The Magic of Music
The Reith Lectures
BBC
4.2 • 770 Ratings
🗓️ 21 April 2006
⏱️ 42 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This year's lecturer is Daniel Barenboim, who has become known as one of the most versatile pianists of his generation. His skill has led him to world recognition and the appointment as Chief Conductor for Life by the Staatskapelle Berlin. He has also won a Grammy for his recording of Wagner's Tannhäuser and received the Wilhelm Furtwängler Prize for his work with the Staatskapelle Berlin.
Speaking from Berlin, Daniel Barenboim argues in his third Reith Lecture that classical music is not an exclusive language. He explains that given the right attitude it can be understood by everyone and not just the musical elite. He also examines how political correctness and bad education have caused the inability to make value judgements about public standards in music appreciation.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is a podcast from the archives of the BBC Ruth Lectures. |
| 0:04.4 | This lecture in the series, In the Beginning, was sound, given by Daniel Barrenboeim, was originally broadcast in 2006. |
| 0:12.7 | Hello and welcome to the third in this year's Reith Lectures. |
| 0:16.3 | Today we're in another of our lecturer's homes, the Berlin State Opera, where Daniel Baramboyme has |
| 0:22.0 | been music director since shortly after the wall came down. The opera here on Unterdeen Linden |
| 0:28.5 | is older than Mozart. It was created by Frederick the Great, a man as much at home in the |
| 0:33.9 | concert hall. He was a flautist as he was on the battlefield. By contrast, |
| 0:39.1 | its present director is a man of peace. Daniel Berenboim has seen it as his task here in Berlin |
| 0:45.5 | to lead the Startsoper out of the shackled world of its recent communist past. He's used his |
| 0:52.0 | talent here as he has in the Middle East to make music a great |
| 0:55.6 | reconciler and a unifying force. In his first Reith lecture, he explained how he believed music |
| 1:02.8 | was a metaphor for life. In the second, he talked about how in the modern world the ear |
| 1:07.8 | is either abused or neglected in favor of the eye, the visual. |
| 1:13.0 | For his third lecture, his subject is what he's termed the magic of music. |
| 1:18.1 | He'll argue that classical music is decidedly not an exclusive language, |
| 1:23.2 | understood only by the musical elite. |
| 1:25.6 | Given the right attitude, it's accessible to us all. |
| 1:29.1 | Ladies and gentlemen, will you please welcome this year's Reith Lecturer Daniel Baramboyne. |
| 1:47.3 | Thank you very much. |
| 1:49.5 | Thank you very much. |
| 1:54.3 | In London, I spoke and we discussed in detail, |
| 1:59.8 | mostly the question of the phenomenon, |
... |
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