Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Author of the standard reference book on English barometers and chairman of the Stock Exchange who led dramatic reforms.
On the island
Eight records
Cum Sancto Spiritu (from Mass in B minor, BWV 232)
Gächinger Kantorei and Bach-Collegium Stuttgart, conducted by Helmuth Rilling
I'd like a piece of real choral music. And I'd like to play the Consancto Spiritu from Bach's B minor Mess.
Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings, Op. 31Favourite
Peter Pears and Dennis Brain, conducted by Benjamin Britten
I would like to play part of Benjamin Britton's serenade for tenor, horn, and strings, which he wrote in nineteen forty three. And I'd like to do this partly because I came across it very early in life, and it was very striking partly because it's sung by Peter Peirce. and the horn is played by Dennis Braine, and of course above all because it shows tremendous musical ingenuity in the setting of some quite lovely English lyrical poems.
Concerto for Double String Orchestra
I would like to have another piece by an English composer because I'm very proud of the English Achievement in Music in the Twentieth Century. And I would like a bit of Michael Tippett's concerto for Double String Orchestra. Because it shows tremendous melody and rhythmic ingenuity.
La Regata Veneziana (from Gerald Moore's Farewell Concert)
Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and Victoria de los Ángeles, accompanied by Gerald Moore
One of the events that I most regret missing in my life was the farewell concert at the Festival Hall for the great accompanist Gerald Moore on the twentieth of february, nineteen sixty seven. ... Let's have a piece of Rossini. Let's have Elizabeth Schwasko from Victoria at Los Angeles singing one of Rossini's duets, a light-hearted piece, one of his duets from La Regata Veneziana, where they're cheering on the rival gondoliers.
Quatuor pour la fin du temps (Quartet for the End of Time)
I don't understand this piece of music. ... I'm interested in it because uh I was introduced to it most surprisingly by my father, who I said earlier was only interested in Beethoven and Mozart. ... I'm hoping that in my long evenings in this island I'll begin to understand this extraordinary music.
Kirsten Flagstad and Ludwig Suthaus, conducted by Wilhelm Furtwängler
I think it's time I turned to opera. And I'd like to play parts of Wagner's Tristan and Isolde. I I do this because unusually I came to opera through Tristan and Isolde. It all happened by mistake. I I really hated opera. until I went to Cambridge, and I was sitting in my room one afternoon, And I heard this extraordinary music coming from down the passage.
Sull'aria... che soave zeffiretto (from Le nozze di Figaro)
Jessye Norman and Mirella Freni, with the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir Colin Davis
I really can't sit on my island without Mozart's Marriage of Figaro. I'm sure many others have chosen it, but it really is the classic opera. So I would like the duet in which the Countess Rosina is dictating the letter to Susannah to inveigle the Count into the garden.
Elisabeth Söderström, conducted by Sir Charles Mackerras
Well, my last choice is a gain opera. I believe that uh Janacek is really not appreciated enough in this country, despite the noble efforts of Charles Makaris, who almost single-handed has brought Janacek to this country and played all his operas and done such a wonderful job in popularizing him. I would like a bit of Katya Kabanova. Because it's a drama of immense strength and great musical economy, and very lyrical.
In conversation
Presenter asks
4:28Was there a sense that you were always going to take over your father's business?
My father advised me quite strongly not to. ... I did work in the family firm that was then only about fourteen people in all, incidentally, in a terrible grotty old office in the city ... And then when I finished university, he said very diffidently, Would I like to come to the office on a trial basis? And so I did. I nearly left after two years to go teaching.
Presenter asks
5:25Did you always have a flair for handling money?
I think the young today have a great deal more pocket money than we had in our day. But yes, we were taught to be careful. ... Do you know, I don't think that stockbroking is really all that much about money. ... It's much more about people. It's about looking after people and making sure that their financial affairs are fitted to their particular needs and their particular family circumstances.
Presenter asks
8:30What was the Stock Exchange like when you first came here?
Twenty-five years ago or so, the Stock Exchange was a fairly closed institution. The members were looking after a largely domestic market. ... And the international business, which was very big in London before the war, had largely died away because of exchange controls ... And so it was a fairly domestic institution.
The keepsakes
The book
James Murray
I want to take it because I'm fascinated by the English language, and if you ever open it, you'll find yourself never closing it again. You wander on from word to word. I also think I might be able to reconstruct quite a lot of English literature. because so much of it is quoted in it.
The luxury
I want something that will tell me about the marvel that is known as man and his craftsmanship. And equally, something that is very beautiful and which will remind me of the sort of studies of art which I've been privileged to enjoy during my life.
Presenter asks
15:15How did your interest in English barometers start?
We married in nineteen sixty and we bought a fairly cheap barometer in Stamford and I wanted to find out something about it and by the time I had found out something about it that took about six months of delving into the British Museum and so on. It was obvious that I knew rather more about barometers than any published book ... and so it turned into a book.
Presenter asks
20:07Is being unable to paint or draw a constant frustration for you?
Yes, I would. I've my wife would tell you that one of my constant frustrations is not being able to paint or draw or do such practical things, and I always put them aside, as everybody does, as things to be done later. So I'm very much looking forward to getting some practice on this island.
Presenter asks
27:01What is it about opera that particularly fascinates you?
I do feel very strongly about it. I I believe it's the more or less the perfect performing art form. It com combines drama and music, and of course music can tell you so much about a drama. And I find that a fascinating combination.
“I don't think that stockbroking is really all that much about money. ... It's much more about people. It's about looking after people and making sure that their financial affairs are fitted to their particular needs and their particular family circumstances.”
“The London capital market will emerge, in my view, as one of the major, if not the major, capital market for industry throughout the world and governments throughout the world, and that is the aim.”
“I've my wife would tell you that one of my constant frustrations is not being able to paint or draw or do such practical things, and I always put them aside, as everybody does, as things to be done later.”
“I do feel very strongly about it. I I believe it's the more or less the perfect performing art form. It com combines drama and music, and of course music can tell you so much about a drama.”