FAREWELL TO…
Michel Legrand Born b1932 Composer, pianist
Though perhaps most readily labelled a composer, Michel Legrand was also a gifted pianist, conductor and arranger who could turn his hand to anything, just as long as it was music. He truly lived a musical life, writing film scores, songs, musicals, ballet and even an opera buffa. A self-confessed slave to melody, he didn’t recognise music’s apparent boundaries; he simply composed, arranged, played and sang his way right through them. Studying at the Paris Conservatoire from the age of ten, Legrand eventually worked as an accompanist, travelling the world with Maurice Chevalier. He enjoyed success in his own right in his twenties with a No. 1 album in the US charts in 1954 (‘I Love Paris’) and soon rode French cinema’s ‘New Wave’ with directors such as Jacques Demy, Jean-luc Godard and Agnès Varda. His first Oscar nomination, for Les Parapluies de Cherbourg (1964), was followed by a further 12 plus three wins – for the song ‘The Windmills of Your Mind’ (1968) and original scores for Summer of ’42 (1971) and Yentl (1983) – not to mention five Grammys.
John Joubert b1927 Composer
Christmas was inevitably the time when John Joubert’s music enjoyed its widest popularity – his carols Torches and There is no rose of such virtue have become favourites of the Anglican choral repertoire. However, the South African’s compositional talents stretched far beyond church music, with an output that included orchestral works, chamber music and no fewer than eight operas. Much of it has been recorded. Born and educated in Cape Town, Joubert won a scholarship in 1946 to study at the Royal Academy of Music in London. He remained in England, first to continue his studies at Durham University and then to become a lecturer at Birmingham University, where he stayed for over 20 years before retiring to concentrate on composing. His major works included his Second Symphony (1970), dedicated to the victims of South Africa’s Sharpeville Massacre, and his An English Requiem, commissioned by and premiered at the 2010 Three Choirs Festival in Gloucester Cathedral.
Noel Rawsthorne b1929 Organist, composer
Very much at the heart of the city’s music-making, Noel Rawsthorne served as organist at Liverpool Cathedral for 25 years, from 195580. He then presided over the console at St George’s Hall until 1984. A celebrated player who made numerous recordings, he was also a talented composer and transcriber, his compositions very much part of the organ repertoire today. Beyond performing, he lectured at St Katherine’s College, supervised the refurbishment of Philharmonic Hall’s Rushworth organ and received an honorary doctorate from Liverpool University. On Desert Island Discs in 1972 he chose to take music by Bach, a survival book and a harpsichord.