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[applause]
[Regis shakes hands with John Williams and Itzhak Perlman]
REGIS PHILBIN: Itzhak, good to see you.
KATHY LEE: Good to see you.
JOHN WILLIAMS: Good to see you too. Lovely.
RP: (talking to Perlman) So Ed Sullivan brought you over here when you were 13?
ITZHAK PERLMAN: Yes, that's correct.
RP: And you stayed? Or...
IP: Um, yes. For a long time.
[chuckles]
RP: Do you have memories of Ed when he introduced you around the show? Did he say anything to you? (imitating Ed Sullivan) "Very nice young man."
IP: Yes, he was very, very sweet. Very, very nice man.
KL: You didn't speak any english, though at the time.
IP: No. Not at all. I just looked at him like this (crosses arms like Ed Sullivan), and I'd say, "well, that's a good sign".
[laughter]
RP: So you fellows have been performing together this summer, huh?
IP: Well, we've done a few things.
RP: At Tanglewood just recently?
JW: Yes, over the years, a lot..
KL: Many...
JW: ... many, many things too, yes...
RP: Whose idea was it to finally get together on a CD?
JW: I don't know, I think some idea to put some film music together with one of the great instrumentalists of any period of music, was a unique thought... I don't know how it...
[talking over each other]
IP: Well, I'd always bug John, you know, come on let's make something together in film, something like that, because I, you know, I whenever I listen to your music in film, it's so good, it's so skillful, so I said, "I'd like to do something like that".
RP: Now, were you both child prodigies?
JW: Oh, I certainly was, when I began maybe 6 or 7 years old playing piano the nomal way children would do...
KL: With a teacher? Or...
JW: With teacher. My father was a professional musician all of his life, very good musician, so the house was full of musicians, his friends were musicians, so I'd thought when I was little that when you grew up to be an adult you were a musician, that's what adults did [laughter], there were no other kind of adults, you know? So with this kind of background with me, but I think Itzhak maybe was a child prodigy, I would think...
IP: No, no. I wasn't... I was talented. I was talented.
KL: And your parents knew it right off?
IP: Um, yes, they thought I, everybody thought I had a nice tone, which (word or words I did not understand), but I certanly was not, you know by age 8 or 9 ready to go to Carnegie Hall and play concerts, but I had good talent.
KL: Did you learn by Suzuki? Or did you...
IP: No, no, no. This is Israel, you know?
[laughter]
RP: Suzuki?!?
KL: (inintelligible)
IP: (Perlman imitating other accent) "Excuse me, sir, is this a Suzuki?"
[laughter]
IP: ... we're talking about 1954, 55.
KL: What? Suzuki hadn't been born yet?
[someone says "No"]
IP: Barely.
KL: Barely.
IP: No, this was straight, you know? The first time, I actually, my parents were going on the boardwalk and they saw some fiddle play in a café, and they thought, "that's a good teacher". So they brought him to the house and it lasted about six weeks, even they could tell it was no good.
KL: But that's such a difficult instrument.
IP: Very difficult. And then we found somebody at the local academy in Tel-Aviv, and she was terrific, she was Russian-born, and everthing was scales, everyday excercises and stuff to do that...
KL: And did you hated it? Or did you...
IP: Hated it. Really.
KL: So, they made you keep at it?
IP: Oh, absolutely.
RP: But, practice, practice, practice.
IP: No, just practice, practice.
[laughter]
KL: Until you get to Tanglewood.
RP: Get to Tanglewood. When we come back we're going to have them perform for us...
KL: You're in for such a treat.
RP: ... stay with us, we'll be right back.
[commercial]
KL: (talking from break)... film scores. Unbelievable.
RP: Boy, did I love this CD, and incidentally you'll have a chance to see them perform with the Boston Pops Orchestra on PBS August the 11th. August 11th.
KL: The "Evening at Pops" series.
RP: Next week. But these themes from the movies, Il Postino, Yentl, um, Out of Africa. I mean, they're just great, great themes, The Color Purple, all right, so here they are Itzhak Perlman and John Williams and this great medley Scent of a Woman and Schindler's List.
[applause]
[Excerpts from "Tango" from Scent of a Woman and Schindler's List. Itzhak Perlman, violin. John Williams, piano]
[applause]
RP: Itzhak Perlman and John Williams.
KL: So beautiful... got chills from that.
[applause cut to commercial]
[End of interview]
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