in a previous life....

[John Wright]

In the late 1950's was Musical Director of the Royal Ballet and in the 1960s conductor of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.

But, in a previous life, one of the singing trio in...

http://www.r2ok.co.uk/ohdoris3.mp3

(impatient? 1 minute in...)

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_Rignold

[John Wright]

Indeed it is Hugo Rignold, violinist... jazz violinist in 1927 . The others in the singing trio were Jack Hylton (band leader) and Chappie D'Amato (guitarist).

[JFLL]

Indeed it is Hugo Rignold, violinist... jazz violinist in 1927 . The others in the singing trio were Jack Hylton (band leader) and Chappie D'Amato (guitarist).

Hugo Rignold was in charge of the CBSO when I was growing up, so he was repsonsible for my early listening education, so to speak. In the pre-Rattle era the CBSO wasn't one of the top orchestras, and they didn't go in for guest conductors, so it was HR for almost every concert. The repertoire was fairly conventional (no Bruckner and Mahler in those days!) and for some reason HR was very keen on programming Delius's Walk to the Paradise Garden as a filler in almost every concert, it sometimes seemed. I don't remember any other Delius having been played. Anyone else got any memories of the CBSO in the 60s?

I was amazed when forty years later I heard Malcolm Laycock introduce the vocal trio in a Jack Hylton number (Good News, I think) as Jack himself, HR and Chappie D'Amato, as I'd had no idea that the by then rather staid-looking HR had been a jazzman.

[Ariosto]

Hugo Rignold was in charge of the CBSO when I was growing up, so he was repsonsible for my early listening education, so to speak. In the pre-Rattle era the CBSO wasn't one of the top orchestras, and they didn't go in for guest conductors, so it was HR for almost every concert. The repertoire was fairly conventional (no Bruckner and Mahler in those days!) and for some reason HR was very keen on programming Delius's Walk to the Paradise Garden as a filler in almost every concert, it sometimes seemed. I don't remember any other Delius having been played. Anyone else got any memories of the CBSO in the 60s?

This is not entirely accurate as Rignold did not conduct that much and there were guest conductors as well as Harold Gray. Rignold was often away for two or three weeks at a time. Also a lot of these players from this "not one of the top orchestras" left for the LSO from about 1965/66 and so it was drained of the better players prior to Louis Fremaux and then Rattle taking over. Rite of Spring was done in about 1966 or thereabouts and there were lots of contemporary works given an airing - some good and some bad.

[mercia]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_Rignold

....... and handy if one's horse needed new shoes

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

....... and handy if one's horse needed new shoes

... as, indeed, was Kathleen Farrier.

[Ariosto]

He did frequently re-shoe the horn section ...

(Dangerous ground I'm on here again - anyone feel like shopping me?)

[JFLL]

This is not entirely accurate as Rignold did not conduct that much and there were guest conductors as well as Harold Gray. Rignold was often away for two or three weeks at a time. Also a lot of these players from this "not one of the top orchestras" left for the LSO from about 1965/66 and so it was drained of the better players prior to Louis Fremaux and then Rattle taking over. Rite of Spring was done in about 1966 or thereabouts and there were lots of contemporary works given an airing - some good and some bad.

I'm afraid I have to disagree with you there to a certain extent, Ariosto. The programmes I have kept from the period when I frequently attended CBSO concerts, 1962-65, show that it is certainly not true that 'Rignold did not conduct that much' – in fact most of them were conducted by HR or, less frequently, by his deputy Harold Gray. And if 'lots of contemporary works were given an airing' that wasn't apparent in the concerts I went to. John Joubert, a 'local' composer, was sometimes programmed, though. I would say that around 1965-66 the culture began to change, and more 'daring' repertory, such as the Rite of Spring, began to be introduced, with more guest conductors (I remember particularly a Bruckner 6 with Horenstein). As in so many aspects of British life, the mid-1960s were a watershed, I think.

[John Wright]

I was amazed when forty years later I heard Malcolm Laycock introduce the vocal trio in a Jack Hylton number (Good News, I think) as Jack himself, HR and Chappie D'Amato, as I'd had no idea that the by then rather staid-looking HR had been a jazzman.

Your memory is correct JFLL, the Hylton recording of "Good News" (24/7/28) did indeed feature the same vocal trio. Glad you enjoyed listening to Malcolm Laycock on Radio 2. Those podcasts that I do, mentioned elsewhere, are in the same format as Malcolm's show, I started them a month after he died (Nov 2009).

[Tony Halstead]

JFLL:

The repertoire was fairly conventional (no Bruckner and Mahler in those days!)

Strangely enough the only time I ever played ( as a guest) with the CBSO, in 1965-6, was in BRUCKNER'S ninth symphony, conducted by HR!
He gave the Wagner Tubas ( me on 4th) a hard time...

[Ariosto]

I'm afraid I have to disagree with you there to a certain extent, Ariosto. The programmes I have kept from the period when I frequently attended CBSO concerts, 1962-65, show that it is certainly not true that 'Rignold did not conduct that much' – in fact most of them were conducted by HR or, less frequently, by his deputy Harold Gray. And if 'lots of contemporary works were given an airing' that wasn't apparent in the concerts I went to. John Joubert, a 'local' composer, was sometimes programmed, though. I would say that around 1965-66 the culture began to change, and more 'daring' repertory, such as the Rite of Spring, began to be introduced, with more guest conductors (I remember particularly a Bruckner 6 with Horenstein). As in so many aspects of British life, the mid-1960s were a watershed, I think.

I am talking of the years of late 1964 - 1967 so you could be right about the earlier years. But we did play a lot of contemporary music and 20C music. I remember Horenstein concert(s) and Brahms was on the menu and I think Schoenberg too, but I don't remember a Bruckner 6 unless it was after March 1967 - OR I did it in a dream, which is quite possible!

[Hornspieler]

This is not entirely accurate as Rignold did not conduct that much and there were guest conductors as well as Harold Gray. Rignold was often away for two or three weeks at a time. Also a lot of these players from this "not one of the top orchestras" left for the LSO from about 1965/66 and so it was drained of the better players prior to Louis Fremaux and then Rattle taking over. Rite of Spring was done in about 1966 or thereabouts and there were lots of contemporary works given an airing - some good and some bad.

For the best part of 1969, I deputised in the vacant principal horn position whilst the CBSO management awaited the availabilty of Louis Fremaux to hold auditions for a permanant replacement for the departing Tim Reynish, who took the conducting trail.

During that time, I recall Mahler's Nos 4 and 5 symphonies. Ein Heldenleben and Til Eulenspiegel, Berlioz Grande Messe des Mortes, Two Neilsen symphonies and many other major works. Guest conductors at that time included Maurice Handford, Sergiu Commissiona, Edgar Cosma and Miklos Erdelyi (father of Ariosto's bête noire, the viola player Caspar Erdelyi).

The morale of the orchestra at that time was pretty low. My impression was that, with some notable exceptions, some of the rank and file would have been just as happy earning a living down the road in British Motor Corporation's factory at Longbridge and were dreading the arrival of the hitherto unknown (to them) Louis Fremaux. The subsequent replacement of Fremaux by the young and enthusiastic Simon Rattle was a breath of fresh air and the orchestra's standard (and standing) increased by leaps and bounds to become the excellent outfit that it is today - having got rid of the dross, which I have to say, by that time included Hugo Rignold.

HS

[JFLL]

I am talking of the years of late 1964 - 1967 so you could be right about the earlier years. But we did play a lot of contemporary music and 20C music. I remember Horenstein concert(s) and Brahms was on the menu and I think Schoenberg too, but I don't remember a Bruckner 6 unless it was after March 1967 - OR I did it in a dream, which is quite possible!

Well, if I'm right in deducing that you were a member of the CBSO orchestra or admin in those years, I have to bow to superior all-round knowledge of what was played! It may be, too, that a disproportionate number of the concerts I went to were part of the CBSO summer proms (cheaper, of course) when Rignold may have conducted more and programmes were less adventurous. Unfortunately my old programmes have had to be moved to the basement while we're doing some decorating, and I can't easily lay my hands on them at the minute to give chapter and verse. I think things may have changed quite noticeably in the late 60s. I went less after 1966 when I went away to university, but I've a feeling the Horenstein Bruckner 6 was later in the decade, perhaps even in 1970 or 1971 when I was briefly back in the Midlands. I don't think I dreamed it, because I was sitting near the front of the stalls (well below the level of the stage in the old Town Hall, as you know), and I remember Horenstein stamping loudly on the podium in the first movement, adding to the visceral excitement! I'm also pretty sure that I'd have gone to any Bruckner or Mahler that was going pre-1966 if I'd known about it, but don't remember any.

[Ariosto]

JFLL:


Strangely enough the only time I ever played ( as a guest) with the CBSO, in 1965-6, was in BRUCKNER'S ninth symphony, conducted by HR!
He gave the Wagner Tubas ( me on 4th) a hard time...

This is quite incredible! I must have met you, Waldhorn, then. But I do not remember ever playing Bruckner 9 with Rignold!! I must have either been away - or I slept through it. (Possible because I'm not a great fan of Bruckner ...)