Marcus Du Sautoy

Kirsty Young's castaway this week is the mathematician Marcus du Sautoy.

A professor of mathematics at Oxford University and a fellow of New College, he has recently been named as the next Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science. He has always been driven to try to demystify and popularise his field. It's clearly a task he takes seriously - his father has recently enrolled on an Open University course in maths and, he admits, when he took his young son to visit the Alhambra in Spain, he challenged him to find the 17 forms of plane symmetry in the palace.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Choices

1.

Richard Strauss

Frühling (from Four Last Songs)

Soloist: Lucia Popp Orchestra: The London Philharmonic Orchestra Conductor: Klaus Tennstedt

Others who chose this artist

2.

Benjamin Britten

Fanfare for St Edmundsbury

Orchestra: The Philip Jones Brass Ensemble

Others who chose this artist

3.

Castaway's favourite

Richard Wagner

Parsifal Prelude

Orchestra: The Berlin Philharmonic Conductor: Herbert von Karajan

Others who chose this artist

4.

Benjamin Britten

I know a bank (from A Midsummer Night’s Dream)

Soloist: James Bowman Choir: The Trinity Boy’s Choir Orchestra: The City of London Sinfonia Conductor: Richard Hickox

Others who chose this artist

5.

Olivier Messiaen

Turangalîla Symphony - 5th movement

Orchestra: The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra Conductor: Sir Simon Rattle

Others who chose this artist

6.

Béla Bartók

Look my castle gleams and brightens (from Duke Bluebeard's Castle)

Soloist: Eve Marton & Samuel Ramey Orchestra: The Hungarian State Orchestra Conductor: Adam Fischer

Others who chose this artist

7.

Dmitri Shostakovich

String Quartet No. 8 in C minor - 2nd movement

Orchestra: The Brodsky Quartet

Others who chose this artist

8.

George Frideric Handel

The many rend the skies (from Alexander’s Feast)

Choir: The Bach Choir of Stockholm Orchestra: Concentus Musicus of Vienna Conductor: Nikolaus Harnoncourt

Others who chose this artist

Book

The Glass Bead Game by Hermann Hesse

Others who chose this author

Religious text

Mahabharata

Luxury item

My own trumpet

Others who chose a similar luxury