From the Leader''s Chair

Kenneth Sillito

Description

Kenneth Sillito is internationally recognised as one of Britain''s most distinguished musicians. Born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, he studied with David Martin at the Royal Academy of Music, and in Rome with Remy Principe. His first major appointment was as associate leader of the newly created English Chamber Orchestra in 1960. He was subsequently appointed leader and remained with the orchestra until 1973, during which time he established a worldwide reputation as both director and soloist. In 1967, he founded the Gabrieli String Quartet, which swiftly established itself as one of this country''s leading chamber ensembles. With the Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields, which he joined in l980, Kenneth led and directed innumerable distinguished recordings and performances until his retirement in 2012. He was made a Fellow of the Royal Academy in 1971 and awarded the highly prestigious Cobbett Medal in 2017 by The Worshipful Company of Musicians for his services to chamber music.

Informations

• Publié par: Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd
• Date de parution: 29 novembre 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781528957823
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

From the Leader’s Chair
Kenneth Sillito
Austin Macauley Publishers
2019-11-29
From the Leader’s Chair About The Author Dedication Copyright Information © Acknowledgement Introduction Chapter 1 A Musician in the Family Chapter 2 Enter Valentine Orde Chapter 3 A Musical Whirlwind Chapter 4 Life in the Big City Chapter 5 A Proms Quartet Chapter 6 From Dartington to Venice Chapter 7 National Service Chapter 8 Italy Chapter 9 The English Chamber Orchestra Chapter 10 Benjamin Britten Chapter 11 Behind the Scenes Chapter 12 New Directions Chapter 13 Daniel Barenboim Chapter 14 Enter the Gabrieli String Quartet Chapter 15 A University Appointment Chapter 16 Leading the ECO Chapter 17 Pinchas Zukerman Chapter 18 Moving On Chapter 19 Musical Homecoming Chapter 20 The Gabrieli Quartet Comes of Age Chapter 21 A Priceless Repertoire Chapter 22 A Musical Interlude Chapter 23 Time for a Change Chapter 24 Once More into the Fray Chapter 25 Neville Marriner Chapter 26 Changing Times Chapter 27 End of an Era Chapter 28 Murray Perahia Chapter 29 Period of Change Chapter 30 Four Bands in One Chapter 31 Time to Move On Chapter 32 Looking Back Chapter 33 Looking Forward
About The Author
In this absorbing memoir, Kenneth Sillito looks back over a long and distinguished career that saw him emerge from the coal-mining towns of the northeast to become one of the most admired violinists of his generation. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music in 1971 and awarded the prestigious Cobbett Medal in 2017 by the Worshipful Company of Musicians for Services to Chamber Music. As leader of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, the English Chamber Orchestra and Gabrieli String Quartet, Kenneth takes us behind the scenes of a golden period in British music-making. Illuminated by fascinating recollections of the many legendary artists he worked with, he brings to life an extraordinary career that embraced everything from performing in Carnegie Hall to appearing in Paul McCartney’s Give my Regards to Broad Street.
Dedication
I dedicate this memoir to my childhood musical mentor, Valentine Orde, MBE (1889–1983)
Copyright Information ©
Kenneth Sillito (2019)
The right of Kenneth Sillito to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with section 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.
Any person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.
ISBN 9781528904858 (Paperback)
ISBN 9781528957823 (ePub e-book)
www.austinmacauley.com
First Published (2019)
Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd
25 Canada Square
Canary Wharf
London
E14 5LQ
Acknowledgement
This memoir came into existence because of a WEA (Workers’ Education Association) talk I gave in my village entitled Pivotal Moments in a Musical Life . The response to this was, typically, “You must write all of this down!” But it was not until later, when I was interviewed for the Strad Magazine by Julian Haylock on various aspects of leading, that the idea of writing this memoir took shape. I have to sincerely thank my wife, Esmé, for continually cajoling this reluctant author to put pen to paper. My thanks must also go especially to Julian Haylock, who so generously gave invaluable advice and encouragement.
Introduction
“Help me, Ken!” This was hardly an everyday request from a conductor to the leader of the English Chamber Orchestra, especially as the maestro in question was Benjamin Britten, one of the finest musicians of the 20 th century. We were waiting backstage with just two minutes to go before a broadcast concert of Schumann’s rarely-heard Scenes from Goethe’s Faust, a choral masterpiece very close to Ben’s heart. He was standing there white as a sheet and panic-stricken, but there was simply no turning back. The red light came on and after mouthing a few comforting words, I went onstage trying to look as unconcerned as possible as I took the leader’s chair. For a few seconds, I wondered whether Ben was going to appear, but at the last moment, he pulled himself together, emerged from the wings and conducted the performance of a lifetime.
That was the closest shave I had experienced at a concert since making my Proms debut, when I’d had to borrow a pair of braces from a doorman in order to prevent my trousers from falling down! Yet, it set me thinking just how far I’d come in 30 years, from my relatively humble beginnings to working with some of the finest musicians in the world. It had all felt so effortless and natural, almost as though my life had been predetermined. But could it really have been that easy?
Chapter 1

A Musician in the Family
The terrors of the Second World War were only six months away when I was born on 5 March 1939, the first and only child of a Northumbrian working class family with strong mining traditions. We lived in a modest, two-bed Victorian terraced house in the small village of Stakeford, about 17 miles north-east of Newcastle. Incredible though it seems today, there was no inside toilet, no bathroom and no running water—just a standpipe in the unmade lane that ran behind the back yard on the other side of a barbed-wire fence. The lane was adjacent to a farmer’s field and the River Wansbeck was just five minutes’ walk away, so we had the pleasant sensation of countryside surrounding us. In fact, Stakeford had quite a rural, unspoilt feel to it, unlike the nearby town of Ashington, with its rows of back-to-back terraces housing a population of 25,000, the majority of whom were miners
There was no garden as such, just a brick-paved yard with a wooden shack and, most importantly, a coal shed, which had a door in the wall so that the colliery could deliver the free coal that Walter, my miner father, was entitled to. Next to that was an outside toilet and a scullery. Friday nights felt special because I could splash around in a zinc bath in front of the fire.
As a child, one simply accepted these things—after all, I was no worse than the other children in the surrounding area. We had no car, although my father had a motor bike which he liked to dabble with occasionally. He was also an avid wireless enthusiast and I’ve a feeling he wanted to be a radio ham. It was something of an event if someone purchased a television set in our area. With the Queen’s coronation in 1953, things changed dramatically of course, and everyone wanted one of these magic, flickering screens in the corner of their living room. But that was still some 14 years in the future.
My dad had to ride five miles there and back from Stakeford to Woodhorn Colliery every day, and used to return home blackened from head to foot with coal dust. He’d then take a bath in front of a warm stove using heated water from an enormous kettle—showers were only installed at the colliery some years later.
Amongst my earliest memories is the incessant howling of the air-raid sirens that warned of aerial attacks on the Tyne-and-Wear shipyards. We occasionally saw a stray enemy aircraft fly over the village and I remember being put in a cupboard under the stairs in a probably futile attempt to shelter me from any local bombings. Towards the end of the War, when I was about five, I noticed several gangs of rather swarthy-looking men, whom most of the locals referred to as ‘Ities’. It wasn’t until much later that I realised that these had been Italian prisoners-of-war working as labourers on local farms.
I remember one particular visit to my maternal grandparents, who lived in Blaydon-on-Tyne on the other side of the river in County Durham. There was a nasty diphtheria epidemic going around at the time, so when I awoke one morning with an incredible thirst, burning throat and raging temperature, I was promptly whisked along to the hospital in Winlaton, an old steel-making town a few miles from Gateshead. I was quite ill for a time and the first sign I was over the worst occurred one night when the only thing I could find to ease my throat was a tube of Maclean’s toothpaste, which I downed with relish! By then, I had been confined to bed for so long that I had to be helped to walk again by one of the older lads in hospital. My parents were clearly shaken by this episode, but otherwise, my father remained a quite reserved, even taciturn man. Still waters run very deep however, and on reflection, I think there was far more going on beneath his calm exterior than he was willing to show. He was a miner all his life—it was virtually the only job open to you if you wished to remain in your birthplace (as most people did back then). He had a few violin lessons as a child, but sadly, gave it up after starting down the mines at the tender age of 14. I sensed a deep regret in him that he had not been given the chance to fully develop his musical potential, so in a way, I think he came to live that part of his life through me.
My mum, Margaret, was the oldest of ten children from a Blaydon-on-Tyne mining family and, like my dad, none of her relatives were especially musical. Looking back, I think she felt she had the thin end of the wedge, as it was Dad who was the driving force behind my playing the violin, and she was left with the unenviable job of making sure I put in the practice! She harboured a kind of inner sadness I think, although we never talked about it. She had been sent to Hampstead Garden Suburb in north London during her late teens to work as a live-in domestic help for the celebrated pianist-composer, Billy Mayerl, whose delightful miniatures Marigold and Orange Blossom were all the rage at the time. For some reason, she re