<\/p>
British conductor Sir Andrew Davis<\/a><\/strong>, who died on 20 April 2024, was a national treasure, popular with soloists, orchestras and audiences everywhere. As conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, his inspiring performances and humorous speeches at a dozen Last Nights of the Proms<\/a><\/strong> were beamed round the world. <\/p> He led orchestras from Glasgow to Toronto, was music director at Glyndebourne and Chicago Lyric Opera, and in the year of his 80th birthday had a full calendar, including a performance of Richard Strauss<\/a><\/strong>\u2019s Capriccio<\/em> at the Edinburgh Festival, due in August 2024. He gave this interview to BBC Music Magazine<\/em>, selecting five pieces of music that have been formative to his life and work, just <\/em>two\u00a0weeks\u00a0before he died. \u00a0<\/p> Peter Hurford (organ) As a boy, I studied the piano at the Royal Academy on Saturday mornings and played the organ<\/a><\/strong> for the parish choir in Watford. I used to go to Peter Hurford at St Albans Cathedral for lessons on a Wednesday afternoon, which got me out of games! <\/p> He was a wonderful teacher and a great player. One day after evensong he played Bach<\/a><\/strong>\u2019s big E flat Prelude and Fugue, \u2018St Anne\u2019 and I was absolutely blown away by it. Hearing that piece made me decide that\u2019s what I wanted to do in the next part of my life. I still play a huge amount of Bach and the magisterial \u2018St Anne\u2019 remains my favourite of his\u00a0organ pieces.\u00a0<\/p> Czech Philharmonic\/Karel Ancerl I started to conduct at Cambridge and studied in Rome for a year in 1967 before coming back to London. I applied to be assistant conductor at the BBC Scottish Symphony and was offered the job, but before I took it, Sir William Glock, who had been on the audition panel, asked me at four days\u2019 notice to conduct the BBC Symphony Orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall. The programme included Jan\u00e1\u010dek<\/a><\/strong>\u2019s Glagolitic Mass<\/em>, which I\u2019d never conducted. <\/p> It\u2019s a big piece, but I\u2019m a quick learner and I was pretty confident when it came to the concert. I was asked to conduct it again, in May 1974 with the Toronto Symohony, whose distinguished chief conductor, Karel An\u010derl, had just died. It must have gone well, as a month later I was offered the post of chief conductor. \u00a0<\/p> Ren\u00e9e Fleming et al; Vienna State Opera\/Christoph Eschenbach In summer 1972, Sir John Pritchard, music director at Glyndebourne, invited me to be his assistant on a new production of Strauss\u2019s Capriccio<\/em>. I said, honestly, that I had no experience of conducting opera. \u2018Yes, we know that,\u2019 he said firmly. He remarked that more things could go wrong in opera than in any other field of human endeavour, \u2018but when it goes right, there\u2019s nothing like it\u2019. <\/p> I conducted Capriccio<\/em> at Glyndebourne three times while I was music director there, with wonderful casts, including soprano Elisabeth S\u00f6derstr\u00f6m<\/a><\/strong>. It has stayed very fresh with me, and if you said to me now, \u2018You have to conduct it in 15 minutes,\u2019 I could\u00a0definitely\u00a0do it!<\/p> Skelton, Connolly et al; BBC Symphony Orchestra\/Davis Chandos CHSA5140(2)<\/em><\/p> I wasn\u2019t a huge Elgar<\/a><\/strong> fan in my student days, but I have since performed his music many times, especially The Dream of Gerontius<\/a><\/strong><\/em>, which means a great deal to me. It\u2019s an extraordinarily moving work \u2013 you don\u2019t have to be a practising Catholic to get its message. <\/p> I first conducted it in Liverpool with the RLPO and renowned British tenor Richard Lewis; it was almost the last time he ever sang Gerontius and he and I were both very moved. I\u2019ve conducted Janet Baker as the Angel, and given a televised performance from St Paul\u2019s Cathedral. It\u2019s\u00a0been a huge\u00a0part of my life.<\/p> BBC SO\/Tippett NMC NMCD104<\/em><\/p> My exposure to Michael Tippett started at the Royal Academy Saturday school. Our tutor Graham Treacher press-ganged us into playing in Tippett\u2019s Crown of the Year <\/em>with his Hampstead children\u2019s choir. I played piano and Tippett came and was very nice. I became an apostle for his music and slightly anti-Britten<\/a><\/strong>, which was very childish! <\/p> I did some of his pieces with the BBC Scottish SO and I got to know him very well. The Fourth Symphony is one of his greatest works. Everything about it is so right \u2013 the timing, the clear structure \u2013 but it\u2019s extremely difficult. I must have done it about four times with the BBC SO and when we toured it in Vienna, I was nervous about its reception. But they went crazy for it, and I think this is a symphony<\/a><\/strong> that\u00a0will\u00a0stand the test of time.\u00a0<\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n By Published: Thursday, 13 June 2024 at 16:17 PM British conductor Sir Andrew Davis, who died on 20 April 2024, was a national treasure, popular with soloists, orchestras and audiences everywhere. As conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, his inspiring performances and humorous speeches at a dozen Last Nights of the Proms were beamed round […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":44015,"template":"","categories":[1,17],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"4"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/06\/sir-andrew-davis-the-late-much-loved-conductor-on-the-music-that-shaped-him.png",802,532,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/06\/sir-andrew-davis-the-late-much-loved-conductor-on-the-music-that-shaped-him-150x150.png",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/06\/sir-andrew-davis-the-late-much-loved-conductor-on-the-music-that-shaped-him-300x199.png",300,199,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/06\/sir-andrew-davis-the-late-much-loved-conductor-on-the-music-that-shaped-him-768x509.png",768,509,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/06\/sir-andrew-davis-the-late-much-loved-conductor-on-the-music-that-shaped-him.png",800,531,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/06\/sir-andrew-davis-the-late-much-loved-conductor-on-the-music-that-shaped-him.png",802,532,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/06\/sir-andrew-davis-the-late-much-loved-conductor-on-the-music-that-shaped-him.png",802,532,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Published: Thursday, 13 June 2024 at 16:17 PM British conductor Sir Andrew Davis, who died on 20 April 2024, was a national treasure, popular with soloists, orchestras and audiences everywhere. As conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, his inspiring performances and humorous speeches at a dozen Last Nights of the Proms were beamed round…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/44014"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Sir Andrew Davis: musical choices<\/h2>
Bach:<\/strong> Prelude and Fugue, \u2018St Anne\u2019<\/strong><\/h3>
Jan\u00e1\u010dek<\/strong>: Glagolitic Mass<\/strong><\/h3>
Sir Andrew Davis: musical choices, continued<\/h2>
R Strauss: Capriccio<\/strong><\/h3>
Elgar: The Dream of Gerontius<\/strong><\/h3>
Tippett: Symphony No. 4<\/strong><\/h3>
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