Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Disc jockey and arbiter of pop and classical taste, known for encyclopedic music knowledge and a long career on Radio One and Classic FM.
On the island
Eight records
Rhapsody in BlueFavourite
Gary Grafman, New York Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Zubin Mehta
This is the finale of Rhapsody in Blue by Gershwin, as it appeared in the film soundtrack of Woody Allen's Manhattan, New York. is such a collection of wonders. It's where everything that's going to happen in the world, good and bad, happens first. And yet, in the midst of this seeming disorder and chaos, there is so much beauty and so much wonder.
I always love this record because, of course, being recorded live, it actually happened in two and a half minutes of time and space. And it always sounds to me as if the pianist may not catch up to them. And I love it particularly at the end, as it sounds like he's really struggling to keep up with them.
This is the track I turn to the most from my favorite album. I think the Beatles' best album was Revolver. And this is such an affirmation of happiness and life.
Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 16
Arthur Rubinstein, Boston Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Alfred Wallenstein
Here is the piece that more than any inspired me to become a classical pianist as a boy... I very romantically, or perhaps dramatically, thought if I was warned a minute in advance that I was going to die, this is the music that I would like to have played. I'd like to go out on this. Somehow for me, this combined romance and tragedy.
I first heard this. I was at the breakfast table in that magic year, nineteen fifty seven. And uh we were listening to WINS New York... And when it was finished he said, That is so beautiful. I'm going to do something which isn't allowed. I'm going to play it again.
Hallelujah Chorus (from Messiah)
Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Philadelphia Orchestra, conducted by Eugene Ormandy
He managed to get out of us performances that were beyond our abilities. At our Christmas concerts every year, the combined forces of the Staples student body, the choir, the orchestra, the glee clubs would conclude the Christmas concert by coming together to perform the hallelujah chorus by Handel.
This is by the only people I ever asked for an autograph... These guys, who interestingly enough were called twin pianists, that doesn't mean that they were twins, it means that they played the piano at the same time, Ferranti and Teischer. And Tonight is my favorite song.
I had to have a Motown song because. It was the sound of Young America as I was growing up. There is something about the sincerity and the humanity of Motown. which transcended all barriers.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:15You might have been a lawyer, mightn't you?
I came very close to going to law school. I had done well at Dartmouth College in the Ivy League and had been accepted to Yale and Harvard Law Schools. And the pressure was on.
Presenter asks
3:08Was [your encyclopedic knowledge of pop music] something that happened completely naturally, or did you think, I am going to make this what I do in life?
It happened completely naturally... It wasn't until I was on Radio One and I was irritated that Tony Blackburn didn't know something and I s and I suddenly thought about it and I thought, Well, actually, there's a lot I know that he doesn't know. But then who else here knows all this? And I suddenly thought, Oh my gosh, I'm the freak And that's when I realized that I was the different one.
Presenter asks
5:28You've often said, Paul, that you know you were born and brought up in the right place at the right time. Why do you feel that so strongly?
Well, I missed the Depression. I missed World War Two. I was born in New York City, which is really the most important city in the United States, at the time when the United States was the center of the world in terms of having not been devastated by World War two. We had the economic advantage in the nineteen fifties.
The keepsakes
The book
Carl Barks
The Karl Barks Library, which is bound volumes of the Donald Duck family stories... are guaranteed to bring joy when you're baking on a desert island.
The luxury
piano (with piano bench and sheet music)
I would like to take my piano. All my life I've had a piano in the home... I would need my piano bench. And my piano bench happens to include my favorite sheet music.
Presenter asks
13:35The darkest two years of my life, you've called [your time at Oxford]. Why was that?
I missed friends and family. And I missed my Dartmouth situation with the radio station because they wouldn't let me broadcast on Radio Oxford. They wouldn't let me audition for Radio Oxford. It was like being unemployed at the age of twenty.
Presenter asks
23:49How bruising was [the Radio Three] experience? How hurt did you get?
I have to say it was the most unpleasant experience I've had in my career. I don't even have to try not to think about it, because it's like a bad meal in a restaurant. You just don't go back.
Presenter asks
25:50You wrote a book a few years ago called Love Letters... it was disconcertingly frank and actually full of pathos, I felt.
I did really want to leave an accurate record of what it was like to be a gay person in those times. Because you can't get that accurate record by going to any of the British papers... there was just so much negativity and falseness going around that I just thought I've got to write something that's true.
“I just thought my product is the knowledge and the authority presented in an entertaining way. If you are an expert like Patrick Moore in astronomy, you can have a long career regardless of fashion.”
“I did really want to leave an accurate record of what it was like to be a gay person in those times.”
“I would take Rhapsody in Blue because it reminds me of home. And home is the place you'd want to think of when you were on a desert island.”