Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Celebrated conductor of classical orchestral and operatic music.
On the island
Eight records
Sanctus (from Mass in B minor, BWV 232)
Munich Bach Choir and Munich Bach Orchestra, conducted by Karl Richter
Well, now the first one is a work that I have never conducted to this date, and if I were going to be on a lonely island, that's the one thing I would study.
Adagio (from Symphony No. 8 in C minor)
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Wilhelm Furtwängler
This is one composer I did not know in India. It was sort of love at first hearing, and since my idol, which is Willem Furtwengler, is conducting the Vienna Philharmonic, I would like to choose the climactic moment of the Adagio of Bruckner's Eighth Symphony.
Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Zubin Mehta
He really brought me into contact with Richard Strauss's music. And part of my selection of these eight records is one of each of my orchestras that I have been associated with for for so long, and the first one being the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
Largo (from Cello Sonata in G minor, Op. 65)
Jacqueline du Pré and Daniel Barenboim
A sonata for cello and piano by Chopin, The Slow Movement, where Daniel plays with his wife Jacqueline Dupre, who has since then become my honorary sister.
Andante (from Sinfonia Concertante in E-flat major, K. 364)
Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas Zukerman and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Zubin Mehta
I'd like to play a concert performance of the second movement of Mozart's Symphony Concertante with Itzhak Perman on violin and Pinker Zuckerman on viola with the Israel Philharmonic, which was recorded at a concert celebrating Huberman's hundredth anniversary.
Allegro (from Symphony No. 5 in B-flat major, D. 485)
Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Zubin Mehta
I'd like for you to play the first movement of Schubert's Fifth Symphony with the Israel Philharmonic.
New York Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Zubin Mehta
Well, this is a piece where I have made a few mistakes in my life also. The Rite of Spring by Stravinsky.
Concerto for Four Violins in B minor, RV 580
Isaac Stern, Ivry Gitlis, Ida Haendel and Shlomo Mintz
My last record is the Concerto for Four Violins by Vivaldi. It features four other friends of mine, Isaac Stern, Ivory Gittlis, Ida Handel and Shlomo Mitz.
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:56Is your choice [of music] based mainly on the fact that the music is great or all the memories are so personal?
Now, I'm rather sentimental person. Therefore I like to be surrounded by my friends, especially in the in the case of loneliness. That's what my primary concern was when I chose the records, I think.
Presenter asks
5:16What age were you when you first played with the Bombay Symphony Orchestra?
I never played with them. … I merely lifted music stands and transposed uh horn parts for saxophones because we didn't have four horns. We would use three horns and one saxophone. And yes, I did all those little things. And I did sort of conduct once in a while without knowing what I was doing to prepare the orchestra when people like Menwin would come to India and my father would prepare the orchestra to accompany them.
Presenter asks
8:23Why [did you choose to study in] Vienna?
Well I had a cousin there who was already in the piano master classes at the Vienna Academy. And he wrote such praises of Vienna. And uh, you know, we tend to hang together as Indians. And my parents, of course, sent me straight away to him, basically. And I don't think I could have made a better choice, really.
The keepsakes
The book
Zoroaster
But I've never read The equivalent of the Bible in my own religion, they're called the Gatas. I would like to have a translation of that book, that I might finally know what my own religion is all about.
The luxury
The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb (Ghent Altarpiece) by Jan van Eyck
I would like to have before me on this island, when I listen to the Bachbi Minor Mass, The Triptych of Van Ayck. From the Ghent Cathedral, The Adoration of the Lamb, which I think is really one of the greatest paintings of all time.
Presenter asks
16:30During your year in Liverpool, did you have a lot of experience, make a lot of progress?
And a lot of mistakes. Yes, of course. Those were my first real concerts of my life. … And I was really sort of thrown to the wolves in that I was given rather difficult programmes to do in one rehearsal, which I wouldn't I wouldn't even attempt that today.
Presenter asks
24:34Do you have a special feeling for [the Israel Philharmonic]?
Yes, well I've grown up with them too. I started with them in nineteen sixty one. … Since 1969 I've been their music director and we've had some really wonderful experiences together.
Presenter asks
27:08It only needs one second's lack of concentration, and this great thing is collapsing. Has it ever got near to happening?
Once at the Met. During an opera I went through hell. Now I'm telling you about the only performance I really remember which was a catastrophe for about two pages. … Some of the percussions sit under the stage level … And there was a Glottenspiel player. who was just a little bit behind the beat. Now, in order to catch his attention I had to bend my head … And I could only see his hands going in the wrong direction. So I had to bend down to say, Hey, follow my beat. In the meantime, Miss Nielsen, singing Turundot on stage, made a Ralintando … Only doing that that half a bar that I'm trying to get the Glockenspieler's attention, I went forward. She makes a retard on the stage, and now I find myself in front of her.
“I can't really remember the first time I heard music. I don't have the pleasure of remembering that pleasant shock.”
“I always say that I have the good fortune, in a sense, not to have heard really even a second rate orchestra before I heard the Vienna Philharmonic for the first time. In other words, you have to imagine my shock.”
“I never knew the importance of the bass line in a classical work. until I heard them playing it and I heard this magnificent bass section.”
“I want to digest this piece once and for all in my life, and that would be the only occasion I could think of in the future, is that I would lock myself up on an island to do it.”