Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
A conductor, recognized as one of the great Wagner conductors.
On the island
Eight records
In conversation
Presenter asks
2:50Were you put to music, or did you take to music?
I think … I had piano lessons when I was four or five.
Presenter asks
7:30What sort of man was [Albert Coates]?
Oh, tremendously enthusiastic man, very inspiring. I found him.
Presenter asks
10:38Did you have an inkling of how special [Peter Grimes] was while you were rehearsing it?
We thought it was a very fine work. It was a … very inspired work.
Presenter asks
12:01Why weren't you let loose on the German repertory, which was where your heart lay [at Covent Garden]?
I don't really know because I told them before I went there I … was a very bad Verdi conductor.
The keepsakes
The luxury
Presenter asks
15:37How do you feel about Wagner in English?
I think for people who don't understand Germany it helps them very much to understand what the ring is really about. It isn't just either music … of poetry or text, it's the combination of the two … And if one element is missing, you're only getting half the meaning of the word.
Presenter asks
22:44What sort of castaway do you think you would be? Could you look after yourself in those circumstances?
I think you had better stay where you are, don't try and escape, and muddle along as best you can.
“I tried to start with the first implication of uh tonal music, key music, that uh was the um is monadic, the plain song.”
“We thought it was a very fine work. It was a … very inspired work.”
“I felt with the audience understanding the text that it wasn't so much a performance as three of us together, the singers, the orchestra, and the public, all coming into the work.”
“It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.”