BBC sent to Coventry to examine Tovey work

BBC Radio 3's flagship classical music programme will be taking a closer look at Bramwell Tovey's powerful 'Coventry Variations' composition this weekend.

The 1940 destroyed the city's cathedral

Friday, 21 February 2020

Bramwell Tovey's 'Coventry Variations' will be discussed on BBC Radio 3's 'Inside Music' this weekend.

The programme will be hosted by conductor Greg Beardsell at 1.00pm, with the work discussed alongside others from composers Carl Orff, Edward Elgar, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Carl Nielsen, Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber, Francis Poulenc.

Life and history

'Coventry Variations' was written in 1986 and premiered under Tovey's baton with the GUS Band.

It is dedicated to the composer's stepfather and is a set of variations based on the famous 'Coventry Carol' that reflect on the life and history of the city — from its proud cathedral and its tolling bells, to its relentless industrial output and survival and rebirth from horrific war time bombing.

Initially written with six variations, further additions made it into a powerfully emotive composition — its core 'For the Children' inspired by the famous picture of children playing amid the ruins of houses destroyed in the Luftwaffe attack of 1940.

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