Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Director General of the British Council, known for leading the organisation promoting cultural and educational relations.
On the island
Eight records
Piano Trio No. 1 in B-flat major, D. 898
Well, the first one takes me back really to my childhood. Because I was brought up in a very musical family. My father played the piano and the violin, and my mother played the cello and the piano, and so we had quite a lot of chamber music in the house.
Philharmonia Orchestra and Chorus, conducted by Carlo Maria Giulini
My second record relates to a much later period, of course, when during the war I went to a large number of promenade concerts. I was working in war factories. And immediately after the war I remember hearing Barbirolli conducting the Verde Requiem, and it absolutely polaxed me.
Siegfried's Funeral March (from Götterdämmerung)
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Sir Georg Solti
My third record is linked in my mind with much of the time I spent as a student at the LSC. It was close to Coffin Garden, and I used to go and sit in the Gods quite often, and that was the first time I heard Wagner and heard the ring.
Philharmonia Orchestra and Chorus, conducted by Otto Klemperer
The next thing relates very closely and very personally to my marriage. Through my Quaker school and through Quaker friends, I met my wife, who comes from a long-standing Quaker family. And one of the operas which I've always adored is Fidelio... he who has won a lovely wife may join in our rejoicing. And I had this played by our organist at Oppington Parish Church when we got married.
Nuit d'ivresse et d'extase infinie (from Les Troyens)
Régine Crespin and Guy Chauvet
I would like to choose now something really rather different, and that is the um love duet from The Trojans between Diodo and Aeneas. It is, I think, one of the most beautiful um duets ever written.
London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, conducted by Benjamin Britten
I would like to choose the Britain War Requiem because it is really very much concerned with human relationships following the terrible experiences in the First World War. And this is very much a theme which really underlies race relations, the individual relationships between people, and the abomination of stereotyping people according to their colour or race.
The Marriage of FigaroFavourite
Thomas Allen and Kiri Te Kanawa, conducted by Sir Georg Solti
It's impossible, I think, to think of music without the marriage of Figaro. In the first year when I worked with Coffin Garden, Kiri Takanova, who um had up to that time not been known, suddenly sprang into prominence when she sang the Countess in the new production of Figaro.
Che farò senza Euridice? (from Orfeo ed Euridice)
My last record is Orfeil by Gluk. Now I've chosen this because it reflects three tremendous experiences I had just over a year ago. when Janet Baker, whom I adore, when Janet Baker had her last year as an opera singer, and I attended her last performances at Covent Garden... at the Coliseum... and finally at Glindbourne
In conversation
Presenter asks
2:41How much did you expect the Nazi invasion [of Austria]?
It was, I think, becoming pretty clear towards nineteen thirty-seven and, of course, early nineteen thirty-eight. But everybody hoped that it wouldn't take place. When I say everybody hoped, certainly those in my particular circle, because I came from a Jewish background... And one knew, of course, the degree and extent of anti-Semitism in Germany, and one feared a German invasion enormously.
Presenter asks
3:30Do you remember that morning [of the Anschluss] very vividly?
Yes, I do, because Hitler actually drove along the central boulevard in Vienna called the Ringstrasse... Hitler was greeted, of course, by jubilant crowds. This was one of the um features of the Anschluss, that he was welcomed with open arms by the great majority of Viennese... and I can still see this before me now.
Presenter asks
4:24How did your escape [to Britain] happen?
I think there was a very common pattern. Uh those families who wished to emigrate first of all had to arrange for some uh guarantee in whichever country it was, in my case of course, Britain... my father's article clerk, who had taken over my father's practice, was able to come to Britain and um the Quakers, who were very active in Vienna at the time, managed to arrange his escape and also our emigration.
The keepsakes
The book
I can't choose the history of the British Council, which is just being published, because I don't think this will last me a sufficiently long time, so it will have to be the Encyclopedia Britannica.
The luxury
a very powerful transistor with a very large supply of batteries
I shall take with me, if you will permit this, a very powerful transistor with a very large supply of batteries, which will enable me to escape from your non benign rule, and to listen to as much music as I would like.
Presenter asks
9:56What attracted you about the civil service?
Well, there are three things, really. The first was that it was an extremely respected occupation. The second one was that I didn't know what to do, and it seemed something which I might be interested in. And I wanted basically to work for an organisation which wasn't directed primarily at the profit motive... And the third reason was that it offered security.
Presenter asks
13:46Did you find Lord Rothschild easy to get on with?
No. He was the second person with whom I didn't find it easy to get on with. But again, I was working for a boss who I think achieved very remarkable things... He had quite remarkable lack of sensitivity about other people, which enabled him to push his way through, though I must add that he was remarkably sensitive about himself. But this made for a very difficult relationship.
“I thought by being outside my own office and by having a regular sort of surgery once a week, I might be able to get myself known among the staff to get their views about certain problems which subsequently I could look into and very often what people in the engine room tell you is very much more relevant than what comes up through the hierarchical chain.”
“The task of the external services and of the British Council is to present Britain abroad. We both do it. We both think we do it well. Other people think we do it well. But we can't go on doing it well if we're constantly cut.”
“I'm not good with my hands. At my school there were two compulsory subjects. It was basically a Quaker school for those who were non-intellectual, and therefore the two compulsory subjects were woodwork and art. I can do neither.”