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Joseph Cooper invites viewers to match their musical wits against Patricia Owen, John Julius Norwich and David Attenborough. With guest musician David Willcocks.
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00:00Hello, everyone, and welcome to this Christmas edition of the Music Quiz.
00:23Facing the music tonight are Patricia Owen.
00:27Good evening.
00:28John Julius Norwich.
00:29Hello.
00:30And David Attenborough.
00:32Good evening.
00:33And just to remind you, next week is the last programme of the series when we shall be giving the results of the crossword competition.
00:41Now, our musical alphabet and the letter tonight is N for N.
00:45Well.
00:46Here are three pieces of music.
00:48Either the piece itself or the composer or the performer begins with the letter N.
00:54John Julius, your alphabet piece.
00:56Could it be the Canutcracker?
01:16It's a good one.
01:19It's by N.
01:21N.
01:24And I don't really know very much more about it.
01:27Is it the dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy?
01:30I can never remember.
01:30It was actually just a march from the ballet.
01:33It's a march.
01:33Yes, a march.
01:34But now, Patricia.
01:35Yeah.
01:35Well, I think this time it's probably the composer.
01:53Because Merry Wives of Windsor can't begin with N.
01:57No.
01:58Nikolai?
01:58Correct.
01:59Excellent.
02:05Now, David, an alphabet piece for you.
02:07Hear the voice of one who adores thee, who now implores thee in grief untold.
02:23Watch beneath thy window-keeping, while all are sleeping, as a scobble.
02:40The performer.
02:42Yes?
02:42Oh, that's as far as I'm going to be.
02:44You've already been absolutely clear.
02:46But that's okay.
02:47You'll have to go a long way back.
02:49Heddle Nash.
02:50Right.
02:50Oh.
02:56That was made in 1932, and I think the sound is quite good, isn't it?
03:00Yes.
03:00It's what Joyce Grenfell calls hairy, that sound.
03:03Slightly hairy record, she says.
03:05Slightly hairy, yes.
03:06Right.
03:07Now, composers on celluloid.
03:09This is where we play you a clip from a feature film based on the life of a composer.
03:14The clip contains clues, and you have to guess which composer it is, and also name the film,
03:20if you can.
03:20It's a free for all.
03:22I refuse to film my head with trifles, madame, and that is final.
03:27I didn't say go to Paris tomorrow, or next week, but I do say let us plan for it, and save for it.
03:33There's a boy waiting to be heard.
03:34And here is Paris, waiting to hear him.
03:38Someday those two facts must come together, madame.
03:40I insist upon him.
03:43Such tones from a piano.
03:46Mozart, as he should be playing.
03:49The brilliance, the ease, the technique.
03:56Isabel.
03:59Reggie.
04:03Reggie.
04:05More Polish prisoners.
04:08The Tsar is taking them to Siberia.
04:11That's all, Freddie.
04:18And what about our lesson today?
04:19Only Schubert wore spectacles like that until the 20th century.
04:22All music masters wore records, particularly Chopin's music master.
04:26Yes, now, I think David's on there.
04:29Especially when the little boy's called Frederick.
04:31Was he called Frederick? Yes, he was.
04:33Oh, I didn't hear. I missed that.
04:34He was playing Mozart, too, which I thought I was going to be clever to identify, but they told us that.
04:38They told us that, yes, that was no good.
04:40But it was Frederick Chopin.
04:41But he also mentioned... Polish.
04:43Yes. Did you discover the name of the film?
04:46A song to remember. Yes.
04:48And Cornel Wilde... I remember it very well. I don't remember that bit.
04:51I think it was a film to be forgotten, actually.
04:53Oh, don't be uncut.
04:55Everybody enjoyed it in those days.
04:57It was a marvellous moment. Do you remember the drop of scarlet blood coughed up onto the ivory keys?
05:02Deficit, yes. Now, find the link.
05:05This is where you have to say what connection there is between the picture you see and the music you hear.
05:10And the theme this week is appropriately seasonal.
05:14John Julius, you'll find the link.
05:16John Julius, you'll find the link.
05:21Yeah.
05:23Yeah.
05:24Yeah.
05:25John Julius, you'll find the name of the
05:44The link.
05:58Well, it's, as you say, it's extremely Christmassy.
06:02It's L'Enfance du Christ by Berlioz.
06:05Yes.
06:06And the picture is...
06:08Which bit of it?
06:09Which bit of it?
06:09Oh, Lord.
06:11The nativity.
06:12No, the shepherds' farewell.
06:14The shepherds' farewell, of course.
06:16The shepherds' is important, I felt.
06:18Yes.
06:19And the picture is Flemish.
06:22It's, um...
06:23What is it?
06:25It's not Verneich, is it?
06:26No, you're getting quite near.
06:28It's Der Gois.
06:29Der Gois.
06:29Yes.
06:30It's a very famous picture in New York City.
06:31It's a beautiful picture.
06:33It's a marvellous picture.
06:34It's called The Adoration of the Shepherds.
06:36Yeah, and it's the shepherds' farewell.
06:38Now, Patricia, a link for you.
06:41The Adoration of the Shepherds
07:11I had a hurried feeling it was going to be some obscure Haydn symphony called The Raven
07:22when I saw The Bird on the Bow.
07:25But, no, is the link winter?
07:28Of course.
07:28It's winter from the seasons, and that's a beautiful, wintry scene.
07:33Yes.
07:34Um, did you say Bruegel?
07:37Well, I guessed it was Bruegel, doesn't it?
07:39Yes, you're absolutely right.
07:41Yes, you're completely right.
07:48Now, David, I find the link for you.
07:50The Blackstone of the Shepherds'讚!
07:56In water to bread, in water to bread, in water to bread,
08:01And living now his love has to provide.
08:07God make glory to the land and the tree,
08:12The wickedness of the bread, the wickedness of the bread,
08:17The slainless and holy sense of life.
08:21God make glory to the land and the glory of the bread.
08:30Hmm. Well, I think the composer is Benjamin Britten.
08:34Correct.
08:35And he's written a number of, obviously, church cantatas, or canticles,
08:42but he's also written some carols, and he has also written...
08:48Sir Nicholas.
08:49Sir Nicholas. That's right. Yes.
08:52And the cathedral, this is the cathedral.
08:55I don't want to put the lance in.
08:57Lansing. Lansing. All right. Yes.
08:59So it's Benjamin Britten's Christmas cantata called St. Nicholas,
09:04and that is the chapel dedicated to St. Nicholas at Lansing College.
09:09That's a sort of answer from a do-it-yourself caterer.
09:21Well, at least I did it myself.
09:22It was very good indeed.
09:24It was actually written for the centenary celebrations of Lansing in 1948,
09:28and you may be interested to know that it was sung there by the King's College Choir conducted by David Wilcox.
09:34Right. Now the crossword.
09:38Throughout the series, you've been having a crossword at home,
09:41but the panel haven't sort of had a look in,
09:44so we thought while we're waiting for the results of the competition,
09:47we'd let you have a chance to show your crossword form.
09:51Now, you've each got a crossword in front of you.
09:54Can you fill it up from the musical and verbal clues?
09:57One across festival song.
10:01Joseph was an old man and an old man was sweet
10:07When he married Mary in the land of Calais
10:14And as they were walking through a washing stone
10:21Who were chasing babies and feathers in the land
10:30Right. One down. Sounds comfortable? Question mark?
10:35Have you seen?
10:42Bye.
10:47Bye.
10:50Bye.
10:52Bye.
10:55Bye.
10:58Bye.
11:04Two down, my darling, A minus.
11:34Three across, boys' Christmas present.
12:04Well, how did you get on?
12:23Not bad, actually. Not too bad. Very collaborative.
12:26We're thinking of sending it in.
12:30Well, now, what about one across? Patricia, what have you got for that?
12:33Well, we thought it had to be a carol. Yes, it was indeed.
12:36Did you know the particular carol?
12:38Is it something about cherries? Yes, it's a cherry tree carol.
12:42Joseph was an old man. Actually, it's an advent carol,
12:45but carols don't have to be confined to Christmas.
12:48And one down sounds comfortable. I saw you all get that at once.
12:52That's Cossie. It's the farewell from the first act of Cossie.
12:57The two lovers leave part, or two sets of lovers' parts,
13:01and so the answer is Cossie.
13:03Yes, and in English, you see, it would be kind of, you'd say, Cozy.
13:07Cozy fan-touté instead of Cossie fan-touté.
13:09That's right. Yes.
13:11It sometimes sounds comfortable. Yes.
13:13Who got two down?
13:15Lull, we thought. Yes, why?
13:17Because it's lull-ay, my tiny child. Yes.
13:22And it's lull without, well, A minus, so it's L-U-L-L.
13:27Three across, Patricia.
13:29Well, the Christmas present we thought really was for the boy's mum, was it not?
13:36For Cosima Wagner and her newborn Siegfried.
13:40Yes, it was.
13:42You certainly heard part of the Siegfried Idil,
13:45which was first played as a Christmas and birthday present for Wagner's wife, Cosima.
13:52And it was written to celebrate the birth of the boy's Siegfried,
13:57so it was slightly stretching a point, perhaps, to say, a boy's present.
14:01But she was woken on her birthday with all the players standing on the stairs.
14:06That's right. Conducted by Wagner.
14:08I should have liked about ten minutes' notice
14:10before having the whole London Symphony Orchestra waiting outside the bedroom going.
14:14But actually, you see...
14:15I mean, I might have wanted to go to the loo first.
14:17Oh.
14:18It would have been a bit awkward.
14:20But actually, it's best as a chamber piece.
14:23I think we'll leave the subject.
14:35And go on, now, to our guest.
14:41Now, one of the great treats for many of us at Christmas time
14:45is that wonderful service from King's College, Cambridge.
14:49And tonight's guest is the distinguished musician who,
14:54until he took over the directorship recently of the Royal College of Music,
14:58looked after the music at King's College, Cambridge, for 17 years.
15:03We welcome David Wilcox.
15:06APPLAUSE
15:17Well, David, we've already sort of heralded your arrival
15:21with a lot of music from King's and, incidentally, Santa Claus.
15:26Didn't St Nicholas have some...
15:28Yes, St Nicholas is the patron saint of King's.
15:31Yes.
15:32So it was appropriate that it should be sung by the King's College Choir.
15:35Good.
15:36Now, your first question.
15:40What's absent here?
15:42What's absent here?
15:43What's absent here?
15:44No, that's not true.
15:45What's absent here?
15:46PIANO PLAYS
16:16Well, I think it's all complete.
16:19A piece in D-flat major by Scriabin,
16:23which was written for left-hand only.
16:27It's one of two pieces.
16:28Yes, quite right.
16:30Very good.
16:31Now, you and I, there's no secret about it, I don't think,
16:34were both brought up on the left-hand repertoire.
16:38Perhaps you'd like to expand that sentence.
16:40Well, we were brought up, of course,
16:41we were both taught by Douglas Fox,
16:43who I think is probably the greatest left-hand pianist,
16:48certainly of our generation.
16:50And I think I learnt more from Douglas Fox, as I expect you did,
16:53than from any other single musician.
16:56And I think not only music, one learnt about courage,
17:00because there was a young man,
17:02all set for a brilliant career,
17:04either as a pianist or as an organist,
17:06when along came the First World War.
17:09And as with so many others of his generation,
17:12he went off,
17:13and he was one of the very unlucky ones,
17:15who was wounded in 1917,
17:17losing his right arm.
17:19Now, for most musicians, that would be the end.
17:22But Douglas Fox showed enormous courage
17:26by adapting to a new life,
17:30and he taught himself to play the piano.
17:32There's a limited repertoire, as you know,
17:34for the left-hand,
17:35and also to play the organ.
17:38Again, he was helped by having an enormous stretch,
17:42which enabled him to play on one manual
17:44with those four fingers,
17:46and on another manual with his thumb.
17:48And his right foot became his right hand.
17:52Yes.
17:52On the pedals.
17:53Yes, he did an enormous amount of double peddling.
17:55Well, you yourself had a very distinguished war career.
17:59Let's get on to your earliest musical influences.
18:02Well, I can't remember when I wasn't interested in music.
18:05Like every small boy,
18:06I think I was taught to play the piano,
18:09and I think it was when I was about eight
18:10that the piano tuner discovered that I'd got perfect pitch.
18:14The piano tuner?
18:15The piano tuner came to our house,
18:17and he discovered that I knew the names of the notes
18:20in chords which he played,
18:21and he told my mother that it was a little unusual,
18:24and she was very excited and didn't know what to do.
18:27And in those days,
18:28there weren't county music organizers that you could consult,
18:31so she thought she had better write to the very top,
18:35and she wrote to the master of the king's music,
18:37who was then Sir Walford Davis.
18:38And he, at that time, was broadcasting weekly,
18:42and he wrote back by return, saying,
18:44do bring up your little boy,
18:46and I'd like to see him.
18:48And I went to Broadcasting House,
18:50and he gave me some tests.
18:52And then at the end, I remember clearly,
18:54he played a very quiet chord of C major,
18:57slowly up the piano,
18:58and he looked at me and said,
19:00can you hear God speaking to you in that chord?
19:05I listened, but I couldn't.
19:07But I thought of my mother outside,
19:09and her disappointment if I said the wrong thing,
19:12and to my eternal shame, I said,
19:14yes, sir, I think I can.
19:16He said, then you're a true musician.
19:18So after that, it was fairly easy to go to the next step.
19:25Well, we returned to Cornwall,
19:27and nothing happened for a week,
19:28and we thought that's there,
19:29it's a most peculiar interview.
19:31But during the intervening week,
19:33he had rung Sir Ernest Bullock,
19:35who was organist at the Abbey,
19:36and asked him if he would audition me,
19:38and eventually I went to Weston Strabby
19:40for five years as a chorister.
19:41Well, let's just sort of leave it at that at the moment,
19:44go on to your second question.
19:45What was the significance to the composer
19:49of the year he wrote this?
19:51That's a difficult one,
20:05because I don't know that people know
20:08what year it was written.
20:22But I think I'm safe in saying
20:24it was a year when he had a child,
20:26because he had 20 of them.
20:27So, is that sufficient?
20:31I don't think that'll quite do, David, no.
20:34I think that, first of all,
20:35would you like to say what recording it was?
20:38Could you recognize it?
20:39Well, the tempo is exactly right,
20:41so it might be King's College Choir Cambridge.
20:43It is.
20:44And it was, of course,
20:45Jesu meine Freude,
20:47the Motet by J.S. Bach.
20:50Well, it was probably written
20:51in the Leipzig period,
20:54when he moved to Leipzig,
20:55or soon after that.
20:57It was, actually, yes.
20:57Which was in 1723,
20:59but I'd say the Motet was probably 1730, 17...
21:02No, I think...
21:03Well, my book says that it was written
21:05just about that time.
21:06Well, I trust you, Joe.
21:08Is there a King's Sound?
21:11Well, I think every Cathedral Choir
21:13has its sound.
21:14Yes.
21:15And it would be terribly boring
21:16if you went into a Cathedral
21:17and one was like another.
21:19Yes.
21:19And I think the whole beauty
21:20of our Indian Cathedral Choirs
21:21is that each one's got
21:22its own characteristic sound.
21:24Yes.
21:24How do you choose your boys?
21:26I mean, for their voices
21:27or their intelligence?
21:29Well, when I was at King's College Cambridge,
21:32there was a panel of three,
21:34the dean,
21:35the headmaster of the choir school,
21:36myself,
21:37and we used to audition boys.
21:40They'd come in four at a time
21:41into the room,
21:42and we were really looking
21:44for musicianship
21:45rather than a good voice
21:46and what is very difficult to define,
21:49just general intelligence.
21:51Yes.
21:52Now, for example,
21:52one boy who came in,
21:55I think I'm right in saying
21:56it was Neville Mariner's son,
21:58Neville Mariner being the conductor
22:00of the Academy of St. Martins and the Fields,
22:02and he was a small boy,
22:04and he came in,
22:05and he was very small,
22:07so I thought I'd better put him
22:08at his ease.
22:09So I said,
22:09you're Andrew Mariner, are you?
22:12He said, yes.
22:13I said, how old are you?
22:15So he said, I'm eight, sir.
22:16How old are you?
22:16He'd have been marvellous on face to me.
22:22Yes, very, very quick.
22:25Now, finally,
22:26when Bach finally arrived at Leipzig,
22:29he stayed there for the rest of his life.
22:32Now you've got to the Royal College of Music,
22:34which is one of the top jobs
22:37in English music.
22:39Is your intention to stay put,
22:41or have you still further ambitions?
22:43None at all.
22:43I should be very happy
22:44to stay at the Royal College
22:46for a very long time.
22:48It's most interesting work,
22:51and one's working the whole time
22:52with students who are on the threshold
22:54of their career,
22:55and if I can help them
22:56in the way that I was helped
22:58when I was young,
22:58I shall feel very happy.
23:00Thank you, David Wilcox,
23:02very much indeed.
23:02And please stay with us
23:15and maybe help us
23:16in the rest of the programme.
23:19Back to the panel
23:20and face the musician.
23:22Could the musician whose face you see
23:24be the soloist in the music that you hear?
23:28John Julius,
23:28your face the musician.
23:30sure of the constituent
23:32and when I was young...
23:33to make the notion of the soloist
23:34whose voice and the singer
23:35is at home.
23:36I'm going to go there
23:38for you today.
23:39And with the Sozialse
23:41and administration
23:43a little bit
23:45came in the garden
23:46about 23rd
23:47and the working
23:47and the people
23:48of theきた
23:48who are
23:49able to then
23:49be the part
23:49and to find
23:51the配持
23:51when they rose
23:53at home.
23:54And,
23:55so the
23:56good
23:57and
23:57the
23:58whole
23:58and
23:59Jack Brimer is the only clarinetist I know. I don't know him actually.
24:05Yeah, I see. Or Jervis de Peier.
24:08But whether that is either of those gentlemen, I simply don't know.
24:12I think that picture is a man who plays the violin.
24:16Yes, who do you think he is?
24:17I think it might be Jascha Heifetz.
24:19You're right. And you heard part of the Brahms clarinet quintet
24:22and it was Jervis de Peier with the Melo Sanson.
24:26Okay? Patricia, one for you.
24:29Toscanini.
24:58Yes.
24:58And he was a cellist, wasn't he?
25:01You're quite right.
25:01Didn't he play the cello at the early performances of, was it, Othello or Full Star?
25:06He was an orchestral cellist, yes.
25:09But surely by the time he was recordable, he'd ceased to be a cellist.
25:14Oh, yes. Oh, yes. I think by 18 years he was a conductor.
25:18So the face was not playing the...
25:19No. As a matter of fact, you were listening to Jacqueline Dupre and Daniel Balboim.
25:25It was, by the way, an unusual work, the Sonata for Cello and Piano by Chopin.
25:31Now, David.
25:32Well, if Gervis de Peier is taking...
25:50Well, if Gervais Depayre has taken up the cello, it could be,
26:04but Gervais Depayre is a very distinguished clarinetist as well as a conductor these days.
26:09And that was a cello playing on wings of song.
26:13So the answer is no, it wasn't Gervais Depayre playing the cello.
26:17Well, that last bit was absolutely right.
26:20It was in fact the picture of Gervais Depayre,
26:23but it was Heifetz playing the violin arrangement of wings.
26:28Was it? Not a cello? No. Gosh.
26:30Playing a very deep register. Very deep register.
26:33And now for the hidden melody.
26:41I disguise a tune in the style of a composer and you guess the tune and the style.
26:46So.
26:46Okay.
26:48So.
26:48J.
28:20Because there was a bit of the Paganini variations and there was a bit of the second piano concerto in that.
28:26Yes.
28:27And did...
28:29Is the hidden melody all about someone who fell into the foaming brine?
28:33Good gracious me, no.
28:34Oh, well, I'm wrong, aren't I?
28:37No, I just play with the left hand.
28:39That was Away in a Manger in the style of Rachmaninoff.
29:04And it's goodnight and Christmas greetings from Patricia Owen, John Julius Norwich, David Attenborough, David Wilcox and me, Joseph Cooper.
29:29Seek solace.
29:31Drift off with the perfect soporific selection of soothing music.
29:35Wind down with the sleeping forecast.
29:36Listen on BBC Sounds.
29:52Thank you very much.
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