Sir Charles Groves

[smittims]

I hadn't seen this thread before now, so it was rewarding to read about Sir Charles' successful efforts to save the Bournemouth Orchestra.

I've always felt his Delius was underrated. He was the first conductor after Beecham to set aside the alterations Beecham had made and return to Delius' original scores. His were the first available recordings of Cynara , Koanga and Life's Dance, and the first stereo recordings of A Mass of Life, Song of the High Hills, Sea Drift, Paris, Eventyr, Dance Rhapsody no.1, Arabesk and North Country Sketches: quite a record, and at a time when Tommy's recordings were beginning to sound old and dim.

[Alison]

My dad said he heard Sir Charles conduct an outstanding War Requiem.

[Suffolkcoastal]

By sheer coincidence, I was listening to Groves' wonderful recording of Elgar's Caractacus last night. He shapes the work beautifully and the well-known Triumphal March with the chorus is absolutely electrifying.

[Dave2002]

The late member Hornspieler's #72 is worth reading.

Indeed - very much so. CG certainly had a sense of humanity.

Groves always seemed a very solid conductor to me, unlike his predecessor at the RLPO, John Pritchard, who was (IMO) able to produce absolutely sparkling sounds from an orchestra.

[Petrushka]

My dad said he heard Sir Charles conduct an outstanding War Requiem.

That could be the one I remember being broadcast in 1977 and preceded by a performance of the Shostakovich 2. I recorded it to cassette but, alas, that tape has long gone.

[Barbirollians]

Indeed - very much so. CG certainly had a sense of humanity.

Groves always seemed a very solid conductor to me, unlike his predecessor at the RLPO, John Pritchard, who was (IMO) able to produce absolutely sparkling sounds from an orchestra.

As I probably mentioned above I recall a terrific , sparkling Elgar 2 from Sir Charles Groves at Sheffield City Hall in the late 1980s.

[Alison]

That could be the one I remember being broadcast in 1977 and preceded by a performance of the Shostakovich 2. I recorded it to cassette but, alas, that tape has long gone.

Very likely Pet. Good programme!

[jayne lee wilson]

That could be the one I remember being broadcast in 1977 and preceded by a performance of the Shostakovich 2. I recorded it to cassette but, alas, that tape has long gone.

I was at that very concert, a truly wonderful occasion. The DSCH made a coruscating impact. I'd only begun attending in 1974, with the DSCH 8th conducted by Maxim himself.
Next morning at 0700 I was at the coast, sheltering among the dunes and pine trees, peering out to sea for the gale-blown skuas and shearwaters...

"Oh, time of youth! Vanished! Oh, love! Scattered by the wind!"

[Bryn]

Very likely Bryn. Good programme!

Um . . . ?

[Alison]

That could be the one I remember being broadcast in 1977 and preceded by a performance of the Shostakovich 2. I recorded it to cassette but, alas, that tape has long gone.

Um . . . ?

Sorry Nethersage. You probably didn’t do cassettes!

[Bryn]

Sorry Nethersage. You probably didn’t do cassettes!

Only by the thousand. Many have since been 'digitised' but many more remain, packed into corrugated card strawberry trays collected from supermarkets in the days when they were only too happy to have someone take them away.

[Dave2002]

As I probably mentioned above I recall a terrific , sparkling Elgar 2 from Sir Charles Groves at Sheffield City Hall in the late 1980s.

CG was also I think instrumental in getting Mahler 8 performed again in the UK after a lengthy absence. See http://www.concertprogrammes.org.uk/...etRecord/8187/ for details of the concert in 1964.

It was hardly Grove's fault that like many other performances of this work the acoustics of Liverpool Cathedral rendered much of the concert muddied and/or inaudible. This has also happened elsewhere, such as in St Paul's Cathedral with other conductors.

He also championed Bruckner when he was another composer whose work was rarely performed in the UK.

[Master Jacques]

My favourite Groves memory, of many:

The premiere of Rubbra's 8th Symphony, with the RLPO at Liverpool's Philharmonic Hall, 1971. Although some of the orchestral playing was not flawless, Sir Charles brought a spiritual luminosity to this music - inspired by the cosmic philosophies of Teilhard de Chardin - which neither of the studio recordings (Del Mar and Hickox) approach.

It is a condemnation of our musical establishment, that this peerless work simply never gets programmed by our major orchestras - but then, nor do any of Rubbra's eleven symphonies, several of which (4,5,6,8, for me) can be mentioned in the same breath as any 20th century example we might care to name.

[Bryn]

My favourite Groves memory, of many:

The premiere of Rubbra's 8th Symphony, with the RLPO at Liverpool's Philharmonic Hall, 1971. Although some of the orchestral playing was not flawless, Sir Charles brought a spiritual luminosity to this music - inspired by the cosmic philosophies of Teilhard de Chardin - which neither of the studio recordings (Del Mar and Hickox) approach.

It is a condemnation of our musical establishment, that this peerless work simply never gets programmed by our major orchestras - but then, nor do any of Rubbra's eleven symphonies, several of which (4,5,6,8, for me) can be mentioned in the same breath as any 20th century example we might care to name.

Mine was attending his rehearsal of Turangalîla-Symphonie for a Proms performance.

[Master Jacques]

Mine was attending his rehearsal of Turangalîla-Symphonie for a Proms performance.

I envy you - I should have loved to have seen Groves in rehearsal, and never did.

His only 'fallow period' was his brief incumbency at ENO, a job for which he was unsuited - not because he couldn't conduct opera, which he could - but because he did not thrive on the daily distractions of running a complex music department in such a cut-and-thrust, competitive organisation. He was a round peg in a square hole for that particular job.