Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
British composer and Master of the Queen's Music
On the island
Eight records
One would miss one thing in life, that is laughter.
This record makes fun in a way of a geological subject. And my wife is a very keen geologist.
Fair is My Love (from Serenade for Baritone and Orchestra)Favourite
This is work that I wrote for her. In the thirties, it's a serenade to her.
A Late Afternoon Raga (excerpt)
The one I've chosen is one that you can play best perhaps between three and six late afternoon as I sit under my palm tree.
I'm going to take for my self-protection. I don't want to be disturbed on this island by any Man Fridays, or even by wild animals of all kinds.
Scherzo from Meditations on a Theme by John Blow
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Hugo Rignold (conductor)
This is a record of my own music that I particularly like. It's a miniature scherzo that comes out of a set of variations, or meditations as I call them, on a theme by John Blow.
In the Steppes of Central Asia
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Constantine Silvestri (conductor)
I've chosen as a record some music that gives the feeling of immense space.
The Reaper's Song from A Pastoral
Brook Normale Choir of London, London Chamber Orchestra, Wynne Morris (conductor)
I want to go as a contrast from the vast and mournful plains of Central Asia to sunny Sicily, where my wife and I and two friends spent wonderful holiday a good many years ago.
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:47How well could you endure loneliness?
I could endure it for a certain length of time, but for not very long, I don't think. Of course it's wonderful to be, as it were, alone in a crowd an artist always feels that. But I think to be absolutely alone without any communication after a certain period I shouldn't like it at all.
Presenter asks
5:16At what age did you decide that music was to be your career?
Oh, very early indeed. I can't think of anything that deflected me from the earliest years.
Presenter asks
6:23Did you find recognition slow in coming when you were writing experimental avant-garde music?
I don't think so. It's exactly the same as what happens after a big world catastrophe. One hopes to change the world radically in the arts and in living generally. And I think we forced a certain amount of recognition, just as the young people are today.
Presenter asks
The keepsakes
The book
Johann David Wyss
the father and mother and four sons shipwrecked, and the father knows absolutely everything about all the growing things, animals, and so on. … I shall learn a lot from them.
What do you think of avant-garde music today? What do you make of all the plinks and plonks and bangs and crashes?
I mean, they're experimenting as they should do, and something will come out of it, but I'm certainly not going to give my opinion to the world as to the value of it at this moment.
Presenter asks
13:08Looking back, was being director of music at the BBC a rewarding pastime?
Unbearable. I don't say that because I'm sitting in the August BBC, but simply because to any creative artist administrative duties are quite intolerable. It was only made possible by the help and affection of my colleagues. They did all the work.
Presenter asks
17:21How resourceful a castaway would you be?
Well, I that's got to be proven. As a matter of fact, I'm pretty bad with my hands. If a question of putting a fuse in or hammering a nail in the wall, I generally call my wife to do it. And of course, if one doesn't do these things oneself, one loses the instinct to do it. Very possibly, if I was by myself, I'd be more resourceful, but I don't know.
“One would miss one thing in life, that is laughter.”
“I came to the conclusion that to be a pianist today you must be a very exceptional person indeed.”
“Unbearable. I don't say that because I'm sitting in the August BBC, but simply because to any creative artist administrative duties are quite intolerable.”
“The Swiss Family Robinson... the father knows absolutely everything about all the growing things, animals, and so on. And by the time they've been there six months, they're living just as luxuriously as though they were in the London Hilton. I shall learn a lot from them.”