Victoriar`. und am 4.7.1958 in eineu Interviev zu IMax pLay a big part

8.1.1958 h6rte man A.W. in einer Radiosendung des BBC_
Hone- Service als Sprecher ln r.The Richard Tauber Storyr,
der c€schichte des ber{lhnteh Sanger6r der wle A,W. selbat
wehrend der dreLBiger Jahre nach London enLgrj-ert war.
Dlese offenbar beliebte SendunE wurde alll 13.4.1959 und
31.10.1959 Jeweils wiederholt. Errtnale lrar A.W. auch itl
Fernseh-Progranrn der BBC zu sehen! an U.2.Lgse in einer
Sendung Uber Anna Neagle, seiner ehenaligen
'reueen
Victoriar'. und am 4.7.1958 in eineu Interviev zu IMax
ophu1sn.l,g vor allem aber wurde er Anfang 19s8 fur eine
Folge der danals bellebten Radioserie
"Desert fsland
Dlscs,r befragt. Unter der Annahne, auf eLner einsanen
Insel gestrandet zu sein, hatten sich dabei bekannte
Pere6nllchkeiten acht Schallplatten und wenige andere
cegenEtande auszuwahLen, dle ihre pers6nlichan Vorlieben
kennzej.chaen und ihnen die Elnsamkelt ertragllch machen
sollten. Wehrend der nach Art eineg fntervi.elrs
aufgebauten Sendung konnte lnan nlcht nur die
entsprechenden platgen h6ren, sondern auch einige
biographische Details und die Begrtihdung der jeweils
getroffenen Auslrah1 erfahren. Die Folgen nit A.W. wurden
am 3.2. und 29.3.1954 gesendet.2o cemliR
ater une von der Bac
.ur Verfugung gosteLlten Niedolschri.tt des Intelviews, aus dem w1r
hi6r 6lnlgc Ausschnltt6 l,riedergeben, q,ird A.W. 1rl d6! Atnfifhrung den
116r€r,l zqntchat a]6 ,'one of the fer{ truly intelnational star. of the
tlr€atle and tho eine!B,. vorgestellt. Dle 6rst6 Flag€ d6s
,nt€rvlelisr6 - !{r. plomley - Iaut€t dann:
Ur. Walbrook, hoi{ nuch does nusic mean to you, does it
pLay a big part in your tife?
A.W.: A grenendoug anount, I could not live wj.thout
r[uElc.
... How did you set about s€Looting just elght records to
laat f,or nbat Dlght De a vsry long ex1ls?
A.W.r WeI1, I found j.t very difficult to rnake up ny minC
to find out vhich i6 the nost beautiful. IIIusic in the
Am
I
Erlorl Unklloea Elrltcb argur€lt.
(/"::-)
L5 t--/
\ .r,-
irorLd. So I did a litt1e blt of thinking ...1 what is
to do vho is condenned to sit. on this uretched
island of yours for nothing to do, you just stay and grow
older and older and older, and wbat do o1d people do?
They think back. They think back to thel,r childhood. And
I made up my nind to choose eight records which played an
enornous part in my life fron ny twelfth or thirteenth
year oNrardg until twenty years 1ater,
Als erste PLatte r,rShlt A.W. die Ouverture zu ',La
Traviatai' (Verdi, "Ia Traviatari, prelude, N.B.C. Synphony
orcheEtra, Toscanini), nit der die clowns crock und
Antonet ihre Zirkusauftritte in Berlin einzuleiten
pfLegten, fiir den (naben A.W. der Anl.aB, seinen ersten
anybody
Xlavierunterricht zu nehmen.
.., lyel1, you said that Dusic Ead6 you dssiats to stuaty
tlq piano. Do you play rny othsr itrstru[onts?
A.W.: I don-t play them any tnore, but then when I decided
to take up piano I had played the *(violin?),li the
concertiha, the guitar. I think that-s about aft/ yes . ,
everything !,las by ear, nothing was according to nusic.
And ihen I cane across a record of Segovia, the great
spanlsh guitarist, I realized vhat a great j.nstrunent,
what a !,/onderful and what a difficult instrument it can
bei and that-s why for my second record I-ve chosen
.
segovia .,. A prelude by Vitla- Lobos. (Villa_Lobos,
IPrelude No. 1 in E ninor'r, Andr6s segovia, guitar)
... W€11, let's hav6 record nu[be! thrgs. Itbat-s that
going to be?
A.W.! Well-, that record nunber three is tlaria *(Ivogun),.
and stands of course, for ny tine in Munich. Maria
*(Ivogiin)* was an opera singer at the ... Munich Opera
... The record itself has nothing to do \,/ith opera, it,-s
*(a)* sirdple litt1e fol.k song in which a girt sings she
lost her stocking, and aftersards she lost her heart, and
so on. It doesn-t matter what she sings, but the way she
sings - that-s iinportant, (',2 'Lauterbach hab- i nein
Errorl Urkrowa srritch argls€Dt.
.'-.7it
strunpf verlorni' Maria lvogun, soprano / Michael
Raucheisen, piana)
... Ifhat-a Your trext r€cord?
wolf I'Italian
Serenade" ... And I-ve chosen it because I Love the
gaiety and the * (unverstlindllch) r. of it so very nuch, And
it.-6 al.flays ny dream to see a cohedy - or better, to be
Ln a comedy !,hich *(has)* the sahe light - fight touch.
(Hugo Wo1f. "Ita1j"an serenade in c majorr', Budapest
string oualtet)
.., l,6t-a have another record.
A.w.:
My
next record is a record of
Hugo
A.W.: Well my next record j.s 'rBrandenburg Concerto No.
5", played by Busch and selkin. we1L, that record l-ve
chosen has a little bit of vanity and apart fron that, lt
shows lrhat you can do when you work. You knov my
background - circus nusic ls not exactl.y inspiring. fhe
first uusic teacher uas not exactLy lnsplring. And there
was one conposer vho made ne fall as16ep irnntediately, and
that uas Bach. I just couldn-t face it, I fell asleep. I
nust have net sonebody very nice, but he or she said ',Be
patient, Iearn, work, try again and again.trAnd T did tly
again and again for I think nearly twenty years, until I
got it. And it lras Dresden again - hearing the Busch
Chanber Orchestra play the rrBrandenburg Concerto No. 5!i that the ice broke. Ever since I knorir there i.s no nore
beautiful, no nore perfect music in the worl-d than Bach.
(Bach, ',Brandenburg concerto No. 5 in D lllaJor',, Rudolf
Serkin, piano / Busch, Violin / Busch Chamber Orchestra)
... Let's bave rgcoral nu&bor six uov.
A.W.: Record number six is Brahns ,,. Violin Concerto,
which again stands for Dresden. It was in Dresden that 1
heard and saw Menuhin for the first tine as a pLunp ugly
tj.ttle boy of thirteen. (Brahms "Violin Concerto j.n D
majorr,, Yehudi Menuhin / Lucerne Festival Orchestra,
furtwengler)
,.. r{!. Walbrook, vs-vs pul you
oD this dgselt islaDd,
Erro.l UakDoM Bwitcb arguoBqt,
lrhat kind of castaway do you think you-re going to
be?
A.w.: oh I-d be hopelesgly losr here. Att r can hope fo! is rhat you
pl^ant6d enough coconut trees and banana rlses and things tike that
to provids me \dith food, that-s al].
ghy, you can-t cook?
A,W.: No, f can-t cook.
You can-t flsh?
A.W.: I can fish, but f could never kill a fish,
I thiDk we'al bettsr 9€t iDaediately blck to Duslq.
A.W.: Yes, f-n safer there anyvay .,. Wel1, the next
record j-s Schubert-s ,l(Winterreise),r. I can-t have it.
played by the nan who impressed ne so very nuch, because
I thlnk he never made a record, His nane is *(Ludwig
WuLlner) *. He was a very very oLd gentlenan vhen I saw
hin in Dresden. He came on, unforgettable, on the stage
and addresEed the audience. He sald, richi.ldren I-ve
caught a very bad coLd tast night ... I can-t sing. wiII
you al1ow ne to recite ilstead?" Because he did do
recitals as welf - Homer aDd al1 the c.Iassics and thrnes
like that. Everybody shouted trNor ,.. And then he
started, he trj_ed - (WALBROO( HUM}{fNG) _ he tried once,
he tried twice, he tried three tines, he tried four
times, and fj.naLly he caught hinself and sang. And that
was perfection. No voice at all. nothing lo speak of. But
the spirit, the neaning, the heart was there- He made the
lyrics, which are not Heine or Byron or ... _ wonderfu_I.
f-ve never seen anything nore beautiful, and never heard
anything more beautiful in my life.
woll, rro car-t hav€ his record, lahct dg you chooge?
A.W.: No, r^re can-t, I've chosen *(Schlusnus),r, !/ho vas a
very very fine slnger in Gerhany, lrho sings it very
beautiful . .. and I hainta.in it that a great voice and a
wonderful voice is not essential for Lieder singing.
(Schubert, 't-Gute Nacht- from -Winterreise -,, , Heinrich
Schlusnus, bariton / sebastlan peschko/ piano)
.., The last record I-ve chosen iE yvette Guilbert-s,,Le
Errorl Uakuowr sEitch argulr€Et.
Fiacrei - why, I-1I leII you afterwards, let-s play j.t
fj.rst. (Leon Xanrof, "Le Fiacre", yvette Guilbert / Irdne
Aitoff, piano) - WeIt, when I saw yvette Guilbert, for
the fj.rst and only tirne I met her, j.n Dresden agaln, and
she did not look at all any hore like the fanous post.er6
Toulouse- Lautrec d1d. She was an old, plunp uonan - her
fanous black gloves were green, and *(her) * famous black
frock iras - I don-t know what any more, arld she did not
sing Le Fiacre or the other thlngs any nore, she Eang
J.6th or 17th century reJ.igious Eongs. But in the corner
of her mouth and the twinkle of her eyea, you sti1l couLd
see this incredible charm, which proves that if somebody
has charrn, age doesn-t hake it dininj.sh. Teeth go, i.Iair
go, figures go, but charm will remain for ever.
ADtt .rtietry. weII, thele ars your eight records? Mr.
walbrook, you-ve got one llore choice to make - every
castaway has one luxury article, What $,ould you Like?
A,W.: WeJ-L, can it be a book?
O! oou!a.. A v6ry, very Large book, as b1g a9 you liks.
A.W, I AI1 right then - I shall take atl, the nusie, the
scores of the music which I ]ove nost, and which I can
read, and bind then into one book and have the nusic,
You sball hrve that. Notr it-s a pretty big boolr but 116
hcvg sstablishgd tbs trlditiorl that anyor€ vhg chooses a
book bas so[etbing eI86, ors uore qhoice.
A,W,: Can-t be a dog?
l{ust b€ in.nLEats,
A.w.: A11 right, I sha1l take an Indo-Chinese
whi"ch changes his expre€sion with the l"ight.
Buddha,
that you already possesa?
A,W.: On6 wh.ich l-ve got at hom€, yes.
You eh.ll have thrt, and thanl( you Alrton lfa:.brook for
Igttlng us h6.r your choj.qe of Dssert Istauat Discs.
One
A.w,: Thank You. 21
Error! UDksor,[ slritch ar9u6l1t.