Alan Rawsthorne “Best o’ Bunch.”

John Manduell in his remarkable No Bartok before Breakfast: A Musician’s Memoir gives a delightful anecdote about Lancastrian composer, Alan Rawsthorne. It deserves to be quoted in full.

Manduell was discoursing about the BBC Mozart Piano Concerto Competition held in during April 1968. As part of the selection process, candidates were required to play Mozart’s “imperishable” Rondo in A minor. This was to “rule out” eighty per cent of the entrants. As a further test they were required to give a short recital which had to include one of five prescribed British piano works. These included piano sonatas by Michael Tippett and Alun Hoddinott. Manduell writes:

“Another piece in the selected list was Alan Rawsthorne’s Ballade. Disappointingly, in the event, only one candidate was to choose it. She was Anne Pickup, a young [woman] from Blackpool, married to Gordon West, the Everon goalkeeper of the day. She gave a convincing performance of the Ballade which seemed to please Alan whom we had been invited to be with us. At the reception we introduced Anne to Alan. He was, as usual, laconic and self-deprecating. Wine glass in hand, he thanked the young Anne for playing his piece and then asked her why she had selected it. Without a moment’s hesitation, and in a broad Lancashire accent, she replied, “I just thought it were best o’ bunch. Alan smiled on his inimitable way, turned to me and said, “I have never in all my life found myself best o’ bunch. It’s a good feeling.” (p.102f)

Sadly, I was unable to find any further references to Anne Pickup on the Internet. The “resourceful” Ballade by Alan Rawsthorne, composed in 1967 has been recorded several times. It was dedicated to the legendary John Ogdon.

One slight anomaly. Manduell states the BBC Mozart Piano Concerto Competition final winner was Oswald Russell, the son of the then then newly independent Jamaica’s Ambassador in Geneva. Other sources, including The Times and the Radio Times state that it was Leeds-born Kathleen Jones who took the honours. Furthermore, in a major essay about Oswald Russell, the Music Unites: Jamaica Foundation webpage indicates that he won second prize in the competition.

Details of John Manduell’s No Bartok before Breakfast: A Musician’s Memoir (Arc Publications, Todmorden, 2016) can be found at the publisher’s webpage. John Ogdon can be heard playing Alan Rawsthorne’s Ballade on YouTube.