Paul Reade

Not to be confused with Paul Read.

Paul Reade
Birth name	Paul Geoffrey Reade
Born	10 January 1943 Lancashire, England, United Kingdom
Died	7 June 1997 (aged 54)
Genres	Television, ballet
Occupation	Composer

Paul Geoffrey Reade (10 January 1943 – 7 June 1997) was an English composer. Born in Lancashire, he studied piano at the Royal Academy of Music and worked at English National Opera as a répétiteur. In 1991 he received an Ivor Novello Award for his theme music for The Victorian Kitchen Garden television series.

Career

Reade's first piece for orchestra, Overture to a City, was performed in 1965 by the Academy Orchestra under Maurice Handford. From the late 1960s he was active as a composer for children's television, with credits including the theme tune for Play School in 1968. (He was also the Play School pianist). He arranged the Beethoven extracts heard by millions of children in the surreal animated series Ludwig; his other children's television credits include The Flumps and Crystal Tipps and Alistair. There is also a full length opera for children, David and Goliath (1975).

He also composed the scores for the BBC Classic serials A Tale of Two Cities (1980), Great Expectations (1981) and Jane Eyre (1983). The music for The Victorian Kitchen Garden (1989) has been published in various arrangements and continues to be played in recitals and music examinations. With Tim Gibson he composed the theme music for the Antiques Roadshow.

Several works for narrator and orchestra written for the Manchester Camerata appeared in the 1980s, including Cinderella (1980) and The Midas Touch (1982). The Camerata commissioned Reade's Flute Concerto in 1995. The orchestral song cycle Chants du Roussillon, first performed in 1988 at the Rasiguères Festival, were written for the soprano Elizabeth Harwood and subsequently recorded by Virginia Kerr. Choral works include the cantatas Ballads of Judas Iscariot (1988) and The Journey of the Winds.

Reade eventually turned to ballet; among the latter works he scored were Hobson's Choice in 1989 (choreographed by David Bintley from the eponymous play), and 1996's Far from the Madding Crowd (after the work by Thomas Hardy). Hobson's Choice was recorded by the Royal Ballet Sinfonia and released on ASV Records in 1993, while Far From the Madding Crowd was recorded by the Sinfonia in 1998 on Black Box.

A recording of vocal, orchestral and chamber works, A Celebration of Paul Reade, was issued in 2023 by Signum Records, including Chants du Roussillon, Song of the Birds, Suite from The Victorian Garden, the Serenata for Wind Sextet, and Catalonia, a one movement bassoon concerto, which was the last piece that Reade composed.

Death

Reade died of leukemia on 7 June 1997. He was survived by his wife Philippa Davies (the principal flautist of the London Mozart Players), as well as his ex-wife Mary Clark, and their son and daughter.