Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
A gardener who created an internationally famous exotic garden on the island of Ischia, as the wife of composer Sir William Walton.
On the island
Eight records
Troilus and Cressida: Love Duet (Act II)Favourite
Judith Howarth, Arthur Davies, English Northern Philharmonia, conducted by Richard Hickox
the wonderful opera that for the first five years of my life William dedicated every instant of his being awake. He always said it was worse than having a baby, because it was took longer than nine months, and it was much more painful.
a wonderful homage to the tango writer of Argentina. That was Piazzola, wonderful man, and of course it brings to mind my Argentine beginnings and the tango.
A Faust Symphony: I. Faust (Excerpt)
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Sir Thomas Beecham
William... had this music room that was soundproof... sometimes when the Spirit moved him, he would open the double door and say, Now you can listen. And he would put on a record and he's old-fashioned record player and this was one of his favorites.
Trio for Strings No. 2: II. Langsam
I think William told me that they had met at one of those... in his young days, at one of those meetings of contemporary music in Salzburg. And Paul Hindermitz actually was divine.
Philharmonia Orchestra, conducted by Sir William Walton
William wrote his wonderful symphonic music. But his film music was also very, very special, and his great friendship with Laurence Olivier was the thing that was, I think, at the bottom of all this.
Venetianisches Gondellied (Venetian Gondolier's Song)
I have selected this for fun. Let's have a little fun.
Susana Walton, City of London Sinfonia, conducted by Richard Hickox
I studied this work. And so I learnt this thing by heart... instead of coming to rehearse me, she he was in Rome doing opera, and he came up at nine o'clock to Venice to La Finice, if you please. to conduct this performance. So but no rehearsal.
Falstaff: Act III, Scene 1 (Opening)
Tito Gobbi, Philharmonia Orchestra and Chorus, conducted by Herbert von Karajan
William was very jealous of Verdi. because he also was getting old and he said if only one could be such a genius as to produce false stuff At that age, Falstaff is a miracle work.
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:52Is that really how this garden came about [because William wanted you to have something to do]?
The garden came about because William, after he'd produced this beautiful opera Troilus and Cressida, It was quite evident five, six years of our life had gone by. And he said I have never been so happy in my life. as here. And I thought it was'cause he'd got married. Not a bit of it. It was because he for six months a year did not see a human being. And I'd said, darling, it's not the ideal for me. So he'd immediately jumped up and said, I'm going to buy a lovely piece of ground. And you can make a garden.
Presenter asks
5:50Tell me how it happened [that William Walton swept you off your feet in Argentina].
I was always a s rebel, so I broke with convention l lovely little girls couldn't go to offices where their parents didn't know the other people in the office. So I had my job, and it was the British Council... And the London office asked the Buenos Aires office to take care of this eminent composer... So the first thing I did was organize a press conference to introduce him. And to my enormous Horror. At the end of the press conference he trots up to me and says You'll be very surprised, Miss Hill. I am going to marry you. and I could see three weeks of disaster in front of me with this lunatic chap. So I said, don't be ridiculous, doctor Walton. Not a bit of it. Every day at eleven o'clock he came to the office to pick me up... And he asked me, have you decided when are we getting married? Well, after two weeks of this I thought, well, you know, He must be serious. Of course by then I knew he was entrancing and attractive like mad. I wasn't going to lose this delicious creature.
The keepsakes
The luxury
How can you sleep without a pillow? So I'd like to take a nice little cosy round feather pillow.
Presenter asks
11:11What made you able to [subjugate yourself to William] when you had been quite a tearaway as a child?
At the beginning. to get my own little voice heard. And William was always right. So I put two and two together and shut up. Until he died when I then erupted again.
Presenter asks
11:37Didn't you ever erupt when he was less than faithful?
Oh, no, no, I love that. You cannot own anybody. I knew he had a tender heart, and the moment two beautiful legs went by, off he went. But I also knew he'd return, and he would return a happy man. He was absolutely full of himself. Okay, isn't that good?
Presenter asks
16:06How miserable did it make you then [when you had to have an illegal abortion]?
Oh, well, I cried for several days, and Lee said that if I went on crying he'd leave. So of course I stopped crying.
Presenter asks
18:32How did you set about creating [the garden]?
The thing is that I had read The Education of a Gardener and I realized that although I adored trees, I could not put them in an order that was pleasing to the eye. And I wanted Russell Page to come... and he came with his little Russian wife, and he said he'd never worked so hard,'cause I followed him round like a dog, you know, with my pad and writing in green ink, everything. And he was a genius because this lava stream. that, you know, when you saw it without plants, must have been ghastly. He saw immediately That, as he explained to me, you can design with a line. And his line for us was an L-shaped garden, and on each corner and end is a beautiful fountain that is so wonderfully simple and beautiful, harmonious.
Presenter asks
31:17It took some doing to create a whole new life for yourself after William died, didn't it?
So it was awful because one should have known. one should have been a little more s you know, less stupid. one had married someone twenty five years older. It was evident that William was going to uh perhaps die before me... But you never look at life straightforwardly... So what happened is that he suddenly pops off and I feel bereft. I'd never prepared for this moment. I my whole life was William. I just didn't know what I was doing there. What the hell am I here for? So I was desperate. I cried on everybody's shoulder. I was a pest and a bore for two years. Then I went to India and one of those wonderful Indian doctors told me, You were very lucky. It's over. But I got a shock. Now you start a new life. And he must have brainwashed me because I started a new life with the William Walton Trust
“At the end of the press conference he trots up to me and says You'll be very surprised, Miss Hill. I am going to marry you. and I could see three weeks of disaster in front of me with this lunatic chap.”
“You cannot own anybody. I knew he had a tender heart, and the moment two beautiful legs went by, off he went. But I also knew he'd return, and he would return a happy man.”
“William married at 46 to be taken care of. So he wanted to be the child. He wanted to be absolutely the only person.”
“I never considered remarrying, but my mother was desperately keen that I should remarry, because she said it wasn't nice to be alone. And so I said, Mammy, no one's going to marry me, nobody, in their senses, because I can't stop talking about William.”