Malcolm Sargent

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Sir Harold Malcolm Watts Sargent (April 29, 1895 – October 3, 1967) was a British conductor, organist and composer.

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[edit] Life and Career

Sargent was born in Bath Villas, Ashford in Kent England to a working-class, but musical family. He was brought up in Stamford, Lincolnshire where he won a scholarship to Stamford School. At the age of fourteen, he accompanied rehearsals for an amateur production of The Gondoliers and conducted a rehearsal of The Yeomen of the Guard at Stamford.[1] He earned his diploma from the Royal College of Organists at age sixteen.

[edit] Early career

After a brief service in the army, Sargent worked first as an organist at Melton Mowbray Parish Church, Leicestershire. At the same time, he worked on many musical projects in Leicester, Melton Mowbray and Stamford, where he not only conducted but also produced Gilbert and Sullivan and other operas for amateur societies.[2] The Duke of Windsor and his entourage often hunted in Leicester and watched the annual Gilbert and Sullivan operas there together with the Duke of York (later King George VI). Sargent enjoyed mixing with the aristocracy on these occasions. In his early 20s, Sargent became England's youngest Doctor of Music with a degree from Durham.

Sargent's break came when Sir Henry Wood visited De Montfort Hall, Leicester, early in 1921 with the Queen's Hall orchestra. He commissioned Sargent (as it was customary to commission a piece from a local composer) to write a piece Impression on a Windy Day. However, Sargent completed the work so late that Wood did not have sufficient time to learn the piece, and so Sargent conducted the first performance himself. Wood recognised not only the worth of the piece but also Sargent's talent as a conductor and gave him the chance to repeat the exercise, this time making his debut at the The Proms at London's Queen's Hall on 11 October the same year.

Sargent soon abandoned composition in favor of conducting, on the advice of Wood, among others. He founded the Leicester Symphony Orchestra, an amateur orchestra, in 1922 and became a lecturer at the Royal College of Music, in London, in 1923. He quickly developed a reputation as an excellent conductor of large choral groups, and he was reportedly associated at one time or another with every major British choral society.

Sargent's success and flashy style made him very popular with the ladies, and he was soon forced to marry a serving girl. By 1926, he and his wife had two children, a daughter who was to die from polio in 1944, and a son Peter. But the marriage was unhappy. Sargent was continually unfaithful, often drawn to his conquests by social status. Elizabeth Courtauld, wife of the industrialist Samuel Courtauld, promoted a popular series of subscription concerts for Sargent beginning in 1929.

Sargent worked primarily with Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes from 1927 to 1930. In 1928, he also became conductor of the Royal Choral Society in their semi-staged performances of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor's Hiawatha at the Royal Albert Hall. He retained this post until his death. Also, during this period, Sargent worked at the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company conducting for special engagements in London, including the autumn 1926 season at the Prince's Theatre and the 1929-30 winter season inaugurating the rebuilt Savoy Theatre. Sargent was criticized for "tampering" with the scores and by the principal cast and director J. M. Gordon for his noticeably brisker tempi, but he pointed out that his changes were based on a study of Arthur Sullivan's original manuscripts. He also hired younger, fresher voices. Rupert D'Oyly Carte supported Sargent's innovations.[3]

[edit] High and low years

Sargent tackled a wide range of repertoire (and recorded much of it), but he was particularly noted for performances of choral pieces. He consciously promoted British music, conducting Handel's Messiah, with his large choruses, and the premieres of At the Boar's Head (1925) by Gustav Holst; Hugh the Drover (1924), and Sir John in Love (1929) by Ralph Vaughan Williams; and William Walton's oratorio Belshazzar's Feast (at the Leeds Triennial Festival of 1931). To popularise classical music, he conducted many concerts for school students.

In 1932 the sub-standard London Symphony Orchestra was replaced with the new London Philharmonic Orchestra, its musical direction shared equally between Sargent and Thomas Beecham. In October 1932, Sargent collapsed with tuberculosis. For almost two years he was unable to work, and it was only later in the 1930s that he returned to the concert scene with the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

After giving an ill-advised Daily Telegraph interview in 1936, in which he said that an orchestra musician did not deserve a "job for life" and should "give of his lifeblood with every bar he plays", Sargent lost much favour with musicians. But he continued to work, even though he faced hostility from orchestras. Sargent conducted the premiere of Riders to the Sea by Vaughan Williams in 1937. He slowly rebuilt his reputation through the war years, directing the Hallé Orchestra in Manchester (1939-1942) and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra (1942-1948) and became a popular BBC Radio Home Service host. Sir Malcolm helped boost public morale during the war by extensive concert tours around the country. On one famous occasion an air raid interrupted a rendition of Beethoven's 5th. Sargent stopped the orchestra, calmed the audience by saying they were safer inside the hall than fleeing outside, and recommenced conducting. He also continued his many liaisons with ladies of influence.

[edit] Later career and legacy

Sargent was knighted for his services to music in 1947 and performed in numerous English-speaking countries during the postwar years, becoming a virtual musical ambassador for (and within) the Commonwealth of Nations. Nevertheless, he continued to promote British composers, conducting the premières of Walton's opera Troilus and Cressida (1954) and Vaughan Williams' Symphony No. 9 (1958).

Sargent was chief conductor of the Proms from 1948 until his death in 1967, and of the BBC Symphony Orchestra from 1950 to 1957. He has been accused of "almost wreck[ing]" the BBC band during this time.[4] The 1950s and 1960s were also the peak of Sargent's recording career, and he made many recordings with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and others. Sargent also returned to D'Oyly Carte for the summer 1951 "Festival of Britain" season at the Savoy Theatre and the winter 1961-62 and 1963-64 seasons at the Savoy. In addition, he toured in the United States and Canada in 1963, 1964, and 1965.

Sargent made two tours of South America. In 1950, he conducted in Buenos Aires, Argentina; Montevideo, Uruguay (with S.O.D.R.E., the Montevideo radio orchestra); Rio de Janiero, Brazil; and Santiago, Chile. His programmes included Vaughan Williams' London and 6th Symphonies; Haydn's Symphony No 88, Beethoven's Symphony No 8, Mozart's Jupiter, Schubert's Fifth, Brahms' 2 & 4, Sibelius 5, Elgar's Serenade for Strings, Britten's Purcell Variations, Strauss' Till Eulenspiegl, Walton's Viola Concerto and Dvořák's Cello Concerto (with Pierre Fournier). The President of Uruguay addressed him thus: "We Uruguayans are fond of all English people, Sir Malcolm, but especially fond of you." In 1952, Sargent conducted in all the above-mentioned cities and also in Lima, Peru. Half his repertory on that tour consisted of British music, and included Delius, Vaughan Williams, Britten, Walton, and Handel’s Water Music.[5]

The Malcolm Sargent Primary School in Stamford is named after Sargent. A number of purported explanations have been advanced for Sargent's nickname "Flash Harry". The "Harry" was short for his real first name, Harold. But the "Flash" was likely due to his impeccable appearance (he always wore a red or white carnation in his buttonhole, and the carnation is now the symbol of the school named for him). This was perhaps reinforced by his brisk tempi, early in his career, and by a story about his racing from one recording session to another. Another oft-repeated explanation, that he was named after cartoonist Ronald Searle's St. Trinian's character, "Flash Harry", is certainly wrong, since Sargent's nickname originated during his very brief army service in World War I, and the St. Trinian's character did not appear until the first St. Trinian's film was made in 1954.

Conductor Sir Thomas Beecham made some well-recorded digs at Sargent. Beecham quipped, in reference to the young conductor Herbert von Karajan, that he was "a kind of musical Malcolm Sargent"; and when he heard that Sargent was to conduct some concerts in Tokyo, he is reputed to have punningly remarked, "Aha! A 'Flash' in Japan!". But even Beecham conceded that Sargent "is the greatest choirmaster we have ever produced; he makes the buggers sing like the blazes".

Sargent never fully recovered from the 1936 interview, and he became more and more isolated in the musical world. By the mid-1960s, his health began to deteriorate. Sargent underwent surgery in July 1967 for pancreatic cancer, and although he appeared and spoke at the last night of the Proms that year, he died in October at the age of 72.

[edit] Recordings

Sargent's first records, made for HMV in 1923, using the acoustic process, were of excerpts from Vaughan Williams's opera Hugh the Drover. In the early days of electrical recording he took part in a pioneering live recording of extracts of Mendelssohn's Elijah at the Albert Hall with the Royal Choral Society.[6]

His subsequent recordings include:

Neville Cardus said of Sargent’s Beethoven "I have heard performances which critics would have raved about, had some conductor from Russia been responsible for them, conducting them half as well and truthfully."[7] Sargent was not invited to make many studio recordings of Beethoven, though his accompaniments for Artur Schnabel in the piano concertos have been admired. A stereo recording of the Eroica Symphony has been reissued on CD.
Sargent, the Royal Choral Society and the Philharmonia made a stereo recording of Hiawatha’s Wedding, which has been reissued on CD.
Sargent and the Liverpool Philharmonic accompanied Albert Sammons, the dedicatee, in his 1944 recording of the Delius Violin Concerto. With Jacqueline du Pré in her début recording Sargent recorded the 1921 Cello Concerto, coupled with the Songs of Farewell.
A recording regularly chosen over all others in comparative surveys is the first of Sargent’s two versions of The Dream of Gerontius, with Heddle Nash as tenor and the familiar Sargent pairing of the Huddersfield Choral Society and the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra [8]. Sargent was the conductor for Jascha Heifetz's famous recording of the Violin Concerto.
One of Sargent’s few operatic recordings other than Gilbert and Sullivan is of The Beggar's Opera, which has been reissued on CD.
Sargent recorded Messiah three times. Though the advent of period performance at first relegated Sargent’s large scale and rescored versions to the shelf they have been reissued and are now attracting favourable critical comment as being, in their own way, historical. The same forces also recorded Israel in Egypt.
Sargent made two recordings of The Planets: a monaural version with the LSO for Decca and a stereo version with the BBC Symphony for EMI. He also recorded shorter Holst pieces: the Perfect Fool ballet music and the Beni Mora suite.
With the Huddersfield and Liverpool forces Sargent recorded Elijah.
Sargent was an enthusiastic champion of Sibelius’s music, even recording it with the Vienna Philharmonic when it was not part of their repertory. Their recordings of Finlandia, En Saga, The Swan of Tuonela and the Karelia Suite were issued in 1963, and reissued on CD in 1993. Sargent and the BBC Symphony Orchestra recorded the First and Fifth Symphonies (in 1956 and 1958 respectively) reissued on CD in 1989.
Sargent recorded the complete Ma Vlast cycle with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
Sargent conducted the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company recordings for HMV, including The Yeomen of the Guard (1929), The Pirates of Penzance (1929), Iolanthe (1930), H.M.S. Pinafore (1930), Patience (1930), Yeomen (excerpts 1931), Pirates (excerpts 1931), The Gondoliers (excerpts 1931), Ruddigore (1932), and Princess Ida (1932); and for Decca, more than thirty years later, Yeomen (1964), and Princess Ida (1965). Between 1957 and 1963 Sargent conducted nine of the Gilbert and Sullivan operas for EMI recordings using the Pro Arte Orchestra, the Glyndebourne Festival Chorus, and soloists from the world of oratorio and grand opera. These wereTrial by Jury, Pinafore, Pirates, Patience, Iolanthe, The Mikado, Ruddigore, Yeomen, and The Gondoliers. Sargent used an orchestra of 37 players at the Savoy (the same number as Sullivan) but sometimes added a few more when recording.[9]
Though he conducted the première of VW's Ninth and last symphony, Sargent did not record it. Of VW's shorter pieces, Sargent recorded the Tallis Fantasia, the Serenade to Music (choral version) and Toward the Unknown Region.
A recording of Belshazzar's Feast, a Sargent speciality, was made in 1958 and reissued on CD in 1990 and again in 2004. Sargent made a stereo recording of Walton's First Symphony in the presence of the composer, but Walton privately preferred André Previn's recording[10] issued in the same month as Sargent's (January 1967)[11]. Sargent also recorded the Façade Suites, but not Troilus and Cressida, of which he had conducted the première. On 78 r.p.m. discs William Primrose, the RPO and Sargent recorded Walton's Viola Concerto (of which Sargent later - 1962 - conducted the première of Walton's revised version).

[edit] Concertos

In addition to the above, Sargent was continually in demand as an accompanist and conductor for concertos. Among the other composers whose concertos he conducted on record are Bach, Bartók, Bliss, Bruch, Dvořák, Mendelssohn, Mozart, Rachmaninov, Rawsthorne, Rubbra, Schumann, and Tchaikovsky. Soloists included Clifford Curzon, Pierre Fournier, Jascha Heifetz, Moura Lympany, Denis Matthews, David Oistrakh, Ruggiero Ricci, Max Rostal, Mstislav Rostropovich and Paul Tortelier.[12]

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Ayer, p. 385
  2. ^ Ayer, p. 385
  3. ^ Reid, and Ayer, p. 385
  4. ^ Lebrecht, Norman (2001). The Maestro Myth: Great Conductors in Pursuit of Power, revised ed., New York: Citadel Press, p. 157. ISBN 0806520884. 
  5. ^ Reid, pp. 355-359
  6. ^ The Gramophone
  7. ^ Obituary notice, The Guardian, 4 October 1967, quoted by Reid
  8. ^ BBC Radio 3 'Building a Library'
  9. ^ Ayer, p. 385
  10. ^ Kennedy p. 213
  11. ^ The Gramophone, January 1967
  12. ^ Mirror tribute, discography

[edit] References

  • Reid, Charles (1968) Malcolm Sargent a biography. London: Hamish Hamilton Ltd.
  • Aldous, Richard (2001) Tunes of Glory: The Life of Malcolm Sargent. London: Hutchinson. ISBN 0-09-180131-1
  • Sargent, Malcolm and M. Cooper (1962) The Outline of Music. London.
  • Kennedy, Michael (1989). Portrait of Walton. Oxford: OUP. ISBN 0-19-315418-8
  • Ayre, Leslie (1972). The Gilbert & Sullivan Companion. London: W.H. Allen & Co Ltd.  Introduction by Martyn Green.
  • Discography in Sir Malcolm Sargent: a tribute (1967). London: Daily Mirror Newspapers.
  • The Gramophone, November 1967, p. 253.
  • BBC Radio3 CD Review - 'Building a Library' downloaded January 2007

[edit] External links

Preceded by
Hamilton Harty		 Principal Conductors, Hallé Orchestra
1939–1942		 Succeeded by
John Barbirolli
Preceded by
unknown		 Principal Conductors, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra
1942–1948		 Succeeded by
Hugo Rignold
Preceded by
Adrian Boult		 Principal Conductors, BBC Symphony Orchestra
1950–1957		 Succeeded by
Rudolf Schwarz
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