As one of the leading music producers at BBC Radio 3 for almost 30 years, Arthur Johnson, who has died aged 74, produced David Munrow’s groundbreaking series Pied Piper: Tales and Music for Young Listeners. The programme, which thrived on Munrow’s ability to present early music to a wide audience, ran for 655 editions over five years, until Munrow’s death at 33 in 1976.
As head of documentaries at Radio 3, Johnson, whom I valued as a friend and collaborator, won many awards, including a Sony for our programme on Lord Berners (1983), and the Prix Musical de Brno for a feature on Mozart in Prague (1990). He also produced Record Review for many years and, later on, Third Ear and Masterworks. Some of his initiatives led to books, among them The Harlequin Years: Music in Paris 1917-29 by Roger Nicholls (2002), arising from a 12-part series.
Continue reading...