I’m going to start back to an early experience in my second year at the RAM.
Every term, there is a special Chamber Music Concert given for students and public in the Dukes Hall.
Christmas Term 1950 The leading violinist at that time was Arthur Davison, who led the Academy’s 1st orchestra and who was studying conducting under Clarence Raybould.
The work to be played was, as I recall, a piece called “Madame Noye” but it matters not.
What happened was that Arthur’s E string broke during the final movements. Undeterred, he completed the performance playing on the “A” string – getting perilously close to the wrong side of the bridge at times!
(We grew very close over the next few years – I played for him with his various orchestras, both professional and amateur and we were together at the memorial concert for Dennis Brain, held in the Dukes Hall in 1957, where I played the Ravel “Pavan por une infante defunte” as the opening work.
I was Player-Manager in his Virtuosi of England until I joined the BBC in 1973 and subsequently coached his Croydon Youth Orchestra and the Welsh National Youth Orchestra. Arthur succumbed to diabetes while I was living in Portugal, but Pamela and I flew back to England for his memorial concert in the Fairfield Hall, conducted by his son, Darren.).
Christmas Term 1951I played in that term’s concert in the Poulenc Trio for Trumpet, Horn and Trombone with Peter Owen and Haydn Trotman. No broken strings there.
(After a very brief spell in Bournemouth, Peter went into show business together with his wife, Patricia Hodge. Dai Trotman went from Covent Garden to the Welsh National Orchestra as Manager)
Easter Term 1952
Once more unto the breech with the Schubert Octet. No broken strings there either, but memorable because I was performing alongside my old schoolmate Keith Deacon (Clarinet) – we were known at school as “Bubble and Squeak”. Lost contact when he moved to the BBC Northern Orchestra in 1954.
Summer Term 1952
My last year at the RAM and a record set for playing in more than one work at an RAM Chamber Recital.
Part One was the Mozart Piano and Wind 5tet with Annemarie Scheltemer at the piano.
Per Dwyer (oboe) Keith Deacon (again) and Jane Bennet(bassoon).
Part Two was the Brahms Horn Trio, with William Reid (violin) and John Streets (piano)
…. And here we come to the grand finale
In the final movement, Bill’s E string snapped! He could only apologise and leave the stage to fit a new string. John and I decided to stay on the platform to avoid losing our audience.
E string replaced and we restarted the last movement. Gratifying (or was it sympathetic) applause.
Afterwards, I was approached by a student who was in his first year and was studying horn under Aubrey Brain.
“Great horn playing” he said “I wish I could play like that”
“Let’s get a cup of tea” I said “ and tell me all about yourself.”
He was new to the horn, he said. He originally played cornet in the famous “Bessie’s o’ the Barn” brass band but on being called up for National Service, he applied for the RAF Central Band and found there were no vacancies. So he offered to play the horn (thinking they would use tenor horns as at Bessie’s) and found himself with this strange instrument, the sound of which he rather liked. So demob, he applied for the RAM and accepted with alacrity by Aubrey Brain. I sort of took him under my wing and offered him to play second horn to me on outside engagements, to supplement his meagre subsistence allowance. When I was finally caught by conscription into the RA Band, he auditioned for the Hallé orchestra and was accepted as 5th horn, (bumper up to the odious Maurice Handford – another Bishop Wordsworth School former pupil.)
So off he went to the Liverpool Philharmonic and became Principal Horn for Sir John Pritchard (the other Sir John).
Didn’t stay long. He was soon off to the smoke and playing with the famous Philip Jones Brass ensemble, and embarking on a solo career.
Did I forget to mention his name? It was,of course, Ifor James, son of that great soprano Ena Mitchell.
We always kept in touch and every year we would meet in Gerrard Street, have a bang-up Chinese Meal and then go into Paxman’s Horn Centre and try every instrument in the place!
I was saddened by his early death and you might wonder why I have written all these personal reminiscenses.
It is because of the Eastop/Halstead thread and the discussion about the improvement in horn technique since Dennis Brain and who is responsible.
No! It wasn’t Civil, Tuckwell, Baumann or any of the others who sought to jump into Dennis Brain’s shoes.
It was IFOR JAMES, who translated the brass band players’ technical facility on a cornet to the orchestral horn and that, for me, is the answer.
Tony Halstead has done the same for hand horn playing, combining flawless technique with great musicianship.
How about starting a thread about unavoidable concert disasters?
Every term, there is a special Chamber Music Concert given for students and public in the Dukes Hall.
Christmas Term 1950 The leading violinist at that time was Arthur Davison, who led the Academy’s 1st orchestra and who was studying conducting under Clarence Raybould.
The work to be played was, as I recall, a piece called “Madame Noye” but it matters not.
What happened was that Arthur’s E string broke during the final movements. Undeterred, he completed the performance playing on the “A” string – getting perilously close to the wrong side of the bridge at times!
(We grew very close over the next few years – I played for him with his various orchestras, both professional and amateur and we were together at the memorial concert for Dennis Brain, held in the Dukes Hall in 1957, where I played the Ravel “Pavan por une infante defunte” as the opening work.
I was Player-Manager in his Virtuosi of England until I joined the BBC in 1973 and subsequently coached his Croydon Youth Orchestra and the Welsh National Youth Orchestra. Arthur succumbed to diabetes while I was living in Portugal, but Pamela and I flew back to England for his memorial concert in the Fairfield Hall, conducted by his son, Darren.).
Christmas Term 1951I played in that term’s concert in the Poulenc Trio for Trumpet, Horn and Trombone with Peter Owen and Haydn Trotman. No broken strings there.
(After a very brief spell in Bournemouth, Peter went into show business together with his wife, Patricia Hodge. Dai Trotman went from Covent Garden to the Welsh National Orchestra as Manager)
Easter Term 1952
Once more unto the breech with the Schubert Octet. No broken strings there either, but memorable because I was performing alongside my old schoolmate Keith Deacon (Clarinet) – we were known at school as “Bubble and Squeak”. Lost contact when he moved to the BBC Northern Orchestra in 1954.
Summer Term 1952
My last year at the RAM and a record set for playing in more than one work at an RAM Chamber Recital.
Part One was the Mozart Piano and Wind 5tet with Annemarie Scheltemer at the piano.
Per Dwyer (oboe) Keith Deacon (again) and Jane Bennet(bassoon).
Part Two was the Brahms Horn Trio, with William Reid (violin) and John Streets (piano)
…. And here we come to the grand finale
In the final movement, Bill’s E string snapped! He could only apologise and leave the stage to fit a new string. John and I decided to stay on the platform to avoid losing our audience.
E string replaced and we restarted the last movement. Gratifying (or was it sympathetic) applause.
Afterwards, I was approached by a student who was in his first year and was studying horn under Aubrey Brain.
“Great horn playing” he said “I wish I could play like that”
“Let’s get a cup of tea” I said “ and tell me all about yourself.”
He was new to the horn, he said. He originally played cornet in the famous “Bessie’s o’ the Barn” brass band but on being called up for National Service, he applied for the RAF Central Band and found there were no vacancies. So he offered to play the horn (thinking they would use tenor horns as at Bessie’s) and found himself with this strange instrument, the sound of which he rather liked. So demob, he applied for the RAM and accepted with alacrity by Aubrey Brain. I sort of took him under my wing and offered him to play second horn to me on outside engagements, to supplement his meagre subsistence allowance. When I was finally caught by conscription into the RA Band, he auditioned for the Hallé orchestra and was accepted as 5th horn, (bumper up to the odious Maurice Handford – another Bishop Wordsworth School former pupil.)
So off he went to the Liverpool Philharmonic and became Principal Horn for Sir John Pritchard (the other Sir John).
Didn’t stay long. He was soon off to the smoke and playing with the famous Philip Jones Brass ensemble, and embarking on a solo career.
Did I forget to mention his name? It was,of course, Ifor James, son of that great soprano Ena Mitchell.
We always kept in touch and every year we would meet in Gerrard Street, have a bang-up Chinese Meal and then go into Paxman’s Horn Centre and try every instrument in the place!
I was saddened by his early death and you might wonder why I have written all these personal reminiscenses.
It is because of the Eastop/Halstead thread and the discussion about the improvement in horn technique since Dennis Brain and who is responsible.
No! It wasn’t Civil, Tuckwell, Baumann or any of the others who sought to jump into Dennis Brain’s shoes.
It was IFOR JAMES, who translated the brass band players’ technical facility on a cornet to the orchestral horn and that, for me, is the answer.
Tony Halstead has done the same for hand horn playing, combining flawless technique with great musicianship.
How about starting a thread about unavoidable concert disasters?
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