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William Walton composed music for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II and King George VI, pieces of pomp and circumstance which we’ll likely here again during this weekend’s coronation of King Charles III. But Walton grew up far from Buckingham Palace and the world of the Windsors, in the northern working-class town of Oldham, seemingly destined to work at the cotton mill. Even when he escaped to Oxford and then London, making high-society friends such as the Sitwells, his early music was intense and avant-garde - not at all suitable for a royal affair. So how did Walton become the royal composer of choice? This week, we’ll find out.

In today’s programme, we hear how, in the wake of World War II, Walton fled London for the countryside. Recruited to the war effort as a composer for patriotic films, he began to wonder if he was a ‘real composer’.

Spitfire: Prelude & Fugue
English Northern Philharmonia
Paul Daniel, conductor

Violin Concerto
Â鶹ԼÅÄ Symphony Orchestra
Tasmin Little, violin
Edward Gardner, conductor

Henry V
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra
Andrew Litton, conductor

Hamlet: 'Hamlet and Ophelia' & 'The Question - To Be or Not to Be'
RTÉ Concert Orchestra
Andrew Penny, conductor