Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
A composer known for operas such as Punch and Judy and The Mask of Orpheus, and for writing the score for Amadeus.
On the island
Eight records
Symphony No. 8 in B minor, D. 759 'Unfinished'
I have a very tender spot for it. ... there are things in this piece that really for me don't exist in any other piece of classical music.
Clarinet Quintet in A major, K. 581
Alan Hacker and the Salomon String Quartet
I've chosen this as much for the player as for the piece, and because it's played by Alan Hacker, and Alan is a very dear friend of mine. ... when I heard him play, I realized I would never be a clarinet player.
Gruppen
I think that Stockhausen is a major figure. And I think this piece is extraordinary, and it was written when he was a very young man, and it's a piece I would like to have written.
The Sixteen, conducted by Harry Christophers
This is an antiphon by Robert Fairfax ... It really is the sort of music that I really want to listen to.
when I went in the band it was the first time I really was introduced to jazz because I was there's a lot of jazz musicians there. And I think this girl is just absolutely splendid.
Symphonies of Wind Instruments
French National Orchestra conducted by Pierre Boulez
This is what I consider to be one of the masterpieces of the twentieth century, and it's Stravinsky's Symphonies for Wind Instruments. ... it just really is pure Stravinsky and there is nothing really like it in the repertoire.
SherryFavourite
Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons
This completely ridiculous record by Frankie Valley.
Metropolitan Opera Orchestra conducted by James Levine
I find it extraordinary. I think the size of the idea ... is absolutely extraordinary.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:32What's the plot of The Second Mrs. Kong?
It's really about the idea of Kong himself, and about how Kong never really existed as a person, but the idea of him, because in the film he only existed as a an eight inch puppet. And yet we all have this sort of feeling about the personality of him. So it's about his identity.
Presenter asks
2:08How much do you worry about its reception?
Well, I can't consider it, as I can't consider anything um to do with who who listens to it. Um I I spend all my time thinking about how I do it, and so therefore I can't really consider you. I have to consider myself. … I aim for the stars. I mean, maybe I don't get very far, but that's what I aim for.
Presenter asks
6:30How did you know you wanted to play the clarinet?
I didn't. My mother wanted me to do it, to keep me off the street, she said. I never knew what that meant because I never got onto the streets too much. Maybe it was more interesting on the streets.
Presenter asks
The keepsakes
The book
I was never taught Latin and um there's a lot of things I would like to read in in Latin. I love Homer. I've only ever read this in English.
The luxury
It's deeply practical a chainsaw. I mean you're going to cut down trees and things. I can do a lot of impractical things with it.
How small were you when you first had these noises in your head, and can you describe them?
Probably not. It's probably an impossible question. … I can only um tell you in retrospect that looking back I still have this music um and that i I think that it was it's just different to what I played, that's all. … But it was it was unrecognizable. … This is difficult to talk about, actually.
Presenter asks
15:18When did you decide to become a composer?
Well, I like to think it was a very romantic moment. I went to London with Alexander [Goehr], where his father was doing the [Turangalîla] Symphony for the first time in England. … and as the lift came to stage level I heard part of the [Turangalîla] symphony, and I like to think that at that moment I'd never heard anything quite like it in that sound world. I thought, well, this is you know, I'm going to do it.
Presenter asks
24:50How do you compose? What's the process?
It's a pretty arcane procedure, is writing music, and for people who don't write it I think it must be very, very difficult to understand how you arrive at it, because you are dealing with um hieroglyphics. … if you're writing for a large orchestra, that if you might have 50 seconds of an idea. I mean, it takes you fifty seconds or ten seconds to think of it to realize it can take many, many days to to put it down. … so the creative juices are always in abeyance, and that's what I find frustrating.
“I aim for the stars. I mean, maybe I don't get very far, but that's what I aim for.”
“I was the tortoise.”
“I think the audience for music is the most conservative audience of all the arts.”
“It's like the wallpaper of our lives.”
“I'd probably take the Frankie Valley.”
“The chain saw.”