Richard Austin (conductor)

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Richard Dennis Oliver Austin (born December 26, 1903 in Birkenhead , † April 1, 1989 in Reading ) was chief conductor of the Bournemouth Municipal Orchestra from 1934 to 1940 , the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, renamed in 1954, and the first successor to the orchestra's founder, Sir Dan Godfreys as well later professor at the Royal College of Music .

youth

Austin , son of the English opera singer and composer Frederic and Amy Austin who attended Gresham's School in Holt in the county of Norfolk . As a member of the acting ensemble at school he played in 1921 the role of 'Benedik' in Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing and 1922 'Hortensio' in The Taming of the Shrew at the side of WH Auden as Katherina. He then studied at the Royal College of Music and in Munich . Music.

Artistic work

After his second six-month stay in Munich, Austin got an assistant position as a conductor at a Royal College opera class . He then worked in the same capacity as choirmaster for a production of Mr. Pepys and other plays at the Everyman Theater, Hampstead . When Adrian Boult offered to assist him for an opera season, Austin moved to Bristol , where he even took over the direction of the orchestra during the season, as Boult had to fulfill obligations in Egypt. He then successfully applied for the position of conductor at the local small, professional Glen Pavilion Orchestra , with which he also made his first radio broadcasts for the BBC . In 1929 he signed up for three years with the Carl Rosa Opera Company , with whom he made guest appearances in many British cities, and then worked in 1933 with a city opera orchestra that only existed for a short time. While he was conducting the production of the musical The Golden Toy at the London Coliseum with Peggy Ashcroft , Wilfrid Lawson , Nellie Wallace and Lupino Lane , he became aware of the job posting of the music director at the Bournemouth Municipal Orchestra .

From a large number of applicants, Sir Dan Godfrey , the orchestra's founder, selected Austin for the position. In 1934 Godfrey handed the baton of music director to Austin. The Winter Gardens Society , a kind of supervisory board, made high demands on Austin and the orchestra and expected the ensemble to give three concerts a week in winter and several more in the summer weeks. An expansion of the repertoire was also expected. Austin continued Godfrey's tradition of inviting famous soloists including Thomas Beecham , Henry Wood , Hamilton Harty and Igor Stravinsky to the annual festivals . Austin resigned in 1940 when the orchestra melted down to just 24 members on the occasion of World War II and thus no longer had a regular line-up for a symphony orchestra. His further path led him to the Entertainments National Service Association , where he worked as a musical advisor from 1941 to 1945. Afterwards, from 1946 until his retirement in 1976, he took over a professorship at the Royal College of Music and from 1955 onwards held the position of director of the college orchestra.

Austin took on another area of ​​responsibility from 1947 to 1957 as music director of the New Era Concert Society and was also guest conductor at Sadler's Wells Theater and other orchestras in London and cities in the United Kingdom as well as in Europe and overseas in the Netherlands , Belgium , Germany and Spain , Sweden , Switzerland , Finland , Yugoslavia , Czechoslovakia , Cuba , Mexico , South Africa , the United States and South America .

Sound recordings

Austin set a selection of Balfour Gardiner's works to music for Argo in May 1955 with tenor Alexander Young , the Goldsmiths Choral Union and the London Symphony Orchestra (Overture to a Comedy, Shepherd Fennel's Dance, April, Philomela) . In the same year he made a recording with the cellist André Navarra of Bloch's Schelomo and Tchaikovsky's Rococo Variations . He was also responsible for the recording of The Beggar's Opera with Dennis Noble , Carmen Prietto, Martha Lipton , Roderick Jones , Marjorie Westbury , John Cameron and William McAlpine as soloists.

Individual evidence

  1. The Times , July 5, 1922 (Issue 43075), p. 12, col. D.
  2. a b c 'AUSTIN, Richard', in Who Was Who , A & C Black, 1920–2007; online edition by Oxford University Press (subscription required) December 2007: AUSTIN, Richard , accessed 23 Aug 2008
  3. Some British Conductor Composers . In: International MisicWeb . Retrieved December 28, 2016. 
  4. a b c d e f Brook, Donald. Richard Austin. In: International Gallery of Conductors. Rockliff Publishing Corporation Ltd, London, 1951, p19-22.
  5. ^ Goldsmiths Choral Union . Retrieved December 29, 2016 .