Richard Temple Savage in Leeds Town Hall - 1958

from A voice from the Pit: Reminiscences of an Orchestral Musician, page 159:

... in November of the previous year, 1958, the wind players of the Opera House orchestra had given a concert before Her Majesty the Queen as part of the Leeds Festival. The only work we performed was the great B flat Serenade for thirteen Wind Instruments by Mozart. It was conducted by Benjamin Britten who was not best pleased to find that no one had thought to provide us with any music stands. We propped the parts up on charis until Lord Harewood arrived with taxi loads of stands from the Town Hall.

Britten was a very exacting rehearser and he also had his own very …   more >>

cite as

Richard Temple Savage, A voice from the Pit: Reminiscences of an Orchestral Musician (Newton Abbot, 1988), p. 159. https://led.kmi.open.ac.uk/entity/lexp/1444759386622 accessed: 28 March, 2024

location of experience: Leeds Town Hall

Listeners

Richard Temple Savage
clarinettist music librarian, writer, music librarian, Clarinetist, Writer
1909-

Listening to

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Serenade in Bb K361
written by Mozart
performed by wind section of the Covent Garden opera orchestra

Experience Information

Date/Time 1958
Medium live
Listening Environment in the company of others, indoors, in public

Notes

* It's most likely that the contra-bassoon was used here instead of the double bass which is favoured nowadays. Despite the title given above, the work is not for thirteen wind instruments. The specific instruments used are not specified in the account but performances of K361 prior to the impact of the historical performance movement usually employed a contra bassoon - note by Ingrid Pearson, 13 October 2015.


Originally submitted by iepearson on Tue, 13 Oct 2015 19:03:06 +0100
Approved on Sun, 20 Dec 2015 16:16:56 +0000