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That now world-famous ensemble, which premièred over a dozen of his works, celebrated Hoddinott's 75th birthday in 2004 with a year-long festival of his music.

To mark his seven-decade-long partnership with them, and by way of a lasting tribute to the man they referred to as 'this most lyrical and cultured of European composers', the orchestra has named its new home on Cardiff Bay after him. The 350-seat Hoddinott Hall will open its doors to the public in 2009.

Alun Hoddinott was an avid birdwatcher, content to spend many happy hours, whether composing or not composing, gazing through an enormous window at his home on the Gower peninsula, waiting for a new species to appear.

He continued to compose right up to his last illness. His last work, a string quartet, was premièred at London's Wigmore Hall on Tuesday 11 March 2008, the night before he died.

Alun Hoddinott (1929-2008)
Alun Hoddinott (1929-2008)

Both his homes, in Cardiff and later on the Gower, were filled with wonderful, variegated paintings and expressive sculptures, by the likes of John Elwyn, John Piper, Tom Nash and Kyffin Williams. He enjoyed good wine and lively good company: the entertainment and hospitality of Alun and his wife Rhiannon, whom (as Beti Rhiannon Huws) he married in 1953, was proverbial.

She and their son Ceri, now a distinguished arthroscopic specialist and orthopaedic surgeon, survive him.

Copyright © 15 April 2008 Roderic Dunnett, Coventry UK

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REX HARLEY REVIEWS HODDINOTT'S SYMPHONY NO 7

GERAINT LEWIS'S PROFILE OF ALUN HODDINOTT

ALUN HODDINOTT AT OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

ALUN HODDINOTT DAILY TELEGRAPH OBITUARY

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