Charles Groves
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Sir Charles Barnard Groves (March 10, 1915 - June 20, 1992), was a British conductor.
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[edit] Life and career
[edit] Early years
Groves was born in London and was a pupil at St Paul's School, singing in the Cathedral choir and, from the age of 13, studying the piano and organ.[1] After St Paul’s, instead of attending the Royal Academy of Music, the traditional route to becoming a cathedral organist, he opted for the Royal College of Music. At the RCM his main studies were in Lieder and accompanying, but he became involved in student opera productions as repetiteur. He played in the percussion section for Vaughan Williams’s Hugh the Drover and Delius’s A Village Romeo and Juliet when Sir Thomas Beecham came as guest conductor. Groves also went into the conducting class, but did not progress beyond the third orchestra. [2] In 1937, while still a student, he accompanied choral rehearsals of Brahms's German Requiem, Verdi's Requiem and Beethoven's Missa Solemnis under Arturo Toscanini.[3]
Groves began his professional career as a freelance accompanist, including work for the BBC. In 1938, he was appointed chorus master of the BBC Music Productions Unit under the direction of Stanford Robinson, where he worked on broadcast opera productions. [4] At the outbreak of the Second World War, Groves was sent to Evesham, and later Bedford, to be resident chorus master for the BBC while it was evacuated from London. In 1943, he was invited to take charge of the BBC Revue Orchestra, playing mostly light music. During this time Groves conducted Weill’s Lady in the Dark with Gertrude Lawrence in the lead role. [5]
[edit] Peak conducting years
Groves was conductor for the BBC Northern Orchestra from 1944 to 1951, conducting several studio concerts every week. Feeling the need to move from studio-based work, he accepted the conductorship of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra from 1951 to 1961, for whom he conducted about 150 concerts each year. When financial difficulties led to a proposal to merge the Bournemouth and Birmingham orchestras, Groves supported the alternative proposition, by which the Bournemouth orchestra took on the additional role of resident orchestra for the new Welsh National Opera, of which he became musical director from 1961 to 1963. [6]
Groves is probably best known for his long tenure from 1963 to 1977 as Musical Director of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, conducting, as he said, ‘everything from the St. John Passion to Messiaen and Stockhausen'. He spent nine months of every year with the RLPO. In the other three months he guest conducted concerts and operas in London and overseas. [7] He took the RLPO on highly acclaimed tours of Germany and Switzerland in 1966 and 1968, and Poland in 1970. Groves was noted for expanding the repertory of his orchestras with adventurous new works.[8]
From 1967 until his death, Groves was associate conductor of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, whom he led on a tour of the U.S.[9] In the 1970s he was one of the regular conductors of the Last Night of the Proms (others being Norman Del Mar and James Loughran). He was Music Director of the English National Opera in 1978 - 1979. Groves also served as president of the National Youth Orchestra (1977-1992) and, especially during the last decade of his career, as guest conductor for numerous orchestras around the world.[10]
Groves was particularly noted for his assured conducting of large-scale works and was the first English conductor to direct a complete cycle of Mahler symphonies. He was also noted for encouraging modern composers and programming their works. Groves acquired a reputation as a traditional conductor of a wide repertory, refusing to concentrate on any particular sub-genre.[11] He said of himself, ‘I feel myself a GP [general practitioner] rather than a consultant.’ [12]
Groves supported British composers and made many authoritative recordings, particularly of works by Frederick Delius, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Arthur Sullivan, Edward Elgar and William Walton. On the lighter side, he recorded much of the output of Eric Coates. Indeed, the companies for whom he made recordings, particularly EMI, tended to pigeonhole Groves as a specialist in British music, despite his wide concert repertoire.
Groves died in London at the age of 77.
[edit] Honours
- OBE, 1958; CBE, 1968; Knight Bachelor, 1973.[13]
- The Making Music Sir Charles Groves Prize is a national award, named in his honour, given to an individual or organisation making an outstanding contribution to British music.
- The Royal Northern College of Music has a student accommodation building named after him.
- Peter Maxwell Davies wrote Sir Charles: his Pavane as a tribute to Groves after his death.
- Groves was twice made president of the ISM and was president of the National Federation of Music Societies and the National Youth Orchestra.
[edit] Selected discography
- Arnold: Symphony No 2
- Beethoven: Symphony No 4
- Bliss: Morning Heroes
- Brian: Symphonies 8 & 9
- Bridge: Enter Spring, The Sea, Summer
- Britten: Variations on a theme of Frank Bridge
- Butterworth: The Banks of Green Willow
- Delius: Koanga, A Mass of Life, On hearing the first cuckoo in Spring
- Elgar: Caractacus, Cello Concerto (Paul Tortelier, cello), Chanson de matin, Chanson de nuit, Crown of India Suite, Enigma Variations, The Light of Life, Nursery Suite, Serenade for Strings, Severn Suite, Violin Concerto (Hugh Bean, violin)
- Fauré: Masques et bergamasques, Pavane
- Haydn: Symphony No 92, 'Oxford', Symphony No 104, 'London'
- Holst: Choral Symphony, The Planets, St. Paul's Suite
- Ravel: Pavane pour une infante défunte
- Satie: Gymnopédies
- Sullivan: Overture Di Ballo, Overtures to Savoy Operas, Symphony in E (Irish)
- Tippett: Fantasia concertante on a Theme of Corelli
- Vaughan Williams: Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis, Hugh the Drover
- Tchaikovsky: Variations on a Rococo Theme (Tortelier)
- Walton: Capriccio burlesco, Crown Imperial, Hamlet Funeral March, Johannesburg Festival Overture, Orb and Sceptre, Richard III Prelude and Suite, Scapino, Spitfire Prelude & Fugue
- Warlock: Capriol Suite
| Preceded by Rudolf Schwarz |
Principal Conductor, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra 1951–1961 |
Succeeded by Constantin Silvestri |
| Preceded by Sir John Pritchard |
Principal Conductor, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra 1963–1977 |
Succeeded by Walter Weller |
| Preceded by Sir Charles Mackerras |
Music Director, English National Opera 1978–1979 |
Succeeded by Mark Elder |
[edit] Notes
- ^ The Gramophone
- ^ The Gramophone
- ^ Biography of Groves at Allmusic.com
- ^ The Gramophone
- ^ The Gramophone
- ^ The Gramophone
- ^ The Gramophone
- ^ Biography of Groves at Allmusic.com
- ^ Profile at Divineart.com
- ^ Biography of Groves at Allmusic.com
- ^ Profile at Divineart.com
- ^ The Gramophone
- ^ Who's Who
[edit] References
- The Gramophone, March 1972, Feature on Charles Groves by Alan Blyth.
- Who's Who, 1984.
