Desert Island Discs

This was (and still is) the name of a radio show on the BBC I used to listen to growing up. On the show each week, a celebrity would be interviewed and required to list 10 recordings they would take to a desert island. And as they were led through their list (with excerpts being played), they would tell why this record meant something to them. It was usually some connection with a memory of their life and usually fairly eclectic for that reason. It was also not necessarily a list of their 10 most favourite recordings, just ones they would feel compelled to take, knowing this might be it for life. At the end of the program they would have to pick the one recording they would take if they only had one choice. Also, they would be asked what one book they would bring, and what one single item they would take, that had to be of absolutely no practical purpose.

I thought about this for a while today. Here is my current list of 10 desert island recordings (in no particular order) without the personal explanations:

- John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman
- Don Carlo (Domingo, Caballe, conductor: Giulini, Royal Opera Orchestra)
- J. J. Cale: Gold
- Concerts a deux violes esgales du Sieur de Sainte Colombe, Tome II (Jordi Savall, Wieland Kuikjen)
- Moby: 18
- Marcello Oboe Concerto in D Minor (Jozsef Kiss, Ferenc Erkel Chamber Orchestra)
- Cesar Franck Symphony in D Minor (conductor: Eugene Ormandy, Philadelphia Orchestra)
- Sarah Vaughan Collection
- Lone Star (movie soundtrack)
- Don Giovanni (Raimondi, van Dam, conductor: Maazel, Paris Opera Orchestra)

If I could only pick one? Getting my list down to 10 was hard. But if were just one, I guess it would have to be the Don Giovanni. And historically, on Desert Island Discs, if Mozart was in the top 10, he was often the final solo pick.

My one book (it's in one volume!) would be the collected works of Shakespeare. And my one impractical item would have to be a group picture of my loved ones.

UPDATE: Nah, it's not going to work. I've already thought of at least three CDs that would have to knock three of these listed off the top 10. Argh!! I guess I'll just have to put off going to a desert island. Unless of course I get to take a musician with me, who can play a lot of the music... so then... hold it... hmmm, I've got some ideas already.