by Ben Hogwood, editor

Here is a personal blog for Saturday 22 July – as on this day, my mother Coralie would have been 80 years old.

I owe my mum and dad a huge debt of gratitude, not just for bringing me up in the way they did but for playing music to me when I was young, and encouraging my love of classical music (they didn’t know about the prog rock and techno until a good deal later!)

As a thank you to Mum, who we still miss greatly, I have picked out some of her favourite classical pieces. She loved guitar music, and few pieces made her smile more than Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez, with its bright first movement:

Another fresh-faced favourite was Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet, a set work that she studied at ‘O’ level but one that stayed with her:

Scotland held a special place in Mum’s heart, and while her favourite places were Oban and Mull, one piece that never failed to move was the wonderful Farewell To Stromness by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies:

Happy birthday Mum – and thank you.