John, white-hot flame of my heart: In celebration of your latest award, I’m serenading you tonight with a song I know you know, because you’ve played it and I’ve sung it, and somewhere in that magical Music Room out there, you and I are playing and singing it together.
Listen to John’s new orchestra the SINFONIA OF LONDON here
Above John, his award, and a Chandos exec: Eric Coates’s enduring 1926 sheet music hit, “Bird Songs at Eventide” sung by Liverpool-born mezzo Kathryn Rudge, played by RAM professor James Baillieu.
Here also are the lyrics, which were written by the father of your old housemate:
Over the quiet hills Slowly the shadows fall; Far down the echoing vale Birds softly call; Slowly the golden sun Sinks in the dreaming west; Bird songs at eventide Call me to rest. Love, though the hours of day Sadness of heart may bring, When twilight comes again Sorrows take wing; For when the dusk of dreams Comes with the falling dew, Bird songs at eventide Call me to you. ~Harry Rodney Bennett (1890-1948), writing as Royden Barrie
"I'll Be Dead Before You Break My Heart" 