Private Passions - Michael Portillo

Michael Berkeley talks to former Cabinet minister Michael Portillo, who since leaving the political arena in 2005 has enjoyed a wide-ranging career in journalism and broadcasting, from presenting TV discussion programmes and documentaries to chairing the 2008 Booker Prize judging panel. Many of his musical choices could be said to have a political edge, from Wagner's Ring cycle to Shostakovich's 13th Symphony and Puccini's opera Tosca M Berkeley: The Wakeful Poet (Music from Chaucer - pub OUP) Beaux-Arts Brass Quintet BBQ BBQ 003 T10 Dur: 25s Puccini: The end of Act 1 of Tosca Tito Gobbi (Scarpia) Angelo Mercuriali (Spoletto) Chorus and Orchestra of La Scala, Milan/Victor de Sabata Tosca EMI 567756-2 CD1 T16 Dur: 4m 25s Sibelius: Symphony 4 in A minor, Op 63 (last movement, Allegro) Philharmonia Orchestra/Herbert von Karajan Sibelius EMI 566600-2 T5 Dur: 9m 23s Wagner: Part of Wotan's lament from Die Walküre, Act II scene 2 John Tomlinson (Wotan) Anne Evans (Brünnhilde) Bayreuth Festival Orchestra/Daniel Barenboim Wagner Die Walküre TELDEC 4509-91186-2 CD2 T11-12 Dur: 4m 28s Schubert: String Quartet in A minor, D804 (3rd movement: Menuetto, Allegretto) The Lindsays Schubert String Quartets ASV CD DCA 593 T3 Dur: 6m 56s Richard Strauss: Frühling (first of the Four Last Songs) Jessye Norman (soprano) Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra/Kurt Masur Richard Strauss PHILIPS 464 742-2 T1 Dur: 4m 43s Shostakovich Symphony No 13 Babi Yar (excerpt from 4th movement Fears, beginning 'Eta stala sevodnya dalyokim...') Vitaly Gromadsky (bass) Moscow PO/Kirill Kondrashin Shostakovich Symphony No 13 RUSSIAN DISC RD CD 11 191 T4 (recording of 1st perf) Dur: 2m 36s Falla: El Amor Brujo (The Dance of the Game of Love - the last section) Colette Boky (soprano) Montréal Symphony Orchestra/Charles Dutoit Falla DECCA 410 008-2 T3 Dur: 4m 1s.