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Composer
60 episodes
Chosen over the decades
60
Total castaways
1970s
Peak decade
7
Decades seen
Castaways who chose this
How a chance encounter in a bookshop sent Carlos Frenk's family to Mexico
Gareth Malone on the painful moment he couldn't sing, with his father and teacher joining in
Marin Alsop on deciding to become a conductor aged nine after seeing Leonard Bernstein conduct
Shami Chakrabarti on her earliest political memory of walking to the electric chair
Steven Isserlis on comparing listening to his own recordings to a dog sniffing the pavement
Diana Athill on discovering the facts of life at age 11 in a book by Mary Stopes
How Christopher Lloyd replaced a Lutyens rose garden with bananas and palms
Irene Thomas on being dismissed as a 'jamped up chorus girl' by Round Britain Quiz
Harold Fielding on the contract demand that got him a police car ride with Sinatra
Michael Tilson Thomas on being told to put his suit on and conduct mid-concert
Jacques Loussier on instantly understanding piano at his first sitting
Neville Marriner on lining up children against each other at competitive music festivals
John Hackett on escaping German-occupied Holland in a canoe at dawn
Fay Weldon on writing a television play while waiting for her second son to be born
Peter Shaffer on his two and three quarter years as a Bevin boy down the coal mines
Clifford Curzon on his first paid performance in a freezing Kennington church
Amadeus String Quartet on their debut concert that turned people away
How Barry Tuckwell joined the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra as third horn at 15
How Philip Hope-Wallace was laughed at for naming Handel and Verdi as favourite composers at Oxford