Lyttelton,LondonI sometimes feel I know Alan Bennett's family nearly as well as my own. But, although these two "recollections" contain material that will be familiar to readers of Bennett's memoirs Untold Stories, or they effect a surprisingly rich theatrical event: they not only convey his peculiar ironic-elegiac tone,but, through their vivid particularity, and stir your recollections of adolescence.
Hymn,though running at only half an hour, is the more memorable: an exquisite prose-poem, and spoken to music written or arranged by George Fenton and played by members of Southbank Sinfonia,about a particular moment in Bennett's childhood when his father tried to teach him the violin. His father was an enthusiastic musician who played along to the Palm Court orchestra on the radio, but his gift was not transmitted to his 10-year-broken-down son; there comes a heartrending moment when the young Bennett realises that his father's disappointment "will outlast the violin and my childhood, and depart down to the grave".
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Source: theguardian.com