Hello, I'm Kirstie Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs archive.

For rights reasons, we've had to shorten the music.

The program was originally broadcast in 1977, and the presenter was Roy Plumlee. Our castaway this week is a musician, he's principal conductor and musical director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra Louis Frimo.

Now it's always harder for a musician of course to choose just eight records to last a long

long time. Would you rather have records or scores? Well I would prefer scores, but...

It doesn't make such a good program. That's exactly the things.

But for me already, it's a torture for me to...

You see, if you ask me to choose 8 records is for me to reject a thousand.

Of course.

What's the first you've chosen of your 8?

Well, when I was appointed this country, I want to improve the orchestra to be in a high

enough high standing to record.

And it was strange because I'm not really a light music conductor but the

suggestion of him I was to record Marsne, L'Sid, and I said, well, anything I could to make the orchestra on the spot, and that was this record.

Yes, this was the first one you recorded with the City of Birmingham Orchestra.

The ballet music to Marsne's Liseid.

Yes. The And the The Oh, And then. The ballet music to Lacede record it says 1971.

What part of France do you come from, Louis?

North.

But I was living also in Valancier.

Yes.

A musical tradition in your family?

...