- 13 hours ago
Question master Joseph Cooper invites viewers to match their musical wits against Valerie Pitts, Robin Ray and Patrick Moore. With guest musician Maurice Gendron.
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00:00Hello everyone, on our panel tonight we have Valerie Pitts, Patrick Moore and Robin
00:24Ray. Good evening. Now knowing you are with us, Sir Patrick, we've called our first round Heavenly Bodies. Nothing personal, of course. I do understand. Here are three pieces that have associations with the stars in the sky. Can you identify them? First, Patrick, your Heavenly Body.
01:24There are two composers you won't catch me on, Sullivan and Johann Strauss, and that is the sun whose rays are all ablaze from the Mikado by Sullivan. Absolutely right.
01:36That was very generous of you as number one. Now, Valerie, a heavenly body for you.
01:42It's O Star of Eve. Yes.
01:58It's O Star of Eve. Yes.
02:10Yes. Yes, and it's from a Wagner opera. Yes. Which one is it from? Your husband was conducting it, so you'd better know.
02:18I know. This is another occasion when I shan't dare to go home. Which one is it? I don't know.
02:24Well, have a pot shot.
02:26Tannhauser. Correct.
02:28Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
02:32You can go home. The shame of it. The shame of it.
02:35Actually, which is the Star of Eve, Patrick?
02:38I've never quite made out of my mind. I think it was probably Venus.
02:40Really? I think so, yes.
02:42But is that the first star that's up in the evening?
02:45Oh, yes. It's the brightest. Yes. Fine.
02:47Lastly, one for you, Robin.
03:17Well, we reckon it's Ripsky-Korsakov. Do you? Yes.
03:29You see, I'm saying we, because if anyone's going to get blamed, they are...
03:33Him to the sun. Yes. Very good. Yes.
03:38What opera does it come from? Um...
03:40Did you manage to pick that up? Yes. Oh, yes. Yes.
03:44Well, there can't be very many, can there? It's not the golden cockerel.
03:48Yes, it is. Oh. It is the golden cockerel.
03:54We've now got a rather difficult question. Funny instruments.
03:57This is the one where we play you a piece of music on the wrong instrument.
04:01Can you say what the right instrument should be and identify the piece?
04:05First, Patrick.
04:07I'm going to get this wrong. It's Rachmaninoff. Yes.
04:08Well, the point is, as you know better than I, after the Great Piano Concerto, he wrote two more, numbers three and four.
04:13Yeah. One of them was Three Blind Mice, because Rachmaninoff didn't know what it was.
04:28And this is the one that listened to Three Blind Mice.
04:30So, if Three Blind Mice is number three, that's number four. And if Three Blind Mice is number four, that's number three.
04:35And I'm going to make a most almighty guess. I think Three Blind Mice is number four, in which case, that's number three.
04:40But I could be wrong. Quite right. Am I right?
04:43Three Blind Mice. It's not Three Blind Mice.
04:44No, it's number three.
04:45No, it's number three, though.
04:46That's right.
04:47That's right.
04:48And I'm going to make the most almighty guess.
04:50I think Three Blind Mice is number four, in which case that's number three.
04:53But I could be wrong.
04:54Quite right.
04:55Am I right?
04:56Three Blind Mice.
04:57It's not Three Blind Mice.
04:58No, it's number three, though.
04:59That's right.
05:03Well done.
05:07It's the opening tune of Rachmaninoff's third piano concerto.
05:10And, of course, it should be played on the piano.
05:12Yes, that I did know, but I didn't know what number it was.
05:14Now, Valerie, your funny instrument.
05:18Violin?
05:32Yes.
05:33Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto.
05:34Correct.
05:41And lastly, one for Robin.
05:48Oh, well, I think I've heard the tune before, and it's a sort of classical piece.
06:07Is it from a concerto for another solo instrument?
06:12A Mozart concerto?
06:13No, but...
06:14Haydn?
06:14Yes.
06:15Yes.
06:18Valerie says...
06:19No, it couldn't be.
06:20Valerie says it couldn't be.
06:21No.
06:22It's a Haydn concerto.
06:24Horn concerto.
06:26No.
06:26You see, it couldn't be.
06:27You were right.
06:28It's the concerto for something you blow.
06:31Straight.
06:31No, cello.
06:32Cello.
06:32Cello.
06:33Haydn's cello concerto.
06:34Well done.
06:41Shame of it.
06:42Shame of it.
06:43No, that was all right.
06:44It was from the finale of the Haydn D Major Cello Concerto.
06:48Right.
06:49Now for our friend, the dummy keyboard.
06:52You hear its noises and see my movements, but there is no music for you.
06:57But you at home will hear the music after a bit.
06:59Now you've got to guess what I'm playing, and it's a free-for-all tonight.
07:03It's a very well-known solo piano piece.
07:06I'm starting in the middle of the piece, and I've got a special extra question for Robin.
07:11Why is it an odd op?
07:15Oh.
07:15Here we go.
07:33Here we go.
07:37Here we go.
07:38Here we go.
07:40Oh, my God.
08:10Oh, my God.
08:40Oh, my God.
09:10Oh, my God.
09:40Oh, my God.
10:10And is what you're getting at the fact that Rachmaninoff wrote 24 keyboard preludes, like Chopin did, but whereas Chopin's are all under one opus number, like opus 28, I think, that Rachmaninoff's first sort of lot were opus 23 and the second lot were palindromic.
10:27They were opus 32, and this is the only prelude that is not of those two opera.
10:33Now, we move on to Voices Past and Present, where we play you recordings of singers of yesterday and today.
10:47Can you say whether the voice you hear belongs to the singer whose face you see, first Patrick?
10:53Yeah.
10:55Yeah.
10:56Yeah.
10:57Yeah.
10:59Yeah.
11:01Yeah.
11:03Oh, well, is Caruso all right?
11:31Yes.
11:31The question is, was that Caruso on the screen?
11:35I haven't the faintest idea.
11:37Yes.
11:38The answer is no.
11:41Well, we had an alternative ready, didn't we?
11:43Gili.
11:44Yes, Gili.
11:45It's an early, rather misleading picture of Gili.
11:48Yes, yes.
11:49We thought it might be like the Caruso or Gili.
11:52Singing what sounded like Two Lovely Back Eyes,
11:55but is in fact Viennese Sulma,
11:57which is a sort of Italian version of it.
11:59Oh, yes.
11:59Anyway, that's the answer.
12:02You heard Caruso, quite correct, Patrick,
12:04but you saw Gili.
12:06Now, Valerie, what about yours?
12:13Yes, yes, yes, yes.
12:43Yes. Well, that was Elizabeth Schwarzkopf.
12:47Yes.
12:47You mean you were looking at?
12:48We were looking at.
12:49Yes.
12:49And we were hearing Master Luff singing Over the Wings of a Down.
12:53Absolutely right, yes.
13:02Now, the fascinating point about Master Luff, Ernest Luff, by the way.
13:06Oh, it was Ernest Luff.
13:06Yes, that he is the father of Robin Luff,
13:10who directs the cameras at this very moment of Face the Music.
13:13On your knees, everybody.
13:15On your knees, everybody.
13:20Now, lastly, one for you, Robin Ray.
13:23I believe that the man who is in the world
13:29is the one who is in the world.
13:30As long as he believes, he will not be the one who is in the world.
13:36And the one who thinks that the man who is in the world
13:42is the one who is in the world.
13:44That was Tito Gobbi, that we were seeing on the screen, who was a tenor.
13:56The man we were listening to was a baritone too, so it was the same man, wasn't it?
14:02It was.
14:10A minor point, what was he singing?
14:13Opera.
14:14No, he was singing Iago's Credo from Othello by Verdi.
14:23Right, well, take a rest.
14:27It's now time for our guest tonight.
14:29He's a French cellist, best known in this country, not only for his concerts and recitals,
14:34but also through his association with the great violinist Yehudi Menuhin and the Menuhin School.
14:40We welcome Maurice Gendron.
14:42Maurice, your first question, whose drama was this music written for?
14:59La Lésienne.
15:27Alphonse Daudet, but you know, it's very strange that you should ask me this.
15:32I'm Provençal, I come from south of France.
15:34And a friend of mine...
15:37I'm going to interrupt you, but I want, first of all, the answer, whose drama was it?
15:43La Lésienne, Daudet.
15:44Yeah, Daudet.
15:45Alphonse Daudet.
15:46Alphonse Daudet.
15:47And the music by...
15:49Frédéric Mistral, our great Provençal poet, wrote once to Roumanie, one of the Provençal poets,
15:56wrote, a drama happened in my family, a boy killed himself for a girl from Arles.
16:02And he wrote the long letter, desperate letter, about this cousin of his.
16:06To whom?
16:07Please.
16:08To whom did he write it?
16:09To Roumanie.
16:10Frédéric Mistral, to Roumanie, who was one of the seven poets who founded the Feli Bridge.
16:15He didn't write it to Daudet?
16:16No.
16:17And he said, please, don't show this letter to Daudet.
16:20Don't.
16:21It's very strange, because then, naturally, Roumanie showed the letter to Daudet, and then
16:28La Lésienne came out.
16:30And the same story?
16:31Yes.
16:32Exactly the same story.
16:33The play by Daudet was a flop, but the music by Bizet has survived in the suites, has it
16:38not?
16:39And it's very strange, because the first time a saxophone was played was in La Lésienne,
16:44because Adolph Sax, who invented the saxophone, showed to Daudet this new instrument, and in
16:52the Bizet score, there is a solo of saxophones for the first time in the music industry.
16:57That's interesting.
16:58And you come from that part of the world.
17:00You were born at Nice.
17:01Nice, yes.
17:02And you were at the Nice Conservatoire.
17:04Yes, yes.
17:05Now, was the discipline very strict there, like it is in most French schools?
17:09Yes, always.
17:10When you're a boy, when you're going to school, you find the discipline is always too strict.
17:15But what about your own personal teacher, Gerliel?
17:18Oh, he was a fantastic man.
17:21I was petrified when I used to go to my lessons, because he had a big moustache like Napoleon
17:26and I was scared to death when I went to my lessons twice a day.
17:30I had to take a bus from Cannes to Nice.
17:33And I was petrified and sick on the bus.
17:37And arriving, I couldn't find the button to ring the bell.
17:41And many years after his death, I heard that his wife used to bit him.
17:45What?
17:46Yes, his wife used to bit him.
17:48Bite him?
17:49Yes, bit him.
17:50You beat him?
17:51Yes.
17:52Yes, bit him.
17:53Yes.
17:54If only I could have known that before.
17:56I would have been so petrified.
18:03That was hugely fascinating.
18:05Oh, good.
18:06You never know what wives get up to.
18:11Now, tell me you are one of that small handful of the great cellists of the world,
18:16the world but have you yourself ever known lean times no you haven't no you've never been poor
18:23you've always had a rich aunt oh no no i've been what you mean is very poor yes oh yeah we talk
18:31about lean times i'm sorry it's an english phrase for not having any much money in your pocket
18:36oh no no no i was very poor actually when i left can to go to paris they had to give me the the
18:43assistance public a free train ticket and when i arrived in paris i had to make my own living
18:49which meant to sell the newspaper in the street shouting that i know very well and then
19:01you never understand what they're shouting but you buy the newspaper
19:04and then i had to to to learn i was working for a shirt maker so i had to iron shirts and
19:17hand trousers so when i got married i told my wife how to on shirts and trousers
19:24but gradually you made your way and you stopped and yes you see gradually it sounds
19:30very easy when when you're in the limelight you see well you made it but by the time you're starving
19:36it's it seems an awful long time it comes very slowly very slowly uh now let's go to england very
19:43quickly uh when did you first play in england and where 30 years ago i played a joint recital
19:51with francis poulenc bernac and the second half i played with a very promising young english composer
19:57which was benjamin britain oh yes is that how you met uh yahudi benjamin through after that i met
20:04yahudi through ben yes yes yes and then you started this long association with uh yahudi and now of
20:10course you teach once a month at the yahudi menu yes and this is fascinating now you also teach at the
20:16paris conservatoire yes now i'm interested to know how you find the difference between teaching at the one
20:22one and the other and the other is there any difference basically great difference because
20:28at the menu in school we have children beginning it's wonderful when you work with the children
20:33it's like working with clay i mean you do whatever you want with them and they they only can get good
20:39habits you see and proper technique but when you teach at the conservatoire in paris which is
20:45fascinating interesting it's another quite another kind of teaching you're facing boys and girls already
20:5319 or 20 years of age which is too late in fact to change something yes you have to to to make do with
21:02it i mean to to do the best you can with these boys and girls and you find some of them have developed
21:07bad habits that you can't cure you can't cure they're crippled for life yes now let's go on to another
21:12question all this has been very interesting but what's transatlantic about this piece of music
21:42the dvorak yes the dvorak yes he was in new york yes yes may i say straight away that that was you
21:54playing and how beautifully you were playing thank you that is the most
22:03that's the most beautiful record you made of the dvorak cello concerto which you made with the london
22:07philharmonic orchestra with height ink i think yes and didn't it win a prize yes we had the the
22:13grand prix l'académie du disque the best record of the year in germany and something in japan and
22:20this was the second time i met the recording with the lpo yes and when i came for because the first
22:26recording i met on 78 with the london philharmonic under karl runkel uh in 1946 when i came for the recording
22:35session there was still some boys from the the old times and when i came i couldn't understand why
22:40i sat down and they blow a big fanfare when i write to greet me it was very sweet how nice yes now i know
22:48that you're very interested in manuscripts and you collect manuscripts have you ever seen the manuscript
22:52of the dvorak cello concerto yes because i i was very a good friend with the dvorak daughter-in-law
22:59julia dvorak she married dr dvorak's son and i was in prague and she got out of the bank of manuscript
23:08i had on my lap the new world symphony the g major symphony the violin concerto and the cello
23:14concerto and i felt that i could walk out with them wonderful you notice any differences in the
23:23concerto well uh i mean as you play it and as it was in the manuscript it's very strange because there
23:28were two or three spots i corrected from my instinct uh myself and when i got the manuscript i saw that
23:36he had scratched the the paper and corrected himself two two things one harmonic failure they were still
23:43published you could tell the cellist where it is and uh some things i mean i changed and i was very
23:50pleased to to have this and i got also the sketch of the sketchbook he had all the first the first
23:56ideas about the cello concerto he he wanted to write it in d minor thank god he didn't because
24:03it wouldn't sound so well in the cello i'm glad he did well thank you maurice and ron very much indeed
24:09thank you please just stay with us and relax and enjoy the rest of the program
24:27now back to the panel for the funny opera this is where we show you a scene from an opera or operetta
24:32with the wrong music attached to it you've got to guess the opera you see
24:35and the opera you hear and it's a free-for-all
24:46oh
25:07oh
25:08okay
25:39What were we looking at? Boris. Boris Goodenov. Yes. Boris Goodenov. By Mussorgsky. By Mussorgsky? Yes. Quite right. You were seeing the... Opera by... Yes. Yes. And his son was there. And you were listening to... Was it an opera by Joe Green? Giuseppe Verdi. I'm sorry.
26:01I'm sorry. Robin's friend, Joe Green. Joe Green, wasn't it? Yes. Was it... Rigoletto? Rigoletto. And the number was... Oh, I don't know. Do you know what the... No, it's very famous, I know. But I don't know what it's called.
26:17Anybody know? Gilda. Yep. Gilda's Cara Nomme. Yeah. And Rigoletto. Okay.
26:23I've seen you. I've seen you. I've seen you. I've seen you.
26:26I've seen you. Now just recap. You saw Boris Goodenov. By Mussorgsky. And you heard Rigoletto. By Verdi. And now for the hidden melody.
26:37This is where I wrap up a tune in the style of a composer. And you have to guess the tune and the style.
26:47Huh?
26:55Here you go.
26:57Gilda.
26:58Okay.
27:03Here we go.
28:3554 on the way, right?
28:39Right, well, I'm afraid time's up.
28:41So it's goodnight from Valerie Pitts, Patrick Moore, Robin Ray, Maurice Gendron, and me, Joseph Cooper.
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