I HAD been presenting the programme since back in 1979. Each mid-week morning, from 9:30 to 10:00 a.m., I played classical recordings ranging from Beethoven and Mozart to Gershwin and Villa Lobos.

Of course the programme had been on Radio Demerara since the 50’s, and presenters included Mona Williams and Christopher Dean.
I chose my own theme when I took it over, after auditioning for Matthew Allen. The theme was the delightful Overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Felix Mendelssohn.
It was a magical thirty minutes, and I would receive phone calls from strangers who enjoyed a particular composition, and a vendor in Bourda Market once said to me, “I know your voice. I hear you on radio just after the ‘Christ Is The Answer’ programme. I listen to the music you play, and you know something? I getting to like it.”
My programme, Mid-Morning Classics, came on just after an Assemblies of God programme, and so I had a captive audience who listened to the religious programme that preceded mine.
These comments from listeners added to my joy in presenting the music of the masters and though I pre-recorded some of the programmes, I did some live, especially when I served as an editor in the newsroom at Radio Demerara, and I would receive phone calls from listeners asking about the name of the composer or artiste of the composition being played.
I recall one day in June when I played Mendelssohn’s Wedding March from A Midsummer Night’s Dream and the late Celeste Dolphin called me on the phone in the studio and said, “Raschid, I loved that. You made me feel like getting married”.
Celeste was an avid listener to Mid-Morning Classics and I greatly appreciated her correcting me when I made a blooper. She taught me that the London theatre is Cov-ent Garden not Co-vent Garden, and in the word orchestra the stress is on the first syllable and not on the second one.
It was in 1991 that I moved to Dominica for a while, giving up hosting the programme to the late Edith Pieters, and when I returned home in 1999, I found that the programme was no longer on air. It had lost its sponsorship.
I negotiated with the Radio Demerara management and soon the programme was back on air.
Boosted with more hi-tec CD recordings, and not having to rely on vinyl LPs, Mid-Morning Classics was sounding more vibrant and heavenly.
Tenors Placido Domingo and Luciano Pavarotti, sopranos Jessye Norman and Kathleen Battle were in their prime at the time and their operatic and cross-over offerings were often heard on the programme. So much so that at one stage a woman called and said, “Mister Osman, I am tired of being Pavarotti-ed and Domingo-ed all the time. Let’s have some Richard Tauber and Mario del Monaco.” I listened and I complied.
Now the Mid-Morning Classic programme are no longer there.
A part of my life that meant a great deal to me is no longer there.
Mornings without the poignant music of Chopin, or flowing Strauss waltzes, or Tchaikovsky melodies, or inventive Mozart opera, with arias which progressed logically, every ‘i’ dotted and every ‘t’ crossed, or a rousing Rossini overture, chockfull of crescendos that he loved so much. He was even nicknamed ‘Mr Crescendo’. Remember the Overture to The Barber of Seville recording by the Atlantic Symphony Steel Orchestra. It featured one crescendo after another, transforming the piece into a festive, robust celebration. The steel band took this piece to Festac in Nigeria in 1977 and it created quite a sensation.

Nowadays, in the mornings, I switch to my CD player and turn to my CD collection. But it is not the same, listening all by myself and knowing that I am not sharing the pleasure with my select audience.
The Mid-Morning Classics era has slipped away, and many lovers of serious music are bereft of that slot in their daily schedule to which they had grown accustomed and which made for a refreshing beginning to their day.

By Raschid Osman