Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
He is an Italian violinist.
On the island
Eight records
NBC Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Arturo Toscanini
I think the beginning of the Diazira. And uh you know this was the first time I heard the Verdi Requiem in my life was w with this this record. I didn't know the the piece at all and when I put it on my record player uh it was a big shock really. It's a great rating experience and I was on the chair just like uh I I was afraid. I had the goskin gossip every word. Yes, and uh I was really afraid. I was on the chair. Shaking.
Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 77
David Oistrakh, with the Dresden State Orchestra
this will be the my really uh beloved violinist uh and he was the one who really made a big impression to me, not only as a violinist but also as a person, because we had uh um many days to spend together, many weeks, uh, when he was in Italy, when uh he was in Europe, and he helped me a lot musically.
String Quartet No. 14 in D minor, D. 810, 'Death and the Maiden'
when I heard this piece the first time, my first reaction was why I cannot play this music. And this was the reason that my German music festival came up, because uh it was a little an egoistic uh thing that I I have to play this beautiful music, how? So let's do a music festival and uh so I could be able to play this beautiful music.
Variations on a Theme of Paganini, Op. 35
first of all, because I am a great admirer of Michelangelo playing, I think he's really one of the most incredible pianists of all time. And I heard this piece played by Michelangelo himself in Naples when I was eleven. And uh this was another great shock of my life.
I choose uh Zigoiner Visin because it's really incredible what he does on the violin.
String Quintet in C major, D. 956
Isaac Stern, Alexander Schneider, Milton Katims, Pablo Casals and Paul Tortelier
let's listen to the Schubert String Quidditch played by Stern, Casals, Tortellier and others from the Prades Festival.
Orfeo ed Euridice: Che farò senza EuridiceFavourite
I think all of us, all musicians, not only singers or violinists, all musicians should listen and learn a lot of his singing because of his incredible purity of style and phrasing.
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:44Do you think you could endure pure loneliness?
Well, i I think so. If I could have something which helped
Presenter asks
1:00Did you find it very hard to choose just eight [discs]?
At the beginning, yes. Then not at all. Because uh what I choose was all records that well they were really my first records. That I bought when I was very young. ... They were the records I used to play a lot, you know, when I I had only five, six, seven records and so I was playing always the records all all day long so because now now it's very difficult to play records and to listen to records. I only re listen once or twice to a record because I have no time to do I have to practice and to to travel and to to play. And uh so it was very easy to to make the choice of the records.
Presenter asks
3:31Were your parents interested in music?
Well, my father was very much. He was himself a violin uh amateur, directante. ... he he told me that uh he he wanted a a son, well was a violinist, and he he started with my sister when she was five, six years old, but nothing happened because she was she was not at all interested in violin or music in general. ... And then when I when I came, he started with me. But the he it was not difficult uh for him because I asked him to buy me a real violin. I was very tired to to joke with the with, you know, the toys and musical toys, little guitar and so on and so. I was not even four.
The keepsakes
The book
Homer
I would like to have the Odyssey. ... Odyssey by Omero, which is the most incredible book with the Divina Commedia. ... But since I I like very much also adventures, so I would choose the Homero's Odyssey because the story of Olis is in ... In Italian, of course.
Presenter asks
5:17So you began to read music at the same time that you were learning to read print?
Mm, maybe before. Maybe before, because then, uh just after this experience, my father uh he he started to learn me how to to read music. So I really started to read music before I was able to read uh anything else.
Presenter asks
6:47What was your very first appearance in public?
Well, I had several appearances in public uh when I was very young, but you know, like benefit concert for schools and things at the conservatorio and concert of students and ec etcetera. But my first professional appearance wa was when I was uh thirteen. ... In uh Trieste in north of Italy. It was my first profession. I was paid f to pay to to play.
Presenter asks
14:49Do you find that the different instruments suit different composers?
Yes. For instance, uh the Guarnerio sound maybe for Brahms would be more convenient because he has a more dark sound and maybe for Beiton the Stradivarius can shoot better because of his uh quality as a crystal, you know, and pure and clear.
“I really started to read music before I was able to read uh anything else.”
“I was crying when I was playing the violin. I you can imagine, you know, to have uh under your neck the violin who who was playing by Paganini. But I must say that to have the label of a Paganini play was not always something very positive in my career. I had to do a lot to give up th this label, to take out this label from uh myself”
“The violin sounds as, you know, uh as a person with the person who is playing it and the and the wood vibrate with with the person. It's it's incredible.”