Main content

Al Alvarez

Sue Lawley's castaway is poet and critic Al Alvarez.

Sue Lawley's guest this week is Al Alvarez. In the late 1950s, as the influential poetry critic of the Observer, he favoured a style of writing which reflected the disarray of the times, in the aftermath of the Second World War and the shadow of the nuclear bomb. He befriended and championed poets such as Robert Lowell, Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath. Later he wrote The Savage God, a study of suicide in which he recalled her death and described his own attempt.

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

Favourite track: Quartet No. 132 by Ludwig van Beethoven
Book: Interpretation of Dreams by Sigmund Freud
Luxury: Laptop computer with poker game software

Available now

45 minutes

Last on

Fri 24 Mar 2000 09:00
Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4

More episodes

Previous

Colin Montgomerie

Next

Adrian Noble

See all episodes from Desert Island Discs

Music Played

  • Castaway's Favourite

    • Ludwig van Beethoven

      String Quartet No. 15 in A minor, Op. 132

      Orchestra: Hungarian Quartet

      • Beethoven: String Quartets 11-17.
      • EMI.

  • Franz Schubert

    Piano Sonata No. 21 in B flat major, D960

    Soloist: Alfred Brendel

    • Sonatas.
    • Philips.

  • George Frideric Handel

    Or let merry bells (from L'allegro, il penseroso ed il moderato)

    Soloist: Michael Ginn Choir: Monteverdi Choir Orchestra: English Baroque Soloists Conductor: John Eliot Gardiner

    • L’Allegro Il Penseroso ed il Moderato (pastoral Ode).
    • Erato.

  • Dr. Hook

    Cover of the Rolling Stone

    • Dr Hook and the Medicine show revisited.
    • Columbia.

  • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

    Sull'aria (from The Marriage of Figaro)

    Soloist: Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and Irmgard Seefried Orchestra: Vienna Philharmonic Conductor: Herbert von Karajan

    • Le Nozze Di Figaro.
    • EMI.

  • CristΓ³bal de Morales

    Parce Mihi Domine (from Officium Defunctorum)

    Orchestra: Hilliard Ensemble Conductor: Jan Garbarek

    • Officium.
    • ECM.

  • Zero Mostel

    I Was An Incubator Baby

    • Zero Mostel sings Harry Ruby’s 'Songs my Mother Never Sang'.
    • Vanguard.

  • They Can't Take That Away From Me

  • Book Choice

    • Interpretation of Dreams - Sigmund Freud

  • Luxury Choice

    • Laptop computer with poker game software

Credits

Presenter Sue Lawley
Interviewed Guest Al Alvarez

Broadcasts

  • Sun 19 Mar 2000 11:15
    Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4
  • Fri 24 Mar 2000 09:00
    Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4

Featured in...

The Desert Island Discs podcast

The Desert Island Discs podcast

Subscribe or download individual episodes.

Listen to over 2,000 programmes

Click above to browse castaways, from 1942 to today.

Articles

Read the surprising things we've learned about some stand-out castaways.

Podcast