poliphilo

Prince Charles was on TV last night, presenting a programme about the composer Hubert Parry.

I can't get terribly excited about Parry. To me he sounds like wallpaper. Pink floral wallpaper with big, droopy roses.

As for Charles- how sure he is of his reception, how endearingly he twinkles, how wry his mouth becomes when it has to utter disagreeable words like "Modernism" and "Stravinsky"! If it weren't for composers like Parry, he said, we wouldn't understand the human condition.

Hello, Head of Arts Programming? We haven't met, but I'm an old man with time on my hands and a thing about Victorian music. (No, sorry, I don't have any relevant qualifications). Please give me half an hour in the middle of the evening to talk about a composer who doesn't get played any more.