Private Passions - Claire Bloom

Actress Claire Bloom reveals her musical passions to Michael Berkeley, including operas by Mozart, Bellini, Verdi, Tchaikovsky and Richard Strauss, as well as pianist Alfred Brendel playing Schubert, cellist Heinrich Schiff playing Bach and the end of Schoenberg's Transfigured Night. Playlist: M Berkeley: The Wakeful Poet (Music from Chaucer) (pub OUP) Beaux-Arts Brass Quintet BBQ BBQ 003 T10 00 25 Schoenberg: Verklarte Nacht The Nash Ensemble Schoenberg VIRGIN VC 791478-2 T11 04 30 Verdi: the end of Otello Placido Domingo (Otello), Frank Little (Cassio), Paul Plishka (Lodovico), Malcolm King (Montano), National PO/James Levine Otello RCA 74321 39501-2 CD2 T15 05 47 Bellini: Casta Diva (from Norma Act 1) Maria Callas (Norma), Orchestra and Chorus of La Scala, Milan/Tullio Serafin The incomparable Callas 5 EMI CDC 7493932 T1 05 34 Bach: Prelude from the Cello Suite No. 2 in D minor, BWV 1008 Heinrich Schiff (cello) Bach EMI CZS 574179-2 CD1 T7 02 57 Mozart: Una donna a quindici anni (from Cosi fan tutte, Act 2) Anna Steiger (Despina) Royal Concertebouw Orchestra, Amsterdam/Nikolaus Harnoncourt Cosi fan tutte TELDEC 90317138-2 CD2 T9 03 43 Schubert: Piano Sonata in A, D959 (2nd movement, Andantino) Alfred Brendel (piano) Schubert PHILIPS 475 7193 CD2 T2 07 36 Tchaikovsky: The Letter Scene (from Eugene Onegin Act 1) Mirelli Freni (Tatyana), Orchestra of the Vienna State Opera/Seiji Ozawa Eugene Onegin ORFEO C6370421 CD1 T10 04 28 Strauss: Die Zeit, die ist ein sonderbar' Ding (the Marschallin's Act 1 aria from Der Rosenkavalier) Elisabeth Schwarzkopf (The Countess), Christa Ludwig (Octavian), Philharmonia Orchestra/Herbert von Karajan Der Rosenkavalier EMI 567605-2 CD1 T18-19 03 37.