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This week Donald Macleod is joined by the award-winning author Leah Broad to explore the story of the British composer Dorothy Howell, who shot to fame aged 21 after the triumphant premiere of her orchestral work ‘Lamia’ at the Proms. By the mid-1920s she was regarded as one of the leading women composers of the day, performing in prestigious venues across the UK and regularly appearing on radio programmes in the earliest days of broadcasting. But she faced challenges from the 1930s onwards that left her disillusioned, and by the end of her life she wanted to destroy all but a handful of her works. Luckily family intervened, but even so Howell’s music almost disappeared from view - until recently.

After the Second World War, when she worked as a Land Girl, Howell continued to tour as a performer, giving piano recitals around the country. Donald Macleod and Leah Broad discuss Howell’s final years, when she would tend Elgar’s grave, but had given up on writing music of her own.

Humoresque for piano
Sophia Rahman (piano)

Sonata for violin and piano (Mvts 2 and 3)
Lorraine McAslan, violin
Sophia Rahman, piano

To Sine in Winter
Emily Gray, soprano
Timothy Salter, piano

Sonata for piano
Sophia Rahman, piano

Divertissements 1, 2, 3
±«Óãtv Concert Orchestra
Rebecca Miller, conductor