BBC Radio Collection - Gerard Hoffnung

Written by Gerard Hoffnung
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 64 Kbps

The book

The first of the new “Car Boot Sale” crop, 4 BBC Radio Collection tapes (still in cellophane wrappers) for the princely sum of 25p, as a lot of the content is of “archive” quality I have forgone any tape hiss reduction, there is some duplication between the 2 offerings but I have produced both set of tapes in full so that you can select the best version :-

At Large

Gerard Hoffnung was an artist, musician, broadcaster, raconteur - and genius. A true Renaissance Man, the multi-faceted Hoffnung crammed a great deal into his tragically short span. Using much previously unreleased archive material, this audio biography, presented by Humphrey Lyttelton, looks at every aspect of his life and career. From his childhood in Berlin to his eventual fame as a musician and cartoonist, Hoffnung’s unique comic vision shines through. Here are golden moments from “Desert Island Discs”, “One Minute Please” and “Saturday Night on the Light”, plus recollections from friends, contemporaries and his widow, Annetta. Contributors include - Ian Hislop, Harry Enfield, John Dankworth, Flanders and Swann, and even Colin Dexter, recalling Hoffnung the schoolmaster. Sam Wanamaker and Joseph Horowitz remember the Hoffnung Festival Hall concerts, which featured compositions for vacuum cleaners, road rammers and a watering can. And, we hear Hoffnung in his own inimitable words, talking about his life, music and art…and telling the famous bricklayer story in his Oxford Union address. The perfect showcase for Gerard’s many talents, this is an essential addition to any Hoffnung fan’s collection.

A Last Encore

Here, in a selection of interviews and speeches, Hoffnung talks about his life of hilarity with all the gravity and seriousness he can muster.

In the Charles Richardson interviews from Saturday Night on the Light, Hoffnung reveals many facets of his personal life, from his pet octopus to his hobby of hunting people who hunt. He also recounts the tale of his former housekeeper, a hedgehog, and a lavatory brush.

He tells the famous bricklayer story in his Oxford Union speech and talks about his early life, his interest in film, and of course, his undying love of music.

A must for all Hoffnung fans.

The man

Gerard Hoffnung (22 March 1925 – 25 September 1959) was an artist and musician, best known for his humorous works. Born in Berlin, and named Gerhard, he was the only child of a well-to-do Jewish couple, Hildegard and Ludwig Hoffnung. He was sent to England, where he attended Bunce Court School in 1938. In 1939, his parents left Germany, initially for Florence and then for London, and Hoffnung then attended Highgate School, while his father went to what was then the British Mandate of Palestine to enter the family’s banking business. This temporary separation became permanent as a consequence of World War II.

Hoffnung died of a cerebral haemorrhage only 20 years after arriving in England, but filled those two decades with considerable achievements as - amongst other things - a cartoonist, tuba player, impresario, broadcaster and public speaker, much sought after by the Oxford and Cambridge Unions.

Hoffnung published a series of books of cartoons poking gentle fun at conductors and orchestral instrumentalists. After his death, some of these were turned into a short animated film by Halas and Batchelor under the title The Hoffnung Symphony Orchestra, which won a number of awards in 1965-66.

He created three Hoffnung Music Festivals held at the Royal Festival Hall in London. These featured contributions from distinguished “serious” musicians. Compositions specially commissioned for the Festivals included Malcolm Arnold’s A Grand, Grand Overture, Op. 57 which was dedicated to U.S. President Herbert Hoover and was scored for several vacuum cleaners and other domestic appliances. Franz Reizenstein’s Concerto Popolare was described as “The Piano Concerto to end all Piano Concertos”. William Walton conducted a one-note excerpt from his oratorio Belshazzar’s Feast: the word, “Slain!” shouted by the chorus.

Much of Hoffnung’s own rumour relies on timing. A notable example is the ‘Bricklayer’s Lament’ which was part of his 1958 Oxford Union Speech.

Hoffnung’s life was in the tradition of the Great British Eccentric, despite his continental origins. He affected, consciously or otherwise, the persona of an elderly music master, a role honed while teaching at Stamford School, where his eccentricities are remembered to this day. His voice had the hoarseness one associates with age, its cadences slow and faltering after the fashion of the old, or perhaps in homage to Colonel Blimp. His eccentricities were legendary, to the point where stories about him are fantastic enough to be believable, as nobody would think of making them up. For instance, he is said to have been fanatical about learning to whistle entire symphonies, even calling friends who were conductors and whistling down the phone line at them to check his memory. Describing his cartooning, he seemed to regard it as something not under conscious control:

I would try to draw something, a chair for instance, and there it would be - with an expression. I had almost nothing to do with it.

Try as he might, any inanimate object he drew seemed to take on a personality, so it is not surprising that he turned to caricature and surreal exaggeration, as in the drawing of the musician being devoured by the Serpent he is trying to play. Another drawing features a singer whose waistcoat buttons are control knobs labelled Loud/Soft, Wobble, and Sob.

His public persona as an eccentric and wit does, however, overshadow his more thoughtful and serious side. He joined the Quakers in 1955 and was active in their prisoner visiting scheme. Moreover, according to a biographical sketch by Joel Marks, first published in Essays in Arts and Sciences (University of New Haven, Volume XXI, 10/1992), Hoffnung’s

outlook on race relations, homosexuality, nuclear disarmament, the treatment of animals (especially hunting) and, for that matter, the music of Bartók and Schoenberg [was] liberal and impassioned.

He learned to play the tuba well enough to take the stage for the Tuba Concerto by Vaughan Williams as well as being an active participant (and jester) for Morley College Orchestra, a much respected amateur ensemble in London. Hoffnung’s home functioned as a kind of salon for musicians, artists, writers and friends in general.

After his death, his concert concept was kept alive by his widow, Annetta, and collaborators. The latest event was performed in Lausanne Switzerland on 31 December 2005. His son, Ben Hoffnung, is a professional timpanist who can be seen with groups including the London Mozart Players and The Sixteen. Hoffnung’s uncle was Bruno Adler, a German art historian and writer who, during the war, wrote for the German language department of the BBC.

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Creation Date:	Fri, 06 Apr 2012 03:58:42 -0400
This is a Multifile Torrent
At Large 01 Part 1.mp3 15.49 MBs
At Large 03 Part 3.mp3 13.9 MBs
At Large 04 Part 4.mp3 13.78 MBs
At Large 02 Part 2.mp3 13.77 MBs
A Last Encore 02 Part 2.mp3 12.87 MBs
A Last Encore 01 Part 1.mp3 12.81 MBs
A Last Encore 03 Part 3.mp3 12.2 MBs
A Last Encore 04 Part 4.mp3 11.93 MBs
Torrent_downloaded_from_Demonoid.com.txt 47 Bytes
Combined File Size:	106.74 MBs
Piece Size:	128 KBs
Comment:	Gerard Hoffnung - Gerard Hoffnung 2 x BBC Radio Collection - At Large and A Last Encore Updated by AudioBook Bay
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