John Piper

Desert Island Discs

BBC

Society & Culture, Music Commentary, Music, Personal Journals

4.4 • 13.7K Ratings

🗓️ 10 December 1983

⏱️ 36 minutes

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Summary

The artist John Piper is a man of many talents. Not only is he a distinguished painter, but also he is particularly interested in tapestry and stained glass, and he has done windows for cathedrals at Coventry and Liverpool.

In conversation with Roy Plomley, he talks about the many facets of his life, especially his designs for many of the operas of Benjamin Britten, and he chooses the eight records he would take to the mythical island.

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

Favourite track: Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini by Sergei Rachmaninov Book: The complete works by William Blake Luxury: Pianola

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello I'm Kirstie Young and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs archive.
0:05.0	For Wright's reasons, we've had to shorten the music.
0:08.0	The program was originally broadcast in 1983 and the presenter was Roy Plumley. Our cast away this week is the artist John Piper, Companion of Honor.
0:35.0	Mr Piper, we're sitting in your studio in this warm and pleasant farmhouse in the
0:39.8	Chilterns, which is your home and studio. I'm a little confused incidentally about which
0:45.2	county we're in because on our way here we seem to pass through three counties in
0:49.9	about three minutes. We're 300 yards in Buckinghamshire and only 300 and the post office never lets us forget
0:57.5	that we're not in Buckinghamshire by making us address our letters as near Helion terms oxen.
1:04.0	Have you been here a long time?
1:07.0	50 years next year, which does seem rather a long time to me now, I must say.
1:13.0	Half a century, you know, and it's awful.
1:16.0	Do you play records a lot?
1:17.0	A great deal.
1:18.0	While you're painting, while you're working?
1:20.0	No.
1:21.0	It's the only time I don't play them,
1:22.0	until I find them too disturbing.
1:25.0	I know you're a keen amateur musician, you play the piano.
1:29.0	Oh, very little. I mean, I'm a pure amateur, but very fond of music and I've done a lot about it and one time
1:36.6	and now they're all tried to. You used to play in a dance band? Yes a three-piece
1:41.2	number it wasn't very interesting when I was about 19, 20, that sort of time.
1:45.4	We had a sax and drums and I strummed on the piano.
	...

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