I have just been listening to some recordings by Sir Malcolm Sargent and reading a little bit about his life.
I never realised firstly that he was from a humble background; his father was a coal merchant, and that he got where he got not by paying for expensive tuition but on merit!
The other thing I didn't know about old shagger Sargeant was that that he hobnobbed with the royal family and had torrid affairs with two of them; namely Princess Marina and Edwina Mountbatten. the former was a widow although it is alleged that her husband was in fact gay anyway, however the latter was married to Louis Mountbatten who, it is widely alleged, preferred young boys to women. Mountbatten was known to be extremely close to the then Prince Charles and Mountbatten’s penchant for young boys does make one wonder if there was any impropriety between him and the future king.
An extract of one of Sargant’s recordings of the Karelia Suite (by Sibelius) was used by the BBC as the theme tune to the news and current affairs programme “Today”. That version is played very much faster the most conductors would have it played and it is rumoured the Sir Malcolm Sargent did that because he was in a hurry to get away to see one of his many lovers!
Allegedly, he had innumerable lovers apart from the two mentioned along with a number of illegitimate children.