Margaret Mountford
Michael Berkeley's guest is former The Apprentice star Margaret Mountford, whose musical choices include Liszt, Schubert, Wagner, Chopin and Verdi.
Michael Berkeley's guest this week in Margaret Mountford, the former corporate lawyer who rose to TV stardom as one of Lord Sugar's team of expert advisers on 'The Apprentice'.
Born in Northern Ireland, she had many years of corporate experience as a partner in a law firm, and has been a non-executive director of Amstrad plc since 1999. She appeared on five series of 'The Apprentice' between 2005 and 2009, and has appeared on recent series at the interview stage. She left the show to study for a PhD in papyrology at University College, London.
Her musical tastes are orientated towards piano music and opera. Her choices begin with a Liszt Hungarian Rhapsody played by pianist Shura Cherkassky, and continue with Jorge Bolet playing Liszt's transcription of Schubert's song 'The Trout', followed by Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau singing Schubert's 'Wandrers Nachtlied II'. Margaret Mountford's next choice is a piano piece by Alkan, which she finds strangely haunting, while her favourite moment from Wagner's Ring cycle comes in Act II of 'Die Walkure' when Brunnhilde announces to Siegmund that he must die in battle. A Chopin nocturne played by Vlado Perlemuter precedes the Song to the Evening Star from Wagner's opera 'Tannhauser', and Margaret Mountford's final choice is the famous drinking song from Act One of Verdi's 'La traviata', thrillingly sung by two of her favourite singers, Joan Sutherland and Luciano Pavarotti.
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Music Played
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Franz Liszt
Hungarian Rhapsody No 2 in C sharp minor
Performers: Shura Cherkassky (piano)
- WHLive0014.
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Schubert transc Liszt
Die Forelle
Performers: Jorge Bolet (piano)
- DECCA 425 689-2.
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Franz Schubert
Wandrers Nachtlied II
Performers: Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (baritone), Jörg Demus (piano)
- DG 457 747-2.
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Alkan
Song of the Madwoman on the Seashore (from the Preludes, Op 31)
Performers: Ronald Smith (piano)
- EMI CDM764280-2.
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Richard Wagner - 'The Announcement of Death' from Die Walküre Act II
Performers: Rita Hunter (Brünnhilde), Alberto Remedios (Siegmund), ENO Orchestra/Reginald Goodall
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Frédéric Chopin
Nocturne in F sharp major, Op. 15, no.2
Performers: Vlado Perlemuter (piano)
- NIMBUS NIM5012.
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Richard Wagner - "Wie Todesahnung" and "Abendstern" (from Tannhäuser Act III, sce
Performers: Thomas Hampson (Wolfram Von Eschenbach), Berlin Staatskapelle/Daniel Barenboim
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Giuseppe Verdi
The 'Brindisi' (from La traviata, Act 1)
Performers: Joan Sutherland (Violetta), Luciano Pavarotti (Alfredo), National PO/Richard Bongyne
- DECCA 430 492-2.
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