Leicestershire Schools Symphony Orchestra
The Leicestershire Schools Symphony Orchestra (LSSO) is a youth orchestra based in Leicester, England. The players, aged between 15 and 18, are all drawn from secondary schools in the county of Leicestershire and the City of Leicester.
The Leicestershire County School of Music was founded in 1948 by the county's first Music Adviser, Eric Pinkett O.B.E., with the backing of the Leicestershire education committee headed up by a visionary Director of Education, Stuart Mason, who was deeply interested in The Arts in general.
By the mid 1960s, Eric Pinkett - supported by the inspirational patronage of Sir Michael Tippett - had managed to put the LSSO well and truly on the UK musical map as well as establishing an enviable reputation for the orchestra internationally. He published his memoirs in 1969 by way of a 21st anniversary tribute to the Leicestershire County School of Music in a book called Time to Remember and this can be read on-line or downloaded. [1]
The Patronage of Sir Michael Tippett
Sir Michael Tippett had a strong association with the LSSO and was a regular guest conductor, joining the orchestra on overseas tours to Belgium and Germany and generally supporting the state-funded musical education programme that had produced an orchestra of such high standards. He conducted the LSSO almost exclusively in twentieth-century music - Holst's The Planets, Charles Ives' Three Places in New England, Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue and An American in Paris, Hindemith's Symphonic Metamorphoses, Delius' Brigg Fair, Constant Lambert's Rio Grande, Copland's Quiet City, Elgar's Cockaigne Overture and Enigma Variations, Britten's Four Sea Interludes, many of his own works and several new commissions by British composers.
In one of his earliest concerts with the orchestra, at the 1965 Leicestershire Schools Music Festival in De Montfort Hall, Leicester, Tippett conducted a performance of A Child of Our Time with massed school choirs. Orchestral rehearsals for the 1965 festival took place in a local secondary school near Tippett's home in Corsham, Wiltshire. The intensive week of rehearsals was captured in an ATV television programme Overture with Beginners (see video links below). Under Tippett the LSSO made broadcasts on BBC radio and TV and established new standards for music-making in an educational context. Tippett himself often remarked that the playing of the LSSO was comparable to that of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain. Many leading British performers had their first experience of orchestral music in the LSSO under Tippett. He composed The Shires Suite for the orchestra between 1965 and 1970 and was its patron from 1965 until his death in 1998. Tippett also made two commercial gramophone records with the LSSO for the Pye and Argo labels in 1967 and 1970 respectively (see discography below).
Sir Michael Tippett's The Shires Suite
Some recollections of rehearsals and performances by former LSSO player John Whitmore
The Shires Suite was written for the LSSO over a period of six years starting in 1965 and culminating in the finished work's first performance at the Cheltenham Festival in 1970. The suite consists of five movements: Prologue, Interlude I, Cantata, Interlude II, and Epilogue but the movements weren't composed in this order. The following article charts the progess of the suite's composition in the actual order that the movements were added.
In May 1965, the Leicestershire Schools Music Festival included a specially commissioned symphony by Alan Ridout and two new pieces for chorus and orchestra composed by Sir Michael Tippett specially for the occasion: Prologue and Epilogue. These pieces were used to open and close the festival.
1) Prologue
The Prologue is a setting of Soomer is i-coomen in:
Soomer is i-coomen in, Loode sing cuckoo, Groweth sayd and bloweth mayd and springth the wood-e new. Sing cuc-koo, A-we blay-teth after lamb. Lowth after calve coo, Bullock stair-teth book-e-vair-teth. Mirry sing cuckoo, Cuc-koo, cuc-koo, Well sing-es thoo, cuckoo, Nay sweek thoo nay-ver noo.
2) Epilogue
The Epilogue has real significance for the LSSO because it is a setting of Non Nobis Domine by William Byrd and this used to be sung in the state schools of Leicestershire as a Grace. Michael heard Non Nobis Domine performed a capella by the orchestra at Corsham during a week of intensive rehearsals for the 1965 festival.
Non nobis, Domine, non nobis, Sed nomini tuo, da gloriam.
The Prologue and Epilogue would eventually become the opening and closing movements of The Shires Suite.
3) Interlude II
In 1969 the second phase of The Shires Suite was unveiled at the LSSO's Easter residential course in Cirencester. Orchestral parts, in manuscript, for Interlude II turned up at sectional rehearsals one morning. The first full orchestral rehearsals for Interlude II were directed by Norman Del Mar. Sir Michael joined the orchestra later in the week and a BBC television crew also arrived to film him conducting Interlude II and Ives' Putnam's Camp for a BBC-2 programme called Music Now. Looking back, the rehearsals for Interlude II were absolutely riotous mainly due to the hand written orchestral parts and the novel inclusion of an electric guitar. The purely orchestral Interlude II is based on the music which introduces the characters Dov and Mel at their entry in Act I of Tippett's opera, The Knot Garden, which was written at the same time (1966-69) as this suite. Interlude II also incorporates the canon 'Great Tom is Cast' which appears three times, scored first for 3 trumpets and finally trumpets and trombones in octaves.
The new trilogy of Prologue, Interlude II and Epilogue received its first public performance at the Bath Festival on June 21st 1969 where the LSSO was conducted by Sir Michael.
In 1970, the LSSO's Easter residential course was held at Oxford and rehearsals were held by Sir Arthur Bliss, Bryan Kelly, Herbert Chappell and Sir Michael Tippett. The preparations this time were focused on rehearsing for an appearance at the Cheltenham Festival in July and a new gramophone record for Argo, which would include the Introduction and Allegro by Bliss, conducted by the composer and Tippett conducting his own Interlude II and Epilogue. During this week at Oxford, Michael introduced the final two movements of The Shires Suite - Interlude I and Cantata.
4) Interlude I
The slow, purely orchestral Interlude I is a kind of chorale prelude, based on the canon 'The Silver Swan'. The three melodic lines of the canon are presented at different speeds: Trumpet and trombone (normal speed), strings (decorated and much transformed, twice as slow) and bells and woodwind (clusters, one-a-half times as slow).
5) Cantata
The Cantata is a setting of three canons, before each of which the choir sings, 'Come let us sing you a song in canon.'
First comes a hunting canon by William Byrd:
Hey, ho, to the Greenwood, Now let us go, Sing heave and ho. And there shall we find both buck and doe. Sing heave and ho. The hart and hind and the little pretty doe. Sing heave and ho.
Second, a drinking catch by Purcell to the words:
Fie, nay prithee, John. Do not quarrel man, Let us be merry and drink about. You're a rogue, you cheated me, I'll prove before this company, I caren't a farthing, Sir, for all you are so stout. Sir, you lie, I scorn your word, Or any man that wears a sword, For all your huff, who cares a fig or who cares for you?
Third, a canon by Alexander Goehr to an epigram of William Blake, presented to the composer as a 60th birthday present.
The sword sung on the barren heath, The sickle on the fruitful field: The sword he sang a song of death, But could not make the sickle yield.
By 1970, Michael had made some close friendships at the County School of Music and he kept in regular contact by telephone. On one famous occasion he was chatting to the orchestra’s PR manager, Jack Richards about the problems he was having with the percussion scoring in the Cantata of The Shires Suite. Jack's tiny office was situated next door to the school canteen and as the conversation progressed a careless dinner lady dropped a tray of cutlery. This sparked the composer's imagination and Jack spent the next quarter of an hour or so dropping various combinations of forks and spoons onto the floor from different heights until the correct sound was achieved to the satisfaction of the composer. Who suggested the title given to the completed work? Jack Richards.
The Cheltenham Festival concert took place in the Town Hall on July 8th and the podium was shared by Sir Arthur Bliss, who conducted his own Piano Concerto with Frank Wibaut as soloist and Sir Michael, who directed Ives' riotous Circus Band, Rhapsody in Blue by Gershwin and the first public performance of The Shires Suite. It must be mentioned that in the early hours of July 8th, Michael was involved, as a passenger, in a serious road traffic accident whilst he was travelling from the Queen Elizabeth Hall. Despite this he continued his journey to Cheltenham, took a three hour rehearsal in the afternoon and then directed the concert in the evening. Sir Arthur referred to the concert as the best one of the 1970 festival.
Interlude II and Epilogue were recorded by Sir Michael and the LSSO on August 31st, 1970 for Argo Records. The session took place in Decca Studio No.3, West Hampstead and the disc was released in April 1971.
In September 1998, during a project to fully update the Leicestershire Schools Symphony Orchestra archives, a tape recording from Cheltenham resurfaced in an attic some 28 years after the event. It had been recorded in stereophonic sound of excellent quality. The performance is highly accomplished - beautifully captured as it took place that night in Cheltenham Town Hall and a permanent reminder of the special relationship between the Leicestershire County School of Music and Sir Michael Tippett.
First performance of Tippett's "Epilogue" in the De Montfort Hall in 1965
New commissions, major concerts, broadcasts and recordings
Over the years the orchestra's repertoire has included a number of specially commissioned works by composers such as Sir Michael Tippett (The Shires Suite - see previous section), David Bedford (Alleluia Timpanis), Bryan Kelly (Sancho Panza, Sinfonia Concertante), Anthony Milner (Te Deum), Alan Ridout (Concertante Music, Symphony No.2, Funeral Games for a Greek Warrior), Brian Bonsor (The Pied Piper of Hamelin), William Mathias (Sinfonietta), Herbert Baumann (Variations on an Old English Folk Song), and Herbert Chappell (Overture Panache).
Since the late 1950s, many illustrious musicians have conducted the orchestra and these have included Sir Michael Tippett, Alan Ridout, Sir Arthur Bliss, Sir Adrian Boult, Sir Malcolm Arnold, Sir Charles Groves, Norman Del Mar, George Weldon, Rudolf Schwarz, James Loughran, Laszlo Heltay, Herbert Chappell, Bryan Kelly, Alan Ridout, Herbert Baumann, Douglas Cameron, Lesley Woodgate, Stanford Robinson, Oivin Fjelstad, Bernard Keefe, Alexander Goehr, Russell Burgess, Uri Segal, Havelock Nelson, Willy Gohl, Dan Vogel, Maurice Handford, Pierre Cao, Myung Whun Chung, Douglas Young, William Mathias and Andre Previn.
A gallery of conductors in action with the LSSO
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George Weldon 1960
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Sir Adrian Boult 1962
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Rudolf Schwarz 1964
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Alan Ridout 1967
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Norman Del Mar 1967
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Sir Michael Tippett 1967
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Eric Pinkett 1967
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Sir Arthur Bliss 1970
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Bryan Kelly 1971
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James Loughran 1972
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Andre Previn 1973
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Peter Fletcher 1980
Sir Arthur Bliss rehearsing his "Piano Concerto" (soloist: Frank Wibaut) in 1970
The orchestra has broadcast regularly on radio and television both at home and abroad, including an appearance in the BBC Omnibus programme The Other LSO with Andre Previn rehearsing them in works by Glinka, Beethoven and Rachmaninov (see video links below). Several television programmes have featured Sir Michael Tippett and the orchestra and in 1968 a chamber group drawn from the LSSO appeared in the television series Sounds Exciting to perform Herbert Chappell's Dead in Tune with the composer conducting and Robin Ray narrating. In 1970 a studio recording of Dead in Tune was also released by Argo. Other commercial recordings by the LSSO have been issued on the Pye, Argo, CBS, Unicorn, Cameo Classics, Virgin and Performance labels.
"The Other LSO" with Andre Previn in 1973
The Welsh composer William Mathias composed his Sinfonietta for the LSSO and also conducted the orchestra on a 1967 commercial recording of the work for the Pye label. This Pye recording also features another LSSO commission, Concertante Music by Alan Ridout conducted by the composer and the first commercially available recording of Sir Michael Tippett's Suite in D (For the birthday of Prince Charles) conducted by Tippett.
For full details please refer to the discography section below.
The orchestra has given concerts in some of Europe's major concert halls including the Musikverein in Vienna, the Mozarteum in Salzburg, the Beethovenhalle in Bonn, the Haydnsaal in Esterhazy Palace (Eisenstadt), the Palais des Beaux Arts in Brussels, the Philharmonie in Berlin, the Robert Schumann Saal in Dusseldorf, the Hans Sachs Haus in Gelsenkirchen, the Fairfield Hall in Croydon and London's Royal Festival Hall. In a press review of one of the concerts given by the orchestra during their 1969 tour of Germany with Sir Michael Tippett and Richard Rodney Bennett the LSSO was hailed as "Britain's best cultural export".
Press Review: Berliner Zeitschrift 15/9/69
The famous, well-travelled Leicestershire Schools Symphony Orchestra - an orchestra of schoolchildren under the direction of the internationally known composer Sir Michael Tippett - in the Philharmonie, played difficult pieces with such precision that we could only wonder at their technical boldness. Many professional orchestras of ours might envy the stark clarity of the brass as it was displayed in Hindemith's Metamorphoses and Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue. The trumpeter alone was worth the visit. Great applause from the young people of Berlin.
The LSSO and Tippett in the Philharmonie in 1969
The LSSO Havergal Brian recordings
The LSSO created their own place in musical history when they made the very first commercial recording of Havergal Brian’s music. To understand how this recording actually came about it's probably a good starting point to refer to an article that appeared in the local newspaper at the time:
Press Article: Leicester Mercury, 1972
County schools orchestra to make first recording of Composer’s work
Leicestershire Schools Symphony Orchestra, with their conductor, Eric Pinkett, are to have the distinction of making the first gramophone record of music by the 96-year-old British composer Havergal Brian. Rehearsals are already under way and the recording will be done at the De Montfort Hall, Leicester, next July. The chosen works are the 10th and 21st symphonies and the record issued by Unicorn records is expected to be on sale by the following Autumn. Havergal Brian, born in Staffordshire and now living in Shoreham, Sussex, has become something of a legend in the musical world as a composer who is hardly ever performed but who nevertheless has worked quietly and contentedly over the years to amass an output that includes 32 symphonies (including the two hour long "Gothic") five operas, concertos for violin and cello and numerous choral works and songs. The fact that much of his music demands large forces is an economical reason for its rare appearances in concert halls and for the complete absence of recordings. However, he does have determined champions - among them Dr. Robert Simpson (A member of the BBC's music staff) who was mainly responsible for some recent broadcasts of Brian's works, and Alan Watkins, Press Association's deputy news editor and a music enthusiast with early training as a timpanist and percussionist. The recording project really all started from the time when Alan Watkins listened to the Leicestershire Schools Symphony Orchestra's existing discs. He was greatly impressed by the standard of playing and was struck by the thought that here was the solution to the economical problems of giving permanence to some of Brian’s music. He wrote to the composer outlining the idea and obtained permission to explore possibilities. Within a short time, Mr. Watkins arranged a meeting between John Goldsmith (director of Unicorn records), Eric Pinkett and Dr. Simpson. The outcome was a wholehearted and enthusiastic decision to go ahead and the chosen works on Dr. Simpson's recommendation were the 10th and 21st symphonies both of about 30 minutes duration and for which orchestral parts for the 100 instrumentalists were available. Dr. Simpson, who is the foremost authority on Havergal Brian's music, has since spent a day at the County School of Music at Birstall where he talked to the Schools Orchestra about the composer and the two symphonies and listened to them being rehearsed by Eric Pinkett. He was delighted with their progress and reported favourably to Havergal Brian.
Symphonies Nos.10 and 21, conducted by James Loughran and Eric Pinkett respectively, were recorded at the De Montfort Hall, Leicester in 1972. The producer was Robert Simpson and Angus McKenzie was the recording engineer. The LP was released by Unicorn Records to great critical acclaim in 1973. A special edition of the television programme Aquarius called The Unknown Warrior gave considerable coverage to the recording session and a camera crew also joined members of the orchestra during a visit they made to the composer’s home in Shoreham (see video links below).
Press Article: Sunday Express, 1972
Havergal Brian, Britain's most prolific but possibly least-performed classical composer, is to have his music recorded for the fist time at the age of 95. Paradoxically the disc will be cut by our top youth orchestra, the Leicestershire Schools Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Brian, described by BBC music expert Dr. Robert Simpson as a composer of the stature of Elgar is one of music’s great enigmas. He has written 32 symphonies, more than three times as many as Beethoven, five operas, 114 songs, not to mention choral works. Yet until now none of them has been recorded. Says the composer from his seaside home at Shoreham, Sussex: "I am absolutely delighted that these young people are to record two of my symphonies. It shows how good they are. They are not easy works to play."
Four direct quotations of comments made by Alan Watkins in January 2006:
The world premiere recordings of ANY music by Havergal Brian were symphonies 10/21 for Unicorn, played by the Leicestershire Schools Symphony conducted by Eric Pinkett and Jimmy Loughran from the Halle. I know that because it was my idea and I organised it in conjunction with John Goldsmith, then the founder and owner of Unicorn Records, and Bob Simpson, composer and (at the time) BBC Music Department and Brian enthusiast. Several times I flew in from Prague to help and coach the percussion section in this very difficult music. It was recorded in the De Montfort Hall, Leicester, with me at one time standing behind the timpanist (a young lady of about 14/15 or so I think) to help her with the very difficult counting in case she came unstuck (She didn't).
The world premiere recordings of 10/21 or anything of Brian were by the kids of the Leicestershire Schools Symphony Orchestra (ages 14-18) who, on vinyl, were the first in the world to bring any of this music to life. I have previously posted on this and how we took the orchestra to meet the composer. The 10/21 recording is not perfect. There are certainly intonation problems (particularly with the strings) but this is often immensely difficult music to play, even for professional musicians, let alone a bunch of kids at school. They played so well, however, that I was in tears from time to time. One of the most moving moments of my life was seeing the orchestra meet the composer, sitting in a great semi circle around him, firing questions and chatting very happily with him. It was such a memorable occasion. They loved him and he loved them and I feel sure it would have brought more meaning to his music and to their playing .
The choice of symphony 10/21 (by Bob) was partly dictated by the fact that the parts for same were available and vaguely readable but only just with no cues and very poor page turns for some of the orchestra (wind in particular). I went through the percussion parts of both and ended up rewriting the set of parts for both inserting cues and correcting (twice) inaccurate rest indications and in 21 restoring a xylophone part that was correct in the full score but completely missing in the parts. Many wrong notes in the parts for tuned percussion in both symphonies. A mess, in fact. At that time all the parts were hand written, i.e not engraved.
It was a very long time ago and I cannot say accurately for certain but I don't think the composer wrote out for the parts for Symphony 10/21. His hand written notation that I have seen is difficult to follow - very difficult in some cases - and these parts were "well written" in terms of the calligraphy as it were but terribly inaccurate. It might have been him but, if so, he was at great age and they simply got corrected for him. I personally do not think it was him because I think he would not have made the page turn mistakes (particularly for wind and strings) nor left out an entire xylophone part (an instrument that mattered to him).
The thoughts of J.Z. (Johan) Herrenberg, a member of the Havergal Brian Society, October 2007
Absolutely incredible, being able to see this at last (i.e. 'The Unknown Warrior' video), 30 years after discovering this great composer! Very moving. And in particular seeing the opening of the Tenth played (an opening that made an indelible impression when I heard it for the first time) is really wonderful. It's great the documentary is still extant. This recording (10 & 21) has been extremely important to me personally. In 1980 I started studying English at the Free University in Amsterdam, a bit reluctantly, as I was determined to become a writer (I am one now). I couldn't get along with my fellow students. So I stopped coming. I only came there to borrow books from the library (on Milton, Shakespeare, Joyce et al), and wandered through the historic centre of Amsterdam (I was born there, by the way). A friend of mine lived there in digs, and his mother had found Brian's 10th & 21st in a local library in the east of the country. Ever since hearing the Tenth, I had become completely obsessed by it, couldn't get enough of the work. So every time I called at my friend's lodgings, to see if he was in, and if he was my only request was - 'I want to hear the Tenth!' All through the 'eighties, as I was forging ahead with my own writing in great solitude, Brian was a continuous spur and inspiration.
Following the success of the Unicorn issue, a second Brian album was recorded by the LSSO in 1974. Hove Town Hall was the venue for the 22nd Symphony and the 23rd Psalm sessions where the orchestra was conducted by Laszlo Heltay. Eric Pinkett completed the disc with his account of the English Suite No.5 (Rustic Scenes) which was set down at Leicester De Montfort Hall. Both recording sessions were produced by Robert Simpson and the disc was issued by CBS in February 1975.
Press Article: Leicester Mercury, April 1974
LSSO puts four more works on record
The Leicestershire Schools Symphony Orchestra will be in Brighton tomorrow to make two recordings simultaneously. The BBC and CBS Records will each have a control room to tape performances of Havergal Brian's setting of the 23rd Psalm and his 22nd Symphony and also of Berlioz's "Resurrexit" and his "Death of Orpheus". All this music is being recorded for the first time - the BBC's tape for eventual Radio 3 broadcast and CBS's for processing into a disc which it is expected will be issued in the autumn. The conductor for all four works is Laszlo Heltay and the choir is the Brighton Festival Chorus, which Heltay directs. The LSSO was first in the field in making an LP of Havergal Brian's music with their brisk-selling disc of the 10th and 21st Symphonies, conducted respectively by the Halle's James Loughran and the orchestra's permanent director, Eric Pinkett who is Leicestershire's music adviser and founder of the County School of Music. Once again, the BBC's Robert Simpson (stalwart champion of Brian's music) is concerned with production and he is responsible too for performances of the two Berlioz rarities. Brian died, it will remembered, without ever hearing the very first record of his music and it is interesting that following the LSSO’s disc there is a projected one or other of the composer's symphonies by the London Philharmonic Orchestra.
The LSSO following Eric Pinkett's retirement
Eric Pinkett retired from his post in 1976 and died in 1979. His memorial concert, held at the De Montfort Hall, Leicester in 1980, was conducted by Norman Del Mar, who had worked regularly with the orchestra since 1966 and inspired them to produce some astonishing performances both at home and abroad, notably their concert in the Vienna Musikverein in 1968.
Norman Del Mar conducts the LSSO in Mahler's "Symphony No.1" in 1980
Eric Pinkett was followed by Peter Fletcher (1976 - 1984), Stuart Johnson (1984 - 1993) and Don Blakeson (1993 - 1997). The orchestra is currently conducted by Russell Parry who took over from Don Blakeson in 1997.
In 1998, some 50 years after Eric Pinkett had founded the orchestra, the LSSO won the prestigious Sainsbury Youth Orchestra of the Year award in conjunction with Classic FM. Following this award, Classic FM broadcast a concert given by the LSSO and Russell Parry in Leicester's De Montfort Hall that included Rossini's William Tell Overture and Tchaikovsky's Symphony No.6 (Pathetique).
In 2001 the orchestra won the Masterprize competition for the best performance by a youth orchestra of a new composition. Coincidentally the composition that won the composition competition turned out to be the composition played by the LSSO - In Aeternam by Pierre Jalbert. The LSSO went on to give this piece its British premier at the Edinburgh Festival. Since then the LSSO has toured twice in Germany (2002 & 2004), twice in France (Angers 2005 & Strasbourg 2006) and Belgium in 2007 and plans to visit the Czech Republic in 2008.
Russell Parry rehearsing Hindemith's "Symphonic Metamorphoses" in 2004
The LSSO continues to perform regularly in Leicester, and since 1994 has played for joint projects with the dance wing of its managing organisation, Leicestershire and Leicester Arts in Education. Productions have included Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker and The Sleeping Beauty and Romeo & Juliet by Prokofiev.
Over the last 30 years a number of other ensembles have evolved to provide a long term training ground and inspiration for young people in the area. Children can audition to join 3 different string orchestras and 2 symphony orchestras younger than the LSSO, and there is a similar route through 4 wind bands, the oldest of which is of gold award standard. All these ensembles rehearse on Saturday mornings and there are other specialist ensembles rehearsing on weekday evenings. In 1993 most of the funding for these ensembles was cut by the county council. Now most of their activities are paid for by parents and carers.
Discography and record reviews
1) Pye Golden Guinea Collector Series GSGC 14103
Michael Tippett Suite in D, Alan Ridout Concertante Music, William Mathias Sinfonietta, Malcolm Arnold Divertimento. Conducted by Sir Michael Tippett, Alan Ridout, William Mathias and Eric Pinkett.
Press Review: Watford Observer, January 1968
Feeling like a tonic?
If you feel like being cheered up, go out and buy Pye Golden Guinea GGC 4103 mono, GSGC 14103 stereo. Lower your pick-up on to side one and listen to some orchestral playing of a quality which might be representative of any professional orchestra north of London. But this is not a professional orchestra. It's the Leicestershire Schools Symphony Orchestra which draws its players not from the whole nation but just a single county. They play four pieces, all by contemporary British composers. There is Sir Michael Tippett's Suite for the birthday of Prince Charles, Alan Ridout's Concertante Music, William Mathias’s Sinfonietta and the Divertimento by Malcolm Arnold. Conducting honours are divided between Tippett, Ridout, Mathias and the Leicestershire schools music director, Eric Pinkett. The quality of the Leicestershire orchestra is extremely good and one or two young musicians make it clear that music is going to be their career. Certainly the timpanist is a boy with outstanding ability.
Press Review: Records & Recording, March 1968
..... this record needs no indulgence. Though the scores are by no means easy to play, these young people achieve a remarkably high standard of performance which compares favourably with many professional orchestras. Predictably the woodwind are very good; less predictably, the brass are first-rate with some thrilling playing from the horns. Only in the stratosphere of string writing (as in Tippett's Carol and Finale) is there any suspicion of insecurity. But this record offers something more than a preview of tomorrow's orchestral players; it brings forward four works by contemporary composers which are tuneful, exciting and musically rewarding. Though 'modern' in idiom they are pleasantly so, indeed this record might well be called 'Modernism without Tears'. The Intrada of Tippett's Suite irritates me because it keeps dragging in the first line of 'Crimond' for no very obvious reason, but never gives us the rest of the tune. Otherwise the Suite is delightful, gracious music. Berceuse is, appropriately, built round a charming old French air. Then a stately fanfare for winds introduces and rounds off a lively jig which admirably demonstrates the virtuosity of the strings. The fourth movement Carol is based on Angelus ad Virginum and the Finale mischievously combines a cornish dance with Early one Morning! Ridout's Concertante Music, specially written for this recording, is more astringent but generates a good deal of motor excitement. Though written in one movement it has a clearly defined A-B-A-coda structure, the middle section acting as a brief slow movement. The other two works also have three movements, lively-slow-lively. Mathias adds a piano to his orchestra, not soloistically but as an orchestral instrument used to produce evocative tone colours. The slow movement has a strong spice of the Orient, not the genuine Orient but the Orient of Rimsky-Korsakov, Puccini and Strauss; so much so that I was irreverently reminded of Ketelbey's Persian Market! The finale is a sizzler. Arnold's Divertimento is, as one would expect, tremendous fun. It is also an exciting challenge to the youngsters' skill. The Nocturne takes a naughty side-swipe at Bartok at his most nocturnal while the hilarious finale is constructed, of all things, on a solemn ground bass. Pray silence, ladies and gentlemen, while we listen to Purcell spinning in his grave! The recording is excellent in both stereo and mono and all four works deserve to become popular. A prize not to be missed.
Press Review: The Guardian, March 1968
Normally one makes allowances with young players, particularly over string intonation, but not so here, for the astonishing thing is how close these school children come to professional standards. I hope the brilliance of this record will encourage a few more local authorities to follow the enlightened policies of Leicestershire.
Press Review: Gramophone, March 1968
Tippett's suite wasn't composed for players with limited technique, so it's the more remarkable the way this orchestra gets round the difficulties. In the third movemnet the presto folk-tune section is delightful and in this the strings do remarkably well in their extremely difficult part. Arnold's attractive Divertimento ia as expertly played as is all the rest - and musically played too, which is perhaps even more important.
File:1967 recording session.jpg
Tippett recording his "Suite in D" in De Montfort Hall in 1967
2) Argo ZDA 134
Herbert Chappell Dead in Tune and George and the Dragonfly. Narrators: Robin Ray, Susan Stranks and John Kershaw. Conducted by Herbert Chappell.
Press Review: Gramophone, June 1970
Dead in Tune is an extremely slick piece, with a good story to hold children's attention. It is about four orchestral families (each orchestrally illustrated) who live in flats by the sea - Middle C, of course (which you immediately hear played); of the Canon (canon in orchestra) who was nearly strangled by a chord but who survives and officiates at the wedding of Viola to one of her bows - sorry, beaux. You will by now have gathered roughly the sort of thing it is. It is full of outrageous puns on musical words: but outrageous ones are the kind children enjoy, of course - provided they know the musical terms anyway. Younger children will enjoy it, provided they have some musical background and, most valuable, a parent who is able to explain the connection between story and music. The narrator (and writer of the script), Robin Ray, is first-rate - would that all narrators were so natural and also engaging. The orchestra, the pick of members of the Leicestershire Schools Symphony Orchestra, is splendid and the whole thing is done with infectious enjoyment.
File:70 Dead in Tune session.jpg
"Dead in Tune" recording session, Decca studios, West Hampstead 1970
3) Argo ZRG 685
Arthur Bliss Introduction and Allegro, Andre Previn Overture to a Comedy, John Ireland Downland Suite: Elegy, Herbert Chappell Overture Panache, Bryan Kelly Cuban Suite, Michael Tippett The Shires Suite: Interlude II and Epilogue. Conducted by Sir Arthur Bliss, Andre Previn, Sir Michael Tippett and Eric Pinkett.
Press Review: Gramophone, April 1971
I have tried parts on two listeners, neither of whom guessed that it was other than some adult orchestra, even if not one of the leading ones regularly recording. The playing really is remarkable. Just occasionally the strings show their extreme youth in a difficult passage in octaves or a high entry for violins which should be strong but isn't, but otherwise I could find little to fault and so much to admire. Bliss's Introduction and Allegro is a virtuoso piece composed for Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1926, but it is far more than that, as its opening, most expressively played, at once shows, and even in the Allegro, there are passages like that at fig. 24 (miniature score available from Boosey & Hawkes) where the sensitive playing touches the heart. As to the sheerly virtuoso bits, they get brilliant treatment from every section of the orchestra. Ireland's Elegy makes no technical demands on the strings, which enables them to show how sensitively musical these young players are - a most affecting performance. Previn's overture, and Chappell's, are virtuoso pieces and not much more, though most skilfully done - but their titles imply nothing more and both are, of their kind, exhilarating. Bryan Kelly's Cuban Suite is uncommonly gifted for a student work, even if it is, as he writes, an unashamed attempt to write popular light music with immediate appeal - I bet those children enjoyed playing the 'naughty' tango, especially as relaxation from the demands of Bliss. Tippett's two excerpts from his The Shires Suite (originally written for this orchestra) take us again into the world of serious and beautiful music, with an excellent choir joining in "Non nobis domine" in the Epilogue and this makes a moving end to the record.
4) Unicorn RHS 313
Havergal Brian Symphonies Numbers 10 and 21. Conducted by James Loughran and Eric Pinkett.
Press Review: Records and Recording, May 1973
I had better state my partisan conviction at the outset: this is about the most important new issue of 1973. Sympnony No.10 (1953-54) is a powerful one-movement work, by turns stormy and contemplative, rather 'Nordic' in tone, reminiscent at times of Nielsen. It must be said at once that the performance is a triumph. The Leicestershire children's playing is of a completely professional standard, with splendid fire, attack and responsiveness to detail (their true, hushed pianissimo, in the 'calm before the storm' that begins two bars before Fig.19, ought to be the envy of established orchestras on both sides of the Atlantic). This is a great performance by any standard and is likely to remain a definitive interpretation for a very long time: a truly historic disc debut for both music and conductor.
Press Review: Leicester Mercury, May 1973
Fascinating – but this disc has a touch of tragedy
The latest record to be made by the Leicestershire Schools Symphony Orchestra is certainly their most important and it is also, I think, their best. It has just been issued by Unicorn and it is a landmark because it makes available on a commercial disc for the very first time the music of Havergal Brian who died last year at the age of 96. One is conscious, indeed, of the element of tragedy in the fact that Brian, who composed music for so long without encouragement or recognition, never lived to hear this pioneer disc made by musicians young enough to be his great-great-grandchildren. The chosen works are the 10th Symphony (1954) and the 21st (1963), the conducting being shared by James Loughran and Eric Pinkett, respectively, and I can think of no higher compliment to the LSSO than to say that, listening to their playing, one accepts it on the same standard as that of a professional orchestra. And what of the music? I can only say that I am amazed that these symphonies have not been heard before and grateful to the efforts of Dr. Robert Simpson whose tireless advocacy of Brian helped to make the record possible. The Composer's style as shown in these two works is highly individual and always fascinating. Things tend to happen suddenly and with swift sharp contrasts in a Havergal Brian score like the storm which whips up with impressive fury in the single spanned 10th Symphony and then as quickly subsides. One notices, too, the progress of the music through brief and seemingly unrelated sound shapes - snippets, even, and juxtaposing full-blooded orchestral colours with the thin textures of one or two solo instruments. Yet even on first listening I found the onward progress of the music never in doubt. With real ingenuity Brian sees to it that the ear is sufficiently stocked with relevant information to apprehend new twists and turns - new shocks and digressions – in the forward journey. Listening for the third and fourth time one begins to glimpse the deeper meaning of the notes - especially in the magnificence of the 10th symphony - and marvel at the optimism which, at the age of 87, Brian poured into the four-movement 21st Symphony which expostulates so buoyantly in its grandly conceived final movement. I recommend this disc to those who seek an original musical mind working through self-assured unorthodox procedures and skilful and intriguing handling of the orchestra to express a worthwhile philosophy. The lucid conducting of Loughran and Pinkett helps in reaping this pleasure.
Press Review: Penguin Stereo Guide
It was left to a small company and an amateur orchestra to make the first recording of a Brian symphony. Both works are of his old age. No.10, a powerfully wrought and original one-movement work, dates from 1953-54 and is the more immediately appealling of the two. No.21 was composed when he was in his late eighties and is in four movements. There need be no serious reservations about the recording and the performances are astonishingly accomplished.
Press Review: Leicester Mercury, December 1973
Distinction for LSSO
It is quite an accolade to get into the Best Records of the Year, a list published annually by E.M.G. in its monthly letter, so there is a look of the cat licking the cream on the faces of the Leicestershire Schools Symphony Orchestra. Their record is of Brian's Symphonies Nos. 10 and 21 and is one of the 60 selected out of thousands produced during the year 1973.
In case you may never have heard of the composer Brian the Briton, you need feel no shame for he has been woefully neglected and this is the first recording of any music by one of this country's most remarkable composers. Havergal Brian died last year at the fine old age of 96. He wrote 32 symphonies and five operas. The review of the record says: "Brian's music is among the most original to have been written in this century and it is doubly exciting and satisfying to hear the verve with which this remarkable youth orchestra attacks the formidable task set by these two difficult but very rewarding scores."
Symphony No. 21 was composed when Brian was 87 and was one of 22 symphonies he wrote after the age of 80. Late flowering if you like! And pleasant to record that in this triumph of youth and age, Leicestershire has played a significant part.
The 1972 Unicorn session. Robert Simpson (right) with engineer Angus McKenzie (left)
5) CBS Classics 61612
Havergal Brian Symphony Number 22, Psalm 23, English Suite Number 5. Conducted by Laszlo Heltay and Eric Pinkett.
Press Review: Leicester Mercury, February 1975
New disc provides key to unlock a musical language
The Leicestershire Schools Symphony Orchestra, first in the field to put Havergal Brian's music on record, have produced another disc devoted to the music of this prolific and, up to now, neglected composer. Brian died in the Autumn of 1972 - a month or so before the original LP was issued. That record was judged to be one of the best classical issues of its year. The new one has qualities which are likely to make it equally valued. Its sound is good, the playing again a remarkable achievement by this young orchestra doing service with the shared conducting of Eric Pinkett and Laszlo Heltay to music of marked originality and fascination. May I suggest, too, that the new record provides an accessible "key", so to speak, to a personal musical language that can at times be difficult to unlock. Play over Brian's 5th English Suite (Rustic Scenes) a few times and you have a rewarding and entertaining guide to his compositional style. The suite occupies the second side of the record with Pinkett conducting the LSSO and producing an excellent interpretation of music which, as Brian says, evokes memories of landscapes and country towns 60 or 70 years before it was composed in 1953. It is descriptive music which, however, goes much deeper than mere sound painting: the feeling of the opening Trotting to Market being far more profound than its title suggests. Reverie is a beautifully thought out elegy for strings, The Restless Stream a really extraordinary piece of writing for woodwind and percussion, and the final Village Revels a marvellously conceived impression of rural well being. Against a familiar background, Brian's characteristic "brush - strokes" are vividly comprehendable and yield new delights on each playing. His fondness for compression and juxtaposition of dissimilar ideas and textures are there in the Reveille to which the village awakes and in the tiny pastoral glimpse (solo oboe against strings pedal) that flashes by as the revelling mounts in excitement. Compression is the essence of the Composer’s shortest symphony - No.22 (Symphonia Brevis) which opens the record’s other side with Heltay conducting. The time scale is brief but the symphonic scope (huge, granite blocks of sound impress the ear) is amazingly grand. The other work involving tenor soloist and Brighton Festival Chorus, as well as the LSSO is the early setting (1901) of Psalm 23, an attractive work as Heltay demonstrates in his sympathetic direction.
Press Review: Penguin Stereo Guide
The Symphonia Brevis, two brief but ambitious movements plus epilogue, represents Havergal Brian's later work at its most enjoyable, undisciplined in its way but with an unmistakable flavour. The Psalm setting of sixty years earlier is characteristically expansive, remarkable music to be written in the early years of the century. The Suite is a set of colouful, lightweight pieces, deliberately unambitious but more sharply memorable than most of Brian's music. Enjoyable performances for which very few allowances have to be made. Good recording.
The 1974 recording session for CBS in Hove Town Hall with Laszlo Heltay rehearsing Brian's "Psalm 23" (The producer, Robert Simpson, is to his left)
6) Virgin V2090
David Bedford Instructions for Angels. Conducted by Eric Pinkett.
7) Unicorn UNS 267
Michael Tippett The Shires Suite, Douglas Young Virages - Region One. Conducted by Peter Fletcher and Douglas Young.
Press Review: Gramophone, June 1981
The Shires Suite is both a deserved tribute to the adventurous skill of the young players for whom Tippett composed it and at the same time virtually a 'young person's guide' to the developments that took place in his music during the late 1960s. It is a rich, complex and fascinating work, performed with great panache and enthusiasm......it receives a formidably assured performance. The recording has an excellent sense of depth as well as presence.
8) Cameo Classics GOCLP 9019
Douglas Young The Hunting of the Snark. Narrator: Peter Easton. Conducted by Peter Fletcher.
Press Review: Gramophone, July 1982
What sort of work is this? As difficult to describe as a Bandersnatch. Douglas Young's score is wittier and more substantial than a mere sequence of illustrative noises could be, and much more ingenious too. It is all very rum indeed, but agreeably so, and although the poem's great length means that the reciter is seldom silent the musical events are pithy enough to hold one's attention throughout. The performance is an admirably frumious one; the recording is as brillig as could be wished.
9) Performance PER 84061
Iannis Xenakis Jonchaies, Douglas Young Third Night Journey under the Sea and Rain, Steam & Speed. Conducted by Peter Fletcher.
Press Review: Tempo, 1982
I challenge anyone to guess that this is not a recording of a professional ensemble, let alone a youth orchestra. What Peter Fletcher has acclomplished with the Leicestershire Schools Symphony Orchestra, and what together they have achieved for British contemporary music, is beyond praise.
Sound archives: Radio broadcasts and concert recordings
1) Tippett The Shires Suite (Cheltenham Festival, 1970) conducted by Tippett. BBC Radio Leicester interview with Eric Pinkett (1974) including musical excerpts, running for 35 minutes.
Press Review: Wide elan in Shires Suite
The marathon concert at the Cheltenham Festival was given by the Leicestershire Schools Symphony Orchestra, which gave the first complete performance of Michael Tippett's "The Shires Suite", written piecemeal for the orchestra during the past few years. The main substance of its five sections, alternately choral and orchestral, is a sequence of seven canons, mainly familiar, elaborated or decorated in various ways. They range from "Sumer is icumen in" to a canon written for Tippett's 60th birthday by Alexander Goehr and add up to an important work which is stamped with Tippett's personality from beginning to end. Especially characteristic are the first interlude, based on "The Silver Swan," played at different speeds by three orchestral groups, and the epilogue, a beautiful and extended setting of Byrd's "Non nobis, domine." It is a taxing but thoroughly practicable and enjoyable work which under the composer's direction these young players brought off with great elan.
2) A Composer and an Orchestra. A 60 minute documentary about Tippett and the LSSO including musical excerpts and interviews with Eric Pinkett and Sir Michael Tippett.
3) Brahms Violin Concerto (first movement) and Elgar Enigma Variations (Pinkett farewell concert, 1976) with Wagner Mastersingers Overture conducted by Peter Fletcher (1981).
Press Review: Leicester Mercury, June 1976
Young musicians stunning in swan song concert
.....and an exceptionally fine first movement of the Brahms Violin Concerto from Rolf Wilson. But this was Eric Pinkett's night. Unflamboyant, unfussy but always firmly in control, he is a players conductor, drawing from them more than they seem to offer. At the end of the concert he produced a compelling, if idiosyncratic reading of Elgar's Enigma Variations, always one of the best things in the orchestra's repertoire, and his players responded with a stunning performance. We were left in no doubt that the Leicestershire Schools Symphony Orchestra is the brightest jewel in county music, and that this was largely due to one man. The audience gave him a standing ovation, and it seemed entirely appropriate that the encore should be Nimrod, Elgar's noble and affectionate portrait of a close but somewhat enigmatic friend.
4) Haydn Trumpet Concerto, Tchaikovsky Romeo & Juliet conducted by Norman Del Mar (Pinkett memorial concert, 1980) with Richard Strauss Don Juan and Rimsky-Korsakov Capriccio Espagnol conducted by Peter Fletcher (1981).
Press Review: Leicester Mercury, January 1980
A musical bequest to be proud of
James Watson, one of the orchestra's most illustrious sons, returning with a faultless performance of Haydn's Trumpet Concerto, is living proof that the highest levels can be reached. Starting the evening was an exciting Romeo and Juliet, despite occasional signs of insecurity. This was an occasion which confirmed the LSSO's place among the finest of the World's youth orchestras. Eric Pinkett would have been proud of them all.
5) Mahler Symphony No.1 conducted by Norman Del Mar (Pinkett memorial concert, 1980)
Press Review: Leicester Mercury, January 1980
A musical bequest to be proud of
Under guest conductor Norman Del Mar, they performed a taxing programme with their customary aplomb. An exhilarating account of Mahler's first symphony was a "tour de force". Great demands are made on the players, especially the brass with its eight horns, yet they emerged with flying colours. Particularly effective was the evocation of dawn with its cuckoo calls and the grotesque funeral match based on Frere Jacques with its ironic, schmalzy interludes in the third movement was beautifully judged.
6) Haydn Sinfonia Concertante (Pinkett farewell concert, 1976) Gershwin Rhapsody in Blue and Ives Circus Band (Cheltenham Festival, 1970) conducted by Sir Michael Tippett with Alford's The Two Imps, Walton's Facade and Roman Carnival by Berlioz from a 1964 Hinckley Grammar School concert conducted by Bert Neale, John Westcombe and Eric Pinkett.
Press Review: Leicester Mercury, June 1976
Young musicians stunning in swan song concert
Haydn's Sinfonia Concertante received a sympathetic performance with Rolf Wilson, Nigel Pinkett (cello), Joan Clamp (oboe) and John Price (bassoon) combining well as the soloists.
Press Review: The Sunday Times, July 1970
The jolliest, most rousing not to say rowdy concert of the week was that of the Leicestershire Schools Symphony Orchestra. The concert was conducted by Sir Michael Tippett who has emerged as musical hero of the week. Having appeared on the previous evening in a "Meet the Composer" programme at the Queen Elizabeth Hall he was returning thence in the small hours when he was involved as a passenger in a serious road accident from which he emerged shaken but mercifully unharmed. Without a word he thereupon made his way to Cheltenham, took the three hour afternoon rehearsal, conducted a long concert (with an encore of Ives riotous "Circus Band") and did not even flinch from a "Composer in Person" appearance at 11 p.m. after the concert. The Ives piece, together with his naively solemn Ninetieth Psalm (fervently sung by the Schola Cantorum of Oxford) and Gershwin's zippy "Rhapsody in Blue" (polished off with huge gusto by Wibaut), brought America vividly to our doorstep.
7) Hark the Herald Angels Sing. Sound recording of the BBC television programme from Christmas Day, 1975
8) Glinka Ruslan & Ludmila Overture, George Butterworth Banks of Green Willow and Iain Hamilton Scottish Dances conducted by Eric Pinkett (1969). Tippett The Shires Suite: Prologue, Interlude II & Epilogue (Bath Festival 1969). Herbert Chappell Dead in Tune sound recording from the TV broadcast (1968).
Press Review: The Guardian, June 1969
Accent on youth at the Bath Festival: Sir Michael Tippett on Saturday evening conducted the Leicestershire Schools Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in modern British and American music. Tippett's programme might have been designed expressly to contradict everything that the Menuhin era at Bath has stood for. As at the opening concert a week earlier, the music of Charles Ives was prominent, shatteringly wild yet beautiful in "Putnam's Camp". This devotion to Ives provided a clear pointer to the new piece that Tippett himself had composed for the occasion, an Interlude to go with a Prologue and Epilogue written for the orchestra some four years ago when he first became associated with it. The canon " Great Tom is Cast " keeps coming in, Ives-like, bold with heavy brass piercing heavy clouds of notes. Though I failed to detect the promised part for electric guitar, it was a riot for everyone, not least for Sir Michael himself as conductor. He gives himself with such intensity in his music-making that these wonderfully responsive children almost unfailingly return the compliment.
9) Eric Pinkett’s Personal Choice. A "desert island discs" style interview (1969) and a programme about the Pye record (1968) from the archives of BBC Radio Leicester.
10) Vivaldi Recorder Concerto (The Goldfinch), Joseph Horovitz Trumpet Concerto, Glinka Russlan & Ludmilla Overture (Pinkett farewell concert, 1976). Brahms Violin Concerto conducted by Peter Fletcher (1981).
Press Review: Leicester Mercury, June 1976
Young musicians stunning in swan song concert
After an exhilarating account of the orchestra’s party-piece, the Russlan and Ludmilla Overture, came a series of outstanding individual contributions. David Pugsley's nimble but beautifully controlled and phrased recorder playing - in Vivaldi's Goldfinch concerto; James Watson's breathtaking pyrotechnics in the Horowitz trumpet concerto.....
11) Bryan Kelly New Orleans Suite, Bliss Lady of Shalott Suite conducted by Eric Pinkett (1975). Elliott Carter Pocahontas Suite, Douglas Young Lament on the Destruction of Forests conducted by Peter Fletcher (1984)
12) Rossini William Tell Overture, Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 6 (Pathetique) conducted by Russell Parry (1999)
13) Masterprize 2001. Live concert with performance award presented to the LSSO by Sir Colin Davis. No actual LSSO performances are included - just interviews and the award ceremony.
14) Verdi Requiem conducted by Jonathan Tilbrook (2002)
15) Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No.2, Rimsky-Korsakov Scheherazade conducted by Sir Charles Groves (1982)
Press Review: Leicester Mercury, February 1982
.....but it was in the last work where the orchestra really showed how good they are. Scheherazade by Rimsky Korsakov is a work demanding virtuoso playing. Difficult solo passages abound for a wide variety of instruments and the playing was immaculate.
16) Mahler Symphony No.5 conducted by Peter Fletcher (Germany, 1981)
17) Ives Circus Band, Bartok Miraculous Mandarin, Tippett Piano Concerto, Berlioz Benvenuto Cellini Overture (Germany, 1981) conducted by Peter Fletcher. Glinka Russlan & Ludmilla Overture (1982) conducted by Sir Charles Groves.
18) Tippett A Child of Our Time conducted by Peter Fletcher (1982).
19) Tippett A Child of Our Time (Part 1) conducted by Willi Gohl (1976), Wagner Tannhauser Overture conducted by Stuart Johnson (1990)
For further information about these archived recordings and other LSSO memorabilia items please visit the Eric Pinkett Era website (link below).
External links
- Eric Pinkett Era website (1948 - 1976) Articles, photographs, audio clips, videos and memorabilia items.
The Eric Pinkett Era website
- The official Tippett website The LSSO page of the Tippett site.
- Tippett The Shires Suite Audio excerpts from various LSSO performances
- Tippett Suite in D Audio excerpts from the LSSO's 1967 Pye recording
- William Mathias Sinfonietta Audio excerpts from the 1967 Pye recording.
- Havergal Brian and the LSSO Audio excerpts from the 1970s LSSO recordings.
Videos: 1965 to 1999
Videos: 1998 Reunion (Guthlaxton School, Wigston)
LSSO Reunion Orchestra rehearsing Bernstein's "Candide" Overture
- Havergal Brian 10th Symphony rehearsal part 1
- Havergal Brian 10th Symphony rehearsal part 2
- Havergal Brian 10th Symphony rehearsal part 3
- Max Bruch Violin Concerto No.1 rehearsal
- Max Bruch Violin Concerto No.1 slow movement performance
- Candide rehearsal
- Candide performance
- Russlan & Ludmilla Excerpt from the evening performance
Videos: 2004 Reunion (Bedworth Civic Hall)
LSSO Reunion Orchestra rehearsing Elgar's "Nimrod"
- Russell Parry rehearses Dvorak's New World Symphony
- Malcolm Fletcher rehearses Elgar's W.N. and Nimrod
- Malcolm Fletcher rehearses Russlan & Ludmilla
- Russell Parry rehearses Hindemith's Symphonic Metamorphoses
Overture with Beginners
File:Tippett corsham small.jpg
Tippett rehearsing Elgar's "Cockaigne"
In 1965, the LSSO spent a week in a secondary school in Corsham near to Sir Michael Tippett's home. This documentary shows them rehearsing Tippett's Concerto for Double String Orchestra, Elgar's Cockaigne Overture and Alan Ridout's Symphony No.2.
Havergal Brian - The Unknown Warrior
Havergal Brian at his Shoreham home in 1972
A documentary about the composer Havergal Brian featuring the LSSO recording session of symphonies Nos. 10 and 21 with Eric Pinkett and James Loughran conducting and an informal interview with the composer at his home in Shoreham.
Sir Arthur Bliss - Girl in a Broken Mirror
"The Lady of Shallot", Leicester Haymarket Theatre 1975
A documentary featuring the ballet The Lady of Shallot by Sir Arthur Bliss performed by pupils from New Parks School, Leicester and the LSSO conducted by Eric Pinkett..
Eric Pinkett - Time to Remember
A 60 minute tribute to the Eric Pinkett Era of the Leicestershire County School of Music (1948 - 1976).