Hugo Rignold
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Hugo Rignold (15 May 1905 – 30 May 1976) was an British conductor and violinist.
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[edit] Biography
Born in Kingston upon Thames, England, son of conductor, Hugo Charles Rignold, and Agnes Mann, opera singer, he was taken to Canada when his parents emigrated to Winnipeg in 1910.[1] After returning to England as a young man, he studied at the Royal Academy of Music and then worked as a blacksmith for a time.[2] He then played violin with many jazz and dance bands of the day, including those of Mantovani, Jack Hylton, Jack Harris, Fred Hartley, Ambrose Lew Stone, and Jay Wilbur.[2] He then went on to lead his own London Casino Orchestra.[2] He made many recordings with these musicians, a good number of which have been reissued on modern CDs. Other classical musicians such as Leon and Sidonie Goossens, did likewise, but these early jazz and dance records caused some snobbish condescension towards Rignold later in his career (as later happened to André Previn).
1920s recordings in which Rignold played with the Jack Hylton Orchestra include George Gershwin's "Oh, Lady Be Good" recorded on 29 March 1926, and Irving Berlin's "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" recorded on 17 August 1926. Both were for HMV at the company's studios in Hayes, Middlesex. Later, with Hylton as his mentor, he founded and led his own band, which was playing up to the beginning of the Second World War.
While serving in the Royal Air Force in 1944, Rignold got the chance to conduct the Palestine Orchestra, now the Israel Philharmonic, and thereafter his career remained within the classical sphere. He was a staff conductor at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, 1947-1948; he directed the Liverpool Philharmonic (not then 'Royal') in the 1940s and 1950s, succeeding the popular Malcolm Sargent. A "period of unrest and strife" accompanied the beginning of Rignold's reign in Liverpool: Rignold replaced many older players in the orchestra, and some of the audience were unimpressed by his career in light music.[3]
In the 1949/1950 season with the Liverpool Philharmonic, Rignold conducted 34 concerts, with guest conductors, including Malcolm Sargent, Rafael Kubelik, Zoltan Kodaly, Adrian Boult and Thomas Beecham a total of 19. Rignold, the writer noted, maintained a fair balance between accepted modern and classical works and introduced new works, including Prokofiev’s suite from Cinderella and works by Martinů, Ernest John Moeran and Gordon Jacob.[4]
From 1957-1960 Rignold was Musical Director of the Royal Ballet, In 1960 he became permanent conductor of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra when Andrzej Panufnik unexpectedly resigned. He remained at Birmingham until 1968.
Rignold made a number of classical recordings, but did not have a long-term contract with any of the record companies with the consequence that his recorded repertory was somewhat haphazard – accompanying concertos or even operatic selections for artists such as Maggie Teyte, and ballet music. Most of his records were made in the mono era, and some have been reissued on CD.
He was a car enthusiast and talented driver: it was said that "he would not be out of place on the Grand Prix circuit".[5]
[edit] References
- ^ Census of Canada, for Bruce Place, Winnipeg, Manitoba (1911). Retrieved on 2007-07-28.
- ^ a b c MacKenzie, Colin (2005). Mantovani: A Lifetime in Music. Ely, UK: Melrose Books, 25. ISBN 1905226195.
- ^ Mountain, p. 134
- ^ Hill, Ralph (1951). Music 1951. Harmondsworth, England: Penguin Books. OCLC 26147349.
- ^ Mountain, p. 96
[edit] Bibliography
- Mountain, Peter (2007). Scraping a Living: A Life of a Violinist. Milton Keynes, UK: AuthorHouse. ISBN 1425983901.
[edit] External links
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