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Just over seventy-five years ago, when Edward Elgar
was still living and Benjamin Britten was a music student, five young
amateur musicians travelling back by train from a concert in London
decided that St Albans needed its own symphony orchestra. They had
recently played for St Albans Operatic Society and decided to recruit
its conductor, Augustus F. Lowe, “to take a few rehearsals and see how
things would shape.” Just twelve musicians were present at the first
rehearsal in June 1931, but by the autumn, as many as 40 were attending.
As a result, the St Albans Orchestral Society gave its first concert in
the Victoria Hall on Tuesday 19th April 1932. The programme, (price
threepence) describes an extended evening. It began with Beethoven’s
Egmont Overture and six further items, including Schubert’s
Unfinished Symphony, Mendelssohn’s Second Piano Concerto
(with Lowe as soloist) and the New World Symphony by Dvorak. The
archives also record that The Marchioness of Salisbury, daughter-in-law
of the late Prime Minister, had agreed to become the orchestra’s first
President.
The early
concerts were well-received. The St Albans Times speculated after
a performance of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite that the
orchestra “must have devoted many months of practice to capture
the essentials of so fascinating and brilliant a work.” Lowe
continued to conduct annual November concerts until 1939; although
illness meant the 1938 concert was taken by the St Albans Abbey
organist, Dr Albert Tysoe. Soloists who appeared with orchestra included
the violin virtuoso, Albert Sammons. Rehearsals continued through the
Second World War, taking place on Saturday afternoons to avoid the
blackout. There were no further performances until 1943 when bassoonist
Lewis Covey-Crump, – one of the orchestra’s founder members – conducted
a fund-raising concert in aid of the Red Cross.
Concerts “of
full proportions” resumed in 1946, under the baton of Robert Lindsay, a
viola player who had taught himself to conduct while teaching at St
Albans School during the war. By then teaching mathematics at St
George’s School, Harpenden, he remained the orchestra’s conductor for
the next thirty years. During his tenure, the repertoire came to include
more ‘contemporary’ composers. The Festival of Britain in 1951 was
celebrated with a programme of works by Vaughan Williams, Stanford,
Elgar and Warlock. Advertising for this concert warned that: “The
capacity of the Conservative Hall is somewhat limited and early booking
of seats is advisable.”
In 1953 the venue for rehearsals and many concerts
switched to the hall of St Albans Girls’ Grammar School (STAGGS). When
the orchestra celebrated its Silver Jubilee in 1957, six founder members
played, including Lewis Covey-Crump and his wife Joyce (violin) who had
participated in the original meeting on a train. The podium for the
first half was shared by Covey-Crump and Lindsay, with Lowe appearing as
the soloist in Beethoven’s First Piano Concerto. The second half
was a performance of the Franck D-minor Symphony conducted by the
Society’s President, Prof Aylmer Buesst, a St Albans resident who had
formerly conducted the British National Opera (and recorded with the
tenors, Caruso and Heddle-Nash). His pianist daughter, Jill, also
appeared with the orchestra playing Schumann’s Concerto in A major
in 1958, when her father conducted, and, again, in 1971.
During the Lindsay years, the orchestra became a
founder member of the St Albans St Cecilia Festival Society whose
biennial choral concerts started in 1955 with Handel’s Messiah
under Dr Reginald Jacques. Two years later, Meredith Davies, a former
Director of Music at the Abbey (whom Britten later chose to conduct the
premiere of his War Requiem) was in charge. Giving only two
concerts a year of its own, the orchestra attracted an increasing number
of distinguished soloists. These included the violinists Erich Gruenberg
and Iona Brown, the ‘cellist Alexander Baillie and pianist Alan
Schiller. From 1972, performances took place in the City Hall, now the
Alban Arena.
Lindsay retired as conductor in 1976, returning to
the viola section he had left 30 years earlier. Joyce Covey-Crump – the
one founder member still playing – chose the same moment to retire.
Erich Gruenberg, appearing 26 years after his first performance with the
orchestra, played the Brahms Violin Concerto, while Lindsay’s
American successor, William Jackson, conducted Brigg Fair by
Delius. Jackson, a professional ‘cellist and pianist from California,
had studied conducting with Pierre Monteux and was hoping to build a
career in Europe. He returned to America two years later, but is
credited with expanding the orchestra’s membership and the number of
concerts. One memorable concert included the Mozart G major Concerto
(K453) played by Fou Ts’ong. Sadly, it also became necessary in 1978
to mark Robert Lindsay’s death, with a performance of Eight Russian
Folksongs by Liadov. This was remembered as one of the late
conductor’s favourite pieces, and one of many works whose parts he had
transcribed for the orchestra by hand.
Geoffrey Barker, the orchestra’s leader and a music
teacher at Aldenham School, took over from Jackson, and expanded the
brass section to embrace an even wider repertoire, such as Mahler’s
First Symphony. Pianist John Lill was among the soloists during the
50th season while a Golden Jubilee concert included
Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto, with Harvey Dagul, and Bach’s
Orchestral Suite No. 3, featuring violinist Jennifer Wigram. The
former had recently become the orchestra’s President and the latter, its
leader. Happily, both continue to occupy these roles a quarter of a
century later.
Cementing that sense of stability, Andrew Parnell,
the Assistant Master of Music at the Abbey and Director of Music at St
Albans School took over the baton in 1983 and remained conductor for the
next 18 years. Lasting innovations included popular New Year Family
Concerts held in the Abbey from 1984 and, more recently, summer
children’s concerts. The latter are subtitled ‘Noisy Kids’ in apt
recognition of the opportunities for children to ‘try’ the players’
instruments during the interval. Collections at New Year for Grove House
hospice and other charities, meanwhile, maintained and extended the
orchestra’s long tradition of fund-raising events. In addition, the
orchestra played several concerts at the Harperbury psychiatric
hospital. For a while in the 1980s, the orchestra also contributed a
float to the St Albans Carnival. An elaborate recreation of the Queen’s
State Coach in 1983 to promote a forthcoming performance of Walton’s
Crown Imperial required special permission from the Lord
Chamberlain.
Highlights of the Parnell era included so large an
assembly of St Cecilia forces to perform the War Requiem in 1988
that the three choirs and Cathedral choristers were obliged to stand
while the work was performed without interval. One woodwind principal
subsequently admitted to being so moved by the intensity of the
conclusion that he altogether missed his final entry. The 60th
anniversary in the Alban Arena was marked by the return of John Lill to
play Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto and the first performance of
Canzona, commissioned from the composer Leonard Salzedo. Beethoven’s
Ninth Symphony commemorated the 50th anniversary of
the United Nations in 1995, with Colin Bradbury as soloist in Mozart’s
Clarinet Concerto. More extraordinary was an arrangement of a
Handel Harp Concerto performed at a New Year concert by local
teacher Margaret Knight and no less than 16 of her pupils. Likewise, the
memorable appearance of the clarinet prodigy Julian Bliss, in 1999 when
aged only nine. While the young soloist performed a concerto by Crussell
with distinction, it is recalled that his reeds were prepared for him by
his mother.
Other internationally celebrated soloists during the
Parnell era included the pianists Malcolm Binns and Peter Katin,
trumpeter Rod Franks and the oboist Nicholas Daniel. The first
children’s concert featured Harvey Dagul and his wife, Isabel Beyer as
duettists in Carnival of the Animals by Saint Saens. Their son,
Guy Dagul, also appeared with the orchestra, playing Gershwin’s
Rhapsody in Blue and Shostakovich’s Concerto No 2 in another
remarkable concert when his mother played Franck’s Symphonic
Variations.
It was testimony to the orchestra’s growing
reputation that when Andrew Parnell resigned in 2001, there were more
than 60 applicants to succeed him. Following shortlisting and auditions,
Dr James Ross – a finalist in the 1998 BBC Philharmonic Orchestra
Conducting Competition – was the unanimous choice. Growing membership,
including a full brass section, and ambitious programming have resulted
in performances of Bruckner, Mahler, Ravel, Richard Strauss and
Stravinsky as well as Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast, Elgar’s
Dream of Gerontius and Tippett’s Child of our Time (St
Cecilia Society).
Thanks to
support from the Arts Council, the Eastern Orchestral Board and St
Albans City Council, the orchestra has formed a working partnership with
the City of London Sinfonia in recent years that allows its professional
musicians to provide regular coaching. The grants also supported a
Composers’ Day in 2006 when works by six selected composers were
performed at a workshop led by the professional composer, Roxanna
Panufnik. The rules allow preference to be given to Hertfordshire
composers, and the day will be repeated on 5th September 2007. The
orchestra is also building an association with the National Opera
Studio, whose talented young professionals have sung at a number of
concerts.
Recent
highlights have included a 2002 performance of Brahms Second Piano
Concerto with Harvey Dagul, celebrating his 70th
birthday, and performances of Elgar’s Concerto and Tchaikovsky’s
Rococo Variations with Guy Johnson, the Harpenden ‘cellist who
was BBC Young Musician of the Year in 2000. The 2002 New Years Day
concert also deserves mention for a performance the First
Violin Concerto by Bruch by Jennifer Wigram, marking 20 years as
leader.
In three-quarters of a century
there have been numerous members of the orchestra who have contributed
hugely to its organisation and activities. Special mention should,
however, be made of the oboist and bassoonist, the late Dr Roland Booth.
With his late wife Nancy, a Vice-President of the orchestra at the time
of her death in 2003, he played a major part in the orchestra’s
development and the musical life of St Albans generally for more than 50
years. The orchestra continues to perform regularly
in St Albans, Harpenden and other venues in and around Hertfordshire.
Besides its annual season of concerts, it has been invited to play for
special events, including a charity performance in 2004, with Dame Diana
Rigg as narrator in Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf. The orchestra
has also recently given its first performances in a London concert hall.
The appearances at St John’s Smith Square in 2003 and 2005 (raising
money for the Fund for Epilepsy) provide a pleasing counterpoint to the
founders’ railway journey of 75 years ago.
David Utting
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