Look Who it Was Random video

John Bonner - My musical Swiss grandfather (16/59)

114 views · Published 3 July 2017 · 1:40 · Indexed 28 October 2026

Channel: Web of Stories - Life Stories of Remarkable People · 2017 · Science & Technology

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To hear more of John Bonner’s stories, go to the playlist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoKbjMVfBA0&list=PLVV0r6CmEsFzJx77ir9rbTxVC9EnCyfHD

Born in 1920, John Bonner is one of the world's leading experts on cellular slime molds. His prime interests are in evolution and developmental biology and he uses cellular slime molds as a tool to understand both disciplines. [Listener: Christopher Sykes; date recorded: 2007]

TRANSCRIPT: My Swiss grandfather was really nice because he was the father of the family in the Swiss fashion, very rigid, but at the same time, he was a very kind and gentle soul. So he was totally adored by everybody. And people, if he said, we're going to do such and such, we did it with a smile. And he - there were lots of stories about him that I've always loved, he was very musical, and played as an amateur in the first violins in the Zurich Orchestra - and he told me one day that he had heard Brahms conduct the orchestra. And I said, 'Oh, you're not that old'. And he said, 'Oh, yes, we overlap quite a bit, actually'. But he was a splendid man. In his old age he couldn't play anymore because of his tremor, but he'd ask me to play quintets and Schubert trios, and things like that. And he'd sit beside the old gramophone, and he'd cry. It was really, very touching. I always felt as though I were invading his privacy.

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