Felix NEill

Alan Bennett is a long-time hero of mine, a dubious honour that he shares with his ex Beyond The Fringe partner, Peter Cook. Unlike Cook though, Bennett was/is prolific, having by now amassed a body of work that is uniformly excellent. A wide ranging writer and performer effortlessly straddling the stage, screen and literature, it's his autobiographical volumes that I find the most affecting.

"To mark their 30th anniversary, the Medici Quartet asked composer George Fenton and Bennett to collaborate on a piece for performance at the Harrogate International Festival. The result was "Hymn", a meditative piece, by turns funny and melancholy, in which Bennett looks at the part which music played in his childhood, at his father's doomed attempts to teach him the violin, and at what hymns mean to him now.

"The illustrative suite for strings draws on a range of musical references including Elgar, Delius and several well-known hymns.

"Recorded in front of an audience at the BBC Radio Theatre, Hymn is prefaced by an introduction from the author."

I'd not listened to this for a long time, but dug it out to listen to while on holiday this week. It's a typically beautiful and moving piece by Bennett, thrown into relief by some lovely music from Fenton.

As ever with Bennett, there's a lump in my throat and something in my eye. I wouldn't have it any other way.

320 Kbps.

Expired.