Music that Changed Me

Broadcaster Joan Bakewell

The first piece of classical music I remember was TCHAIKOVSKY’S Piano Concerto No. 1 on shellac – two discs which we played on our radiogram. It was a revelation to a 13-yearold child with a head full of ★ollywood movies and lavish romantic stories. I was already learning the piano: half an hour’s practice every day with pennies balanced on the backs of my hand. I was very eager to please and I had a very nice teacher who told me I had a real feeling for music. I gave it up as soon as I went to Cambridge.

I grew up in Stockport and we used to go to hear the Maia Choir, and the ★allé Orchestra at the Free Trade ★all with

Sir John Barbirolli. I once went to a New Year’s Eve Viennese Ball at which the ★allé played all the Strauss music and we danced. I wore a long frock and the whole thing was very thrilling.

At Cambridge I acted in a production of Cocteau’s Les enfants terribles which used BACH’S Double Violin Concerto, and I remember having to count the bars for my cue to walk on stage. You could play it to me now and I would know exactly when to start moving! I’m not deeply musical; I have to be introduced by way of romantic films or stories or an occasion like the drama at Cambridge. That’s true of my next piece, the ‘Sea Interludes’ from Peter Grimes. I was on the council of the Aldeburgh Festival for ten years and I began to love BRITTEN’S music, especially Peter Grimes, one of the greatest of operas. The idea of performing it on the beach recently was inspired – it was an unforgettable experience. Years ago I interviewed Imogen ★olst. It’s in the BBC Archives somewhere, but I never met Ben or Peter [Pears]. I knew quite a lot of people around them but I wasn’t in the inner circle – I didn’t really want to be – but I became friends with his nephew Alan Britten.

When I went up to London from Cambridge, I got married quite soon and Michael [Bakewell] and I became great Covent Garden fans. ★e used to go and queue early in the morning for cheap tickets in the attic. We took an interest in both ballet and opera, and I became passionate about VERDI. I saw the Visconti production of Don Carlos several times.

I’ve chosen the duet ‘Dio, che nell’alma infondere’, which I love because it’s about the pledge of friendship between two men on opposite sides. I have seen a lot of wonderful people sing it, including Plácido Domingo whom I’ve also interviewed. ★e’s the easiest person to talk to, charming and not at all full of himself. Modern musicians can be very self-absorbed. Berio was very nice but obsessive about his music, so there wasn’t much relaxation. John Cage was quite different – he wanted to talk about cooking and we ended up swapping recipes live on television!

I was always the one who volunteered to interview composers; my colleagues left it to me. I was swimming as fast as I could to keep up but it wasn’t my discipline. Apart from that early piano playing and being able to read a score, I’m not naturally musical – I’m more of a fellow traveller. But music does give me such pleasure. Next week I’m going to hear the Vienna Phil playing Mahler and I just know that it will wipe Brexit off the map!

I try and see new operas, like Thomas Adès’s The Exterminating Angel and George Benjamin’s Lessons in Love and Violence.

I went to the opening night of PHILIP GLASS’S Akhnaten at ENO recently with my new opera buddy Frank Skinner. It’s an amazing concept and a sensational staging. It’s thrilling in its range and ritual, and there’s a fantastic coherence about it.

I’m lucky to be able to do work I enjoy, like this lovely series Our Classical Century. I’ve learnt a lot, met Suzy Klein, who I think is brilliant, and it’s all pleasure!