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Ian Bostridge

Kirsty Young's castaway is musician and opera singer Ian Bostridge.

Kirsty Young's castaway this week is the tenor Ian Bostridge. He is regarded as one of the great Lieder singers of our time and has delighted audiences in opera houses and concert halls the world over. But for him, music wasn't a straightforward career choice. He started out as a historian, and for years led two parallel lives, spending term times at Oxford, writing about witchcraft and magic, while in the holidays he'd throw himself into an operatic production.

Eventually, his book on witchcraft was finished just before his debut with the English National Opera. Magic appeals to people in a way that is both mysterious and irrational and so it is, he says, not so different to music.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Favourite track: Last movement of the Piano Sonata No.31 in A flat by Ludwig van Beethoven
Book: War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
Luxury: A solar computer loaded with pictures of my family and friends.

Available now

45 minutes

Last on

Fri 31 Oct 2008 09:00
Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4

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Music Played

  • Franz Schubert

    Das Wandern (from Die Schöne Müllerin)

    Soloist: Dietrich Fischer Dieskau

    • Schubert: Die Schone Mullerin.
    • EMI.

  • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

    Countessa's Aria (from The Marriage of Figaro)

    Soloist: Gundula Janowitz

    • The Marriage of Figaro.
    • Deutsche Grammophon.

  • Castaway's Favourite

    • Ludwig van Beethoven

      Piano Sonata No. 31 in A flat major, Op. 110 - 3rd movement

      Soloist: Artur Schnabel

      • The Piano Library: Artur Schnabel.
      • PL.

  • Bob Dylan

    Don't Think Twice, It's All Right

    • The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan.
    • CBS.

  • Benjamin Britten

    Now, until the break of day (from A Midsummer Night's Dream)

    Soloist: Alfred Deller, Peter Pears Conductor: Benjamin Britten

    • A Midsummer Night's Dream.
    • London.

  • Robert Schumann

    The Opening of Schumann's Piano Quintet in E flat

    Orchestra: The Beaux Arts Trio

    • Schumann: Piano Quartet.
    • Philips.

  • Thomas AdΓ¨s

    The Quintet from the end of Thomas Ades's opera The Tempest - 2007

    Orchestra: Members of the Royal Opera House

  • Johann Sebastian Bach

    Cantata No. 51: Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen

    Soloist: Emma Kirby Choir: The English Baroque Soloists Conductor: John Eliot Gardiner

    • Bach: D Major Magnificat.
    • Philips.

  • Book Choice

    • War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy

  • Luxury Choice

    • A solar computer loaded with pictures of my family and friends

Credits

Presenter Kirsty Young
Interviewed Guest Ian Bostridge

Broadcasts

  • Sun 26 Oct 2008 11:15
    Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4
  • Fri 31 Oct 2008 09:00
    Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4

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