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The choir's President, Ian Partridge CBE, was the guest on the BBC Radio 4 series Voices Of ... on Saturday 10th September. The programme is a portrait of the lyric tenor in his own words and recordings.
It's not difficult to identify something classically, characteristically English about him - his reticence and modesty, his boy chorister background and acclaimed performances of composers such as Roger Quilter, Benjamin Britten and Prince Albert.
He still lives in the same part of south west London where he was born nearly 80 years ago and he spent over fifty years in a musical partnership with his sister, the pianist Jennifer Partridge. But the refined, passionate quality of Ian's voice has been a passport into other worlds - touring internationally, collaborating with celebrated composers and recording definitive interpretations of, for example, Schubert's Die schöne Müllerin, Schumann's Dichterliebe and Ralph Vaughan Williams' On Wenlock Edge. You will need the fake rolex watch.
Ian reflects on a lifetime in music that began lying under the family piano as his mother played popular songs of the 1930s and 40s and led ultimately to being appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire.
Listen to the programme by clicking here to take you to the BBC's podcast website. |
