Hoffnung at Large

 

 

 

Gerard Hoffnung was an artist, musician, broadcaster, raconteur – and genius. A true Renaissance Man, the multi-faceted Hoffnung crammed a great deal into his tragically short span.

Using much previously unreleased archive material, this audio biography, presented by Humphrey Lyttelton, looks at every aspect of his life and career. From his childhood in Berlin to his eventual fame as a musician and cartoonist, Hoffnung’s unique comic vision shines through.

Here are golden moments from Desert Island Discs, One Minute Please and Saturday Night on the Light, plus recollections from friends, contemporaries and his widow, Annetta. Contributors include Ian Hislop, Harry Enfield, John Dankworth, Flanders and Swann, and even Colin Dexter, recalling Hoffnung the schoolmaster. Sam Wanamaker and Joseph Horovitz remember the Hoffnung Festival Hall concerts, which featured compositions for vacuum cleaners, road rammers and a watering can details. And we hear Hoffnung in his own inimitable words, talking about his life, music and art... and telling the famous bricklayer story in his Oxford Union address details.

The perfect showcase for Gerard’s many talents, this is an essential addition to any Hoffnung fan’s collection.

 

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Track Listing (2CDs running time 2 hours)
*denotes material already released on A Last Encore
**title and Transmision details untraceable
CD 1
1 Tales of Hoffnung
Gerard Hoffnung at the Oxford Union 1958
2 A musical child
Gerard Hoffnung as above*
Annetta Hoffnung from Maestro of Mayhem, Radio Gloucestershire, 1 January 1990
3 Artist or musician?
Gerard Hoffnung with Charles Richardson from Saturday Night on the Light*
Donald Swann, from Maestro of Mayhem
Joseph Horovitz**
4-6 The cartoons
Ian Hislop from The Irrepressible Bounce,
BBC Radio 2: l9August 1997
Gerard Hoffnung with Charles Richardson from Saturday Night on the Light*
Gerard Hoffnung from Woman’s Hour, 1953*
Annetta Hoffnung, Joseph Horovitz**
7 Musical background
Annetta Hoifflung, with John Dunn,
BBC Radio 2, December 1988
8 The Cambridge Union debate
John (Sir John) Dankworth from Maestro of Mayhem
9 Early broadcasts
Ian Messiter**
Gerard Hoffnung from One Minute Please
(precursor of Just A Minute), Light Programme
21 September 1952, Chairman Roy Plomley
The Barrel of Bricks from Oxford Union debate *
10-11 Saturday Night on the Light interviews
Gerard Hoffnung with Charles Richardson*
Harry Enfield from Maestro of Mayhem
12-13 Monsters
Gerard Hoffnung from Woman’s Hour, 1953*
Joseph Horovitz, Sir George EngeI**
14 Early drawings
Annetta Hoffnung interviewed, 1988
Gerard Hoffnung, Woman’s Hour, 1953*
15 School in Germany
Vera Lachmann from One Minute Please,
BBC Radio 4, 29 September 1969
(marking 10th anniversary of Hoffnung’s death)
16 School in England
Annetta Hoffnung with John Dunn,
BBC Radio 2, December 1988
17 Art school
Gerard Hoffnung from Woman’s Hour 1953*
18 First job
Gerard Hoffnung with Roy Plomley,
Desert Island Discs, 1957
Colin Dexter from Dear Teacher,
BBC Radio Scotland, 3 January 2001
19 Freelance work
Gerard Hoffnung with Roy Plomley,
Desert Island Discs, 1957
James Boswell from One Minute Please
(1969, as above)
20 Gerard as castaway
With Roy Plomley from Desert Island Discs, 1957

CD2
1 A benign humour
Donald Swann from The Irrepressible Bounce
Gerard Hoffnung from Woman’s Hour*
2-3 Quaker and prison-visitor
Annetta Hoffnung with John Dunn, 1988
Mervyn Turner**
Anonymous prisoner from One Minute Please
(1969, as above)
Morag Morris**
Annetta Hoffnung from Maestro of Mayhem
4 Hoffnung at home
Morag Morris**
Michael Flanders from One Minute Please
5 Meeting Annetta
Annetta Hoffnung with John Dunn
Gerald Priestland from One Minute Please
(1969, as above)
6 Marriage
Annetta and Gerard Hoffnung with
John Ellison from In Town Tonight 1952
7 Gerard’s 'old man’ persona
From Woman’s Hour 1953*
Gerald Priestland from Hoffnung—A Celebration
8 Modern music
Annetta Hoffnung from All the Right Notes,
Not Necessarily in the Right Order, BBC Radio 4,
30 August 2002
9-10 The tuba
Gerard Hoffnung from Talking About Music,
November 1954*
Howard Ferguson from One Minute Please
(1969, as above)
11 The Hoffnung Music Festivals
Annetta Hoffnung from All the Right Notes...
Sam Wanamaker**
12-14 The first concert
John Dankworth, Ernest Bean,
Joseph Horovitz**
Annetta Hoffnung from All the Right Notes...
Sam Wanamaker, Malcolm Arnold from
One Minute Please (1969, as above)
Brenda Richardson, Mervyn Turner**
l5-l6The second concert
Joseph Horovitz from One Minute Please
(1969, as above)
Ernest Bean**
Audition for watering can player
Gerard Hoffnung with J. Hardiman Scott
20 November 1958
17 The Oxford Union
Gerard Hoffnung, December 1958*
18-19 The legacy
Annetta Hoffnung, speaking on Swiss Radio
Donald Swann from Maestro of Mayhem
Norman del Mar from Hoffnung —A Celebrotion
Gerald Priestland from One Minute Please
(1969, as above)
20 Gerard Hoffnung
Talking about Music, 1954* (with additional unreleased material)

All photographs and art work © The Hoffnung Partnership. Please respect this copyright.

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