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

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

The program was originally broadcast in 1982, and the presenter was Roy Plumlee. Our cast way this week is a conductor, musical director of the Welsh National Opera,

Richard Armstrong. Have you ever imagined yourself as a Robinson Crusoe Richard?

Not quite. I've sometimes got pretty close on various holidays and things, but... and eight discs. Would you prefer to have discs or scores?

It's a very difficult question.

Inevitably, as a conductor, one has a fairly large repertory.

One carries an enormous amount of music in one's head, which I suppose one can listen to a choice, as it were.

I think for the purposes of the

purposes of the island the records would be very acceptable good do you play records a lot fair amount though I must say at home I do enjoy silence when I can get it

What's the first one?

The first record is an introit sung by the monks at the Abbey of Salem in northern France.

Yes.

I once had the opportunity to stay there for a period of just over a week and to attend all of the offices

which meant a very early start and not too late a night.

How did that come about?

I was just outside Paris on a work camp, a sort of international voluntary service thing,

digging ditches and God knows what, to build a retreat house.

And I knew about Salem, and through a contact there I managed to get an invitation to go to stay there.

It was a glorious experience and the sound of those monks, I mean over a hundred people singing in the most magnificent

unison is a sound that I shall treasure forever. He had a good a good a few meu. Ine, ine, ine,

ine,

...