Around the Horn by Frank Downes: Chapter 16

Music & Conversation: The Podcast of English Composer Andrew Downes

Paula Downes reads her Grandfather and Andrew Downes' father Frank's book, Around the Horn, which tells the story of the Classical Music Industry from the point of view of a professional Horn player. Born 1921, died 2005, his fascinating orchestral career spanned the demise of the silent cinema, municipal seaside orchestras, the RAF Central band during World War II, orchestral playing in pre and post-war Britain, and the rise towards a Royal title for the Birmingham Conservatoire. Chapter 16 covers the late Queen Elizabeth II's Coronation in 1953, at which Frank's brother Herbert was leading the violas in the orchestra in Westminster Abbey that day. The image of the Queen is a photograph of a Candy Box at about the time of the Queen’s Coronation in 1953 by Ross Dunn. The episode also covers the life of conductor and pianist Leo Wurmser, and violinist Ernest Element. Paula has chosen to end this episode with the second movement of Andrew Downes' Sonata for Violin and Piano, performed by Rupert Marshall-Luck and Duncan Honeybourne, since this work was composed in memory of Ernest Element: https://www.andrewdownes.com/Instrumental-Solo.html#VIOLINPIANO