Desert Island Luxury Item

The BBC Radio program ‘Desert Island Discs,’ created by Roy Plomley in 1941, has a very simple formula that works every time. A castaway is invited to share eight favourite records during what is usually, a relaxed discussion about the castaway’s life. At the end of the program, it is imagined that the castaway must choose one of the eight records to take to the island, and is also given the works of Shakespeare, a copy of the Bible, and (since 1951) one luxury item to make life on the island more bearable. Each of these choices reveal further layers of the cast-away’s personality.

The program has been going long enough to throw up some interesting statistics.

According to the  BBC’s website. From over 22,000 choices, the Castaways’ Top Tracks is
1. Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 in D minor.
2. Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor. 

Notice that piano music ranked very highly! 

 The Castaways’ Top Composers
1. Mozart
2. Beethoven
3. Bach
4. Schubert
These guys are mostly associated with keyboard music!

According to the Telegraph, the top luxury item choice is a piano! What else would one choose?

This is music to the ears of all piano tuners. It shows that despite the convenience and ready availability of music these days, the piano holds a very special place in the lives of these castaways. The piano is the most interactive of musical instruments. The very principles that drove the piano’s development in the early 1700s, still attract the desire for self-expression.

It would be a good thing if it were made official: 
The Piano really is the top choice of luxury items!

The Piano World

© Steve Burden