Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Cellist who played with Monte Carlo Orchestra and gave the first French performance of the Elgar cello concerto.
On the island
Eight records
Oh! SusannaFavourite
No specific reason given; presumably a family connection through his grandfather Henry Russell, who composed similar popular songs.
The keepsakes
No book or luxury recorded for this episode.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:25Did you have any ambition yourself to be a singer? What were your own musical ambitions?
I think I just wanted to be a cellist. … I was five at the time and my brother played the violin and I thought I'd go one better and play the cello, which was bigger.
Presenter asks
5:07How long was it before you got off that treadmill [playing in cinemas for silent films]?
Well, I didn't do it for very long. At the end of two months, I managed to get out of that sort of thing. … Within a year, I was really a proper soloist.
Presenter asks
6:20Your career was going very well, but you suddenly decided to give up the cello about this time. Why was that?
I used to be a promising young cellist. I stopped being young and I obviously wasn't keeping my promise. … Also, you know, there's awfully little good music written for the cello, certainly in the concerto line.
Presenter asks
What happened to you after the war?
I decided I wanted to become a social worker. So I came back to England and trained as a medical social worker. In those days, we were called almoners.
“My grandfather, Henry Russell, was a composer. He composed eight hundred songs.”
“I used to go [to the opera] two or three times a week when I was eight year old.”
“In those days one played in cinemas. … It was really too awful for words. … You did that for six days running. It was really awful.”
“I looked up advertisements and found that somebody wanted an Italian speaking person for director of a charity. … It was to introduce humane slaughter into the Italian slaughterhouses. … It did put me off eating what I call dead bodies forever.”
“I decided I'd go back to the cello. And so I've become a professional cellist again and I now do chamber music for children.”