Orr, Robin

[Sydney Grew]

Robin Orr was born at Brechin (Angus) in 1909, and well educated at Loretto School. He then studied the organ at the Royal College of Music and later at Pembroke College, Cambridge, under Cyril Rootham.

He left three wonderful symphonies:

symphony no. 1 in One Movement, 1963

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FcBlU8xDY4

symphony no. 2, 1970

symphony no. 3, 1978

but as far as I can gather neither concerto nor string quartet.

[edashtav]

Robin Orr was born at Brechin (Angus) in 1909, and well educated at Loretto School. He then studied the organ at the Royal College of Music and later at Pembroke College, Cambridge, under Cyril Rootham.

He left three wonderful symphonies:

symphony no. 1 in One Movement, 1963

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FcBlU8xDY4

symphony no. 2, 1970

symphony no. 3, 1978

but as far as I can gather neither concerto nor string quartet.

Too much teaching and administration limited Orr’s composing.

In his Guardian obituary, Tim McDonald, passes on these assessments:

His best music deserves a modest niche in posterity's pantheon - and not just in a Scottish side-aisle: it is professional, concise, effective and interesting. The Symphony in One Movement, heard at the Proms in 1966, the cycle From the Book of Philip Sparrow (written for Janet Baker, who premiered it in 1969) and the opera, Full Circle, which Andrew Porter thought "a masterly piece", all achieved multiple performance.