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Lady Natasha Spender

Kirsty Young invites the former classical pianist and widow of Sir Stephen Spender, Lady Natasha Spender, to choose eight records to take to Radio 4's mythical desert island.

Kirsty Young's castaway this week is the musician Lady Natasha Spender. She was born at the end of the First World War and has spent her life immersed in the arts. Gifted with perfect pitch, she studied under Clifford Curzon and enjoyed a highly successful career as a concert pianist. In the months after the end of the Second World War she gave a concert at Belsen to inmates who were recovering in its hospital wing and, a couple of years later, she was chosen to be the soloist in the world's first ever televised concert for the 大象传媒. She was also one half of a cultural 'it' couple - for more than 50 years she was married to the poet Sir Stephen Spender. They had met at a literary lunch he was hosting and became friends after Natasha stayed behind to help him with the washing up. They were friends with many of the greats of the past century, including T S Eliot, Stravinsky and Leonard Bernstein. She is now the executor to Sir Stephen's very considerable estate and is writing her own memoirs.

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

Favourite track: 1st movement of String Quintet in G Minor by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Book: Desert Islands: An Anthology by Walter de la Mare
Luxury: Her grand piano.

Available now

45 minutes

Last on

Fri 1 Feb 2008 09:00

Music Played

  • Johann Sebastian Bach

    Partita for Keyboard No. 1 in B flat major - 3rd movement

    Soloist: Andras Schiff

    • Bach: Piano Works.
    • Decca.
  • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

    String Quintet No. 4 in G minor - 1st movement

    Soloist: Cecil Aronowitz Orchestra: Amadeus Quartet

    • Mozart: String Quintets.
    • Deutsche Grammophon.
  • Carl Maria von Weber

    Unde ob die Wolke (from Der Freisch眉tz)

    Soloist: Tiana Lemnitz

    • Tiana Lemnitz: Arias by Mozart, Weber, Wagner & Verdi.
    • Lebendige Vergangenheit.
  • Ludwig van Beethoven

    Prisoners' Chorus (from Fidelio)

    Orchestra: NBC Symphony Orchestra & Chorus Conductor: Arturo Toscanini

    • Beethoven: Fidelio.
    • RCA.
  • Ludwig van Beethoven

    Piano Concerto No. 2 in B flat major

    Soloist: Natasha Litvin (Spender) Orchestra: London Symphony Orchestra Conductor: Basil Cameron

    • Beethoven: Concerto No 2 in B flat recorded at the Royal Albert Hall, 26 July 1957.
    • Sound News Productions.
  • Leonard Bernstein

    Gee, Officer Krupke (from West Side Story)

    Artist: The original Broadway Cast recording

    • West Side.
    • Columbia.
  • Samuel Barber

    Piano Sonata - 1st movement

    Soloist: Vladimir Horowitz

    • Horowitz plays Prokofiev - Barber-Kabalevsky.
    • RCA.
  • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

    Clarinet Quintet in A major

    Soloist: Gervase de Peyer Orchestra: Melos Ensemble of London

    • Mozart/Brahms: Clarinet Quintets.
    • EMI.

Credits

Role Contributor
Presenter Kirsty Young
Interviewed Guest Natasha Spender

Broadcasts

  • Sun 7 Jan 2007 11:15
  • Sun 27 Jan 2008 11:15
  • Fri 1 Feb 2008 09:00

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