Hello, I'm Krestey Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs archive.

For rights reasons, we've had to shorten the music.

The program was originally broadcast in 1994, and the presenter was Sue Lawley. My castaway this week is a composer. Born and brought up in the suburbs of North London, he draws his

inspiration from the Orthodox Church of which he's a member. He was a precocious

talent. One of his earliest works was recorded successfully when he was only 24

thanks to the support of the Beatles.

Dogged by ill health throughout his life, he's now 50,

he approaches music as an act of prayer.

He's won the admiration of both serious musicians and the general public,

and last year his work for cello and strings, The Protecting Vale,

originally premiered at the Proms,

held the number one place in the classical music charts

for several months.

He is John Taverna.

How surprised were you to hit the number one spot, John,

with the Protecting Vale? Was it something you'd perhaps

hope to achieve back in the 60s under the auspices of the Beatles?

No, not really. I think as far as the protecting veil was, it was, it took me totally by surprise.

The only hint I got of it was when the BBC Symphony Orchestra were rehearsing it and they

kept on clapping at the end of the piece and I thought what's the matter with them? They don't normally clap like this and I thought what's the matter with them they don't

normally clap like this and so I got a hint to the fact that people liked it or certainly

musicians liked it.

...