Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Distinguished concert pianist, pupil of Cortot and Moshkovsky.
On the island
Eight records
String Quartet No. 7 in F major, Op. 59 No. 1 'Rasumovsky' (3rd movement)
Marvelous recording of the Bush quartet.
Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 in G major, BWV 1048 (opening)
Furtwangler... is the conductor I admired very much all my life.
Of the Daphne Sechloe. The first piece called Le Le Vie du Jour conducting by Charles Munch.
Peter Pears and Benjamin Britten
Well, because it was one of the first things I heard when I arrived in England and uh my friends, the family where uh stayed, you see, in in England, they played this record very often.
for the same reason as the other record, because it was played every day, every night, every evening at the same place in England.
Boris Godunov (The Death of Boris)
He was such a great artist. I was always deeply moved by his Chaliapin way of singing Boris Godunov.
Clarinet Quintet in B minor, Op. 115 (2nd movement)
There is a a great sentimental feeling about Brandt Clarinet because I heard it when I was ill in Switzerland.
L'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande
That's always, since I was a pupil in the Conservatoire, I always adored. I think it's a m one of the masterpieces of French music, La Mais.
In conversation
Presenter asks
3:19Were your parents Lithuanian?
No. My parents were Polish. My mother was born in Warsaw and my father was born in a little town near Warsaw.
Presenter asks
4:18What made you decide to be a pianist?
As a matter of fact, I didn't start very young... I was between seven and eight. And uh we had a a upright and apparently I always stayed near the pedal... I was always there with my ear against the the wood to hear the strings much more. And one day a friend of my father said... He must be very musical... So my my parents waited a little and uh at uh seven they started that.
Presenter asks
8:22Was [Alfred] Cortot a good teacher?
He was a wonderful teacher. He was something exceptional. The only thing you had to do is to listen to Gortu... if the pupil was gifted enough to listen intently to what he heard, that was the best way of teaching from Corto.
Presenter asks
12:39Did you earn money as a young student by playing in cafes or anything of that sort?
The keepsakes
The book
Molière
one thing I had had done all my life and in at certain period of my life, you see I read it again, it's Mollier.
The luxury
A painting by Ghirlandaio (An Old Man and his Grandson)
that I adored since I was fifteen. Because I was interested. You see, me even in fifteen I had my first prize, but I went to the Louvre and I was interested by painting and still adore painting.
I didn't play in Cafe, but I play you know, cin uh the cinema at that time was not talking... they did some music. To accompany the film. So I played in the cinema... very hard work... we had to accompany all the the mood of the film. It was a table hard work because you had to to improvise and to improvise the bridge.
Presenter asks
14:20What sort of man was [Paul Dukas]?
Oh, he was a very remarkable man. The man certainly the most cultivated I ever met in my life... He was so critical, you see, that he Burn his own work. when he was not satisfied and he was never satisfied... When he died, in his testament he asked his wife to burn what he left.
Presenter asks
20:19Was [Maurice Ravel] a good pianist?
No, not at no not at the time I met him. Well, he was over fifty and uh he probably didn't practice his piano very much. But I think that when he was young he must have been a rather good pianist because he got his first prize in Paris Conservatoire.
“I'm always alone playing piano. Yes. So I can't say exactly how how long I can endure to be alone without playing piano.”
“He was an example to the musician who think that in being musician you have only to care for music. It's a great mistake.”
“When your life is in question, you find some strength that you thought that it would be impossible to do.”
“Sometimes it's an impossible profession, you know, to be a pianist, a car, a pianist. It's a curse. Because when you have everything, a marvelous piano and you play like a pig.”