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 13 is about Frank's time in the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra under Malcom Sargent, performing at the first Edinburgh Festival in 1947, the Elgar Festival in Malvern, recordings with the Huddersfield Choral Society, and Sargent's Knightood. Paula has chosen to end this episode with the first movement of Andrew Downes' Sonata for Violin, Horn and Piano.  This work was commissioned by the Brahms Trio Prague (Ondrej Vrabec, solo and principal horn, Czech Philharmonic Orchestra; Monika Vrabcova, violin; and Daniel Wiesn