1. Granville Bantock: Disappearing Giant

Available for over a year

Through five fluctuating reputations, Ian Sansom explores very different variations of what we might call near-fame: the once-fashionable and now forgotten; the critically admired but never widely read; the artists overshadowed by big names or big movements; the careers derailed by circumstance; the work that doesn’t fit what the culture is looking for. He suggests that obscurity tells us what a culture values, and just as importantly, what it overlooks. In exploring the careers of the almost-famous, Sansom charts a map of shifting tastes, attention, fashion, politics and technology. In this first essay, Ian considers the case of composer, conductor and musical director Granville Bantock, a towering early-twentieth-century musician once everywhere, now nearly nowhere. A case study in the collapse of reputation and prestige in the face of cultural shifts in taste and ideology. Presenter: Ian Sansom Producer: Sara Davies Sound Designer: Matt Bainbridge