James Galway

Sir James Galway and his wife Jeanne performing at the 2007 New Year's Eve concert in the KKL Luzern

Sir James Galway, Basel, May 16, 2013

Sir James Galway , OBE (born December 8, 1939 in Belfast , Northern Ireland ) is one of the most important classical flautists of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. As one of the first flautists, he ventured a solo career without being tied to an orchestra and was successful with it. Galway is famous for its extraordinary virtuosity and expressive playing with an unmistakable sound. His nickname The Man with the Golden Flute ("the man with the golden flute") comes from the time of his early solo career, when gold flutes were still very rare.

Life and artistic career

Galway won its first musical prizes at the age of twelve. After a short time as a piano tuner , a scholarship enabled him to study at the Royal College of Music . Further study visits to the Guildhall School in London and the Paris Conservatory followed; privately he took lessons from Marcel Moyse in Marlboro ( Vermont ). James Galway's flute tone is characterized by the so-called “German approach”, which has a higher proportion of noise compared to the French approach.

After a number of engagements with leading British orchestras , including the opera orchestras of Sadler's Wells and the Royal Opera , the BBC Symphony Orchestra , the London Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra , Galway became the first flutist of the Berlin Philharmonic under Herbert von Karajan in 1969 and had held this position for six years. After internal disputes with Karajan, he decided to give up his orchestral position and, as one of the first flutists, only perform as an independent soloist. Within a year he completed 120 concerts and recorded four long-playing records; he also belonged to the improvisation group Between . To this day he appears regularly in the major concert halls of the world. In 2001 he was beaten to a Knight Bachelor degree by Queen Elizabeth II . He lives in the central Swiss town of Meggen .

Galway's repertoire includes classical flute literature from Johann Sebastian Bach and Antonio Vivaldi to music of the 20th century, but also Japanese and Irish folk music as well as jazz and, more recently, Latin jazz . He has particularly encouraged modern flute music through compositions specially commissioned by him . He also gives annual master classes in Switzerland.

The composer Howard Shore hired Galway as a flutist for the soundtrack to the "Lord of the Rings" film , where he contributed particularly to the Hobbit theme. Galway also appears as a conductor . His discography includes more than 50 records and CDs.

Discography

Albums

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChartsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)	Remarks
		UK
1975	Shows Pieces For Flute	UK- gold UK	First published: 1975
1976	Mozart	UK39 silver (6 weeks)UK	First published: 1976
1978	The Magic Flute Of James Galway	UK43 (6 weeks) UK	First published: 1978
	The Man With The Golden Flute	UK52 (3 weeks) UK	First published: 1978
	James Galway Plays Songs For Annie	UK7th platinum (40 weeks)UK	First published: 1978
1979	Songs From The Seashore	UK39 gold (6 weeks)UK	First published: 1979
1980	Sometimes when we touch	UK15th gold (14 weeks)UK	First published: 1980 with Cleo Laine
1982	The James Galway Collection	UK41 (8 weeks) UK	First published: 1982
1984	In The Pink	UK62 (6 weeks) UK	First published: 1984 with Henry Mancini
1987	The James Galway and The Chieftains In Ireland	UK32 (5 weeks) UK	First published: 1987 with The Chieftains
1993	Essentially Flute Of James Galway	UK30 (5 weeks) UK	First published: 1993
1995	I will always love you	UK59 (2 weeks) UK	First published: 1995
1996	Classical meditations	UK45 (6 weeks) UK	First published: 1996
2004	Wings Of Song	UK45 (2 weeks) UK	First published: 2004

Singles

year	Title album	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChartsChart placements (Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes)	Remarks
		UK
1978	Annie's Song James Galway Plays Songs For Annie	UK3 (13 weeks) UK	First published: 1978

Political statements

In an interview with the BBC on June 5, 2015, Galway, who comes from a Protestant family, sharply criticized his fellow Northern Irishman, the former unionist First Minister of Northern Ireland and DUP party founder Ian Paisley, who died in 2014 . As a pastor he was a “man of God”, but, since he had not really preached peaceful coexistence (“He wasn't exactly preaching let's all live together, what he?”), Indirectly responsible for politically motivated murders. When asked how he got his title Sir , he replied that he had received it because he came from the “British-occupied part of Ireland” (“Well, how do you become a sir? I say: Because I come from the British-occupied part of Ireland. "). He described himself as "Irish" and not "Northern Irish". Regarding the Northern Ireland conflict, he said what "the British" had done 800 years ago [roughly the beginning of the British conquest of Ireland ] and are still doing today is "immoral".
These statements provoked sharp reactions in the unionist Northern Irish camp. The DUP MP Sammy Wilson described Galway's statements as "offensive, factually inaccurate and simply shameful". They are "the typical characteristic of a social climber with anti-British attitudes" and it is inconsistent to accept a title of nobility from the Queen and at the same time to represent pro-Republican views. Galway should consider whether, under these circumstances, he might not better return his title of nobility.

literature

• Berliner Philharmoniker: Variations with Orchestra - 125 Years of the Berliner Philharmoniker , Volume 2, Biographies and Concerts, Verlag Henschel, May 2007, ISBN 978-3-89487-568-8

Web links

• Literature by and about James Galway in the catalog of the German National Library
• James Galway at Discogs (English)
• Being James Galway film portrait from BBC One on YouTube, 58:31 min.
• Sir Games Galway Official Website

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Chart sources: UK
2. ↑ Music Sales Awards: UK
3. ↑ James Galway: Ian Paisley Sr indirectly 'responsible' for killings in Northern Ireland. BBC News, June 5, 2015, accessed June 6, 2015 .