Thomas Quasthoff

Desert Island Discs

BBC

Society & Culture, Music Commentary, Music, Personal Journals

4.4 • 13.7K Ratings

🗓️ 1 February 2009

⏱️ 37 minutes

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Summary

Kirsty Young's castaway this week is the bass-baritone Thomas Quasthoff. He has performed in concert halls the world over under the batons of the finest conductors and, while he made his name as a Lieder singer, he's equally popular for his jazz, spiritual and gospel recordings.

Music critics say he is "one of the great singers of our time and one of the most remarkable of any time." That his life has been remarkable is a reference to his disability: he was born suffering the effects of Thalidomide and although his early musical talent was spotted, his inability to play the piano meant he was not allowed to take up a place at a conservatoire.

In this candid and moving interview, though, he describes how, with his family's support, he went on to build a highly successful career. Now, living contentedly with his wife and daughter, he says his life is a full and satisfying one. He adds that when he sees how readily people become consumed by envy and resentment, he questions whether that too isn't a kind of disability.

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

Favourite track: The Adagietto from 5th symphony by Gustav Mahler Book: Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela Luxury: Good wine.

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 2009. My castaway this week is the singer Thomas Kostov. He has won three Grammy Awards and has performed in concert halls
0:35.4	the world over under the batons of the finest conductors. Sir Simon Rattle describes
0:40.9	him as one of the most natural expressive human beings I have ever met.
0:46.0	He made his name as a classical performer, but he also sings jazz, gospel and spiritual songs and
0:51.6	counts Tony and Chary Blair among his singing buddies, more of which in a moment.
0:56.0	According to the Los Angeles Times, he is one of the great singers of our time and certainly one of the most remarkable of any time. That his life has been
1:05.1	remarkable is a reference to not just his renowned talent, but also the fact that he
1:09.5	was born one of the many Thalidomide babies. For a good while it seemed that might stop him from pursuing music as a career.
1:16.7	We will come on to that later on Thomas Kostov, but first of all let's go back to the Tony and
1:21.6	Shari connection. Where on earth did you sing with them? How did it come about?
1:26.1	It was the G8 meeting at Cologne.
1:29.2	Yes. And I'm a very close friend of Gerhard Schroeder who was Chancellor for many years and at that time he was Chancellor and he invited me to sing for a gala concert for all these people.
1:42.7	Sherak was there and Tony Blair was there and Bill Clinton was there.
1:47.2	You were giving a performance obviously in front of all of the leaders.
1:50.9	Yes, I was part of a gala concert. But the little private
1:54.0	well it wasn't really a performance there was a kind of sing-along in the bar
1:57.2	afterwards am I right? Yeah there was a dinner after that and then Gertchreider
2:00.7	turned to me and said well we are in Germany, show them how it goes.
2:06.0	So I started to sing and lately we were all singing together.
2:09.8	Blair's wife was sitting on his knees and so it was extremely familiar very very nice and very moving.
	...

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