Desert Island Discs

[Barbirollians]

Anyway, this thread was meant to be about your eight choices and I was interested to know whether forumites would choose exclusively classical works .

My choices have changed overnight ! Having listened to it this afternoon - Barbirolli''s Kings Lynn Elgar 1 is in and Silvestri is out .

[Richard Tarleton]

I was interested to know whether forumites would choose exclusively classical works

My classical choices, like those of others, change constantly, but there would always have to be room for Bob Dylan's Desolation Row, not least for its soaring guitar descant, improvised in the studio by a Nashville session man who just happened to drop in to pick up some theatre tickets from the producer.

The other seven - today - would be

Bach Cello suite no 6
Beethoven Op 131
Wagner.....er......Quintet from Act 3 Die Meistersinger
R Strauss 4 Last Songs (Beim Schlafengehen if limited to one)
Britten Nocturnal after John Dowland (Julian Bream)
Schubert Nacht und Traume (Anne Murray/Graham Johnson)
Bruckner 7 Haitink/RCO

My luxury would be my guitar so I could play lots of Dowland for myself.

[Flosshilde]

whatever those "rules" are, however, I do recall their precluding David Dimbleby from taking Kirsty Young as his luxury item.

Do they still ban grand pianos, on the grounds that you could use it as a shelter?

I assumed that '8 discs' was shorthand for eight works. If so, The Ring would be on my list (it would be anyway, not just because it offers the greatest quantity of music in one work).

Perhaps the allowance might be changed to 'eight downloads' soon.

[LHC]

LHC appears to have been reading the Daily Mail .

That's possibly the nastiest thing anyone has ever said to me I would never read that rag.

Anyway, to get back on track, today my desert island discs would include:

Das Lied von der Erde (Klemperer)
Simon Boccanegra (Abbado)
Sibelius 2nd Symphony (LSO/Davis)
Mahler 3 (Abbado)
Beethoven 3 (HvK - 1963)
Idomeneo (Gardiner)
Berg Violin Concerto
and one non-classical - John Martin: One World.

[teamsaint]

So if we have to have rules.....pop/rock can be albums OR songs, yes?

[Flosshilde]

Das Lied von der Erde (Klemperer)
Simon Boccanegra (Abbado)
Sibelius 2nd Symphony (LSO/Davis)
Mahler 3 (Abbado)
Beethoven 3 (HvK - 1963)
Idomeneo (Gardiner)
Berg Violin Concerto
and one non-classical - John Martin: One World.

They would do very well for me (although I might prefer the Mackerras Idomeneo; instead of the Sibelius, Beethoven, Berg & Martin I'd have something by Monteverdi (perhaps Orfeo, or one of the books of madrigals}, something by Bach (a cello suite possibly), and maybe Stravinsky's Oedipus Rex (a standby when I was feeling a bit low), and (I'm going to get into trouble for this one) The Lark Ascending.

As for books, the Bible would be the last thing I'd want so I'd insist on a substitute as well as my allowed choice.

[Barbirollians]

So if we have to have rules.....pop/rock can be albums OR songs, yes?

No - individual songs . Whole works are allowed though .

[Barbirollians]

The Ring would count as four choices.

[Anna]

As for books, the Bible would be the last thing I'd want so I'd insist on a substitute as well as my allowed choice.

That would be the first thing, The Bible - for the language, which is part of our language as much as Shakespeare is and it would have to be the King James version not some easy-for-all nonsense!
I haven't finished my list, but Natalie Merchant is up there with Ophelia, plus a Billie Holiday and a Marilyn Monroe.

[Flosshilde]

The Bible - for the language, which is part of our language as much as Shakespeare is

And the Daily Mail, but I wouldn't want that either. I suppose you could read the Bible as you would any other work of fiction, but I would find that the 'story' and the use to which it has been put would rather take the gilt off the language. I'd have to think of an acceptable substitute - The Lord of the Rings, perhaps?

(I'm pretty sure that the complete works of an author are allowed in one volume, so why not the complete works of a composer on one computer hard drive?)

[Anna]

And the Daily Mail, but I wouldn't want that either. I suppose you could read the Bible as you would any other work of fiction,

Oh, Look, Proverbs 5:
For the lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil:
But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword.
Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold on hell.
Lest thou shouldest ponder the path of life, her ways are moveable, that thou canst not know them.

I think that language is thrilling - but that's just me! Sorry again for being off-topic. I'm not a believer, but I do love the way it expresses, stuff so wonderfully.
Oh, did I say, Elgar is on my list?

[EdgeleyRob]

My list would change from week to week (except for RVW and Elgar).
If we are allowed only chunks they are in brackets.

Vaughan Williams,9th Symphony / RLPO,Handley (last movement).
Elgar,2nd Symphony / LPO,Boult,1975 (slow movement).
Rubbra,4th Symphony / Philharmonia,Del Mar (last movement).
Ireland,Cello Sonata / Wallfisch,York (slow movement).
Alwyn,Lyra Angelica / Osian Ellis,RPO,Alwyn (first movement).
Mendelssohn,String Quartet in F Minor Op 80 / Henschel Quartet (first movement).
Shostakovich 7th Symphony / CSO Bernstein (third movement).
Alkan 12 Etudes Op 39 / Gibbons (No 12 Le festin d'Esope).

Luxury,a piano.

Book,any from which I could learn to play said piano (Alkan for dummies?).

[remdataram]

Restricting the list to eight pieces is very difficult, mine would change day by day.

Here is today's:

Beethoven Eroica Guilini LAPO
Beethoven 4th Piano Concerto Serkin Ormandy Philadelphia
Beethoven String Quartet No.14 Takacs Quartet
Donizetti Lucia di Lammermoor Sutherland Pavarotti Bonynge
Mahler Symphony No.2 Klemperer Bayern 1965 Live
Mahler Symphony No.6 Karajan BPO
Schubert Piano Trio No.2 Beaux Arts Trio
Richard Strauss Ein Heldenleben Haintink RCO

Omitting anything by Dvorak, Liszt, Sibelius and Tchaikovsky gives me a very unhappy feeling....

[Richard Tarleton]

Oh, Look, Proverbs 5:
For the lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil:
But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword.
Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold on hell.
Lest thou shouldest ponder the path of life, her ways are moveable, that thou canst not know them.

OT, but not surprising those who take the bible a tad literally don't want women as bishops

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Anyway, this thread was meant to be about your eight choices and I was interested to know whether forumites would choose exclusively classical works .

I think that, because I'd spend so much time regreting the discs I'd left behind, I'd rather have seven discs of Music I don't know chosen by others whose tastes and opinions I trust. Calum could select seven Jazz CDs for me - Richard Tarleton some Dowland, Weiss etc - Globaltruth some examples of the world's indigenous Musics - - that sort of thing. Roehre'd have a field day!