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British Music and the Golden Age of British Conductors, 1960s-1980s

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Dundonnell
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« on: February 02, 2017, 01:13:58 am »

I had thought to add this to the thread on the Daniel Jones Symphonies from Lyrita. Its genesis was Albion's reference to Martyn Brabbins and other British music "specialists".
But it is too off-topic to be added there.

I know that certain conductors (the late Vernon Handley was one and Martyn Brabbins is another) are not eager to be labelled almost exclusively as "British Music specialists". But we know who we mean we refer to those conductors who did so much for British music on cd. The late Vernon Handley, Bryden Thomson and Richard Hickox are  frequently bracketed together because of their work for Chandos.

If one looks back however to the decades of the 1960s-1980s there were a large number of conductors who regularly championed British music and whose performances were broacast by the BBC.

London Philharmonic Orchestra: Sir John Pritchard, 1962-1966
BBC Symphony Orchestra: Sir Colin Davis, 1967-1971; Sir John Pritchard, 1982-1989
Halle Orchestra: Sir John Barbirolli, 1943-1970; James Loughran, 1971-1983
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra: Hugo Rignold, 1960-1968
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra: Sir Charles Groves, 1963-1977
Scottish National Orchestra: Sir Alexander Gibson, 1959-1984
BBC Northern Symphony Orchestra: George Hurst, 1968-1968; Bryden Thomson, 1968-1973; Raymond Leppard, 1973-1980; Sir Edward Downes, 1980-1991
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra: Norman Del Mar, 1960-1965; James Loughran, 1965-1971; Christopher Seaman, 1971-1977
BBC Welsh Symphony Orchestra: John Carewe, 1966-1971; Bryden Thomson, 1979-1982
Ulster Orchestra: Alun Francis, 1974-1977; Bryden Thomson, 1977-1985; Vernon Handley, 1985-1989

....and there were a number of other conductors, people like Meredith Davies, Harry Newstone et al who regularly featured in BBC broadcasts and who conducted a lot of British music. So many of the off-air recordings from that time involve these conductors. I don't think we should ever forget the immense contribution made, for example, by Norman Del Mar; probably forgotten by many these days but a champion of "new music".

Today only one British orchestra-the Halle with Sir Mark Elder-has a British conductor. (Opera companies ae a somewhat different story with Brabbins going to the ENO).

There is no questioning the wonderful work done by Petrenko in Liverpool and Karabits with the Bournemouth orchestra and that the standards of orchestral playing have improved enormously over the years but the contrast between the number of very active British conductors back in the 60s-80s and today is marked.

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