Semprini

Alberto Fernanco Riccardo Semprini (born 1908, died January 19, 1990) was an English pianist, famous for appearances on the BBC, mainly on radio.

Born in Bath, England of Italian ancestry, Semprini showed early talent for both the piano and cello. He graduated from the Verdi Conservatory in Milan in 1928, having studied composition and conducting as well as honing his skills at the piano. His initial fame came from headlining a light music programme, "Semprini Serenade", that first aired on BBC Radio in 1957 and continued for around 25 years.

He also wrote a number of original compositions on the lighter side of the musical repertoire, including "Mediterranean Concerto", which he used as the theme tune for his radio show.He introduced his radio show with the words "Old ones, new ones, loved ones, neglected ones"

Trivia

*Semprini's 'house band' was the New Abbey Light Symphony Orchestra.
*His surname was later immortalised as a pastiche profanity in of "Monty Python's Flying Circus", where it referred to an unspecified body part (likely part of the male sexual anatomy, given its context in the Naughty Chemists' Sketch). Later in the same episode it was referred to as a body rub, and an aftershave used by Prof J P Gumby.
*Not to be confused with Wayne Semprini, former NHGOP Chairman and Rudy Giuliani's New Hampshire Chair, Presidential Campaign 2008.
*Also a post punk band based in Aylesbury 1978-80