David Munrow - The tragic story of the man who inspired millions to love music

by Phil Hebblethwaite

Monday 28th November 2016

As Radio 3 re-run episodes of their landmark 1970s music series for children, Pied Piper, we remember its presenter - early music specialist David Munrow.

What's the best way to inspire children to take an interest in music, and is there any value in doing so? If there is, what kind of music is best?

Those kinds of questions have dogged parents and scientists for decades, each new study providing different answers. Does listening to Mozart really increase your brainpower? asked BBC Future in 2013 in response to a widely misunderstood report from 1993, which didn't actually declare that there was a "Mozart effect" - the idea that infants will become cleverer if they're exposed to classical music. In fact, just about any kind of music is good for children of all ages to listen to, and a much broader 2006 study suggested pop (Blur!) was just as effective as Mozart.

If you liked music when you were a kid, you already know that it benefitted you. The conundrum is how to interest children in music, and for that there are a multitude of initiatives around for parents to investigate, including the BBC's Ten Pieces.

Back in the 1970s, before mass media, life was simpler. One man was given a show on Radio 3 called Pied Piper: Tales and Music for Younger Listeners and a whole generation was tuned into a wild variety of sounds - classical, pop, world music, baroque, ancient, electronic. Easy, right? Give the right person the airwaves and the rest falls into place. Sure, but you'll need to find a broadcaster as erudite, brilliant and energetic as David Munrow, and that's no easy task.

Jolly good! Jolly good!

BBC Radio 3 - Pied Piper: David surveys the life of Sir Thomas Beecham

Pied Piper was broadcast on Radio 3 between 1971 and 1976 - a staggering 655 episodes in total, all presented by Munrow - and as part of their 70th anniversary celebrations they're re-running five episodes this week during the interval of Radio 3 in Concert (they're online too). For the uninitiated, it offers to chance to hear a master broadcaster at work, covering subjects as broad as Bach, English conductor and impresario Sir Thomas Beecham, brass and military bands, string quartets and music inspired by the stars. You'll learn a lot, whatever your age, because although Pied Piper was angled towards children it had a trick up its sleeve - the series was so well put together, it appealed as much to adults and had an average listening age of 29.

Munrow's love of music was life-long. He taught himself the bassoon in two weeks while still at school, before travelling to Peru, where he learned other instruments, and then studied at Cambridge in the 1960s. The breadth of his knowledge ensured he could present with devastating clarity, never cramming too much into an episode and always letting pieces of music play to a decent length, so they were enjoyable as well as illustrative. His touch was light-but-learned, fun and informative and he knew the power of stories to engage young minds. Here's how the episode (above) on Sir Thomas Beecham, grandson of the founder of the pharmaceutical company Beechams, begins: "Do you know which famous English conductor was born in St Helens, Lancashire, belonged to a family who made a fortune in pills, enjoyed cricket, chess and billiards, used to sing bass in a madrigal group and once practised the trombone in a rowing boat right out in the middle of a Swiss lake?"

In the first of the five episodes to be broadcast (below), Munrow picks out a phrase in Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 3, composed in the early 18th century, which he tells listeners sounds like someone saying, "Jolly good! Jolly good! Jolly good! Jolly good!" Then, to prove that "most people today would agree that Bach is one of the greatest composers there's ever been - even today's pop musicians listen to and study Bach because they find it full of excitement; they find it an inspiration", he plays the section of prog rock band The Nice’s Ars Longa Vita Brevis from 1968 that includes a version of "Bach's jolly good tune".

Renaissance man

One incarnation of the Early Music Consort of London.
L-R: Christopher Hogwood, David Munrow, James Tyler, Oliver Brookes, James Bowman

Pied Piper came to an end in 1976 because Munrow took his own life, aged just 33. He suffered from depression, which was possibly exacerbated by the recent deaths of his father and father-in-law, to whom he dedicated his only book, Instruments of the Middle Ages and Renaissance. He also presented the TV programmes Ancestral Voices on BBC Two and Early Musical Instruments on ITV, but it was Pied Piper that left the most dramatic mark on a generation. 

Among its fans are Sir Nicholas Kenyon, managing director of the Barbican Centre and former controller of the BBC Proms, current Radio 3 controller Alan Davey, and Tom Service, whose excellent, cross-genre Listening Services series on Radio 3 conjures up the cavalier spirit of Pied Piper for a 21st century audience. Writing about Munrow in BBC Music magazine, Service says: "Munrow's scarcely credible output of 655 - six hundred and fifty-five! - editions in around five years is one of the most preternaturally brilliant and prolific of any broadcaster in recorded history."

And yet there are huge swathes of music fans who best remember Munrow not for his broadcasting career, but as a musician and recording artist. It seems almost impossible to believe, but in his 33 years he also released over 50 albums that it's not an exaggeration to say they changed our understanding of music history by spectacularly throwing a light on, most notably, the medieval and renaissance periods.

Munrow's interest in what is loosely termed 'early music' began at Cambridge when he discovered a crumhorn (an early wind instrument) hanging on the wall in a friend's room. He learned to play it and later, according to his collaborator Christopher Hogwood, mastered some 42 other instruments from different times in history and different places in the world. A group he formed, Early Music Consort of London, became highly influential, their many albums managing to combine the strictures of ancient music with the free-flowing experimentation of the 1970s. Just as Canadian pianist Glenn Gould had managed with Bach in the 50s and 60s, Munrow made old music sound bracingly modern and he won an audience not just with classical buffs, but rock fans, too.

The Early Music Consort's The Art of Courtly Love won a Grammy in 1977 for best Chamber Music Performance, and Munrow also scored for TV and film - including, with Peter Maxwell Davis, Ken Russell's The Devils (1971), starring Oliver Reed.

The Munrow legacy

Released 1976: EMI SLS 988

The final episode of Pied Piper to be broadcast this week (above) examines music inspired by the solar system and includes Munrow discussing astronomy with Sir Patrick Moore. We can guess that Munrow would have been thrilled to know that a piece of music performed by the Early Music Consort - The Faerie Round from Anthony Holborne’s Pavans, Galliards, Almains and Other Short Aeirs - was included on the Voyager Golden Records, which were sent into space in 1977. That's quite some achievement, and just one example of Munrow's extraordinary legacy.

Have we become genre-blind in the way we listen to music now? Radio 3 controller Alan Davey thinks so, telling the Sunday Times in 2015: ”Young people are ­growing up with an open mind about various kinds of quite ­complex music." Munrow foresaw that, instilling a sense of sonic adventure in the minds of people who heard the Pied Piper series in the 70s and now have considerable influence on the way music is presented, curated and broadcast to us now. 

"Today," Tom Service writes in BBC Music magazine, "Munrow would have taken advantage of the technological possibilities of our musical world in ways that we can only imagine." He was a futurist as well as an archivist, who left the universe of music vastly expanded in all directions for the benefit of those who came next.

First published at BBC November 28, 2016

SYDNEY INTERNATIONAL PIANO COMPETITION FINALS 2016: No. 2, Wednesday 20th July 2016, by Tony Magee

SIPC finals two, Wednesday 20th July 2016

Sydney Opera House Concert Hall.

Sydney Symphony Orchestra conducted by Benjamin Northey.

Oxana Shevchenko (29), Kazakhstan, Mozart 26 in D Major K.537

Oxana is a pianist of great skill with a flawless technique and immense musical insight. I generally don't like this concerto very much because it was written for a Coronation and therefore has all the associated grand fanfares and pomp and circumstance at the expense, in my opinion, of a genuine musical journey. However in the hands of Oxana, it was delivered in such a polished and refined way, with a minimum of emphasis on musical fireworks, instead delivering beautiful musical lines and glorious melodic runs. She chose the Italian Fazioli piano (as did all the performers on the previous night) and achieved bell-like clarity in her tone production.

Moye Chen (32), China, Mozart 27 in Bb Major K.595

A minimalist player - barely any body movement - just the fingers moving over the keys. The antithesis of Lang Lang. Incredibly relaxed, assured and confident. Obviously more experienced on the concert platform than the others. Chose the Sheguru Kawai piano. Slightly metallic sounding tone occasionally, I think due to the piano more than the player. A very mature reading and completely delightful.

Jianing Kong (30), China, Mozart 21 in C Major K.467

Back to the Fazioli. Arguably the most popular of all the Mozart piano concertos and containing some of his most mature and brilliant writing both for the piano and the orchestra. The classical form at its height. Played with a very developed tone, sometimes I thought a little too heavily, however this concerto, along with No. 24, anticipates some of the qualities of the Romantic style more than any others and a player could conceivably justify a more dominating and robust approach as was the case with Jianing. The slow movement was sublime and only marred by a constantly ringing phone from some office somewhere nearby (it wasn't an audience mobile), which continued for the rest of the performance. Inserted a brief improvisational flourish at the beginning of the third movement which was a nice touch and in keeping with the fashion of the day (Mozart's day). The only player to attempt anything of this nature. I hope the judges don't mark him down for it.

Notes: All players were at ease and as one with the orchestra and conductor. Steinway and Yamaha pianos not used on either night. The stand-out performance for me was of Andrey Gugnin from Russia from the night before.

SYDNEY INTERNATIONAL PIANO COMPETITION 2016 FINALS: No. 1, Tuesday 19th July, by Tony Magee

SIPC Final one, Tuesday 19th July

Sydney Opera House Concert Hall

Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Benjamin Northey.

Kenneth Broberg

Kenneth Broberg, USA (23), Mozart 25 in C Major K.503

A somewhat Romantic performance of a Classical era work. Most enjoyable and enthusiastically played but somewhat stylistically unconventional. Tempos occasionally ahead of the orchestra. Very large sound from the Fazioli piano, over-developed in places for the style of the concerto. First movement cadenza extremely stylishly played and with great conviction. The pianist had great fun playing this concerto, but at the expense of balance and authenticity.

Arseny Tarasovich-Nikolaev

Arseny Tarasovich-Nikolaev, Russia (23), Mozart 23 in A major K.488

Incredibly fluid and relaxed technique. Flat hands and minimum of movement to deliver an overall beautiful restrained sound, at times almost lacking in balance with the orchestra. At other times, he demonstrated glimpses of a broad majestic sound, almost tending towards Romantic piano volumes. A flawless performance and at times almost too perfect, bordering on robotic. His grandmother was the great Russian pianist Tatiana Nikolayeva.

Andrey Gugnin, Russia (29), Mozart 9 in Eb major K.271

Andrey Gugnin

Stand out performance of the night. Clarity and beauty of tone, fluid lines and phrases perfectly executed in a dialogue format within the piano part itself, but also with the orchestra. Demonstrated such a masterful understanding of the structure of the work and how to bring out everything it has to offer, which is considerable. Absolutely at one with the orchestra and the conductor, at times semi-conducting himself from the piano. A magnificent display of perfect dynamics, ebb and flow, sensitivity, polish and poise.

General notes: All performers chose to play the Italian made Fazioli piano. No performers improvised their own Cadenzas, all choosing instead to play the ones written out my Mozart.

Maurizio Pollini review – glimpses of greatness amid the gloom

by Andrew Clements

Royal Festival Hall, London

Schumann’s Fantasy lacked the usual magisterial control, but Chopin fared better and Schoenberg’s Six Little Pieces were the perfect tribute to Boulez.

Maurizio Pollini at the Royal Festival Hal, London. Photograph: Venla Shalin/Redferns

When Maurizio Pollini first established himself internationally as one of the great pianists of the age, Schumann’s C major Fantasy was a signature work, and the recording he made of the piece in 1973 remains one of his greatest achievements on disc. He has returned to the work intermittently over the last 40 years, and played it several times since in London, though without ever quite recapturing the earlier clarity, rigour and intensity.

The Fantasy was the most substantial item in this programme of Schumann and Chopin, but again Pollini’s performance seemed only an approximation of what it once was. The formal strength is still there, and also the wonderfully unsentimental treatment of the lyrical interludes, but any sense of magisterial control in the first movement and steady accumulation of intensity in the finale were missing. The closing pages of the central march were rather approximate, just as the opening cascades of Schumann’s Op 8 Allegro were not as crisp as they might have been, but then that awkward work’s rather flashy brand of bravura has never seemed a perfect fit with Pollini’s approach.

The Chopin group generally fared better, though everything remained rather subfusc. The Polonaise-Fantaisie Op 61 was stripped of its ceremonial overtones, and became restrained and inward-looking, while the C sharp minor Scherzo seemed to go through the motions in a safety-first sort of way. 

Best of all were the two sharply contrasted Nocturnes of the Op 55 set, the first all F-minor introspection, the second flowing E-flat major expansiveness, while the work that Pollini had added at the beginning of the programme in memory of Pierre Boulez - Schoenberg’s Six Little Pieces Op 19, had been the perfect tribute, each miniature chiselled with immense care.

First published at The Guardian, March 4, 2016

Article: Aussie antiques lover sets up shop in Belper

Friday March 4, 2016

by Dan Hayes

An Australian antiques lover has set up shop in Belper and is hoping his new business venture hits the ground running. 

Charles Collins, 56, of Derby, came to this county with his first wife in 1989 and found work in radio journalism.

However, after a long stint working at Radio Derby as a sports producer came to an end in 2014, he decided to go it alone in a field he had long been passionate about. 

He said: “I found it difficult to find work after the BBC and spent about a year volunteering at food banks and things like that. 

“I was in my mid-50s and had heart and back problems but I just thought, ‘I would employ me’, so I employed myself."

Charles managed to secure the lease on a unit at The Gatehouse at De Bradelei House on Chapel Street and decided to keep the tea room that came with it. 

“I’ve had to do some courses in hygiene and Diane who runs it has been fantastic, but I’ve begun to get some compliments about the quality of my cappuccinos and lattes, which is nice.” 

The shop is a veritable treasure trove of beautiful and interesting objects, from a Pye phonograph to fearsome military memorabilia and everything in between.

There are stunning African masks which have been picked out by Charles’ current wife, who originally hails from South Africa, and exquisite hand-painted porcelain by art-deco artist Clarice Cliff that was once, astonishingly, sold in Woolworths. 

Twelve dealers in total will show their wares at the shop eventually, with the priciest items arranged in glass vitrines which seemingly add to their desirability. 

There are even a few reminders of Charles’ native Australia dotted around in the form of the maps which adorn the walls and a wonderful Australia-shaped coffee table. 

Val and Charles, wedding day 1988

Charles’ love of antiques came from his first wife, the Prisoner Cell Block H actress, Val Lehman.

“I used to find it really boring but she got me into it and eventually I developed and interest in porcelain and maps,” he explained. “We then set up an antiques centre but as she wasn’t a businesswoman it didn’t succeed. I do remember thinking, however, ‘I could do that’.”

Charles next step will be to open the upstairs of the shop in readiness for Monday’s official opening when TV antiques expert, Charles Hanson, and pop legend Dave Berry will be coming along to cut the ribbon. 

Breaking news and ‘Neighbours’:

After returning to Australia with his first wife in 1996, Charles again found work in journalism. 

One of the most amazing tales he has to tell was his experience of breaking the news of a coup in Fiji.

“I pretended to be a senior Fijian official in order to get through to the head of their army,” he said. 

“When I got through to him I admitted I wasn’t who I said I was, but the only thing he was interested in was in getting a message to the rugby team that they should continue their tour of Australia!” 

Charles, now a committed Christian, says he couldn’t do the same now. 

On top of that Charles also had a couple of small parts in Prisoner himself, courtesy of his then wife who played Bea Smith - Top Dog to the long-running soap’s aficionados - and even had one line in Neighbours. 

“I suppose you could say I have had an interesting life story,” says Charles.

First published in Belper News, March 4, 2016

When Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor starred in a student play

11 February 2016

At the time of their Oxford sojourn, Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor were probably the world's most famous couple. Photo: Douglas Kirkland / Getty Images

It is 50 years since Hollywood superstars Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor took time out of their busy schedules to perform for no money in a student production. What was behind the grand gesture and what do people remember of these unlikely events today?

Now, it would be the equivalent of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie ditching the glamour of their A-list existences for the modest stage of a local amateur dramatics club - and the British couple's return to the UK was described by the BBC at the time as providing a dose of "knockout voltage" glamour.

Burton had agreed to play the title role in Oxford University Dramatic Society's February 1966 production of Dr Faustus to thank Prof Nevill Coghill, who two decades earlier had championed Burton's acting talent when the young Welshman had a brief stint studying English at the university's Exeter College.

Remarkably, Taylor's non-speaking role in the play as Helen of Troy marked her stage debut.

Jackie Keirs was a choreographer and dancer in the play with Burton and Taylor, and also appeared in the film version as a sprite. Photo courtesy BBC News

During the week the play was staged, the celebrated couple, who had married two years previously, welcomed their undergraduate co-stars into their social world.

"They took over a floor of The Randolph [hotel] where they would entertain every night, and that was great fun," said Jackie Keirs, a student choreographer and dancer in the play.

At the time Taylor described her involvement in the production as "sort of like a giggle, really, for me to do".

Taylor described her involvement in the play as "like a giggle". Photo courtesy BBC News

"She would come into the wings with her wardrobe lady, her hairdresser, her make-up lady, her bodyguard - then she would come across the stage, Burton would kiss her, [then she would] come out of the other wings and be carried back to her dressing room by the same group of people," said Keirs.

The atmosphere surrounding the event was "electric", said Don Chapman, former drama critic at the Oxford Mail.

"Everybody wanted to get a ticket for it."

Burton agreed to perform in the production to thank Prof Nevill Coghill (right), an early champion of the Welsh actor's talent. Photo courtesy BBC News

However, for the production's assistant director Nicholas Young there was a certain amount of apprehension.

"I sort of wondered whether you could ever ask Richard to sort of 'move stage left', or whether from a great actor it just came naturally," he said at the time.

"Like a stage-struck 18-year-old, I was keen that I should have some role or other in this," said Richard Carwardine, who played Cornelius and the Pope. "I don't think I appreciated at the time just how unusual this was."

"Elizabeth, who did have a fiery temper, was a very, very kind person," said Carwardine, who is now president of Corpus Christi College.

"Richard was gracious, amusing, full of anecdotes."

"They had an aura about them when they were together," Keirs said of the golden couple.

Carwardine said there was "great excitement, a lot of speculation as to which of the male undergraduates would be able to get closest to Elizabeth Taylor".

Chapman made it clear in his review of the production that, despite the fact she had no lines, Taylor was the real star of the show.

"Say what you will, it is the presence of Elizabeth Taylor as Helen of Troy - as much as that of Richard Burton in the title role - that will make the Oxford University Dramatic Society's production of Dr Faustus live in the memory," he wrote.

Elizabeth Taylor as Helen of Troy in Dr Faustus (1967). Photo courtesy Columbia Pictures

Carwardine recalled how the generous-spirited Burton "took me under his wing" during the production.

Burton said of the students at the time: "The enthusiasm of course of my boys, as I like to call them, at Oxford is infectious and suddenly I feel much younger than my grey and 40 years."

The students' brush with fame was to continue when they were flown to Italy to appear in the film version of the play that summer.

"I remember vividly coming out after the rushes of our first scenes and he [Burton] put his arms around us and said 'boys, you did really well'," said Carwardine.

He added: "I did go to the premiere - several of the undergraduate members of the cast had their voices dubbed by professional actors, so it was a huge relief to me to discover what I heard coming from the screen was my own voice."

The film was poorly received by critics but proceeds from the stage play were used to create the Burton Taylor Studio in Oxford, which is now a popular venue for student, fringe and children's shows, and a permanent reminder of the time Hollywood came to Oxford.

Burton and Taylor were married twice during the course of their 15-year on-off relationship 
Photo: BBC News

Hollywood's golden couple

• Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor met on the set of Cleopatra in Italy in 1961 - at the time they were both married to other people
• Their affair made headline news around the world
  
• They married in 1964 and appeared in many films together over the next 10 years, including The V.I.P.s, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and The Tempest
  
• Known for their turbulent relationship and frequent break-ups they divorced in 1974
  
• Finding it difficult to live apart they remarried 18 months later
  
• They divorced for a second and final time in 1976
  
• Burton and Taylor reunited professionally for a final time in 1982 for a stage production of Noel Coward's Private Lives
  
• The Welshman died two years later, aged 58, while Taylor died in 2012 aged 79
  
• Their on-off relationship was the subject of a BBC Four drama staring Helena Bonham Carter and Dominic West in 2013

First published at BBC News, February 11, 2016