Kirill Gerstein on Ferruccio Busoni
Great Lives
BBC
4.2 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 1 May 2019
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Pianist Kirill Gerstein chooses the conductor and composer Ferruccio Busoni. Matthew Parris presents.
When Busoni died in Berlin in 1924, his pupil Kurt Weill said, "We did not lose a human being but a value."
Unravelling exactly what this means is the pianist Kirill Gerstein, a great admirer of Busoni and also a performer of his work. Busoni was a thinker as well as a composer. His book from 1907, Sketch of a New Esthetic of Music, has influenced generations of musicians.
With contributions from Erinn Knyt and Anthony Beaumont
Producer: Miles Warde.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2019.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hey, it's Doleepa, and I'm at your service. |
| 0:04.7 | Join me as I serve up personal conversations with my sensational guests. |
| 0:08.8 | Do a leap interviews, Tim Cook. |
| 0:11.2 | Technology doesn't want to be good or bad. |
| 0:15.0 | It's in the hands of the creator. |
| 0:16.7 | It's not every day that I have the CEO of the world's biggest company in my living room. |
| 0:20.7 | If you're looking at your phone more than you're looking in someone's eyes, you're doing the wrong thing. |
| 0:26.0 | Julie, at your service, listen to all episodes on BBC Sales. BBC Sounds, music radio podcasts. |
| 0:36.5 | My guest today is the first concert pianist we've had in almost 500 episodes of great lives. He was recently described as the formidable Kirill Gerstein, |
| 0:47.0 | who can play anything, while a British newspaper declared him one of the hottest guns in the game. We're hoping to hear some of his |
| 0:54.8 | recordings today but first of all though let me ask you Carol tell us a little |
| 0:58.9 | about your background your own background before we get on to your choice for great lives. |
| 1:03.9 | I was born in Russia and started studying classical piano when I was about three and went to |
| 1:12.0 | three. Yes in one of these special music schools you say |
| 1:15.9 | this as if it was just completely commonplace well in some way it may be but in |
| 1:20.8 | addition to my classical music study and passion I also got interested in jazz rather early on and that led me to going to America when I was 14. |
| 1:32.8 | Yeah, you won a scholarship didn't you? |
| 1:33.9 | Yes, I went to Berkeley College of Music |
| 1:35.8 | and became a college student at the age of 14. |
| 1:39.0 | And then eventually had to decide, |
| 1:41.8 | so do I dedicate myself to the classical repertoire jazz and at 16 one feels so |
| 1:47.5 | more radical about everything so I felt well I make the decision with classical music which I absolutely don't regret for a minute and now I live in Berlin, Germany and travel the world making noise on the piano. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.