August 2008

Hollywood

Sunday, August 03, 2008

On this riveting show five award-winning Hollywood luminaries -- Alan Alda, Alec Baldwin, William Friedkin, Mike Nichols, and Patrick Stewart -- reveal to host Gilbert Kaplan the overwhelming power of classical music in their lives.

Director William Friedkin (“French Connection” and “The Exorcist”) felt compelled to pull off the highway because he was so gripped hearing Stravinsky’s "Rite of Spring" for the first time.

Likewise, Alec Baldwin said his agent was always yelling at him for arriving late for auditions because he wouldn’t leave his car until the radio announcer had identified the piece he had just fallen in love with.

For Alan Alda, a love of classical music started as a child when he first heard Gershwin’s "Rhapsody in Blue": “Nobody said to me ‘listen to this, it will do you good’. It wasn’t like eating your vegetables – to me it was ice cream.”

For Patrick Stewart, the romantic power of Berlioz’s "The Trojans" was so consuming that for a while he thought (mistakenly) he was actually falling in love with his date that night.

And for Mike Nichols, the final trio of Strauss’s "Der Rosenkavalier" was his music of choice for seduction: “It was just out and out a way of getting girls – sitting them down and playing them the trio, which it has to be said almost always worked.”

These are just a sample of the rich collection of musical tales drawn from their earlier appearances on “Mad About Music".