Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Businessman and chairman of GlaxoWellcome, voted the country's most impressive industrialist.
On the island
Eight records
Hallelujah Chorus (from Messiah)
And this is very much associated with Huddersfield, my hometown, and Sir Malcolm Sargent conducted twenty nine times the Huddersfield Choral Society singing Handel's Messiah.
Piano Concerto No. 11 in F major, K. 413: II. Larghetto
Mitsuko Uchida and the English Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Jeffrey Tate
And piano concertos, particularly Mozart piano concertos, I find extremely relaxing. I love to listen to them, particularly when I'm reading and studying, because they just calm me down and and put me in that sort of mood.
Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 61: II. Larghetto
Record number three takes me back to that period because I'm moving to London. There was a record li Lending library in in Westminster, and the first record that I took from that library was David Ostrach playing Beethoven's Violin Concerto.
Via resti servita, madama brillante (from The Marriage of Figaro)
Patricia Johnson, Edith Mathis and the Berlin Opera Orchestra, conducted by Karl Böhm
Record number four reminds me again of this time in the United States when we would go to the Metropolitan Opera House in New York because it's not too difficult to get there from Princeton. But the first time that we went there, we went to listen to The Marriage of Figaro.
Di Provenza il mar, il suol (from La Traviata)
Matteo Manuguerra and the National Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Richard Bonynge
My next record reminds me of that time when I came back to the UK and had to now start investing in a big way in research and development, not just in the UK but outside the UK. And we had a at that time and still have a big operation in Italy in Verona, a beautiful Roman city, with one of the finest arenas outside Rome. And every year in July and August is the Arena Opera Festival. And of course it's basically a Verdi festival. And so this was one of the great delights of going to Verona.
The n the next record that I've chosen is uh from Donizetti's Don Pasquale. And uh we just returned from the United States and we were getting back into the opera in in in the UK and we went to the ENO to hear uh Don Pasquale. And it was the first time I'd actually heard uh this performance and it was absolutely delightful.
Cello Concerto in B minor, Op. 104: II. Adagio ma non troppoFavourite
Jacqueline du Pré and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Daniel Barenboim
And here I link two things in this record. One, absolute genius. She brought that instrument to life. She almost made it lift off the ground. I mean, the the lady was a genius. And yet, in the end, she was destroyed by disease, an incurable disease that has not been conquered. And it just brings the two things home to me, the the genius that is so wonderful, and yet a disease that can take it away.
Symphony No. 4 in A major, Op. 90 'Italian': I. Allegro vivace
London Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by James Lockhart
My r last record is uh something that I certainly would like with me on a desert island, uh and that is Mendelsohn's uh symphony number four, The Italian, uh which just gets you out of bed in the morning.
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:30Does that mean, Sir Richard, that science is no longer as exciting as it was now that it's become big business and done corporately?
Oh, I think science is still extremely exciting. In fact, you could argue that it's it's it's even more exciting than it ever used to be simply because it's moving at a much rapid pace. The results come much faster than they ever came in the past. But it tends to be uh a number of small eurekas that eventually end up to be a big eureka rather than just one big eureka.
Presenter asks
2:35Do you miss the lab? Do you miss that sense of excitement?
Oh, of course, and and it it's not a it's not something that happens immediately. It's a very slow process because you hang on to the the the the scientific excitement, you hang on to doing work in the laboratory, but eventually the the the the boardroom that takes you away from the laboratory and and eventually it becomes an impossible task to keep up with the science. And the the the problem is when you get back into the laboratory and you see people working, you hear the scientists and you get the excitement, you say, This is where I'd really like to be.
Presenter asks
3:59What's the final judgment then for you, having done both? Is big business more exciting than science or vice versa?
The keepsakes
The book
Charles Darwin
It's just such a fascinating piece of literature, and it is just full of absolutely wonderful information
The luxury
because obviously on a desert island the skies are going to be perfect, and I'm fascinated by astronomy
They're both extremely exciting but in very, very different ways. ... For me now it it has to be big business because the science is behind me.
Presenter asks
10:04How did it happen [that you found your niche in life]?
After the failure to become a naturalist, I got a job at the local hospital in the pathology lab and within days I knew this was exciting, this was exactly what I wanted to do.
Presenter asks
14:40Why [did you move to the United States in 1977]?
I think there are there were a number of reasons. The mid-seventies in this country, in my opinion, were not a wonderful time. ... The economy was bad. Taxes were high. ... two children, we struggled. If we wanted to go on vacation we had to sell antiques to to to make money. And and I was offered a job in the United States, uh to go to the United States and earn an enormous salary of what appeared to be an enormous salary at that time in a beautiful place in Princeton, New Jersey.
Presenter asks
20:18What qualities do you think you had and have that made it possible [to lead the business]?
They think you need to be tough when when you're in this sort of environment, and I certainly have that from my background. You need to be able to make decisions and you need to stand by those decisions. And sometimes you need to be ruthless. You need to be kind. You need to be ruthless.
“People work in teams, they work across disciplines. In fact, they work across the globe on many projects, and that's the way that big science operates.”
“I always wanted to be a naturalist. I I think I was just interested in in everything that was natural and and school just didn't inspire me, whether it was the teaching, I I think probably that was the the big issue. But I just could never get into it, I could never get excited by it.”
“There's absolutely no question that that with modern technology and with all this information coming, that it will soon be possible for each person to have an individual genetic map.”