned from [John Williams]?
Well, you know, I I never had any proper music schooling, you know, uh um nobody taught me really. I I you know, I j just struggled along like most flamenco guitarists. Uh but then when you begin to see the the the world that is in front of you, you know, just on the guitar, then of course you you start taking a proper interest. And knowing John, who who is really such a master on the instrument, taught me, you know, ha a lot about rounding up ideas, uh about tone production. There's a lot of discipline in the classical tradition which is lacking in in the in the flamenco tradition, and I think ... The more you learn about that, obviously the the the wiser you become about what you do yourself.
Presenter asks
30:53Can you conjure up for yourself a kind of smell and a sense of [Cordoba] even as you sit here?
Yes. I live by by a street called Calle de la Feria, which which has got, you know, these sour oranges. They they plant a lot of these in in the streets and they have azar, you know, the the the flower from the oranges. It's it's really inundates the the streets. And in summer there is um jasmine and dama de noche, which is um the the name of night. It's it's a flower that only opens at night and it gives it beautiful smell. Those things are you know, I'm I I suppose I'm a romantic, but um they're very present in in my memory and I love it.
“It's got to be flamenco. It's my first love.”
“I found myself even, you know, with wet eyes with emotion. And of course I was so small I didn't even realize what it was, and later I realized it was the music.”
“Flamenco, the essence of flamenco, is the singing, you know, it's a sort of cry of emotion.”
“I think the cultural conditions are very parallel, I find, you know, why music evolved in the United States at that time and why flamenco evolved in Andalusia. I think this lament thing, this cry is present in both.”
“I shall never forget when I went into the Academia in Florence with his beautiful statues on both sides and that stunning statue of David at the end, and of course his Sistine Chapel and so on.”
“I almost feel that it it comes from the center of the earth. It's a people singing their history, their memory. Uh and there's been a lot of struggle in Andalusia, in southern Spain, um throughout many centuries of mismanagement, wars, discrimination against races, against uh you know, uh all kinds of things happening and that reflects uh in in the expression of the people that have been at the receiving end.”
“the quality of flamenco is not necessarily the voice, it's it's really h what you what you do with it and how you can touch people with it. It's it's almost like exposing your your your inner self uh through through the voice, but but the the voice itself is only the vehicle, it's not it's really not that important.”
“when you dwend it really is is the the ultimate communication between the artist who is producing something very beautiful and an audience, somebody who receives that and perceives the beauty and the strength of that. So that is when something magical happens.”
“I'm quite self-sufficient in a way, you know. I d I don't um I don't crave for for many things, you know, I I'm quite uh happy working and uh and doing things on my own. Of course I like company, I like people, but I'm not forward going to others, so I I wouldn't need um a lot if I went to an island.”