| WARNING These notes are copyright material and may not be copied or reproduced without written permission from Beulah |
Conductors
Singers
Instrumentalists
Orchestras
Choirs
The Swiss conductor Ernest Ansermet had started his professional life as a mathematics professor. He began conducting at the Montreux Casino in 1912, and from 1915 to 1923 was the conductor for Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. In 1918, Ansermet founded his own orchestra, the Orchestre Romande later to become the famous Orchestre de la Suisse Romande. After World War II, Ansermet and his orchestra rose to international prominence through a long-term contract with Decca and whilst his was not an orchestra of the first rank, Ansermet's interpretations were clear and authoritative. An opinionated individual, he was notable in Britain for his argumentative rehearsal style.
Isobel Baillie, born to a Scottish baker, won a scholarship to Manchester High School for Girls. Whilst still a pupil at the school she received her first solo engagement to sing in Handel's Messiah, a work she was to be associated with for the rest of her long career. Her London debut in 1923 was to be followed ten years later with a debut at the Hollywood Bowl, the first British singer to appear there. She was one of the sixteen original singers in Vaughan Williams Serenade to Music and often performed Elgar's The Kingdom and Herbert Howells' Hymnus Paradisi.
It is nearly 50 years since the untimely death of the distinguished Dutch conductor Eduard van Beinum at the early age of 58. In the ensuing decade after World War II he quickly became recognised as one of the most significant of the emerging new group of international conductors. Not only was he Principal Conductor of the Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam, but following an unexpected and sudden début in 1945 for an indisposed Albert Coates, van Beinum became a most welcome and respected visitor to the British capital where he conducted the London Philharmonic regularly, even becoming their chief conductor for two seasons in 1949, before ill health forced his earlier resignation. In 1956 he was musical director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic for a single season. His health, never particularly robust in his last years, must have contributed to his early death.
Born in Arnhem on 3rd September 1901, van Beinum became a viola player in the town¹s orchestra at the age of 16 but the following year enrolled at the Amsterdam Conservatory. Aged just 20 he became conductor of the Toonkunst Choir at Schiedam, a position he was to hold for nine years, followed later by a concurrent appointment in Zutphen. His qualities were further recognised with elevation to conductor of the Haarlem Orchestra. A successful début with the country¹s most distinguished ensemble - the Concertgebouw Orchestra - on 30th June 1929, eventually resulted in van Beinum being appointed second conductor to the legendary Willen Mengelberg with effect from 1st September 1931 and associate conductor on 10th January 1938. Following the dismissal of Mengelberg by Dutch authorities in 1945, Eduard van Beinum assumed sole conductorship of the orchestra, a position he would hold until his sudden death from a heart attack on 13th April 1959 whilst rehearsing Brahms' First Symphony.
Van Beinum's repertoire basically covered the mainstream of Viennese composers but omitted serialism. As a result of the political situation in Holland under the Nazi occupation his range was at that time restricted. It was not until 1945 that he took up Mahler, a composer of whom he later became an admired interpreter, whereas his Bruckner had been long admired. In the area of the 20th-century music he conducted much Bartók, Debussy, Kodály, Ravel and Stravinsky as well as a most positive commitment to contemporary Dutch composers. His performers were never flamboyant, thereby unjustly giving the impression of understatement but he conveyed firm discipline at all times, allied to a lucid clarity of texture and shape, sustained tension and awareness of the music's pulse. Ultimately he was was seen as a players' conductor who treated his musicians as equals.
In the field of British music Eduard van Beinum did much to help the emerging Malcolm Arnold (then the LPO¹s principal trumpet) by performing and later recording the colourful and exuberant Beckus the Dandipratt, in addition to two recordings of the ŒSea Interludes¹ from Britten¹s Peter Grimes which have remained the benchmark for all subsequent versions. It was, however, with the music of Elgar that van Beinum displayed a particular affinity.
Like Albert Coates, Adrian Boult had the good fortune to study at Leipzig where he watched the conductor Arthur Nikisch at work. Nikisch's stick technique impressed the young Boult who thereafter always used a long stick controlled by wrist movement. This sometimes gave the audience the impression of little effort being exerted by Boult. However the musicians watched the swish of the long stick and Boult's piecing eyes.
For six years from 1924 Boult directed the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Chorus.
In 1930 Sir John Reith, Director General of the BBC invited Boult to form a symphony orchestra. Boult trawled the Hallé and Queens Hall Orchestras for his principles and many of the rank and file of the new BBC Symphony Orchestra. Having already established himself as a leading exponent of Elgar's music Boult used the new orchestra to broadcast the music of Elgar to a wider audience.
To the ageing composer the young Boult's performance of the Second Symphony came as a revelation. "I feel that my reputation in he future is safe in your hands," he wrote after Boult's re-introduction of the work to London in 1920 after its neglect for nearly a decade.
In 1944, Sir Henry Wood, founder and principal conductor of the Proms, came to Bedford, home of the BBC Symphony orchestra, after Home Secretary Herbert Morrison had declared London unsafe because of the risk of V rockets. Wood found a war weary BBC Symphony Orchestra welcomed him with joy. Many of the musicians had played for Wood in his old Queens Hall Orchestra. The privations of war, the constant touring, the splitting of the orchestra into smaller bands in order to maximise the number of performances, the call up of orchestral players, had taken its toll.
On the morning of 28 July Wood rehearsed the orchestra who were not attentive. Afterwards asked by his wife why he did not rehearse them in Beethoven's Seventh Symphony, Sir Henry replied "What? Rehearse a repertoire piece with them in their present mood? I cannot understand those players. They are no longer musicians. Just like civil servants. Never mind, ll make 'em play tonigh". Sir Henry was actually sympathetic to the musicians plight. Up rooted from their families, they moved to Bristol, Evesham and then Bedford, living for five years in cheerless billets. Sir Henry realised their dull, miserable existence had affected their musicianship. That evening Beethoven's Seventh went over the air to people who sixty years later still recall the performance, described by Jessie Wood as "joyous, electric Beethoven". This was to be Wood's last concert.
A week later the orchestra assembled in Bedford Grammar School to start recording Elgar's Second Symphony. As the sessions progressed it became clear that Sir Henry would never be in front of them again.
Sir Henry was taken ill on 7th August, moved to Hitchin Hospital on 16th and died on 19th. The last recording session that month took place on 25th, the day after Sir Adrian had conducted the slow movement of Bach's Brandeberg Concerto No6 with members of the orchestra at Wood's funeral service in Hitchin parish church. The session started with recording the second half of the slow movement. A lamentation. Then they recorded the third movement. The rhythmic pulse and vitality of this movement is pure ŒWooult¹.
Boult
remained with the BBC until, reaching the age of sixty, when he was required to
retire in accordance with BBC employment conditions.
It just so happened that at the same time the London Philharmonic Orchestra's conductor Eduard van Beinum
relinquished his post due to ill health. Boult was appointed conductor to
the LPO, a post he held until the end of 1956. During this time they were
often engaged to make recordings. Having spent twenty years with one of
the world's leading radio orchestras he was no stranger to the recording
studio and could work quickly and closely with recording producers.
Boult is often associated with British composers, such as Elgar and Vaughan Williams.
During his time in Leipzig he conducted Wagner, a composer that he was
to return to at the end of his career in the 1970s. Respected by soloists as
a great accompanist, Boult kept a card index of soloists he worked with.
On the cards would be details of works performed with such information
as speeds taken so that he would acquaint himself with a soloist's
performance style prior to a further performance. Boult was equally good
at giving orchestral support for dancers and throughout his life he
remained in demand as a ballet conductor, in fact his very last conducting
engagement was with the London Festival Ballet.
Dennis Brain was third generation horn player in his family. In fact his niece Tina has ensured there is a fourth generation Brain playing the French horn.
After studying with his father at the Royal Academy of Music Dennis joined his older brother Leonard in the Royal Air Force Central band, based in Uxbridge, west of London. From here they could travel by Underground train to Holborn where Sidney Beer had created the National Symphony Orchestra to give concerts in the Kingsway Hall. Beer's orchestra composed of young musicians serving in military bands around London produced a remarkable sound, quite different to pre-war orchestras, in fact it was a foretaste of the orchestral sound that was to emerge in London after the war. The RAF Central band and the RAF Orchestra , also based at Uxbridge, had the benefit of Dennis playing for them.
Like most young men Dennis was not adverse to experimenting and was keen to use his skills to play jazz as well as the latest contemporary music. In response to a request from Dennis for a work featuring the French horn Benjamin Britten wrote his Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings . This seminal work catapulted Dennis into a solo career along with his RAF and orchestral engagements. Pianist Denis Matthews (1919-1988), who served with Dennis in the RAF would often provide the piano accompaniment, notably in the Beethoven Horn Sonata where the piano part is as challenging as the horn part.
The creation of two new post war orchestras in London, Walter Legge's Philharmonia and Sir Thomas Beccham's Royal Philharmonic resulted in them sharing Dennis Brain in the principal horn post. However Dennis' engagements eventually became to great and he resigned his post with the RPO in 1953.
The recordings on this disc feature his Raoux piston-valve French horn (Tchaikovsky, Mozart) and his German Alexander horn (Beethoven, Britten, Dukas, Williams) that he used from 1951 after complaining "they want me to play the right notes all of the time!"
Dennis' other loves were his wife Yvonne who he married in 1945, playing the organ, he was a fine organist, and cars, especially fast cars. A motoring magazine was invariably to be found close to if not on his music stand. It was driving his Triumph sports car from Edinburgh to London which would rob the world of a great artist.
The tenor Wilfred Brown was a friend and champion of English composer Gerald Finzi. Brown's final recital, given at Highclere Castle, was of Finzi's Dies Natalis. Brown died at the height of his powers as a renowned tenor at the early age of 49 from a brain tumor.
The young violinist Basil Cameron was discovered by a Miss Knocker in 1901. She arranged for Basil to study with the renowned Hungarian violinist Joseph Joachim in Berlin. There he led the Hochschule violas (an instrument he had in common with other conductors such as Eduard Van Beinum and Anthony Collins). In 1904 he returned to England well trained but unknown. He no longer wanted to be a violinist but spent five years in London as an orchestral violinist before securing a conducting post in Torquay. Although the staple diet of seaside orchestras were light classics Cameron was prepared to programme Stravinsky and hold Wagner and Richard Strauss festivals in Torquay.
Cameron, who was born Hindenburg (his father was German piano tuner and his mother who died when Basil was only 3 years old was Scottish) served in the Great War with the 13th London Regiment (the Kensingtons) as a second lieutenant. In August 1918 he returned to England as one of the many war wounded. Following the Armistice, Cameron conducted the Brighton Regal Orchestra where he championed contemporary British (and one notable Australian) composers. In 1924 he moved to Hastings an orchestra that also performed in Harrogate during the summer leaving Hastings to the tender mercy of military and brass bands during the holiday season. Soon guest conducting in London became part of Basil Cameron's musical life.
In 1930 following an engagement to guest conduct, Cameron became music director of the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, followed by a similar post with the Seattle Symphony Orchestra.
Not long after his return to England Sir Henry Wood invited Cameron to assist with conducting the Promenade Concerts. Proms were to be a feature for the rest of Cameron's conducting career, only retiring in 1964 at the age of eighty.
Percy Grainer, who had taken part in 1914 Torquay music festival described Cameron as possessing a "peculiar quality of excitement and exhilaration". Sir Henry Wood described Cameron as having a "real grip over the orchestra". Quiet and reliable especially when orchestral balance was important Cameron was the opposite of Sir Thomas Beecham both on and off the rostrum. Bill Newman describes Cameron as "gentle, undemonstrative, kind and consistently helpful to soloists."
Whilst Cameron was beloved by soloists, members of the London Philharmonic, to which he was de facto assistant conductor during the Van Beinum and Boult years, could make things difficult during rehearsals. Cameron always a sensitive man would become very upset by the ragging the orchestra gave him and return to his dressing room until the atmosphere cooled down.
Campoli was born in Rome. His first teacher was his father - a professor of violin and leader of the St.Cecilia Conservatoire. His mother, a dramatic soprano, had toured with Caruso and played young Alfredo recordings of the great tenor Mattia Battistini who later acknowledged as a major influence on the bel canto style of playing which gave him an early reputation as a singing violinist and evinced praise from many conductors. He made his London debut in 1911 when he was only 5 and by the age of 10 was regularly playing recitals. Two years later he was temporarily banned from entering violin competitions because he always walked away with first prize! However, as early as 1919 he won a gold medal for his performance of the Mendelssohn Concerto which was presented by HRH Princess (later, Queen) Mary. At 15, he appeared at the Wigmore Hall and toured the British Isles with possibly the greatest women singers of the day, Dames Nellie Melba and Clara Butt.
In the difficult economic situation following the first war Campoli was forced to extend his musical activities to earn extra money and he formed his own highly successful light orchestra. It made him famous. For several years his was the resident orchestra at the fashionable Dorchester Hotel and his recordings on HMV, Columbia and Decca labels sold in thousands, although he still toured nationally as a classical artist when circumstances permitted. Campoli disbanded the orchestra in the second war to work untiringly for ENSA and CEMA, visiting forces training camps and playing in hospitals and munitions factories, where the enthusiasm of the public prompted him to enlarge his concerto repertory. Consequently, a Prom under Sir Henry Wood in 1944 saw him dazzling audiences with the Brahms Concerto, followed the next year by the Tchaikovsky.
Britain's four leading conductors - Beecham, Boult, Barbirolli and Sargent all adored him. After one BBC Home Service broadcast of the Brahms from Maida Vale Studios, Boult and his players cheered and applauded for a full three minutes, much to his delight and embarrassment. His performance of the Elgar Concerto with the Hallé Orchestra under Barbirolli at the Royal Festival Hall still lives in the memory of all who were privileged to see it, but Barbirolli refused to record the work for EMI as he had never forgiven them for not asking Kreisler to make the premiere recording. Over the years Campoli owned and played a Landolfi, a Rogarius and a Guadagnini violin. A most self-effacing, modest artist who hated to be labelled a Œvirtuoso¹, he would come quietly onto the platform, acknowledging the audience with a simple bow of the head and a smile. Wedging his violin under his generous double chin with a voluminous white silk handkerchief he would tune discreetly and speedily and be ready to play in seconds. The purity, simplicity, clarity and intonation of his playing were legendary as was his fabulous spiccato - achieved by lifting his fourth finger to enable the bow to rebound more easily. This became his trademark, instantly identifying him. Young violinists today could learn much from the recording.
A student of Josef Hoffman at the Curtis Institue of Music in Philadelphia, Cherkassky followed his teacher's request that he practise four hours day to the end of his llong career as a concert pianist. It was after his Wigmore Hall recital of 27 March 1957 that Cherkassky's career accelerated in the United Kingdom, and, following the death of his mother in Nice in 1961, he settled in London where he lived at The White House Hotel until his death in 1995. It was only in the last few decades of his life that he was recognized as one of the greatest pianists - a re-creative genius who relished spontaneity, beauty of sound and the kaleidoscopic possibilities of the piano. A short man Cherkassky always had his piano stoool set low to be close to the keyboard.
The Russian born conductor Albert Coates (his father was English and his mother Russian) studied cello in Leipzig where, as was to happen to Adrian Boult, he came under the spell of Arthur Nikisch. After various appointments in Germany Coates became the principal conductor at the Maryinsky Theatre in St Petersberg where he met and championed the Russian composer Scrabin. His first engagement in England was with the London Symphony Orchestra in 1910 performing Steinberg's Symphony No 2 along with Beethoven's Seventh Symphony. Although only principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra for two seasons starting in 1919 Coates continued to conduct with the orchestra whenever he was in London.
The fashion during his time with the LSO was for seventeenth and eighteenth century music to be arranged for the modern orchestra so that it was palatable to the early twentieth century audiences. Coates himself arranged the music of Purcell for the LSO ( featured on Beulah 2PD13) and so Elgar's arrangements of Handel and Bach were welcomed as a method of presenting music that would not otherwise be heard in London concert halls.
Anthony Collins, like van Beinum, gained his early orchestral experience was in the ranks of the violas. He joined the Hastings Municipal Orchestra aged seventeen.
From Hastings Collins went to serve in the British Army during the 1914-18 War. In 1920 he graduated to the Royal College of Music in London to study violin with Serge Rivarde and composition with Gustav Holst.
Collins soon became not only leader of the London Symphony Orchestra violas but a director of this self governing orchestra during a period of turmoil for the London orchestras.
In 1934 Muir Mathieson invited Arthur Bliss to compose for Alexander Korda's film of H.G. Wells' Things to Come. Bliss wrote a score for full orchestra and Mathieson engaged the London Symphony Orchestra to record it. The demands of the film company put pressure on the orchestra to improve their standard of playing. Collins' break came two years later when Herbert Wilcocks invited him to compose the music for his epic film on the life of Queen VictoriaVictoria the Great Collins found himself conducting his former colleagues for this film and its sequel the following year Sixty Glorious Years .
In 1939 Collinsmoved to the RKO studios in Los Angeles where he composed and conducted for the next six years. After the War he travelled between engagements in Los Angeles and London, giving concerts on both sides of the Atlantic often featuring British music.
After Mozart, Elgar and Delius were the composers Collins conducted frequently. His public conducting debut after leaving the London Symphony Orchestra in 1936 included Elgar's First Symphony which received ecstatic notices from the London critics. Like the composer himself, Collins favoured an athletic rather than overly romantic approach to Elgar¹s music. Collins saw himself as a composer who conducted.
Another Collins characteristic is to give a recorded performance the atmosphere of a live concert performance. No doubt his years in Hollywood, working with first class musicians and often sight reading new music contributed to his recording technique. The same fresh sound occurs in Collins¹ Delius recordings (two examples are to be found on Beulah 1PD26) and no doubt Victor Olof, Collins' old friend from his London days, as as Decca's senior classical music producer knew what would result from inviting inviting Collins to record the music of Elgar.
Bob Dart studied keyboard instruments and lectured in music at Cambridge from 1947 to 1964 when he was appointed Professor of Music at King's College London. He made many appearances on the concert platform and in the recording studio as a continuo player and music director. Dart's distinguished students include the composer Michael Nyman, conductor Sir John Eliot Gardiner and conductor/musicologist Christopher Hogwood.
Peter Dawson was an Australian baritone who became a prolific recording artist, mainly of popular ballads, but he also recorded serious music. In 1909 he appeared at Covent Garden opera house as the Night Watchman in The Mastersingers of Nuremberg under Hans Richter. During one of these performances, after winning a large kitty at poker in the wings from Claude Fleming, he hurried on at his call and accidentally scattered his winnings over the stage. Once asked why he did not persue a career in the opera house he replied that he was not going to work long hours for little reward when he could make a fine living in the recording studio. His recording career spanned over 50 years from early acoustic records through to the stereo era. Between 1904 and 1920 Dawson is thought to have sold some 5 million discs but over the next five years to 1925 he sold another 8 million discs. Most of his recordings made in London between 1926 and 1939 (from the advent of electrical recording) stayed in the catalogue for many years. For the duration of the war he returned to Australia and there he retired, although he did enter the recording studio occasionally. His last session on 4 May 1955 was conducted by a young Charles Mackerras.
Jeanne Demessieux was born in Montpellier in 1921. Her elder sister Yolande
taught her piano from the age of three and by seven she had enrolled at the local
Conservatoire going on to win first prizes in piano and solfege. The family
subsequently moved to Paris to enable Jeanne to further her musical education and
in 1933 she began studying at the Paris Conservatoire taking lessons in piano,
harmony and counterpoint and composition.That same year she also became the
titular organist at the church of St Esprit, the youngest titulaire in Paris and a
post she was to hold for 29 years.
Demessieux excelled at the Conservatoire but it was her meeting Marcel Dupre
(1886-1971) in 1936 that was to be the defining moment of her musical
development. Professor of organ at the Conservatoire and titular organist at the
famous church of St Sulpice he was the pre-eminent figure in French organ music
at that time. Demessieux studied privately with him until 1939 when she enrolled in
his organ class. It was to prove a fruitful partnership. In Dupre she had an
inspirational teacher and in her he saw someone who could carry the torch for the
French organ school in the years to come. She won first prize for organ
performance and improvisation in 1941 and continued her postgraduate studies
with Dupre for a further five years building up an extensive repertoire and
formidable improvisation and memory skills.
It was in February 1946 that she finally gave her debut recital at the Salle Pleyel
in Paris, a triumphant occasion that launched her career as an international
recitalist. The collaboration with Dupre however ceased suddenly later that year,
possibly the result of interfactional squabbling among the Parisien organ elite.
Notwithstanding the split her career made rapid strides with extensive tours
throughout Europe and North America and an enviable portfolio of recordings. She
also brought an air of glamour to the profession. Her pedal technique was by all
accounts breathtaking; playing in stiletto shoes she managed pedal scales at a
speed that many players would find difficult with their hands.
Demessieux became Professor of Organ at Nancy in 1950 and at the Brussels
Conservatoire in 1952 and in 1962 was appointed titular organist at La Madeleine
in Paris. By then however her health was giving cause for concern and although she
signed a contract to record Messiaen's complete organ works in 1967 her
tragically early death in November 1968 at the age of 47 meant the project never
came to fruition.
Ralph Downes, for many years organist at the London Oratory, designed and superivied not only the organ at the Oratory but the organs in the Royal Festival Hall and Fairfield Hall, Croydon. During the Wednesday organ recitals in the RFH, Downes could usually be seen sitting in seat AA33 when nto performing on the organ himself. His organs were infulenced by his hime sent in the USA in th early 1930s where he came unde the influence of organ builder Donald Harrison and harpsichordist Ralph Kirkpatrick. Downes was keen to strip away the Victrian excesses of British organs and in his deisgns he lead the way to a clearer and cohesive sound redolent of Baroque instruments.
Anatole Fistoulari was born in Kiev, Ukraine into a musical family. He became a child protege, he conducted Tchaikovsky's Symphony No 6 at the age of seven. Fistoulari moved to Paris in 1933 to conduct ballet. In 1939 he joined the French army, but after being defeated by the Germans he escaped to London. In 1943 he became principal conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra but it was an unhappy appointment. "Fisty" who had arrived in Britain as a bright young conductor found his career never really took off. He became a British citizen in 1948 and was married to Anna Mahler daughter of the composer.
Kirsten Flagstad made her debut in Oslo's National
Theatre in 1913 singing in D' Albert's opera Tiefland. Flagstad
grew up in a musical family. Her mother taught her to read music
and gave her daughter a copy of Wagner's Lohengrin score at the
age of ten. For the next twenty years Flagstad pursued her
operatic career within Scandinavia. She developed a strong vocal
technique which never let her down and her ability to play the
piano and sight read added to the firm musicianship of her singing.
Enthusiastic reports of her singing the role of Isolde in Oslo
reached Germany and as a result she was engaged to sing in the
Bayreuth festival. She started with minor roles in 1933 then sang
Sieglinde in 1934, a role she was to repeat the following year in
New York. Until she retired from opera in 1953 Flagstad was
considered to be one of the leading Wagner singers of her day.
Flagstad hated all the ancillary attractions of fame and usually
said no to requests to attend functions, teach and join parties. "To
sing is to live" was her motto. After retiring from the stage
Flagstad continued to sing in recitals and concerts becoming a
great exponent of Grieg's songs. She also directed the Norwegian
State Opera from 1958 to 1960.
Sir Adrian Boult recalled that although she had retired from
opera she "was still a very great singer, and a delightful artist to
accompany."
Friedman was a Polish piano titan, who started as a child prodigy. At the age of 21 he made his debut in Vienna featuring a program of three piano concertos, rivalling the similar programs of established titans like Busoni and Godowsky. His style was quiet and effortless and unique. The great teacher Leschetizky in 1901, advised Friedman to give up any thought of becoming a pianist. As a result Friedman worked all the harder and develop discipline in his playing. Eventually he was recognized as one of the greatest Leschetizky pupils. His many recordings are admired and loved. He composed more than 90 works, mainly piano miniatures, but also pieces for cello and a piano quintet. He edited an almost complete edition of the piano works of Chopin and also produced editions of Schumann and Liszt.
Joan Hammond's first sucesses were winning the women's golf championships in New South Wales in 1929, 1932, 1934 and 1935. In 1936 her golf friends raised money for her to study singing in Vienna. While striving to maintain her career during the early years of World War Two, she drove an ambulance in London during the Blitz. In 1941, she recorded the Puccini aria, Oh My Beloved Father, which sold more than a million records. She entertained troops and civilians during the war, even singing in underground air raid shelters and on battleships in northern Scotland. Returning to Australia in 1946, she resumed her career by singing all the major soprano roles in Europe, the United States and Australia. From 1975 she taught at the Victorian College of the Arts. She was the first artistic director of the Victoria State Opera and in 1974 she was created Dame of the British Empire.
Harty was born in Hillsborough, County Down. Educated by his father William Harty who was, from 1878 to 1918, organist at St Malachi's Church Belfast, having succeeded his own father. Harty played viola, piano, and organ as a child, playing with siblings and in the family String Quartet. Encouraged his father Harty studied the large collection of music in the family home, with father repeatedly saying: "[Here] is most of the greatest music that has been written. Play it through, all of it - everything - and at the end you will have gained a good musical education".
Following in his father's footsteps, he held positions as a church organist from the age of twelve, moving to Bray at the age of sixteen and rapidly becoming involved in musical activities in Dublin. It was about then that Harty began to compose in earnest, regularly entering pieces into the annual Dublin Music Festival (Feis Coeil), and beginning a lifelong creative friendship with Michele Esposito (a composer and Professor of Piano at the Royal Irish Academy of Music).
Harty became well known as an accompanist and was appointed official accompanist at the Feis Coeil in 1897 and won composition prizes annually between 1899 and 1904, providing him with the opportunity to secure good performances of his work - which he apparently valued more than the prize-money. Winning compositions included his String Quartet in F (Op.1), the Fantasiestücke for violin, cello and piano, (Op.3), his String Quartet in A (Op.5), and the Piano Quintet in F (Op.12). The best known, however, is his Irish Symphony, which was to become popular and underwent many revisions; the first performance in Dublin in 1904 gave Harty his first taste of conducting an orchestra.
In 1901 Harty left for London and was soon known as an accompanist and composer. He performed on many occasions with the soprano Agnes Nicholls, who he married in 1904. He continued to compose, producing the Comedy Overture (1907), a Violin Concerto (1908), the tone-poem With the Wild Geese (1910), Variations on a Dublin Air (1912) and the cantata The Mystic Trumpeter first performed at the Leeds Festival in 1913.
Thereafter he concentrated increasingly on his conducting, working with the London Symphony Orchestra for two seasons, and from 1920 to 1933 was conductor of the Hallé Orchestra. The Hallé is Britain's longest established professional symphony orchestra. During the 1920's and 30's, due to Harty's careful training, the Hallé was widely regarded as the premier Symphony Orchestra in the UK. He introduced music by Bax, Sibelius, Holst, Vaughan Williams, Debussy, and Ravel to the orchestra and played the piano part in the first performance of Lambert's Rio Grande. He also conducted the first performance of Walton's First Symphony (in both its incomplete and final versions) and the first British performances of Mahler's Ninth and Shostakovich's First Symphonies. During his period with them, the Hallé grew from 73 to 96 members - a clear indication of the solid support for his work.
Harty continued to compose, though less prolifically, producing a Piano Concerto in 1922. This period also saw the creation of a number of brilliant and resourceful orchestrations (of which Handel's Water Music is the most famous) as part of his work with the Hallé in Manchester. His experience as an accompanist and conductor gave him, in Raymond Warren's words, 'an unerring instinct as to what would come off well in performance'. He was knighted in 1925.
Harty died at Hove, Sussex after a long illness during which he produced one final composition The Children of Lir in which, along with the Irish symphony and With the Wild Geese "he comes nearest to expressing his deep love of his native country" (Warren). After the war, his ashes were brought to Hillsborough and buried near the west door of St Malachi's church. His papers and music library went to Queens University Belfast, and the Harty chair of music was created in his honour.
Hemsley was an operatic bass baritone who made his debut in 1951 with soprano Kirsten Flagstad in Purcell's Didio and Aeneas. The musical director was Geraint Junes and from then on Thomas Hemsley was often associated with Jones' work. Hemsley worked in German and Dutch opera houses before making his debut in 1970 at London's Covent Garden Opera as Magnus in Michael Tippet's The Knot Garden.
The Huddersfield Choral Society has been one of Britain's major amateur choirs for over a century. Sir Malcolm Sargent and the Huddersfield Choral Society recorded Handel's Messiah, Mendelssohn's Elijah ( the two most perfomed works during the great choral years of the early 20th century) and Gerontius more than once in the 1940s and 50s.
Jordá was born in San Sebastian, Spain,and had his musical training at Madrid University and at the Sorbonne in Paris, where he studied organ, composition and conducting. He made his professional conducting debut in Paris in 1937, and upon his return to Spain in 1940 he was appointed music director of the Madrid Symphony Orchestra. He held that post for five years. From 1948 until he took over the San Francisco podium in 1954, he was music director of the Cape Town Symphony Orchestra in South Africa. After he left San Francisco, he was a guest conductor in Europe, South America and Australia. He published a book, "El Director de Orquesta Ante la Partitura," in 1969, and from 1970 to 1976 he was director of the Antwerp Philharmonic Orchestra in Belgium.
Geraint Jones was one of a growing group of musicans who, after World War II, explored baroque muisc. In those times baroque music, if performed at all, was presented in arrangements for modern symphony orchestras. Jones was a major influence in returning to authenic perfromaces, as a re now common place. Rejected for war service because of poor health, Jones made his concert platform debut as a harpischordist at one of Myra Hess's National Gallery concerts in 1940. In 1945/6 Jones perfromed the complete organ misc of J. S. Bach. The Geraint Jones Orchestra evolved from performances of Purcell's Didio and Aeneas with Kirsten Flagstad and Thomas Hemsley given in the opening season of London's Mermaid Theatre. For 35 years Jpnes was director of the Kirckman Concert Society that providied a platform for young talented musicians. Tim Bullamore wrote in the Indepdent Obituary:"A true Welshman in manner and character, Jones forever had a twinkle in his eye and had a mischievous sense of humour. He adored smart cars, pretty women, and parties, where he was a shrewd people watcher. He retained a large and assorted circle of friends until the very end of his life."
Kempe was born in Dresden and studied the oboe. In addition to oboe, he played the piano regularly, as a soloist, in chamber music or accompanying, as a result of which, in 1933, the new Director of the Leipzig Opera invited Kempe to become a repetiteur, and later a conductor, for the opera. During the Second World War Kempe was conscripted into the army, but instead of active service was directed into musical activities, playing for the troops and later taking over the chief conductorship of the Chemnitz opera house. In 1960, Kempe became Associate Conductor of the Royal Philharmonic (RPO), chosen by the orchestra's founder, Sir Thomas Beecham, whom he succeded as their Artistc Director. In the final months of his life, Kempe was the chief conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra. The opening concert of the Henry Wood Promenade Concerts on 16 July 1976, in which he was to have conducted his BBC forces in Beethoven's Missa Solemnis, became a memorial concert for him following Kempe's death in Zurich aged 65. One of the great unsung conductors of the middle twentieth century, Rudolf Kempe enjoyed a strong reputation in England but never quite achieved the international acclaim that he might have had with more aggressive management, promotion, and recording. Kempe is perhaps best remembered as a connoisseur's conductor, one valued for his strong creative temperament rather than for any personal mystique. His relaxation from the pressures of conducting was to engross himself with his model railway.
Hans Knappertsbusch, known to many just a "Kna" studied philosophy at Bonn University and conducting at the Cologne Conservatory. When still a student Kna assisted Siegfried Wagner and Hans Richter at Bayreuth. Follwing a tring of appointments in Germany he moved to Vienna in 1936 defying Nazi orders that germans were not permitted to work in Austria. Knappertsbusch continued to appear in Vienna and Salzburg during the German occupation of Austria becoming one of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra's favourite conductors. He disliked long rehearsals, and was sometimes accused of laziness. He was known for conducting very slowly, emphasizing beauty and dignity over liveliness.
Vienese Josef Krips served as Felix Weingartner's assistant at the Volksoper before becoming the resident conductor there in 1933. In 1938, the Nazi annexation of Austria (or Anschluss) forced Krips to leave the country. (Krips was raised a Roman Catholic, but would have been excluded from musical activity because his father was born Jewish). Krips moved to Belgrade, where he worked for a year with the Belgrade Opera and Philharmonic, until Yugoslavia also became involved in World War II. For the remainder of the war he worked in a food factory. Returning to Austria at the end of the war in 1945 Krips was one of the few conductors who were allowed to work, since he had not worked under the Nazi regime. He rebuilt the musical life of Vienna before moving to London in 1950 to reconstruct the LSO with bright young musicians. His reputation as an orchestral builder saw him improve standards in Buffalo and San Fransisco after he left London.
Born in Manchester Richard Lewis' reputation as boy singer earned him a part in Mendelssohn's Elijah signing with Isobel Baillie . At the relatively late age of 25 he won a scholarship to study at the Manchester School of Music. Son after arriving he received his call up to join the British Army in World War Two. In fact the War gave him opportunities to sing and afterwards he was awarded a grant to study at the Royal Academy of Music in London aged 32. In 1947 he joined Benjamin Britten's English Opera Group and made his debut at Glyndebourne Opera.
His lyric tenor voice was soon in demand in the concert hall as well as the opera house. From Nanki Poo in Gilbert and Sullivan's Mikado to Elgar's Gerontius he quickly became the lead tenor in English music.
Helen Lawrence whose grandparents came from Russia, was born in London and studied at the Royal Academy of Music and in Italy. She has divided her career with equal success between the operatic stage and the concert platform and is an accomplished recitalist. As a guest artist at Covent Garden and E.N.O roles have inluded Santuzza, Woodbird in Siegfried, and First Lady in Die Zauberflote. Her many engagements overseas include Donna Anna at the Ludwigsburg Festival, Germany; recitals at the Jerusalem Festival with the Songmakers' Almanac and a tour of the Far East with the Royal Opera. She sings regularly in oratorio and concert with choral societies and music clubs all over the UK and abroad.
George Malcolm's first instrument was the piano. After 18 months with a gifted nun in the kindergarten, he started studies with Kathleen McWhitty at the Royal College of Music, aged seven. Following study at Oxford University, he returned to the RCM and studied with Herbert Fryer, intending a career as a pianist. The War drastically changed the direction of Malcolm's life, being appointed an RAF bandleader, organising and conducting concerts all over the country. On being demobbed he planned to resume his career. Taken with the idea of owning an antique instrument for his own pleasure at home, he bought his first harpsichord (a genuine 18th century instrument) at auction with his demob gratuity. The instrument was rare then, and very soon they were both in great demand.
George Malcolm was appointed Director of Music at Westminster Cathedral in 1949. He had a deep affinity with Catholic Church Music, and achieved great success in producing the bright "continental" sound that so impressed Britten when he wrote his "Missa Brevis" especially for the Cathedral Choir. By 1959 ever-increasing demands for concert performances caused Malcolm to resign his post at the cathedral and become conductor of the Philomusica of London as well as associate conductor of the BBC Scottish Orchestra.
Throughout his life George Malcolm continued to champion the harpsichord through concerts and recordings, mostly drawing on the large 18th century keyboard repertoire. He was also a fine exponent of more recent works and made some brilliant arrangements.
The Manchester Schools Children's Choir was created by Gertrude Riall, using some 250 voices from the elementary schools of Manchester. C.M. Crabtree reviewed in The Gramophone of Jan 1930 the disc they recorded for Columbia in the Free Trade Hall under the baton of Sir Hamilton Harty. Crabtree commented that the children would never forget the "thrill" of performing these pieces with "Harty and his great orchestra." Nymphs and Shepherds is an arrangement of music from The Libertine destroyed (1692) by Purcell. Crabtree was pleased the children were allowed to sing it "at the proper pace" and retain Purcell's "crudities". Dance Duet comes from Act 1 of Humperdinck's Opera Hansel and Gretel. Crabtree described it as "going splendidly" and "delightful, though of course a bit vague sometimes." He finished by observing that it is "quite the loudest record ever heard"!! Fifty years later Gertrude Riall conducted members of the choir at a reunion in the Manchester Town Hall.
Edwin McArthur accompanied Kirsten Flagstad for
over twenty years. Born in Denver, Colorado he worked as a pianist
while studying at the Juilliard School of Music. In 1935 Kirsten
Flagstad selected McArthur as her accompanist for her American
tour. In 1941 McArthur gave his conducting debut at New York's
Metropolitan Opera with Flagstad singing Isolde.
McArthur also accompanied Florence Foster Jenkins under the
assumed name of Cosme McMoon. A case of accompanying the
sublime and the ridiculous.
The Miller family contributed a father (1826-1886) who served as Bandmaster 63rd Regiment; his son (1853-1928) who retired as Director of Music, Royal Marine Light Infantry (Portsmouth Division) Band in 1917 and grandson to military music, all of them confusingly named George John Miller. The conductor on this recording is the third George Miller, the grandson, born in 1877. He enlisted into the 4th Battalion King's Royal Rifle Corps in 1896 and in 1898 was appointed Bandmaster 1st Battalion Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry, serving in India, Ceylon and South Africa, before returning to the UK in 1903 to form the Royal Artillery (Portsmouth) Band. In 1907 Miller was appointed Bandmaster 1st Life Guards and commissioned Lieutenant, Director of Music in 1919. He transferred to the Grenadier Guards in 1921, was promoted Captain in 1927 and Major in 1934, where he remained until his retirement in 1942 as a Lieutenant Colonel and the appointment of Senior Director of Music, Brigade of Guards. He died in 1960.
The vast majority of Grenadier Guards Band 78rpm output under Miller was on the Columbia label with only a handful recorded for Decca. The twenty-two Columbia tracks here were recorded between 1926 and1940. Miller's recordings covered the gamut of military band repertoire of the time, including a number of unusual items newly available from the USA (Harry Alford's The Old Frog Pond recorded here being an example). Miller's band was considered to be technically excellent and was noted for playing with great precision and attention to dynamics.
Charles Munch was born in 1891 in the Alsace-Lorraine region
bordering France and Germany. At the time of his birth, this region
was under German control, and so this champion of French music
found himself born in Germany. Munch was influenced by both
cultures and gained his first significant musical posts in Germany
before reaching prominence in the Parisian musical scene.
His first Paris concert came in 1932 and was financed by his fiancee.
However, Munch soon built up a fine reputation through conducting
engagements with French orchestras. He became a champion of the
music of Berlioz and gave first performances of works by a number of
composers including Honegger and Roussel. In 1937, upon taking up
a position at the Conservatoire de Paris (teaching conducting), Munch
became the conductor of the Societe des Concerts du Conservatoire -
The Paris Conservatoire Orchestra as it became known in the English
speaking world.
Throughout the Second World War, Munch remained in Paris during
its occupation to conduct the Conservatoire Orchestra and continue
his teaching. He refused to collaborate with the occupying forces,
refused to visit Germany for conducting engagements and would not
perform contemporary German repertoire. He also gave financial
assistance to the French Resistance, and for his wartime efforts was
awarded the Legion d'Honneur (with red ribbon) in 1945 and the
degree of Commandeur in 1952.
The Paris Conservatoire Orchestra visited England in the autumns of
1946 and 1947.This was a period of transition for the orchestra.The
Paris Conservatoire itself was being shaken up, dividing into the
Conservatoire National Superieur d'Art Dramatique for theatre,
dance, and drama and the Conservatoire National Superieur de
Musique et de Danse de Paris for music and dance. Meanwhile,
Munch's international reputation was increasing and as he pursued
more engagements overseas he handed over the reins of the Paris
Conservatoire Orchestra to Andre Cluytens. In December 1946 Munch
had his debut with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. He clearly
impressed the orchestra and Boston public as he was to be their
Music Director between 1949 and 1962.
Anthony Pini, known as Charlie to his fellow musicians, was born in Buenos Aries, Argentina of a French father and Scottish mother. At the age of eleven he came to England and apart from a year of basic training he was self taught. Pini became leader of the cellos in Sir Thomas Beecham's pre war London Philharmonic Orchestra. After the war he chose a solo and chamber music path, finally becoming a professor at the Royal College of Music in London. He recorded the Elgar concerto with his former colleagues of the LPO in sessions eleven months apart (during which time Decca had moved from 78rpm disc to tape recording).
Stanford Robinson was was born in Leeds, and educated at the Stationers' Company School and the Royal College of Music, where he studied under Sir Adrian Boult. Robinson was on the staff of the BBC from 1924 to 1966. Until 1932 he was the BBC's first chorus master, in which capacity he set up the BBC Singers, the BBC Choral Society and the BBC Chorus. From 1932 to 1946 he was conductor of the BBC Theatre Orchestra, and Director of Music Productions from 1936 to 1946. Later he was Opera Director and Associate Conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra (1946-1949), conductor of the BBC Opera Orchestra (1949-1952), and a BBC staff conductor (1952-1966). Stanford was the brother of popular conductor and broadcaster Eric Robinson (1908-74).
The Royal Choral Society has been one of London's leading amateur choirs ever since its formation for the opening of the Royal Albert Hall in 1871. For many years the Society attracted vast audiences to the Royal Albert Hall for its annual staged performances of Coleridge Taylor's Hiawatha. This was sustained during Malcolm Sargent's long association with the choir which started in 1928 and lasted until his death in 1967.
An early encounter with Toscanini influenced de Sabata in pursuing a
conducting career, his first post being with the Monte Carlo Opera
where he premiered Ravel's L'enfant et les sortileges in 1925 to
widespread acclaim. He went on to conduct at La Scala, succeeding
Toscanini as principal conductor in 1930, and became only the second
conductor from a non-German speaking country to conduct at
Bayreuth in 1939. After the war his international career took off, with
concerts and recordings in London and New York, notably with the
London Philharmonic Orchestra as heard here.
Sir Malcolm Sargent is remembered as a great choral conductor. Many of the older generation can recall him conducting vast choruses singing Handel, Mendelssohn or Coleridge-Taylor in the Royal Albert Hall. His reputation as an orchestral conductor is marred by stories of his attitude towards the musicians in orchestras. However his recorded legacy, on this disc mainly with the London Symphony Orchestra, demonstrates a musical intellect at work. If he takes liberties then they are for carefully-considered musical reasons.
Born in Ashford in Kent and brought up in Stamford in Lincolnshire, Sargent learnt the piano and organ and sang in several choirs. He was articled to Dr. Keeton at Peterborough Cathedral for two years and then, from 1914-1924, organist at Melton Mowbray Parish Church. He gained his doctorate at Durham University in 1919, the youngest person in England to do so.
Sargent began conducting at the age of fourteen (Gilbert and Sullivan) and impressed Sir Henry Wood sufficiently to be invited to conduct one of his compositions at a Promenade Concert. Wood encouraged him to devote himself to conducting thereafter. The young Sargent had already started to form strong preferences for choral and for British music. His 1921-22 concert season in Leicester including Beethoven's Choral Symphony and The Dream of Gerontius.
Moving to London in 1924 as musical director of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, Sargent lectured at the RCM, conducted Diaghilev's Ballets Russes and the British National Opera Company and the Robert Mayer children's concerts. In 1929 with the London Symphony Orchestra he started the annual Sargent/Courtauld concert series and conducted newly formed London Philharmonic Orchestra. A serious illness and the resulting essential operation meant a long period of convalescence. Following this he spent periods with the Hallé and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic orchestras. He was knighted in 1947.
Having conducted the last concert, Dream of Gerontius at the Queen's Hall before its destruction by bombing, and following Sir Henry Wood's death Sir Malcolm Sargent shared the Proms with Sir Adrian Boult and Basil Cameron. Sargent became principal conductor of the Proms in 1947 and chief conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra in 1950. He toured extensively to the USA, Canada, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and Japan as well as Europe. The immediate post War years saw Sargent's popularity with his audiences rise to great heights and he became regarded as an ambassador for British music, not only by the public but also within the BBC.
Slivestri studied piano as a child and then piano and composition at the Bucharest Consevatorie. His conducting debut was in 1930 with the National Radio Orchestra of Romania conducting one of his own compositions. In 1959 Silvestri moved to Paris but his appointment as principal conductor of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra two years later caused him to live in Bournemouth where in 1967 be became a British citizen. His years at Bournemouth brought himself and his orchestra (with many young players from the RCM and RAM in London) to the attention of the musical world. The repetoir was wide ranging and featured much British music (the performance of Alan Rawthorne's Third Symphony alongside music by Enescu is typical). His death from cancer at the age of 55 robbed the musical world of a rapidly rising, if somewhat controversial, star. The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra had the luxury of performing the same concert programme up to five times as they went on tour of though the south and west of England. For Silvestri one he disliked was Weymouth so repeats in symphonies were cut here to enable him to return home as early as possible. Silvestri had a poor grasp of the English language and would sometimes communicate to his orchestra in French with members of the orchestra translating to those who lacked the ability to understand his French. That he was an inspiration to his orchestra despite his temperamental outbursts is evidenced by the BSO's subsequent standing among world orchestra.
The Welsh contralto, Helen Watts, started her caeer singing in the chorus at Glyndebouren and for the BBC where she received broadcasting engagemnets from BBC Wales. She made he Henry Wood Prom debut in 1953 siging Bach under the direction of Sir Malcolm Sargent. At the 1958 Camden festival she made her first opera appreance as Didymus in Handel's Theodora. She soom became a distinguished concert artist. Her recording career was extensive, ranging from acclaimed Bach cantatas and oratorios under Otto Klemperer, Ernest Ansermet, Britten and the Bach specialist Helmuth Rilling; The Messiah and The Dream of Gerontius under Sir Colin Davis; Beethoven's Ninth Symphony under Leopold Stokowski and Mahler's Second and Eighth Symphonies under Sir Georg Solti. She retired in 1985 to care for her husband in their Pembrokeshire home.
Felix Weingartner, born to Austrian parents in Zadar in what is now Croatia, was four years old when Grove and Sullivan recovered
Schubert's Rosamunde music. The following year the Weingartners moved to Graz. Felix entered the Leipzig Conservatory and became one of Liszt's later puplis. He spent much of his career in German opera houses. In 1908 he succeeded Mahler as conductor of the Vienna Philharmonic, a post he retained until 1927 when he was to become Director of
Music in the Swiss city of Basle. In 1937, Sir Adrian Boult presented
Weingartner with the Gold Medal of the Royal Phiharmonic Society, the
same Society which back in 1844 had found Schubert's Ninth Symphony
so risible. Weingartner conducted his last concert in London in 1940.
Henry Wood like his his father became a craftsman and model maker. His father had highly successful model engine shop in London's Oxford Street. Young Henry also played the organ and became deputy organist of St Mary Aldermanbury at the age of ten. Four years later he played the organ at the 'Musicians' Church' St Sepulchre-without-Newgate, the largest parish church in the City of London, where his ashes now rest. Henry also learned the piano and violin, but it was not until he entered the Royal Academy of Music at the age of sixteen that he received methodical tuition. During his two years at the RAM he took classes in piano, organ, composition and singing. His ambition at the time was to become a teacher of singing something he was to do throughout his life.
On leaving the Royal Academy of Music he found work as a singing teacher and as an orchestral and choral conductor. gaining experience by working for several opera companies. He conducted the Carl Rosa Opera Company in 1891, and the following year the English premiere of Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin at the newly rebuilt Olympic Theatre. He collaborated with Arthur Sullivan on preparation of The Yeomen of the Guard and Ivanhoe. Meanwhile singing tuition proviede a steady income.
In 1893, Robert Newman, manager of the Queen's Hall, proposed holding a series of promenade concerts with Wood as conductor. The term promenade concert normally referred to concerts in London parks where the audience could walk about as they listened. Newman's aim was to educate the musical taste of the public who were not used to listening to serious classical music unless it was presented in small doses with plenty of other popular items in between. Wood shared Newman's ideals. Dr George Cathcart, a wealthy ear, nose and throat specialist, offered to sponsor the project on condition that Wood took charge of every concert. He also insisted that the pitch of the instruments, which in England was nearly a semitone higher than that used on the continent, should be brought down to diapason normal (A=435Hz). On 10 August 1895 the first of the Queen's Hall Promenade Concerts took place.
For many years the programming of the promenade concerts followed a particular pattern according to the day of the week, with Monday nights being Wagner nights and Friday being dedicated to Beethoven. Wood also bravely introduced British audiences to many noteworthy European composers, especially Sibelius and composers of the Russian school. In 1912 Wood conducted Schoenberg's Five Orchestral Pieces ("Stick to it, gentlemen" he urged the orchestra at rehearsal, "This is nothing to what you'll have to play in 25 years' time").
Wood remained in sole charge of the Proms (with one or two exceptions) until 1941 when he shared the conducting with Basil Cameron and, in the following season, with Sir Adrian Boult as well. During Wood's time the Proms were a central feature of British musical life and he gained the nickname of "Timber" from the Promenaders. He brought about many innovations. He fought continuously for improved pay for musicians, and introduced women into the orchestra in 1911.
Wood's orchestrations of other composers' works drew frequent criticisms, so when in 1929 he made an orchestral transcription of Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor, he presented it as a transcription by a Russian composer called Paul Klenovsky. Klenovsky was a real person, a recently deceased young musician friend of Alexander Glazunov's, and Wood thought a foreign name would secure a more favourable reception than his own. It was a great success. Only several years later did he confess to the little joke. The work was nonetheless published in 1934 as "Bach-Klenovsky, Organ Toccata and Fugue in D minor, for Orchestra (orchestrated by Sir Henry J. Wood)".
Wood is remembered today in the name of the Henry Wood Hall, the deconsecrated Holy Trinity Church in Southwark, which was converted to a rehearsal and recording venue in 1975. His bust stands upstage centre in the Royal Albert Hall during the whole of each Prom season, and is decorated by a chaplet on the Last Night of the Proms.
| 
We're backing Britain
