Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
He is a knighted concert pianist.
On the island
Eight records
Albert W. Ketèlbey and his Concert Orchestra
And so I the first music I really heard were these immortal melodies of Catalby, and I think it would be very nice to. Perhaps to have in a monastery garden, let's say I think that was his most famous piece, as part of my group.
Piano Concerto No. 21 in C major, K. 467: II. Andante
I think the concerto in C, K467, is one of the most perfect works of art, one of the most beautiful pieces ever written. And so I think I would like that. And I would especially like the slow movement, which is one of the most enchanting, I mean I use that word deliberately, one of the most enchanting pieces of music ever written, I think.
It would remind me in those terrible circumstances of being on this little bit of sand out there. It would have reminded me that I had in my life time reached a stage where I had been able to twiddle my fingers pretty brightly.
A song by Brahms, a Feld Einsamkeit. Loneliness in the Fields, or however one would translate it, sung by Elena Gerhardt, whose voice is is always, always in my mind as one of those special interior models that one has um for sound.
Fantasiestücke, Op. 12: Des Abends
And he was a wonderful player of Schumann. I can still remember how he played certain phrases fifty years later, I can remember that. And as I must have Schumann, after all he was the most how can one describe him, the most comforting and consoling of composers, I would like to have a recording of Paderewski playing Schumann.
I don't think I know anything more stirring than her performance of the great Passecale of Couperin. And I think I would like to have that. It would also it would also remind me of the long, long hours of laborious but absolutely invaluable study that I had with her in her house in on the outskirts of Paris.
Piano Sonata No. 20 in A major, D. 959: III. Scherzo
I would certainly take the A major sonata with me, because it was that sonata, you may remember, which I heard in the Grotrin Steinwich Hall, which sent me to Berlin for two years.
Tristan und Isolde: Mild und leise wie er lächelt (Liebestod)
Kirsten Flagstad with Wilhelm Furtwängler conducting
I suppose it'll sound terribly sentimental, but it's something that I would like to be reminded of right with the last breath to the very end, and that is of all-conquering love, love stronger than death, as I think Wagner understood it.
In conversation
Presenter asks
7:16At what age did you take to the piano, and was it your idea, or were you put to it?
Well, I think I was put to it. My father was a business man, and so I was put to it because my uncle had made so much money. And he thought, I think, that little Clifford would also make a lot of money.
Presenter asks
7:34As a child you had all these hours of practice. How did you feel about that when the other boys were out playing?
Well, I resented it, I think. Yes, I remember sort of my brother and sister being on holiday at Brighton, and I was at the back of the barber shop where there was a piano doing my practice. And that didn't appeal to me at all.
Presenter asks
8:27Do you remember your first professional appearance?
My mother used to talk about it because she said I played the violin, and then I came on and played the piano, and then I came on and recited something. And that was quite a lot for a small channel. And I remember, and I always, when I read about Charlie Chaplin, I always remember, I know he was born in Kennington. And I remember that my first appearance for a pound was in a very, very cold church in Kennington. Yes. And I did all three things, yes.
The keepsakes
The book
George Eliot
It's full of wisdom on human affairs, full of understanding of human frailty.
The luxury
a pill to put me firmly to sleep forever
I would want a pill to put me firmly to sleep, for ever when I'd had enough.
Presenter asks
11:10You were only sixteen when you made your first appearance at a prom. Was that a big milestone for you?
Oh yes, of course. I was one of the three pianos in the you know, three piano concerto by Bach. Yes. Well it was a milestone because I met Sir Henry Wood through this engagement and because I was a student at the Academy and we were chosen to to play this and after all I owe everything to Sir Henry Wood. He was a great figure. He took me around with him and was so helpful and he gave me engagements whenever he could and he told me about the great pianists of the past and he was so kind
Presenter asks
15:10Do you still practice every day?
Yes, I I I still put my hands on the piano every day, I think, unless I'm in a train or something. I've always had at the back of my mind something that Leschatitsky said, the greatest piano teacher of the turn of the century. He said you should if you haven't been able to practise, you should go to the piano at night. And put your hands on the keyboard and say good night to it. Sometimes I just say good night to my piano, yes, but in general I'm I'm I'm I'm a a pretty hearty practiser, yes.
Presenter asks
16:21Do you always have absolute rapport with the conductor when you are doing concerto works?
No, not necessarily. It's wonderful when you do have. On the other hand, it's sometimes rather s stimulating. To have a little scrap when there's quite a bit of scrapping going on in the back. And I think you must believe that you're both ultimately going to behave like gentlemen. Yes, you're not going to throw the score at one another on the platform or anything like that. But sometimes it's quite stimulating, and I've yet to play with any conductor from whom I didn't learn something. Yes. However young or in his dotage or whatever. There's all there's always something to be learned.
“I think of it, if I think of it at all, as a very small patch of sand with probably a single palm tree and a skull or something or a discarded bikini and surrounded by an an endless tropical ocean.”
“There have been lots of new beginnings. I think that's what the artist's life is about, you know.”
“knowing how to work brings you freedom.”
“I would want a pill to put me firmly to sleep, for ever when I'd had enough. and that I would, with this pill, be absolutely certain of not waking, and I probably would put the Lebes toad on the gramophone and take the pill, and that's the end of my Desert Island.”