Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Conductor widely considered the best of his generation, lauded for his technique, personality, panache, and brains.
On the island
Eight records
Goldberg Variations, BWV 988Favourite
Gould recorded the piece twice in the studio, once in nineteen fifty five, and then shortly before he died in'81. And these two recordings are separated by light years, because in the first one you see a highly gifted young musician storming into his first Bach, and the second one is is a work of a mature genius. It's eternity.
Symphony No. 7 in A major, Op. 92
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Carlos Kleiber
I think Beethoven's Sevenths is one of the most joyous works ever written in the European music tradition. It's a mixture between some kind of a very austere procession like ritual dance, maybe funeral procession. It's definitely a tragic piece of music, but it still fills you with the joy for being alive and being able to listen to this music.
Concentus Musicus Wien, conducted by Nikolaus Harnoncourt
this was considered religious propaganda by the Soviet authorities, and so there were no recordings of the piece, and it was never performed live until, I think, nineteen eighty eight. And for me this piece is the symbol of the hope and symbol of the joy of human existence.
Symphony No. 5 in C-sharp minor: IV. Adagietto
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Leonard Bernstein
if somebody is able to communicate the music in such a way to hold hundreds of people completely still and then shaking with excitement, and doing this simply by the means of music. And it was not about his personal success as a conductor, it was the effect of his music making, which was so unique and so emotionally charging.
Concentus Musicus Wien, conducted by Nikolaus Harnoncourt
Requiem was written around the same time. It's one of the later works and definitely one of the most mature, enigmatic, and wonderful works of his.
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Gerald Moore
I thought there must be at least one disc with the piano songs only and that obviously the paradigma of European art song is Schubert. And the Winteralse, it's Dietrich Fischer Diskow and Gerald Moore on the piano.
Gidon Kremer, Tatiana Gridenko, and Alfred Schnittke
This is a piece I connect a lot of personal memories with when I moved to Germany. That was one of the first pieces I heard. It's Arvo Pertz double concerto or two violins called Tabula Razza. It's a very spiritual, very simple music, but it has an incredible depth to it
Symphony No. 6 in B minor, Op. 74, 'Pathétique'
Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Evgeny Mravinsky
I think for me Mravinsky is this symbol of the lifelong dedication to one high spiritual task, and even in this last performance he still would have things to develop and to criticise on himself.
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:50Was there ever any chance that your life would be anything but music?
Well, I think the chance was always there, and in a way I also got encouraged by my father not to take on music, because he was once told by his father if you can do something else, then do something else, because it must be like a disease.
Presenter asks
1:54Why did you turn down offers from prestigious opera houses like Venice and Paris after your debut?
I turned down four first from Covent Garden. I mean I went there in the first place to stand in last minute and did Nabucco and it sort of went well, as well as it could go under the circumstances. But I realized the higher you climb, the higher the danger to fall down and break your neck. So I started saying no, because I wasn't ready, and I also never envisaged the profession of a conductor in order to become a star.
Presenter asks
8:28Do you have to be something of a loner, an outsider, to successfully conduct?
Well, I think one needs to be a little bit of both. One needs to be in the first place a great communicator. Then, in order to have the ideas, or renew them or review them, you have also to be able to stand back and go away from people. ... And conduct is permanently torn apart between these two extremities.
The keepsakes
The book
Alexander Pushkin
I don't feel it would be a cheat if I say I want another complete works of Pushkin.
The luxury
Presenter asks
10:25Did the openness of Glasnost and Perestroika mean anything to you, practically?
Well, it started meaning a lot to me because a lot of the books which were banned before came up and and I was a passionate reader. ... to be exposed to the truth about the Soviet concentration camps and the activity of the secret police. ... And it did influence me very strongly. It also did influence my agreement with the decision of my parents to leave the country.
Presenter asks
15:13At what point did you decide that conducting was for you?
Well, it was probably around the age of seventeen, eighteen. It all started with me hearing Marlus music for the first time. ... I heard the symphony number five and it was it was like a whole new world opened itself in front of me and all the things I always felt inside me on the emotional level, also on the intellectual level, I somehow felt I understand every note of this music intuitively, and even what's between the notes, and I couldn't explain it.
Presenter asks
32:00What happened when your father was gravely ill and you were due to conduct?
Well, he had a heart attack conducting in Berlin. Uh he collapsed at the podium and um was dead, clinically dead, for a couple of minutes. ... And the next day I had a performance at the Com Schooper, which I couldn't cancel. It was La Bohem. So that was quite a m memorable evening for me.
“music was the air I used to breathe, and I could never have thought back then, and as I can't think now, my life without music.”
“I noticed after I started studying conducting professionally, it started changing me as a person, almost on a cellular basis. I changed even visually. And I think now, through the conducting, I got to being what is my natural form. I'm I feel it right in the centre. I don't think I was in the centre as a child.”
“I do feel it and I'm more than comfortable in being on the margins. Actually, I think this is what makes us develop further, is exposing ourselves to next challenges and also stripping away the comfortable.”