Through the fifties and sixties the highspot on a Sunday was a half-hour
broadcast by Antony Hopkins Talking about Music. This was
the composer and conductor Antony Hopkins not the well-known actor,
but they both had in common a calm mellifluous speaking voice. Each
Sunday a work that was going to be broadcast later that week was discussed
in detail without becoming too technical and without once talking
down to the audience. The talks were accompanied on the piano or by
recordings. Two that particularly stick in my mind were Britten's
War Requiem in 1962 (a two-parter) and Bartok's Sonata for two pianos
and percussion. The description ran along the lines of ...'imagine
you are walking down a country lane on a very dark night gently feeling
your way, when suddenly a bramble hits you full in the face'. Play
the opening of the first movement to hear how apt that description
is.
The programme ran for years (AH estimated over 1000 broadcasts)
but it seems the BBC never had faith in them and only ever issued
contracts for three month periods. There was never any real attempt
to market the programmes, certainly not by the BBC, although
I seem to recall one LP that was issued and Hopkins wrote several
'Talking About ...' books. I have never understood this and Talking
about Music is fondly remembered by all musical acquaintances
of similar age to myself and would stand repeating even now.
The programmes have been sorely missed.
Len Mullenger
see also CD Antony
Hopkins: Portrait of a composer
