Top British composer is classical poll winner
BRITISH composer Ralph Vaughan Williams’s The Lark Ascending has been voted the nation’s favourite piece of classical music – again.
It topped, for the sixth time since 1996, a Classic FM poll of more than 200,000 votes. The number cast was the highest since the poll began 20 years ago.
Video games have seen a surge in popularity of orchestral music with tunes used in games such as the Final Fantasy series rating high in the results.
Presenter John Suchet said: “Twenty years after the very first Classic FM Hall of Fame countdown, I’m delighted that we’ve attracted so many votes for our chart.
“What I find truly exciting is the continued increase in a younger audience for classical music – I didn’t expect to be thanking the video game industry for introducing the genre to a new generation of people.”
Classical music in video games surged with 12 pieces, up from eight last year, in the top 300, and two in the top 20.
Vaughan Williams was inspired by a poem of the same name by George Meredith and his first composition was written in 1914.
He completed the orchestral version six years later.
It became more popular last year when played by Coronation Street actress Julie Hesmondhalgh as her character took a lethal cocktail in a cancer battle. AMANDA Holden insists she would be “a fool” not to stay on as a judge on the hit show Britain’s Got Talent.
The star, 44, spoke as she prepared for the next series, which starts on Saturday.
Amanda, now in her ninth year on BGT, said: “I’m just glad to be asked, because it’s not a given.
“As somebody who has covered almost every genre of this business I still feel qualified to be here though.” She believes the show succeeds because the “whole family” can watch it.
Amanda said: “My nan voted last year. I didn’t know she even knew how to pick up a phone and vote. That’s brilliant.”
Wearing a cream bandeau prom- style dress, the mother of two looked half her age as she prepared for the ITV show. Her fellow judges will again be music boss Simon Cowell, 55, comedian David Walliams, 43, and singer Alesha Dixon, 36.
In a photo released yesterday, Alesha wore a sheer playsuit, with her long hair worn parted in the middle and crimped, in a trendy seventies disco look.
David looked dapper in a suit while Simon chose a casual look in a jumper with rolled up sleeves.
Amanda revealed that her ultimate ambition is to appear on Radio 4’ s rural soap The Archers.
The star, whose career has included TV and the theatre, said: “I’ve never done radio, it’s the only medium I haven’t covered.”