Groves, Sir Charles
Barnard (10th March 1915-20th June 1992)
He was an orchestral conductor and organist born in
London, England.He started in
music when he became a chorister at St. Paul's Cathedral and progressed to
studying the organ and piano there before taking up Lieder, accompaniment, being
a student repetiteur and later conducting at the Royal College of Music. After graduation he became a
freelance accompanist, often working for the BBC, and there he became
chorus master in 1938 and relocated with them throughout WWII, becoming the
director of the BBC Revue Orchestra in 1943.These years would be the beginning of a highly
successful conducting career and from 1944 onwards he led orchestras that
include the BBC Northern Orchestra, the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, the
Liverpool Philharmonic, the Philharmonia, the Royal Philharmonic orchestra
and the National Youth Orchestra, to which he would become president. He was known to champion British
composers and although having conducted a huge repertoire of music,
including the first complete cycle of Mahler symphonies, his numerous
recordings often concentrated on British light music.After being made an Officer of the
British Empire and later a Commander of the British Empire, he was knighted
by Queen Elizabeth II in 1973.Making Music established the Sir Charles Groves Prize in 1990 to
commemorate his 75th birthday.He died in
London when he was 77 years old and the composer Sir Peter Maxwell Davies
wrote Sir Charles: his Pavane in his honour.
Philharmonia Orchestra recordings
Denon CO-73534 (CD: Sir Charles' Precious
Music Box-I)
