Lorin Maazel

Desert Island Discs

BBC

Society & Culture, Music Commentary, Music, Personal Journals

4.4 • 13.7K Ratings

🗓️ 3 April 2005

⏱️ 37 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the musical director of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra Lorin Maazel.

He was a child prodigy whose career as a conductor has survived, and thrived, beyond his early precocity. His musical talent became apparent at the age of five, when he began playing the violin, while at seven he was discovered conducting a piece by Haydn playing on his parents' record player. He was the first American and youngest conductor, at the age of 30, to conduct Lohengrin at Bayreuth. After a career which has included prestigious posts at the Vienna State Opera and the Cleveland and Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestras, he is currently Musical Director of the New York Philharmonic. In May this year, Lorin Maazel's first opera, an adaption of George Orwell's 1984, will he performed at the Royal Opera House in London.

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

Favourite track: Quartet No 14 'Death and the Maiden' 4th Movement by Franz Schubert Book: Pensées by Blaise Pascal Luxury: Vermeer Painting - The Piano Lesson

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, I'm Krestey Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs archive.
0:05.0	For rights reasons, we've had to shorten the music.
0:08.0	The program was originally broadcast in 2005, and the presenter was Sue Lawley. My castaway this week is a musician. This spring the Royal Opera will present the premiere of his opera
0:34.3	based on George Orwell's novel 1984. It's a considerable accolade for someone
0:39.4	who's thought of more as a conductor than a composer. He was a child prodigy. He's a bit dismissive of that these days,
0:46.0	but the facts speak for themselves. He conducted Mendelssohn's Italian symphony at the New York
0:50.9	World Fair when he was nine. The New York Philharmonic when he was 10,
0:54.7	and Toscanini's NBC Symphony Orchestra when he was 11.
0:58.0	His later career took him to Europe where he conducted all the great orchestras and became artistic director of the Vienna State Opera.
1:05.2	He then went home to Pittsburgh where he conducted the symphony orchestra there for 10 years.
1:09.7	Three years ago, by now in his early 70s, he took up his present post as music director of the New York Philharmonic.
1:16.0	Great conductor, soloist, he's a considerable violinist, and composer,
1:21.0	he describes himself as a person with an odd combination of gifts.
1:25.0	Whenever I've been asked to help guide musical destiny, he adds, I've always given it my
1:29.4	all. I don't think there's anyone who's worked harder since the age of 16.
1:34.4	He is Lauren Mosell.
1:36.6	And you're still at it, age 75, Maestro.
1:39.6	What's more you've just been extended in your post at the New York Phil I think to 2009. That's correct.
1:45.0	I'm enjoying my tenure there as music directors, a marvelous orchestra and I think we've
1:50.4	come to understand one another. We seem to be cut out of the same cloth physically.
1:55.0	But are you having fun? I mean you must have. I really enjoy it.
1:59.0	Such an appetite for work, there must be some fun in there.
	...

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