William Blezard (1921-2003)

William Blezard studied at the Royal College of Music, London (Arthur Benjamin and Frank Merrick [piano], Herbert Howells [composition], Gordon Jacob [orchestration]). After being awarded the Cobbett and Hecht prizes for composition, he embarked upon his richly varied career at J. Arthur Rank's Denham Film Studios (England), working frequently with the ubiquitous Muir Matheson.

Here, he composed music for films and documentaries and arranged, orchestrated and developed Noël Coward's music for the feature film The Astonished Heart (1949).

William Blezard first met the pianist Donald Swann (of Flanders and Swann) through his wife, the conductor and teacher Joan Kemp Potter. His encounter with Joyce Grenfell, one of Swann's circle, led to the collaboration in her show Joyce Grenfell Requests The Pleasure (from 1954). He remained Grenfell's accompanist throughout her career. Together, they gave several BBC broadcasts and four world tours. Her last performance at Windsor Castle was for the Royal Family (June 1973). With much gusto, Blezard added The Battle March Of Delhi (a Victorian song) to the evening's proceedings.

In 1965, he took over from Burt Bacharach as Marlene Dietrich's accompanist and Musical Director. They gave three world tours together ending in 1975 when Dietrich broke her leg during the show in Sydney (Australia), which was to be her final stage performance.

Blezard worked upon two Royal Shakespeare Company productions with Peter Brook (1957), Titus Andronicus and The Tempest. That same year he became Musical Director of John Osborne's The Entertainer with Laurence Olivier. He did the same for the Max Wall revival (1974), which led to his involvement in the solo show, Aspects Of Max Wall.

Blezard was Musical Director for Noël And Gertie; Sheridan Morley's show about Coward and Gertrude Lawrence. He also worked with Joanna Lumley, Ian Ogilvy, Patricia Hodge and Maria Aitken. In the 1980s, he started a long-running partnership with Honor Blackman in her show, Yvette and Dishonourable Ladies. In 1990, he played for the first of many performances of Tim Heath's Not Yet The Dodo, which was based upon Coward's poem.

William Blezard's remarkable powers of improvisation were featured in BBC children's television for many years. He was the first pianist for Play School and was frequently called upon to provide what presenter Johnny Ball termed 'onomatopoeic music' -- music to imitate running water or puddle splashing etc.

He died in Barnes in 2003 aged 81, having given his final performance the night before his death.

 Scherzo Furioso   AI SI 017
 Two Contrasted Pieces   AI SI 007

The Two Contrasted Pieces are recorded by Jennifer Paull on The Oboe d'Amore Collection Volume II [AI SC VII]