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Marin Marais La Reveuse. Sophie Watillon, viola da gamba. Alpha 036.
Franz Schubert Piano Sonata in E Major, D. 459. Allegro Patetico [excerpt]. Walter Klein. Vox CDX 5175.
Felix Mendelssohn Sonata for Piano Op. 6. First movement. Murray Perahia. CBS Masterworks MK 37838.
Johnny Mercer "How Do You Say Auf Wiedersehen?" George Shearing and Mel Torme. Concord Jazz CCD7-2144-2.
Anton Bruckner Symphony No. 9 in D Minor. Second movement [excerpt]. Berliner Philharmoniker, Gunter Wand. BMG Classics 82876 623232.
Dimitri Shostakovich Quintet in G minor for Piano and Strings, Op. 57. First movement. Juilliard String Quartet. Yefim Bronfman. Sony Classical SK60677.

GILBERT KAPLAN: Welcome back to "Mad About Music" with my guest Nicola Bulgari whose family has been jewelers to the world for 125 years.

[Theme Music]

Walking down Fifth Avenue in New York, it would be hard to miss the elegant white marble flagship store of the jeweler Bulgari, part of a far-flung global enterprise – larger than the arch competitors it faces with Tiffany on one side and Van Cleef & Arpels on the other. Only Cartier is bigger. But according to CNN, it is Bulgari who "is beloved by the rich and famous and have come to represent the ultimate in Italian luxury". But if jewelry is the business of my guest today, it is music that is his true passion. Nicola Bulgari, welcome to "Mad About Music".

NICOLA BULGARI: Thank you.

KAPLAN: Now I suppose we should start the show talking about jewelry, even though the show is about music, and try to connect the two of them. And I think that probably when one thinks about that connection, one immediately focuses on Maria Callas, because she loved jewelry and of course, she was famous. One of your competitors was the one who gave her most of her jewelry, Swarovski. And I'm wondering have you had any experience at all with your company providing jewelry or divas loving your jewelry?

BULGARI: I can only answer that is before my time, but my father was totally mesmerized by her.

KAPLAN: Callas.

BULGARI: Callas, oh, yes. Also, because there is a blood affinity by the fact that my father was originally Greek. I don't think that we can have in the history of modern Greece anything that would connect with ancient Greece, of success, like Maria Callas. Think about it. There is nobody else. We think of ancient Greece that really thought the world, the modern western world, names like Sophocles, Aristophanes, Aristotle, Plato, Socrates, I mean, I don't want to compare Callas to that level, but she was the star of the stars. There's no one has ever replaced her, as a singer.

KAPLAN: Do you think your father was disappointed that she tended to favor Swarovski?

BULGARI: I don't think he was interested. He was too much infatuated by her. He wasn't interested in anything to do with jewelry.

KAPLAN: But is it at all in the tradition of the company, today, even, do you, are you involved at all with opera stars in jewelry?

BULGARI: Not necessarily. We are more involved with movie stars.

KAPLAN: I see.

BULGARI: We're very much involved with the Academy Awards, with Cannes, with the Venice Festival, and all this. I wouldn't say we are involved with opera stars at all.

KAPLAN: Yeah, but you know, jewelry is a theme that also shows up in dance. In fact "Jewels" is the title of a dance created by George Balanchine. I believe he used Tchaikovsky's music for a section he called "Diamonds", Stravinsky's music for "Rubies" and Faure for "Emeralds". How do you like those match ups?

BULGARI: Of the three that you mention, I like Faure, by far.

KAPLAN: But does Faure fit emeralds, is the question?

BULGARI: May fit the color of sapphire more.

KAPLAN: All right. Well. Let's then come to your first musical selection, which doesn't connect with anything we've talked about, but I found it fascinating because it revives an instrument that we don’t hear too often today.

BULGARI: Right. Marais, why did I pick Marin Marais? I picked Marin Marais, as simple as that, because I really wanted your audience to listen and to hear, and to be acquainted with the viola da gamba that normally we never talk about. This instrument is very similar to a cello, but has a much more fascinating sound that we are not necessarily used to it, because it's not played as much, although there are people playing it nowadays. And there isn't much music that was composed for the viola da gamba.

KAPLAN: How did you come in touch with it?

BULGARI: I am always interested in things that are not the usual. And I thought that this would be an interesting change, to listen to something Baroque that is not the usual that we hear all the time.

[Music]

KAPLAN: Marin Marais's La Reveuse, composed for what today is a rare instrument, the viola da gamba and performed here by Sophie Watillon. The first selection of my guest today on "Mad About Music" the jeweler, Nicola Bulgari. Now beyond listening to music, you are also a generous philanthropist and I know this first-hand because we sit together on the board of Carnegie Hall. But beyond Carnegie, are there any other musical institutions you actively support?

BULGARI: Yes, I'm supporting a trust in England, a couple, who are depicting and selecting all over the world, young pianists from everywhere on the planet, whether it is Brazil, Russia, Korea, Japan. And I'm very pleased to be part of it because, first, they do something absolutely extraordinary, nobody else has ever done. Secondly, it gives me the possibility of approaching some incredible, young talent that is going to be the future great pianist. Three of them have already performed for the notables at Carnegie Hall.

KAPLAN: The notables meaning?

BULGARI: The group of young people who are the future of music listener and music lover. We're trying to encourage - to send a message to other people so that the world of classical music would prosper and grow and I think that what Carnegie Hall does for the youngster at school, it's already very encouraging. No?

KAPLAN: Carnegie has an extensive program. All right, well, we may come back to some of this, but I think it's time to turn back to your very fascinating list of music today, and I see next comes something by Schubert.

BULGARI: Yes. There is an interesting piano sonata, that strange enough was rediscovered by Schumann, and executed by Mendelssohn in 1839. That's quite unusual. And that's the reason why I chose this, because it’s a magnificent piano sonata that is not normally heard. So I said, why not, finding something of this incredible, sensitive, unique composer like Franz Schubert. Let again your audience hear something of this great composer, but something quite unheard of.

[Music]

KAPLAN: An excerpt from the last movement of Schubert's Piano Sonata in E-major performed by Walter Klein, music chosen by my guest today on "Mad About Music", jeweler Nicola Bulgari. When we return, we'll explore Nicola Bulgari's encounter with the legendary Russian pianist, Vladimir Horowitz.

[Station break]

This is Gilbert Kaplan with my guest today on "Mad About Music", jeweler Nicola Bulgari. Let's now turn to the role music has played in your life. As a child, did you ever study an instrument?

BULGARI: As many others like me, I was a failure. I started at age seven, with a teacher who was very nice, but I didn't get to like his way of teaching me, and I was sort of not encouraged by the way of doing it. Or maybe I was the bad one. Either I wasn't probably paying too much attention, I probably was lazy, so I have to blame myself at the end.

KAPLAN: Was there music in your home at all?

BULGARI: Yeah, there was music in my home because of my mother. My mother went to a conservatory for ten years of Santa Cecilia in Rome. And I guess the DNA must have rubbed me a little bit. So I was taken to opera at a young age, in the early teens with no great success. But something again must have done because I was, since age twelve or thirteen, don't ask me why, but living in Rome I was always dreaming about this country. And what has influenced me: American song. It is indescribable; absolutely indescribable. For me, the heroes at early age were Nat "King" Cole, Frank Sinatra, Erroll Garner, Oscar Peterson, even Jackie Gleason, Peggy Lee, Rosemary Clooney.

KAPLAN: You probably could go on and on!

BULGARI: I could go on forever! And Johnny Mercer, I mean, if I start talking about the composers, I start crying! When I think of someone like Irving Berlin that wrote more than a thousand songs without knowing one word of music. People like, obviously, George and Ira Gershwin, and people like Jerome Kern, Harold Arlen, Johnny Mercer, and Hoagy Carmichael, Vernon Duke, and so on and so forth. I mean, we can go on and on and on.

KAPLAN: But just listening to you talk about them, I have the feeling that you put them in exactly equal standing, equal status with Beethoven, Brahms...

BULGARI: No. But yes. How can I explain to you this? Why don't we celebrate - we have to have the courage to celebrate these geniuses of our last century that wrote songs that are listened - and I can tell you by experience - all over the world, day after day. We don't give enough credit and prestige. I think we have a problem in this country. Things that are invented in this country, we seem to diminish their values and always look to the grass is greener elsewhere. I can tell you one little episode of my little daughter, ten, who goes to a French school in Rome. And guess what they teach her among the things, just to show you the French pride? The French song. I laughed! With all due respect to Gilbert Becaud, to the respect of Edith Piaf and all their songs, OK, "Les Feuilles Mortes", "The Falling Leaves," and many others. Can you believe that the little they have of French song heritage, it's taught at school? What about in the American schools, teaching American song?

KAPLAN: We don’t teach music at all in American schools anymore, but surely...

BULGARI: You understand my point of view?

KAPLAN: Of course, but I'm wondering if you...

BULGARI: And I’m not American. How about that?

KAPLAN: Well, you sound good! You sound like you are American. But I mean, I just want to give you the other side of it, I don't think there's anybody in America or in the world who doesn't know who Frank Sinatra is, who Cole Porter is, who Irving Berlin is, I mean, do you ever regret that you didn't push yourself to stay with an instrument? Did your mother give you a hard time about stopping?

BULGARI: No, she didn't. She was open-minded. She was intelligent. But probably she knew that she was giving me, by her example, love for music. And she was right because it grew in me like a flame.

KAPLAN: You mentioned when you first went to the opera, you didn't take to it immediately. Do you remember the first time you had an overwhelming response to a piece of music, whatever it was?

BULGARI: Yes, maybe I can remember this, but it sounds banal, but when you are in an early stage of listening and learning about classical music, you are absolutely taken by Tchaikovsky, No. 1 Piano Concerto, or Rachmaninoff No. 2. But then I went forward, and I listened to Rachmaninoff No. 3, which is great. It was the piece de resistance of Horowitz, right? I'm talking about someone that I met. I met Horowitz, and it was quite an experience, believe it or not. He came to buy an emerald. I didn't talk about him, but now he's dead. I couldn't believe it. He came to buy an emerald, poor guy, I guess for himself.

KAPLAN: For himself?

BULGARI: Probably.

KAPLAN: To wear as a ring? Or -

BULGARI: Maybe as a ring. I'll never forget it. It was a strange feeling.

KAPLAN: All right, well, we're now going to move to your next composer, that doesn't once again, connect to what we're talking about. But these all stand on their own; in this case, it's Mendelssohn.

BULGARI: Oh, yes, this piece of Mendelssohn I've chosen for a very simple reason. The beginning of the piece sounds like a Beethoven sonata. But on the second movement, it reminds even of Schubert. What I like about this piece is that it's romanticism that almost transcends classical. And that is not a criticism, vis a vis of Mendelssohn. I have the greatest respect - I think it's just an interesting consideration of a great musician of the caliber of Felix Mendelssohn, that has been obviously influenced by two enormous other composers like Beethoven and Schubert, and the fact of this interesting blend of classicism with romanticism where he belongs to the romantic period, it is quite unusual. And again this is the reason why I chose this piece: something different. We never have to forget another thing about Mendelssohn, important in the history of music, that he is the man who rediscovered Johannes Bach. That's the most important thing about Mendelssohn, outside of his great music. We should never forget that. If it wasn't for Mendelssohn, we would not have the appreciation and the love and the understanding of Bach. He's the one.

[Music]

KAPLAN: The opening movement of Mendelssohn's Piano Sonata Opus 6, performed by Murray Perahia, the third selection of my guest today on "Mad About Music", jeweler Nicola Bulgari. You know you speak with such conviction about the composers and the music you've selected today. Now let's talk about performers. How about opera singers? Who are your favorites there?

BULGARI: Gheorghiu. And I heard the other night at Covent Garden a great new tenor; Kaufmann is his name. He must be 37. And I was very impressed.

KAPLAN: And what about pianists?

BULGARI: I have a pianist who is in his early 80s, believe it or not, and his name is Aldo Ciccolini.

KAPLAN: Very famous.

BULGARI: And I think I am mesmerized by his piano, and I've heard him playing recently in Rome in Santa Cecilia, the Schumann piano concerto. And obviously, people that like music, I'm sure that they've heard hundreds of times this piano concerto. It could be repetitiously the same. But the way he did it, it was absolutely extraordinary.

KAPLAN: All right, then, let's come to conductors.

BULGARI: There are so many great conductors in this world. But I happen to like one very special, that I have become well-acquainted with, and his name is Antonio Pappano or Tony Pappano, who is responsible for the Covent Garden for the Opera in London for the last seven years and he’s responsible of Santa Cecilia, the Academy of Santa Cecilia in Rome for the last three years. I admire his versatility, vis a vis of opera, the music, the singers, his talent of really dealing with the singers so closely and getting the best out of them. But what attracts me mostly about or connects me with Antonio Pappano is the fact that he has an incredible love for American music, American song. He's the one that gave me once that tip of one of the great records that was registered some thirty years ago, between the famous Ellis, the pianist, and Tony Bennett. I can never forget when Tony Bennett was at his peak. And not long ago, Tony gave me a wonderful record that I'm taking here of George Shearing playing the piano and Mel Torme singing.

KAPLAN: Well, before you describe it, I should let the audience know that you have trespassed right into the next section of the show, very happily, which we call the "wildcard," where you are allowed now to talk about music outside of classical music or the opera. And I gather this is your "wildcard" you’re talking about now, so please continue.

BULGARI: I have chosen this piece as a "wildcard" because I have a feeling that people like George Shearing, we're going to forget about him, being so old. But I, again, George Shearing was one of the great pianists that I have grown with for the last forty years, and I collect all his records. Mel Torme, for me, is another revelation. And probably is a late revelation of life, that he was another extraordinary musician on his own, very different from the crowd, from the other great singers that I admire. I think Torme has something else different that moves me. And I am happy that I have chosen this also so that the younger generation would appreciate these two incredible talents, George Shearing and Mel Torme.

[Music]

KAPLAN: Johnny Mercer's "How Do You Say Auf Wiedersehen", performed by the legendary duo, Mel Torme and George Shearing. The "wildcard" selection of my guest today on "Mad About Music", jeweler Nicola Bulgari. When we return we'll talk about which composers Nicola Bulgari does not connect to.

[Station Break]

This is Gilbert Kaplan with my guest today on "Mad About Music", jeweler Nicola Bulgari. You know your musical choices today are mostly main stream, popular composers. But do you try to find composers sometimes you don't already know? And if you do, who have you recently discovered?

BULGARI: Yes. I have two examples. One is Martucci. I discovered late in life Martucci and I'm absolutely crazy about him. He's a contemporary of Brahms. And the fact that he was Italian, he was penalized by the fact that he inherited all the German thinking about music. And obviously in a world of Puccini, in a world of realism, Martucci didn't have much space. But I feel and I can see it, people like Martucci would have an incredible renaissance.

KAPLAN: And who's the other one?

BULGARI: And the other one is Nikolai Medtner. Nikolai Medtner was a Russian composer, contemporary to Rachmaninoff. I think he died in 1950, and a great friend of Rachmaninoff. And his piano sonatas are absolutely celestial. But the problem is no one knows how to play them because they are so difficult.

KAPLAN: Well, the other side of that coin is - are there composers, main-stream composers that everyone would know their name that somehow, you just don't connect to?

BULGARI: I can live without Dvorak. As much as he is a very celebrated composer, but I mean, you know, there are composers that I wouldn't go far for it. I listen to Dvorak but I could live without.

KAPLAN: That's interesting because you're such a proud today contemporary American type who plays American songs, and of course Dvorak is so rooted in America. I find that fascinating.

BULGARI: But then I love in the same time, I love Elgar. I'm absolutely nuts about Elgar. Pomp and Circumstance that's another thing very celebrated in this country. Pomp and Circumstance -

KAPLAN: At every graduation.

BULGARI: "Enigma" Variations. See, there's something obvious about Dvorak – I don't know, maybe I'm wrong.

KAPLAN: Well, we can only respond to our own tastes. So we now come to Bruckner, which is your next selection.

BULGARI: Yes. I chose the Bruckner, second movement of his Ninth Symphony. It was executed in Vienna, first time in 1892. Why I have chosen this is very simple. Because I think it is the epitome of symphonic music. The scherzo in this second movement is almost diabolic. It is something diabolic, it is something dreaming and angelic, in all this. But the way it is portrayed, what the music does in here, it is all the strength of a symphony at its best.

[Music]

KAPLAN: An excerpt from the scherzo of Bruckner's Ninth Symphony, performed by the Berlin Philharmonic, with Gunter Wand on the podium. Music chosen by my guest today on "Mad About Music", jeweler Nicola Bulgari. Now beyond music, I understand your other passion is collecting American vintage cars, so it prompts me to ask you whether you have a certain type of music you would like to listen to when you're in a car?

BULGARI: Then it should be maybe Crosby, Bing Crosby!

KAPLAN: Bing Crosby. Road to Rio. You obviously listen to a lot of recordings, so it makes me wonder, are you an audio freak? Do you have this very high tech stuff?

BULGARI: Not bad. In Tuscany I have quite a system, that it's pretty good, I'd say.

KAPLAN: You take an interest in this?

BULGARI: I like to use it as a tool. I don't want to be maniac about it.

KAPLAN: Well, then, we should then move on to your final selection, which is Shostakovich. Again, a work that's not so well-known. It's his Quintet, I see. We all know Shostakovich's symphonies, so I think we're beginning to get a theme to this show, of music we know the composer, but maybe we don't know the work so well. So tell us about this one.

BULGARI: Very simply, I really wanted to finish this with a quintet, but I certainly didn't want to take the Brahms or Schumann Quintet that we all know, and we all love so much. So I was thinking as a great composer of last century, I consider Shostakovich one of the big stars of the twentieth century. And I thought that probably the Quintet would make something different and special about Shostakovich and would tell us also what he had to go through, through the music and through this Quintet, you can hear his pain. That he was persecuted all his life, politically, and needs the beginning of what would follow later on in the famous "Leningrad Symphony", the famous Seventh. With this Quintet, you already feel the beauty of his music, but the pain also of it.

[Music]

KAPLAN: The First Movement of Shostakovich's Piano Quintet in G minor, Yefim Bronfman on the piano with the Juilliard String Quartet. The final musical choice of my guest today on "Mad About Music", jeweler Nicola Bulgari. You know, listening to you talk about Shostakovich and reminding us of the pain he went through during the difficult times in the Soviet Union, reflections on death, all this brings me to ask you a question I hope you don't mind my asking. But as you're someone who really seems to not only love music but feel it in such a personal way, I wonder have you already planned or at least thought about the music you might want to have played at your funeral?

BULGARI: Oh, that’s a very serious question, and I like your question! Especially because my wife persecutes me every day, she said, "Give me the menu".

KAPLAN: Already?

BULGARI: She wants the menu. She's right, it's very down to earth, and I have given thought, but I haven't come to a conclusion. It may be something totally folly, a complete folly. It has to be a folly.

KAPLAN: But sooner or later you would like to pick the music, though.

BULGARI: I will. I promise you I will.

KAPLAN: Alright. Well, then, we come to the final part of the show, which I call "Fantasyland", because it's what every guest has to endure, and it's where I ask you, as I now do, about your fantasies, your musical fantasies. Namely, if you hadn't given up the piano, it might have been to become a great pianist, like Horowitz you talked about. But if you could be a star in any aspect of music, a great conductor, a great opera singer, the success of a Cole Porter as a song writer, what would it be?

BULGARI: I think I have a weakness for piano. I would have been a pianist. I would have loved that more than anything else.

KAPLAN: That's interesting because of course you did start it, and didn't feel you liked it.

BULGARI: But then I overcame - the fact that I was able to acquire two magnificent Steinways, one 1883 and one 1877. And I had them beautifully restored, and I have had the joy of having these instruments played by master pianists. And I've had in the house where these two Steinways look at one another, the joy of recording some great pieces of music. That fulfills the fact that I failed.

KAPLAN: Well, I think you didn't fail as a listener, and needless to say, that's the whole point of the show, people who are "Mad About Music." Nicola Bulgari, you've made a jewel of an appearance, if I can use that cliche. Thank you for joining us today. This is Gilbert Kaplan for "Mad About Music."

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"Mad About Music"
Gilbert Kaplan, Executive Producer
Heidi Bryson, Producer
Marcela Silva, Associate Producer
Leszek Wojcik, Recording Engineer

Nicola Bulgari was born in Rome in 1941.

Since 1984 he has been Vice Chairman of the Bvlgari Group.

Nicola Bulgari is the grandson of Sotirio, a talented silversmith who founded the family's Company after emigrating from his native country, Greece. Together with his brother Paolo, Chairman of the Bvlgari Group, Nicola was introduced to the family business by his father Giorgio in the 1960's.

A keen coin collector, Nicola gave a substantial contribution to one of the Company's major and most successful aesthetic trends of those years– the creation of jewels including such 'gems'. He thus continued a well-established classical tradition (coins were lavishly used in the ancient world as adorning elements) while obtaining completely modern and original results.

Since then, Nicola has become a world-renowned collector of antique silver, having personally acquired at auction several rare examples of silver pieces of the Roman school which are currently on exhibit in the Via Condotti flagship store. Indeed, his passion for silver is reflected in the mission he has been performing since the 1960's – that of setting up a substantial collection of silver items manufactured by Bvlgari where technical perfection meets with contemporary design and functionality.

He collects contemporary works of art and vintage American automobiles.