91Èȱ¬

In later life, the novelist Anthony Burgess said he wished people would think of him as "a musician who writes novels, instead of a novelist who writes music on the side".

As well as writing about music - most famously in A Clockwork Orange and his non-fiction book This Man and Music - there are over 300 works composed over a 50-year span, from preludes and fugues for keyboard via a 'flatulent fanfare' for four tubas (dedicated to an eminent - and scornful - music critic) to orchestral works.

This episode of Afterwords explores Burgess's musical ambitions and abilities and reveals new insight into his antagonistic relationship with the musical establishment. With Belgian pianist Stephane Ginsburgh, American musicologist Christine Lee Gengaro, the British academic Christopher Wintle and Professor Andrew Biswell of the International Anthony Burgess Foundation in Manchester.

The premiere of Burgess's sketch 'Homage to Hans Keller' has been specially recorded by Crystal Palace Band tuba section.

Other music includes extracts from:
Blooms of Dublin (first broadcast in February 1982), the musical version of A Clockwork Orange and Burgess' setting of The Brides of Enderby,
Symphony in C (91Èȱ¬ Philharmonic conducted by Michael Francis, first broadcast in October 2017),
Manchester Overture (91Èȱ¬ Philharmonic conducted by Juanjo Mena, first broadcast September 2013),
Wendy Carlos: Ninth Symphony (Scherzo), from the soundtrack for A Clockwork Orange,
The Bad-Tempered Electronic Keyboard - Prelude no. 22, Fugue no. 17, Prelude no. 23 (performed by Stephane Ginsburgh)
and private recordings of Burgess at the piano.

Produced by Alan Hall with Phoebe McIndoe.
A Falling Tree production for 91Èȱ¬ Radio 3