- He was an English pianist, composer and conductor, known for his appearances on the BBC, mainly on radio and known by his stage name Semprini.
- In 1938 he was taken at the Radio as director of a rhythm-symphony orchestra; and inaugurated the series of famous "Concerts Cora".
- In Italy he performed a broad range of music, from pop to jazz and classical, and in 1938 led his first radio orchestra in Italy.
- Semprini raised thousands of pounds for charity over the years. This last concert at the Mercury was given to raise money for Soroptomist charities.
- He began his career in pop music in 1934, with some jazz concerts. Shortly after, with his colleague Bormioli he created a piano duo specializing in modern rhythms, and held a long series of shows in Italian and foreign theaters.
- He graduated from the Verdi Conservatory in Milan in 1928, having studied composition and conducting as well as honing his skills at the piano.
- Semprini also wrote a number of original light music compositions, including Concerto Appassionato and Mediterranean Concerto, which he used as the theme tune for his radio show.
- His father was a musician and his mother an opera singer; their son Alberto obviously inherited this passion for music from them.
- In the UK, he hosted a light music programme, Semprini Serenade, which he introduced with the words: "Old ones, new ones, loved ones, neglected ones". The program first aired on BBC Radio in 1957 and continued for around 25 years.
- In 2015 Vocalion Records released a CD of his late 1950s broadcasts with the BBC Revue Orchestra, most of which had not been heard since their first broadcast.
- In the Monty Python's Flying Circus segment known as "The Chemist Sketch", the BBC interrupted the show to ban a number of "naughty" words, including "b*m", "b*tty", "kn*ckers", "kn*ckers", "p*x" and "w**-w**". The final prohibited word, a puzzling and random addition to the list, was "Semprini". Immediately when the action resumed, the chemist (John Cleese) asked, "Who's got a boil on his Semprini, then?" and was quickly taken away by a policeman (Graham Chapman). For the rest of the episode, anyone saying "Semprini" was similarly arrested.
- Alberto Semprini with his wife Consuela and family moved to Wivenhoe in 1979 from West Mersea where he had lived on a houseboat called L'Esperance during the 1960's/70's. People would pause by the boat to listen to him play - he also practised on a grand piano in a storeroom at Clifford White's builders shop in Barfield Road, in West Mersea.
- He gave his last concert at the Mercury Theatre in April 1982. He told the Essex County Standard that he wanted to give up playing the piano as felt he had given the best of himself. He was aged 74 at the time of this concert.
- In the late 1950s he also featured regularly at the Sanremo Music Festival.
- Although his 'house band' was the New Abbey Light Symphony Orchestra on his commercial records, on radio he was always accompanied by one of the BBC's own staff orchestras - initially the BBC Revue Orchestra.
- He has participated four times in the Sanremo Festival: in the years 1954, 1955, 1957 and 1958.
- He was sent to Milan to study piano, cello and musical composition. In 1928 he graduated at the age of 20 and had begun to win significant piano competitions.
- Semprini was a prolific recording artist.
- Although strongly associated with light music, his recordings were principally of well-known classical music, including the Grieg Piano Concerto and solo pieces by Beethoven, Chopin, Liszt, Tchaikovsky and Debussy.
- His work was first released on the Italian label Fonit Cetra, then EMI Records, where he remained for the rest of his professional career.
- Born in Bath, Somerset, England, of Italian ancestry, Semprini showed early talent for both the piano and cello.
- He moved to Wivenhoe to make commuting easier to London to record his radio programme. He lived in the house called Price's House in Bethany Street. He also had a house in Hamilton Road which is where he had his piano and practised there.
- It is said he insisted on his piano travelling with him.
- In 1982 he even gave up playing privately, saying "it would be impossible to go the piano and play badly for myself, so I won't do it".
- In 1942, he toured tin Italy with his Grande Orchestra Ritmo-Sinfonica, accompanying the likes of Lucia Mannucci and Ernesto Bonino.
- During the last stage of World War II, Semprini was discovered by actor Michael Brennan (1912-1982), who served in the British armed forces. Brennan took Semprini back to England, where his semi classical style of piano play caught on, too.
- In 1957, the BBC gave him the chance to exhibit his talents in his very own radio show, 'Semprini Serenade', which ran for 25 subsequent years until 1982. In it, Semprini showcased his versatility by playing keyboard arrangements of old and new songs, light classics and themes from films and shows. Initially, the orchestra accompanying him was the BBC Revue Orchestra under the direction of Harry Rabinowitz, but later ensembles led by other conductors took over, amongst whom Vilem Tausky. Many of the arrangements for both piano and orchestra were written by Semprini himself. He did more than 700 programmes of the weekday evening show.
- The internationally famous pianist and composer, Alberto Semprini, lived in Wivenhoe, in the house called Price's House, in Bethany Street.
- For some time, he was deputy conductor of the Scala Opera Orchestra in Milan.
- The 1958 Sanremo Festival was a turning point in the history of Italian music. The winning song 'Nel blu dipinto di blu (Volare)', composed by Domenico Modugno, broke all records in terms of sales, both domestically and abroad - mainly in America, though cover versions of it have been made the world over. Semprini wrote the original orchestration for his sextet, with which he accompanied Modugno during his winning performance in the Sanremo Festival. Moreover, he recorded the song with the Apulian singer-songwriter on the Fonit-Cetra label, as well as releasing an instrumental version of his own.
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