It’s a first for Itzhak Perlman
Daily Comfort ZoneWe’ve been given to understand that tonight’s Lebrecht Interview with the great violinist is the first programme-length conversation he has ever agreed to.
We talk about many things – his boyhood bout of polio, the crackpot Ed Sullivan Show on which he made his US debut, getting concerthalls to instal disability facilities, bringing back unfashionable composers.
Listen tonight at 20.45 on BBC Radio 3.
I don’t understand what “crackpot Ed Sullivan Show” is supposed to mean. Was there something wrong with Itzhak’s appearance on the show?
It’s the usual Lebrechtian combination of superficiality, ignorance and distain for anything American.
My wife and I watched the Ed Sullivan Show almost every Sunday night when we were kids. I’m now 89, and she’s about to be 86. It never deserved the appellation ‘crackpot.’ It was a variety show that headlined many classical instrumental and vocal performers as well as pop entertainers. He was a popular newspaper columnist, as well. Why Crackpot? Bah, Humbug!
Thank you for that, Dr. Levin.
Say what anyone will, there is no disputing that the Ed Sullivan Show was far more wholesome in its day than 98% (at least) of what passes as entertainment nowadays.
Thank you. Ed Sullivan introduced America to performing artists of every discipline, creed and color, from Itzhak Perlman to Ella Fitzgerald, from the Ink Spots to the Beatles, opera, classical, popular, jazz, country, and that new thing called rock ‘n’ roll. Ed Sullivan was a visionary.
I’m 81 and remember watching Mr. Perlman on the Ed Sllivan show when I was a little boy. Many years later I served an apprenticeship as a violin maker and now play that same instrument in a local orchestra, and have become a Perlman fan. I watched the show every Sunday night and for someone to call it a crackpot show is just out of the question. Then again, the haters are always going to hate. In retrospect the show was wholesome entertainment and I long for a show with the same spirit to return.
I agree, “crackpot Ed Sullivan Show” was the first thing that caught my eye. If it’s not explained in the interview itself, I’d sure like Norman to elaborate here. Lots of us old fogies have fond memories of that show.
He routinely had great classical artists on his show. How many do that now? It gave me, as a boy, the first introduction to the wonders of classical music.
I think this isn’t quite true. In 1995, for Perlman’s 50th the BBC did a long interview with him ( I think by Bernard Keefe) which was split for broadcast over three days .
There are also two documentary films, about 90 mins each.
That aside, am looking forward to hearing this
Thank you, Itzhak. As a New Year’s Resolution I promise to play perfectly in tune, God willing, and thereby make the world a better place.
I presume “crackpot” is for Topo Gigio… and a hundred other entertainment oddities Ed took a fancy to.
But you don’t know if you have the next Elvis until you put them out there.
Many famous entertainment names got their big break appearing on The Ed Sullivan Show.
Jack Benny was a notable vaudeville comic in the 1920s but his 1932 shot on Ed’s radio show launched a sensational big-time career.
Or maybe the guy spinning the plates while we all watched breathlessly for them to fall.
Doesn’t Desert Island Discs count as a full length interview?
I also miss seeing opera singers like Corelli, Tebaldi , Tucker, and Peerce on the show. He gave them beautiful backgrounds and orchestras. I just watched one broadcast of Hilde Guden singing Smoke Gets in your Eyes! She was so glamorous and Sullivan was so thin.
Hoping for discussion of Itzhak’s klezmer side hustle. The best-selling CD in the 1990s was okay, though he sounded like a classical violinist. But along the way in the ensuing quarter of a century, he really grew into the style, and became an authentic sounding klezmer fiddler. Awesome!
I enjoy Perlman’s recitals but could do without his attempt at comedy.
A most highly revered American institution, the Ed Sullivan Show reigned supreme as Sunday evening’s premiere family entertainment program, bringing into our homes the widest spectrum of talent – from Maria Callas and Edith Piaf to the Beatles. Your disrespectful comment “crackpot” is most inappropriate and disgusting.
Good point that Perlman seems to have played a major role in reviving the Korngold Concerto. A pity he didn’t do the same with the Rosza Concerto, which IMHO is a better piece and also a Heifetz piece.
The clip of the Sinding suite (I assume it was Heifetz) was astounding; I’d like to hear it more often (or ever). I heard third-hand that around the time Perlman’s recording came out (paired with the Sibelius, IIRC), he played it for Pinchas Zukerman, who in reference to the editing it likely entailed, said something like “That’s pretty good; don’t you wish you could play like that?”