- 2 days ago
A new series of the musical quiz. Joseph Cooper as question master invites you to match your musical wits against Joyce Grenfell, David Attenborough, Robin Ray and Guest musician Benjamin Luxon.
In this series viewers will be able to take part in a crossword competition
In this series viewers will be able to take part in a crossword competition
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TVTranscript
00:00Hello, and welcome to another series which will take us up to our century of programmes.
00:23And here to face the music are Joyce Grenfell.
00:27Hello.
00:28Robin Ray.
00:28Good evening.
00:30And David Attenborough.
00:31Good evening.
00:32Now, there's one brand new thing in this series, and that is a musical alphabet.
00:37We shall take the letters at random.
00:40Now, here are three pieces of music, and each one, the name of the piece, or the composer, or the performer, will begin with the same letter.
00:48So, if the letter were B, and we played ba-ba-ba-ba, you'd be right if you said Beethoven.
00:54All right?
00:55I hope it's as easy as that.
00:57However, tonight, the letter is F for face the music.
01:02So, Robin, remember that either the piece, or the composer, or the performer, begins with F.
01:08Good.
01:09Good.
01:09It's the composer with a surname that sounds like a Christian name.
01:36Frank.
01:37Frank.
01:37Good.
01:38Is it César Frank?
01:39Quite right.
01:40symphony.
01:41Quite right.
01:42He only wrote one.
01:43That's right.
01:43D minor.
01:44Absolutely right.
01:45Thank heavens it wasn't the performers.
01:46I wouldn't have known who they were.
01:48Well, actually, it was Clempera conducting.
01:50Oh, was it?
01:50Yes.
01:51New Philharmonia.
01:52Now, Joyce, your musical alphabet.
01:56And remember, it could be either the piece, the composer, or the performer.
02:00Well, you know, it's going to date me, rather, because I used to sing All Soldiers Live Upon Tea and Jam in the First World War.
02:27I think it's Faust, is it?
02:29It is.
02:29Yes.
02:30Yes, well done.
02:31It's got soldiers in it, and that's their chorus.
02:33Who knows Faust?
02:34Good.
02:35Now, David, your musical alphabet.
02:37It's got soldiers in it, and it's got soldiers in it, and it's got soldiers in it.
03:07Well, that was the Elgar cello concerto.
03:10I'm tempted to say that the orchestra was a Philharmonia, but Robin already got that.
03:15So I assume that the cello, the cellist, was Pierre Fournier.
03:19You're absolutely right.
03:21F for Fournier.
03:22Right, now, something else new.
03:25We've called this round Find the Link, but it's not our old Find the Link.
03:29This time, it's not between two pieces of music, but between music and a picture.
03:35Can you say what the connection is in each case?
03:38First, Robin.
03:39Then, Robin.
03:39Then, listen.
03:40Then, listen.
03:40Alright.
03:41Let's listen.
03:41I'll take it.
03:42Let's listen.
03:42Then, listen.
03:43Then, listen.
03:43Here's what we have on the floor.
03:44Yes, yes, well I presume the composer didn't write it when he
04:13was in bed or anything like that did he the composer possibly could one day
04:20when he was in bed he did write it in bed what I actually mean is he dreamt he had
04:28a dream when he was in bed that he was writing a piece of music and when he
04:31woke up in the morning the piece of music was fresh in his mind and he
04:36bounded from the sheets into the living room where there was a gracious
04:39harpsichord have you had enough if I just said the word Goldberg yes of course
04:44right now come on last Goldberg variations is what it is yes my boggle that's as far
04:52as I go it was the theme of the Goldberg variations played very beautifully by
04:56George Malcolm yes and the point was that there was a bloke called Count von
05:00Kaiseling who was the Russian ambassador at the court of Dresden who couldn't
05:04sleep and he had he employed as a pet musician a bloke called Johann Gottlieb
05:08Goldberg and he learnt these variations written by Johann Sebastian Bach and he
05:14used to play them all the night through any questions only one where does Joyce come
05:20into it all I'd like to know what were you doing with the we just said we just said to cartoonist
05:25folks put somebody in bed but it didn't have to be what grateful Joyce you're not
05:30offended are you no no dear no no no no pass there here's something a little bit
05:36more up your street or your square square
06:06well I think that's the national gallery in which canteen I work during the war and so it must have
06:22got something to do with pictures and so the word exhibition comes to me and my neighbor to my
06:30left suggested that it could be pictures at an exhibition by yes is it right very good
06:37indeed yes did he whisper anything else about gates or anything oh I think he did yes but I
06:44wasn't taking it in actually yes I think was it yes what he did say something about gates of
06:51yes the great gate of Kiev it's it's the end of the whole work ah David your link
07:00yes
07:03yes
07:07yes
07:12yes
07:17yes
07:19yes
07:23yes
07:25yes
07:27well that music is Beethoven and it's Fidelio and it's the first act but that
07:46picture I thought at first was Hamlet and alas poor Yorick stuff and it looked
07:53like Sarah Bernhardt but what the connection between those are I can't
07:57think do I have to drag it out of you Fidelio she didn't sing Fidelio
08:03drag it out because so was that right in drag oh yes yes the person who sings
08:12that aria is actually dressed as a man right is that right correct oh well
08:19just to make quite sure we've got this that that was the great actress as you
08:30said Sarah Bernhardt dressed as Hamlet seems improbable but it was and you were
08:35listening to another lady dressed as a man Leonora in Fidelio where she goes down
08:40into the prison as a prison wardress or warder rather to assist her husband who's
08:46in prison there okay now for the hidden melody well you know the form only too
08:58well I guess here's a well-known tune which I disguise and the silence of a
09:02certain composer and you've got to guess the tune and the style
09:16well I know not to see myself and what could them do when I see her but it gives me the
09:22whole Ona where she goes down as long as you feel so hard for her crazy
09:26but Drama istop what are they doing from her bands are like it they go by a
09:32INTER vested in peace that other people who fight Sara Bernhardt to fight some
09:34women who want them to fight except and support them to fight one of all other jazz
09:37and women can simply have to meet one of those other people
09:39that I had to imagine when the Hopefullyям a체 of them
09:42PIANO PLAYS
10:12PIANO PLAYS
10:42PIANO PLAYS
11:12PIANO PLAYS
11:42PIANO PLAYS
11:43PIANO PLAYS
11:44PIANO PLAYS
11:45PIANO PLAYS
11:46PIANO PLAYS
11:47PIANO PLAYS
11:48PIANO PLAYS
11:49PIANO PLAYS
11:50PIANO PLAYS
11:51PIANO PLAYS
11:52PIANO PLAYS
11:53PIANO PLAYS
11:54PIANO PLAYS
11:55PIANO PLAYS
11:56oh did you know that no that i'm not making this up you know this isn't and a room somewhere
12:01presumably and a room somewhere why do you have to spoil everything
12:11joe you had a little bit of frere jacques in there too did i yes i had several bits of brahms
12:16which i was hoping that robin would identify intimate so b flat minor was there opus um
12:21um 117 16 16 number two yes that's all right fine the rhapsody in g minor as well oh no what about
12:30the symphony oh that was yes uh four now number one number one four minus three okay now round five
12:40yet another new question true or false i'm going to dish out a little factual information in connection
12:48with a piece of music i say factual because you have to guess whether it really is it might be
12:54totally untrue robin is this correct folkin used this music for a ballet
13:18that's the first movement of the fifth symphony by tchaikovsky
13:29folkin certainly did not use that for a ballet joe are you sure except on one occasion
13:34did he really yes joe he did yes did he really he didn't oh no you're being cruel i've never seen
13:51it danced it would last a jolly long time anyone got anything to add terrible silence
13:59no well as a matter of fact it was made into a ballet called les presages the the fates
14:06in 1933 i saw it that dates me but it was not choreographed by folkin but by massine
14:13exactly exactly okay i was i was hinting at that actually
14:21all right now joyce is this true or false here's the statement the composer of this was a leipzig
14:28family man
14:58I connect him with The Strand.
15:04The Strand?
15:05Handel.
15:06Yes.
15:08But not Leipzig, I wouldn't know.
15:10Was he a family man?
15:12Bach had lots of children.
15:13Did Handel have lots of children too?
15:18I think you've got the answer.
15:20It's Handel.
15:20Handel, yes.
15:21But that particular piece hadn't got much to do with The Strand.
15:25No, no, no, no, no.
15:25But I thought it was Handel I was finding.
15:27Yes, you're quite right.
15:27Oh, the piece.
15:28No.
15:28The piece is called the, oh, the good-natured,
15:32something like to do with putting horses' hooves on.
15:35What is that man called?
15:36Blacksmith, was he?
15:38Queen of Sheba.
15:40Oh, it's Queen of Sheba, isn't it?
15:44I thought it was the good-tempered something.
15:46Yes.
15:46Yes.
15:49Well, you need somebody to go wrong on this programme.
15:51I mean, it's better.
15:53There's no difficulty about that.
15:55They've already had somebody.
15:56It was the arrival of the Queen of Sheba from Solomon by Handel, yes.
15:59Oh, I knew.
15:59As a matter of fact, I knew it.
16:00And Bach was the happy family man.
16:03He had 20 children, so he couldn't grumble.
16:05Yes, but Handel, you said.
16:07What do you mean?
16:07He couldn't grumble.
16:08No, but Bach had 20 children.
16:09Yes, yes.
16:10Yes, Handel, well, wasn't married.
16:12I don't know about the children.
16:12Well, that's what I was sort of wondering.
16:19Now, David, true or false?
16:22Robert Schumann said,
16:24Hats off, gentlemen, a genius,
16:26about the composer of this.
16:28Hats off, gentlemen, a genius,
16:44Well, that's the vegan lied by Brahms,
17:01the lullaby by Brahms.
17:03Well, Robin said,
17:04no, is what Robin said.
17:06He didn't say that about Brahms.
17:11I thought he said it about Mendelssohn,
17:14but Robin tells me that he said it about Chopin.
17:17And I think Robin's right.
17:19He is right.
17:20Yeah.
17:20Brahms was, in fact, a friend of Schumann's
17:22and sort of a pupil of his,
17:24but Schumann, in fact, said it about Chopin.
17:26I think after having heard
17:28the variations for piano and orchestra,
17:30was it on the Mozart, Don Giovanni,
17:34La Cidarem Lomano, opus two?
17:37Quite right, yes.
17:39Now it's time for our guest.
17:42And tonight he's an English baritone
17:43who has already made an international reputation
17:46for himself in song recitals,
17:48oratorio and opera.
17:50We especially associate him, perhaps,
17:53with the Britain operas.
17:55And he was the first singer
17:56of the title role in Owen Wingrave,
17:59which Lord Britain wrote for television.
18:02Tonight, we welcome Benjamin Luxon.
18:14Now, Ben, your first question.
18:17Of what country was this the king?
18:19Who is the king?
18:45The king of Cornwall, of course.
18:53The king of Cornwall, yes.
18:55And what was the king's name and what was the piece?
18:57King Mark Tristan Nisoldy.
18:59Quite right.
19:00Yes, I'm rather interested because you're Cornish through and through.
19:04Have you severed your roots with Cornwall now you've become international?
19:08No.
19:09No, no, never.
19:10That would, it would be impossible to me.
19:13In fact, I find that the more I travel and the further I sort of go as far as the career is concerned,
19:18the more I'm drawn back to Cornwall.
19:22You know, I feel my roots sort of very strongly.
19:25So you've got a home there?
19:26Oh, yes, very much so.
19:27When did you first start to sing?
19:29I mean, really, going right back to the very beginning.
19:32Well, I started to sing, I guess, when I was about three or four,
19:36and then I sang right the way through as a boy soprano,
19:39right the way through until my voice broke.
19:41Of course, that was the time I remember very well when there were sort of concerts.
19:44It was very much the same as the Welsh tradition,
19:46and there were concerts, male voice choirs, chapel choirs, going on all the time.
19:50But before that, I mean, you say you started singing at three or four.
19:54Do you really mean sing?
19:55Oh, yes, yes.
19:57I used to sing things like little old lady passing by on the garden wall,
20:02and I believe at the age of about three or four, yes.
20:05And then I, you know, then I actually have an old diary at home about the age of nine.
20:11I was doing something like an average of a concert a week throughout the year.
20:15Were you being paid for it?
20:16Oh, no, no, no, never at that time.
20:18Now, to your next question.
20:21Why has this a clerical cut?
20:23Fussreise, Hugo Wolf.
20:49Sung by...
20:49Yes, I'm afraid so.
20:51Yes, I recognise...
20:53Beautifully sung.
20:55Well...
20:56Who was your pianist?
20:57David Willison.
20:58Wonderful.
20:59Beautifully played.
20:59Yes, wonderful.
21:00Lovely record.
21:02Well, I mean, I suppose the obvious thing,
21:04there is a reference to sort of,
21:06it's all a hymn to sort of nature and the outdoors,
21:09and there is a reference to sort of God in it,
21:11and saying, well, this old fellow, Adam, wasn't such a bad old chap,
21:14and what the old teachers said, it was, you know, that one should praise God.
21:17But I suppose the obvious thing is that America,
21:19the poet, of course, was a country parson.
21:22Yes.
21:22A rather disappointed one, I think.
21:24Yes, I think so.
21:25Yes, I think he had problems.
21:27Yes, I think he had problems.
21:27But wrote marvellous poetry.
21:29Yes.
21:29As a result.
21:31Fine.
21:31Now, that is a very different kettle of fish,
21:34both that singing and that approach,
21:37so very serious,
21:38to your recent Victorian efforts.
21:42Oh, yes.
21:43I've been listening to the record of you with Bob Tear,
21:45and I think you've done two now, haven't you?
21:47Or is it even three?
21:48Yes, no, two.
21:49And there's another one, there's a series of three,
21:51but the two we've done.
21:52Yes, they're great fun.
21:52I'm a great Victorian man.
21:54I love it.
21:54Yes, wonderful.
21:55But what put you on to it?
21:57Well, I think, first of all,
21:59that is my entire musical background.
22:02I mean, that's the sort of music that I grew up with,
22:04and I learned all those songs.
22:06I heard my father sing them and various people.
22:08And also, I think, too,
22:11that we felt through being a performing musician,
22:15music has become very serious.
22:17There are endless now recordings available,
22:21and there's so much music-making going on
22:23right throughout the world.
22:25And one feel, I feel personally,
22:28that it's becoming, a lot of it is rather clinical.
22:31There's endless comparisons between this interpretation
22:33and that interpretation,
22:35and the market is really rather flooded.
22:37And I think I felt, as Bob has felt,
22:42sort of in performing the serious music
22:44and coming under this sort of strain of comparison
22:46and so on and so forth,
22:47that it would be nice to be able to relax.
22:50And I think, I have the feeling,
22:52and this is a response we get to singing the Victorian
22:55with the records and in doing them in concert,
22:57is that people really want,
22:59just once in a while, to go along
23:01and hear serious, so-called serious artists,
23:04just relax and just entertain.
23:08Yes.
23:08I think your secret, both you and Bob,
23:10is that you do it deadpan.
23:12You see, you don't cod them.
23:13You sing them quite seriously,
23:15and that's what really brings the humour out in them.
23:18Yes.
23:19Well, I would say, now, a terrible thing in a way,
23:22and really, and that is that one loves them, of course.
23:24Yes.
23:24And it's very legitimate music.
23:26Yes, it is.
23:27And although one, now, a lot of it appears rather funny to us
23:31and perhaps a little stilted,
23:33still one has this, the love of that sort of generation
23:36and the seriousness of which they've performed
23:39and the amount of enjoyment,
23:40the enjoyment that people got out of them.
23:42Yes.
23:43Finally, when you're not singing
23:44and when you're not out of doors kicking a football about,
23:47what's your favourite hobby?
23:49Oh, I think I collect paintings, watercolours, pencil sketches.
23:53Lovely.
23:53Ben, thank you very much indeed.
23:55Thank you, Jonathan.
24:05Now, back to the panel for choir practice.
24:09You don't have to sing,
24:10but here's a question based on choral music.
24:13How practised are you in recognising
24:15whether or not there's a choir or chorus waiting to come in?
24:19First, Robin.
24:23Hey, Herr,
24:25lehre noch nicht,
24:27dass ein Ende mit mir haben muss
24:36und mein Leben ein Ziel hat
24:43I feel so ashamed it's not my strong subject Joe I'm afraid I don't know what
25:00it is but from the feel of the music and being an intensely musical person that I
25:05am I would say there's definitely something about to happen and I would
25:09think a choir is about to come in yes it is and here it is listen
25:27well my friend here is actually singing it would you like to tell us yes the
25:33Brahms requiem that's the barenter and so on then they repeat the words
25:36yes thank you yes and yet that was very nicely answered ready to help me okay
25:51Joyce is there a chorus standing by here
25:56nymphs and shepherds come away come away nymphs and shepherds come away come away come come come come away
26:11yes I think there's a lot of people going to say nymphs and shepherds later aren't there
26:30I think there's a lot of people going to say nymphs and shepherds later aren't there
26:34are there oh isn't there what a shame no she's on her own
26:39well I did like it yeah but you've got every excuse for saying there are a lot of people
26:45because people do there's a lovely record of a lot of Manchester children singing
26:48nymphs and shepherds come away that's quite true yes conducted by Hamilton Artie
26:54yes a lovely but in point of fact it is a solo song so some incidental words some uh some
27:00incidental music that Purcell wrote um to a play called the libertine by Shedwell and it is a
27:05solo song although it is often sung as a chorus now David you're quite right
27:10well
27:22you can't make a meal out of that can you a meal that must have been a hint yes it must have been a
27:35hint that wasn't what I was going to go to at all I was thought it was going to be in a requiem
27:39with those being the trumpets of something or other oh yes well fortunately yes I can make a real
27:49feast of this answer could it yes yes belt it out yeah belt it out thank you very much come on
27:55then William Walton Belshazzar's feast quite right this is what comes next
27:59fine well extracted yes a lot of marks to Joyce and a little bit of help from my colleague yeah
28:14well time's up I'm afraid so it's good night from Joyce Grenfell Robin Ray David Admiral Benjamin
28:19Luxon and myself Joseph Cooper good night
28:21from recent encounters to more memorable moments from the archives famous faces in conversation
28:38choosing their desert island discs listen now on BBC says
28:42actually I love you
28:44well love you
28:46yes
28:47yeah
28:48well
28:49yeah
28:49okay
28:50yeah
29:05yeah
29:05yeah
29:07yeah
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