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Holst returns to the UK and tries to find the right job. With Donald Macleod.

Imogen Holst was a significant part of the British classical music scene during the twentieth century. Holst was prominent as a composer, conductor, writer on music, teacher, administrator and artistic director. She also worked as an amanuensis to Benjamin Britten. As the daughter of Gustav Holst, Imogen was raised in an artistic environment, and her early aspirations were to be a dancer. She studied at the Royal College of Music where she won a number of prizes and awards, and developed a passion for British folksong. During World War Two, Holst travelled the UK to support cultural activities, and she established the famous music education centre at Dartington Hall in Devon. There followed an invitation to Aldeburgh where she would support Benjamin Britten for many years in his compositional activities. Holst later became an Artistic Director for the Aldeburgh Festival. She wrote many books, including studies of Britten and her father. In later in life, she was active in cataloguing her father’s compositions and preparing them for publication. Throughout this exceptionally busy career, including establishing the Purcell Singers and giving radio interviews, Imogen Holst continued to compose and wrote many works from choral pieces and folksong arrangements, to concertos and string quartets. Her considerable output as a composer is only just beginning to be appreciated, and throughout this series we also hear archive recordings of Holst in interview.

During Imogen Holst’s time studying in London at the Royal College of Music, she had also begun to travel abroad including France, Spain and also Canada. Towards the end of her studies Holst was now awarded a grant to support further travels abroad where she could immerse herself in other musical cultures, although often she was wondering where her next meal would come from. Once Holst returned to the UK, she tried out a number of employment opportunities such as a Music Director in Bath, and then working for the English Folk Dance and Song Society. However the main role Holst undertook during the 1930s was as a teacher, where she would have a significant impact introducing her pupils to modern music.

Come Under My Plaidie (Two Scottish Airs)
Catherine Wilners, cello
Simon Marlow, piano

Gigue (Suite for Viola)
Rosalind Ventris, viola

On Westhall Hill
Â鶹ԼÅÄ Concert Orchestra
Alice Farnham, conductor

Sonata for Violin and Cello
Simon Hewitt Jones, violin
Oliver Coates, cello

Prelude and Dance
Duncan Honeybourne, piano

Three Psalms
Choir of Clare College, Cambridge
The Dmitri Ensemble
Graham Ross, director

Produced by Luke Whitlock