Talking pompously, note "a lot of fruit's round" (7)

I believe the answer is:

orating

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'talking pompously' is the definition.
'orating' can be an answer for 'talking' (orating is a kind of talking). I also know that 'pompously' relates to this answer.

'note a lot of fruit's round' is the wordplay.
'note' becomes 'so' (musical note).
'a lot of' means to remove the first letter.
'fruit's round' becomes 'rating' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'so' with its first letter removed is 'o'.
'o'+'rating'='ORATING'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for orating that I've seen before include "sounding off" , "Speaking grandly in public" .)

I've seen this clue in The Independent.

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