Six Degrees of Separation

[Nick Armstrong]

He may well have: I've only just caught up with the news that he'd arrived! (The last time I listened to R2, it was Jimmy Young's final prog. Indelibly associated in my memory with Alan Forte's The Structure of Atonal Music - a copy of which I bought from Ilkley Oxfam: listened to JY in the car on the way in and back.)

You're a strange and complicated fellow, fhg... and I like you!

PS: I nearly said "...but I like you!"

[salymap]

And I didn'tknow George Elrick was still broadcasting after the 1930s Henry Hall radio, my very first radio memory.


I knew and could sing all the songs HH played, "Why did she fall for the leader of the band" was my favourite, with the 'Teddy Bears' Picnic'. I was about 3 years old

[Richard Tarleton]

When it comes to degrees of separation, Franz Liszt was the Kevin Bacon of classical music. Thanks to his long and gregarious life, extensive travels and pupils whose active lives stretched well into the 20th century, he can be reached in may different ways. Thanks to my chess-playing friend , I can get back to Liszt in 5, which means I'm 6 from Beethoven (whom Liszt met as a boy), Hummel (friend of Liszt's father Adam), Paganini, Chopin, Mendelssohn, Robert and Clara Schumann, Brahms, Rossini, Berlioz, Meyerbeer, Smetana, Wagner and Bruckner.

Part of the Liszt mythology includes a meeting with Schubert, but Liszt said categorically they never met, although he stayed in Vienna in 1822 a "stone's throw" [Alan Walker] from where Schubert lived. Though he and Verdi were both at a performance of Massenet's Le Cid at the Paris Opera on 27 March 1886, Liszt's party only arrived for the last act and they were not introduced.

I'm particularly pleased about Bruckner

Anyone who has shaken hands with Solti backstage can get back to Liszt in 4 - his first teacher was Székely, who studied with Thomán, who studied with Liszt. That person can get back to Beethoven in 5, and Haydn in 6. You know who you are

PS The director of the Liszt Academy when Solti was there was Jeno Hubay, who had been a pupil of Joachim, an ex-friend of Liszt (because he was a friend of Brahms and opposed to the "new music"). Solti mentions in his memoirs that he attended a recital by Emil von Sauer, one of Liszt's last surviving pupils, but does not mention meeting him. If he had done so that would be Liszt in 3 for anyone who had met Solti - and Beethoven in 4, Haydn in 5.....

[John Wright]

I knew and could sing all the songs HH played, "Why did she fall for the leader of the band" was my favourite, with the 'Teddy Bears' Picnic'. I was about 3 years old

Well, salymap, a Henry Hall fan! In my (over 200) podcasts I've played more than 70 Henry Hall 78's:

http://www.r2ok.co.uk/playlists.htm

and I wrote a short internet biography of HH some years ago, here :

http://www.jabw.demon.co.uk/hhall01.htm

[amateur51]

He may well have: I've only just caught up with the news that he'd arrived! (The last time I listened to R2, it was Jimmy Young's final prog. Indelibly associated in my memory with Alan Forte's The Structure of Atonal Music - a copy of which I bought from Ilkley Oxfam: listened to JY in the car on the way in and back.)

Oh is Moylesy on Radio 2 now then?

If so, it is I who needs to keep up

[Petrushka]

Anyone who has shaken hands with Solti backstage can get back to Liszt in 4 - his first teacher was Székely, who studied with Thomán, who studied with Liszt. That person can get back to Beethoven in 5, and Haydn in 6. You know who you are

I think I do, yes.

I can get to Brahms in three moves via Karl Böhm who was taught by Eusebius Mandyczewski, a friend of Brahms. I met Böhm in December 1978 so can do Richard Strauss in two moves.

I met Leonard Bernstein in 1985 so that must open up quite a few of interest.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I met Leonard Bernstein in 1985 so that must open up quite a few of interest.

Hmm.

Bernstein - Stravinsky - Rimsky-Korsakoff - Balakirev - Berlioz - Cherubini - Beethoven etc

Bernstein - Boulanger - Vierne - Saint-Saens - Berlioz etc

... whichever route, you're back to Bach in ten.

[Nick Armstrong]

Hmm.

Bernstein - Stravinsky - Rimsky-Korsakoff - Balakirev - Berlioz - Cherubini - Beethoven etc

Bernstein - Boulanger - Vierne - Saint-Saens - Berlioz etc

... whichever route, you're back to Bach in ten.

AH! cool! I got a hug off Lenny! That's exciting - Berlioz in 5, Bach in 10

Cheers ferns!

[Nick Armstrong]

I can do Richard Strauss in two moves.

The mind boggles!

[Flosshilde]

I've come to the conclusion that I've led a very dull & restricted life - I don't think I've met anybody. I haven't even raked through any dustbins

[salymap]

I've come to the conclusion that I've led a very dull & restricted life - I don't think I've met anybody. I haven't even raked through any dustbins

What does 'met' mean though Flossie. I may have met a lot of musicians, only one or two would recognise me by name if they passed me in the street. I was part of the furniture in a way.

That's working in music for you.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I've come to the conclusion that I've led a very dull & restricted life - I don't think I've met anybody. I haven't even raked through any dustbins

Quick, flossie; send a PM to ahinton

- Busoni - everyone!

[amateur51]

Quick, flossie; send a PM to ahinton

- Busoni - everyone!

[salymap]

Does a link with the Busoni PC, all 80 minutes count?

I got the parts in from, err, somewhere, arranged a fee with the record company for John Ogdon recording.

Everyone away but me, apparently I did okay. Sadly never got around to hearing the recording.

[Flosshilde]

I was part of the furniture in a way.

I don't think you could ever just be 'part of the furniture'