Great principal flutes - the English #6
Episode 6: Jackson, Gleghorn, Gilbert, Morris, Bennett
In this week’s episodes from Au coeur de l’orchestre we’re going to look at five of the great flutists on the 20th century London orchestral scene, from Gleghorn and Gilbert in the Beecham years through to the revered WIBB from the 60s and beyond.
This episode is a special one for me as it features one of my own professors, Gareth Morris. As you will hear, “Mr” Morris (no student would have ever dreamed of addressing him by his first name) suffered a serious facial injury when he was mugged on tour in New York in 1972. After that he never played again, and so I never actually heard him play the flute in a lesson. This did not prevent him from being an inspirational teacher and deep musical thinker who could convey the essence of every comment on technique and musicianship from the piano keyboard.
Once again in this episode, we will learn how the influence of the French school reached far beyond France, and we’ll hear these great players in works from the baroque (it must be said these performances from the 1950s are very much “of their time”) through to the avant-garde.
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My translation and notes for Ep. 6 begin below.
Au Coeur de l’Orchestre | At the Heart of the Orchestra
A Radio France Musique podcast series presented by Christian Merlin
Great principal flutes II—the English (episode 2 of 4)
Programme ident 00:00. Content commences 00:29
Presenter: Christian Merlin
Hello everyone, and welcome to At the Heart of the Orchestra. [In the last episode], we looked at the leading flute players in the American orchestras. Let's move on now to the London orchestras, with another star, Geoffrey Gilbert.
Born in Liverpool in 1914, [Gilbert] was a precocious talent. By the age of 16 he was principal flute with The Hallé orchestra in Manchester. At 19, he was engaged by Sir Thomas Beecham [to play for] the London Philharmonic, founded [a year earlier] in 1932. After the war Gilbert joined the BBC [Symphony] Orchestra, but had his differences there and so decided to rejoin his mentor Thomas Beecham at the Royal Philharmonic in the 1950s.
Gilbert played a key role in British flute playing, having studied in France with Marcel Moyse and René Le Roy. He played a French-made Louis Lot flute, and it was he who introduced vibrato, as it was practised in France, to England. Until then, flutists in Britain had played with a straighter sound. Let's listen to him now in some French music: this is one of Ravel's Chansons madécasses, with Irma Kolassi singing.
Recording 1: 1:40 to 5:21
Maurice Ravel
Chansons Madécasses, « Il est doux de se coucher »
Geoffrey Gilbert (flute),
Irma Kolassi (soprano), André Collard (piano), William Pleeth (cello)
Label: Decca / Recorded 1955
Soprano, piano, cello and flute is the unusual line-up for Ravel's Chansons Madécasses, performed here by Irma Kolassi, André Collard, William Pleeth, and Geoffrey Gilbert on flute.
Gilbert was a rather short man with a fine moustache and very elegant rimless glasses. When Beecham died in 1961, Gilbert was no longer interested in being a permanent principal flute in an orchestra. He turned down Eugene Ormandy's offer to succeed William Kinkaid in Philadelphia. He became a freelance player in orchestras and studios, but also a very inspiring teacher, with [Sir] James Galway amongst his students.
When Geoffrey Gilbert was with the London Philharmonic in the 1930s, he had by his side a certain Arthur Gleghorn who, after the war, was one of the principals of Philharmonia, a legendary orchestra founded by Walter Legge and in direct competition with the Beecham orchestras. Stravinsky considered Arthur Gleghorn to be one of the finest musicians he had ever known, and that’s a quote. But Gleghorn didn't remain an orchestral flutist in London either. He moved to the United States in 1948, to California, where he became a freelance musician, playing at the Hollywood Bowl and MGM (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer) studios, where you have to be quick and responsive because there's usually only one take.
Gleghorn was a very curious man; for example, he was very interested in contemporary music. That's why I’m suggesting that you listen to him in a key moment in Pierre Boulez's Le Marteau sans Maître, which at the time was in the avant-garde. He performs L'Artisanat furieux with singer Marjorie Mackay.
Recording 2: 7:03 to 9:07
Pierre Boulez
Le Marteau sans maître, « L’Artisanat furieux ».
Arthur Gleghorn (flute)
Margery Mackay (contralto)
Conductor Robert Craft
Label: Cherry Red Records / Recorded 1958
Recorded in 1958, just three years after its premiere, that was Boulez's Le Marteau sans Maître in Robert Craft's version, with Arthur Gleghorn on flute. When Gleghorn left for the United States in 1948, Gareth Morris succeeded him at the Philharmonia. He remained at the Philharmonia for 24 years, while also teaching at the Royal Academy of Music for 40 years.
Gareth Morris was a colleague and friend of the legendary horn player Dennis Brain, and between them they embodied the excellence of the Philharmonia wind section of the 1950s, as did the oboist Sydney Sutcliffe, whom I introduced to you last week in my Bach programme in the cantata Ich habe genug [BWV 82].
Gareth Morris played at the coronation of Elizabeth II in 1953. He was also responsible for the first British performance of the Poulenc Sonata in 1958. [Editor’s note: this performance was with Poulenc himself at the piano; astonishingly the tape recording of this British premiere was found in a dumpster at the BBC a few years ago, and I’m happy to say, rescued].
[Morris] was also unusual in that he played a wooden flute [a Rudall Carte] which was a rarity after the war, when metal had become the standard in orchestras. He was elected Chairman of the Philharmonia, a large London orchestra that is a cooperative run by the musicians themselves. However, he was attacked in 1972, damaging a facial nerve and forcing him to retire from his playing career.
Since I played Bach only the day before yesterday, here’s a little rediscovery. This is the 5th Brandenburg Concerto from 1952, recorded by the Philharmonia. Edwin Fischer is on piano, Manoug Parikian on violin and Gareth Morris on flute.
Recording 3: 10:42 to 16:33
Johann Sebastian Bach
Brandenburg Concerto no. 5, 3rd mvt, Allegro
Gareth Morris (flute)
Manoug Parikian (violin)
Philharmonia Orchestra
Edwin Fischer (piano/director)
Label: EMI / Recorded 1952
Johann Sebastian Bach, as it was played in 1952: the 5th Brandenburg Concerto with Edwin Fischer on piano, Manoug Parikian on violin, the Philharmonia Orchestra team with Gareth Morris on flute.
I said earlier that Geoffrey Gilbert was the preferred flutist of Sir Thomas Beecham. But if I'm being completely acurate, there's one who, chronologically, is more deserving of that title. That is Gerald Jackson, born in 1900 in Leeds.
His father was a violinist who didn't want his son to be a musician and forced him to work in the city Treasury before the call of music finally won. Jackson had studied with Albert Fransella, a Dutchman living in Britain, who had been a flutist in London orchestras in the days when they were entirely freelance. [This was the period of] the Crystal Palace and Queens Hall orchestras, before the London Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic and so on.
In 1932, when the London Philharmonic was founded, Beecham made Gerald Jackson his principal flutist, and he did the same again when the Royal Philharmonic was founded in 1947, where Jackson formed what was known as the royal family with the other principal winds: Terence MacDonagh on oboe, Jack Brymer on clarinet, Gwydion Brooke on bassoon and Dennis Brain on horn. It was with the Royal Philharmonic and Beecham that Jackson recorded this expressive and delicate solo from Bizet's L'Arlésienne.
Recording 4: 18:10 to 22:08
Georges Bizet
L’Arlésienne, Suite no. 2, Menuet
Gerald Jackson (flute)
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Direction Sir Thomas Beecham
Label: EMI / Recorded 1956
Sir Thomas Beecham's elegant conducting brings out all the delicacy of Gerald Jackson's flute in this famous extract from Suite No. 2 of Georges Bizet's L'Arlésienne.
[My survey] would not be complete if I forgot the next generation of British flutists whose careers began after the war. There were many of them, so I’ll just mention Alexander Murray, Peter Lloyd at the LSO, Susan Milan and Celia Chambers among the women who emerged in London in the 1970s.
But the one who left his mark on the principal flute section from the 60s to the 80s was William Bennett, a pupil of Geoffrey Gilbert. [He] was awarded a scholarship to study in Paris with Jean-Pierre Rampal and Fernand Caratgé, before receiving guidance from Marcel Moyse. As you can see, once again, French influence is decisive outside France.
As well as being a great soloist, William Bennett had the soul of a luthier. He made his own guitars and balalaikas. As for the flute, he was never satisfied with the tuning, altering the spacing of the tone holes on his instrument before working with makers to improve the design of the keywork.
Bennett joined the BBC Orchestra in Manchester at the age of 22, and later the LSO. But in fact, where he made his most distinctive contribution was in the London chamber orchestras that were then at the height of their glory, such as the English Chamber Orchestra and [the Academy of] St Martin in the Fields. He took part in dozens of recordings of baroque and classical music, where his playing had enormous class and presence.
Recording 5: 23:48 to 27:39
Antonio Vivaldi
Concerto in C min RV441, 1st mvt.
William Bennett (flute)
Academy of St Martin in the Fields
Conductor Neville Marriner
Label: Decca / Recorded 1975
Indispensable in British chamber orchestras, that was William Bennett on flute in Vivaldi's Concerto RV 441.
Also indispensable, Marie Groulx as director, Bruno Mourlant as mixer, Soizic Noël as production assistant, and that's the Au Coeur de l'Orchestre team who will continue [next time] as we look at the great orchestral principal flutes around the world. [In the next episode], we'll be going to Germany…
Broadcast October 3, 20231
Academic citation style: Radio France Musique, Oct 2, 2023, Grandes flûtes solos II—les Britaniques (2/4), Christian Merlin; tr. and ed. Elisabeth Parry, 2024. Accessed [date]. <https://elisabethparry.substack.com/p/great-principal-flutes-the-british-ep6>