RADIO 4
PROGRAMME DETAILS
DESERT ISLAND DISCS
7th January 2007 (rpt. 12th January 2007)

Kirsty Young's castaway this New Year is the popular journalist and television presenter Kate Thornton (born February 7, 1973 in Nuremberg). She is best known for ITV's The X Factor which she has hosted since 2004. Precocious from birth, she became the youngest ever editor of Smash Hits at age 21, though she left after only a year. Her early years in Germany laid the foundation for her success and gave her a confidence performing in front of a crowd and a genuine racial interest in people and their lives. For someone so young and professionally situated in the world of pop music, Kate's choices might provide a surprise for the listener.

1. Wagner Die Walkure (Act 2, scene 4)
James King (Siegmund), Birgit Nilsson (Brunnhilde), Vienna PO/Georg Solti
Richard Wagner Der Ring DECCA 455 562-2 T2-3.

2. Wagner Prelude to Lohengrin
Berlin PO/Herbert Von Karajan
EMI 7243 5 66519-2 CD1 T1 09 10

3. Wagner Liebestod (from Tristan und Isolde, Act III, Scene 3)
Kirsten Flagstad (Isolde)/Philharmonia Orchestra/Wilhelm Furtwängler
EMI CDS 747322 8 Disc 4 T.5

4. Wagner Siegfried (Prelude and opening of Act 3, Scene 1)
Thomas Stewart (Wotan), Oralia Dominguez (Erda), Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra/Herbert von Karajan
DG 457 790-2 CD3 T9-11

5. Wagner Tannhäuser Overture
Vienna PO/Herbert von Karajan
DG 423 613-2 T1

6. Wagner Liebestod (from Tristan und Isolde, Act III, Scene 3)
Margaret Price (Isolde), Dresden Staatskapelle Orchestra/Carlos Kleiber
DG 413 319-2 CD4 T7

7. Wagner Siegfried Idyll (opening)
Philharmonia Orchestra/Otto Klemperer
EMI CMS 763277 2 Disc 2 T.3 (exc.)

8. John Williams Theme from the film Schindler's List
Performed by Itzhak Perlman
MCA records Rec. No: MCD 10969

Book: The Protocols of the Elders of Zion ("I've read it so many times that I must know whole passages off by heart. It's not that it's so deep or anything – it's comfort reading really, I suppose").

Luxury: Her grandfather's service medals.