Presto In Conversation With... Mike Batt

Best known for a string of hit songs for artists including David Essex, Cliff Richard and Alvin Stardust (not to mention a certain group of litter-picking creatures resident on Wimbledon Common), the composer, conductor and songwriter Mike Batt joined a capacity audience at our store in Leamington Spa last month to discuss the genesis of his Symphony No. 1, dedicated to the people of Ukraine and released on his own label Dramatico last month with the composer himself conducting the London Symphony Orchestra.

Described by The Arts Desk as 'an emotionally charged, exciting piece of orchestral music that would work brilliantly as a film score', the symphony is cast in four movements and has drawn comparisons with Shostakovich, Mahler and Prokofiev.

Interspersed with excerpts from the world premiere recording, the conversation took in Mike's early formative encounter with Carl Schuricht's recording of Schubert's Symphony No. 9 as a child in Southampton, learning to conduct 'on the job' through his work as a session musician, how he came to compose his first symphony in his seventies, and why taking chances has been a recurring theme in his music and life...