Sir Michael Tippett
Desert Island Discs
BBC
4.3 • 14.3K Ratings
🗓️ 5 January 1985
⏱️ 37 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Sir Michael Tippett, who celebrated his 80th birthday three days ago, has come to be regarded as one of the foremost composers of this century. As he tells Roy Plomley, other than a period as Director of Music at Morley College, he has allowed very little to distract him from composition. His output includes four symphonies, four operas, four string quartets and several concertos.
[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]
Favourite track: Vespro Della Beata Vergine by Claudio Monteverdi Book: Blank pages Luxury: Egg timer
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 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 1985, and the presenter was Roy Plumlee. Our castaway this week is one of our premier composers, Sir Michael Tivid. |
| 0:35.0 | Sir Michael, would you rather have scores than records? |
| 0:38.0 | I can't know, I'm sorry, this is a personal thing. |
| 0:41.0 | I have lost my central vision, and I't read easily. I can't read a score at all. |
| 0:47.0 | I'd have to be aloud or have it in somehow attached to my person, the magnifying glass with which I read these things at all. |
| 0:54.0 | Yes, you're dreadful. |
| 0:55.0 | I can't see insects, which is also another very interesting problem. |
| 0:57.5 | I'm not at least being worried by being the tropical insects. |
| 0:59.7 | I cannot see them. |
| 1:01.1 | So that I go to bed perfectly happy. But the point is that I don't now want to read |
| 1:07.7 | the score. I would like to hear the sounds. All of it would be memory, but the records are the things I really would like. |
| 1:14.0 | There's no question. |
| 1:15.0 | Where do we start? |
| 1:16.0 | What are the first one you've chosen? |
| 1:17.0 | The first piece of music I ever heard as a schoolboy, and that was a long, long time ago. |
| 1:22.0 | It must have been about 19-20-21 and there was very little |
| 1:25.3 | music then in schools whatsoever. In any case I were allowed to go to a concert by Malcolm |
| 1:29.4 | Sargueroja as he was then and I heard a work which is anyone I can remember in the whole concert which was |
| 1:34.1 | Mother Goose feet by Ravel. I had no idea who Ravel was really but I was fascinated by this piece. |
| 1:39.7 | Much later on when I tried to play the piano I found that the beautiful son |
... |
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.