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Christopher Ball

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For the former Warden of Keble College, Oxford, see Christopher Ball (linguist).

Christopher Ball (7 July 1936 – 7 April 2022) was a British composer, arranger, conductor, clarinetist and recorder player.

Early life and education

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Ball was born in Leeds in 1936.[1][2] His father had trained in piano tuning and his mother was an amateur pianist. Ball attended Roundhay School and was taught clarinet by Michael Saxton.[1] He studied clarinet as well as piano at the Royal Manchester College of Music (now the Royal Northern College of Music), where his clarinet teacher was with Norman MacDonald, and then continued his studies of the instrument at the Royal Academy of Music with the clarinetists Jack Brymer, Reginald Kell and Gervase de Peyer.[1][2] He also studied conducting with Maurice Miles.[1] After winning a Gulbenkian Scholarship at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, he took part in conducting masterclasses with Pierre Monteux, Constantin Silvestri, Sir Charles Mackerras, Norman Del Mar and Sir Georg Solti (whose masterclass was televised), and won the Guildhall School's Ricordi Conducting Prize.[1][3]

Career

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Conductor and performer

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Ball began his career freelancing as an orchestral clarinetist in the Halle Orchestra under Sir John Barbirolli,[2][3] while still a student at the Royal Manchester College of Music. In 1964 he became an apprentice conductor of the BBC Northern Symphony Orchestra (now the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra) and then assistant conductor of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. He was one of several conductors of the Royal Ballet, Covent Garden (1968–70).[1][3]

In 1971 Ball founded the Praetorius Consort, an early music ensemble, which he directed. The consort performed at the Wigmore Hall[4] and elsewhere in London[5][6][7] as well as at festivals in Europe[8][9][10] during the 1970s. It made recordings for EMI, BBC Records and Decca,[citation needed] including Medieval Paris: Music of the City.[11][12][13] In 1973 he founded the London Baroque Trio, performing on recorder with Mary Verney (harpsichord) and Peter Vel (bass viol). They made their Wigmore Hall debut in 1974; Joan Chissell, in a review for The Times, praised Ball's playing for its "cooing tone and agility", writing that he "almost transcended the treble recorder's limitations".[14] He played a Bressan treble recorder dated around 1710.[1]

Academic

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Ball was a professor of clarinet and recorder at the Royal Academy of Music[3] for 41 years. His notable students include the clarinetist Leslie Craven.[2]

Composer

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In 1981 Ball began a ten-year association with the BBC Midland Radio Orchestra, during which the BBC commissioned many light orchestral compositions and arrangements from him.[1][15] These include A Summer Day, one of Ball's earliest compositions, which has been broadcast more than a hundred times.[15]

From the mid-1990s Ball concentrated on composing.[16] Starting with a recorder concerto entitled The Piper of Dreams (1995),[1][17][18] he wrote a total of nine concertos for various instruments: oboe,[1][15][17][19] clarinet (2006),[2][20] flute,[20] French horn,[15][19] cor anglais (English horn),[citation needed] violin,[16][21] and two for cello (dedicated to the Croatian cellist Stjepan Hauser of 2Cellos; the first dated 2010).[19][22] His other recorded works include a Clarinet Quintet,[citation needed] Caprice on a Baroque Theme,[citation needed] the wind quintet Scenes From A Comedy,[17][23] and Invocations of Pan.[24][25] He also wrote multiple works for solo recorder and various recorder ensembles.[18][26]

Stephen H. Smith, in a recent book on 20th-century English composers, describes Ball's work as in the "tonal, easy-listening tradition".[27] Alan Titchmarsh describes Ball as an "accomplished contemporary composer" and praises his arrangement, The Lark in the Clear Air.[28] Jack Sullivan, in a review for American Record Guide, describes Ball's concertos for wind instruments as "unremittingly pleasant", describing them as avoiding all dissonance and characterised by a "benevolent eclecticism that gives an amiable nod to the least forced moments in 20th Century music".[17] Andrew Achenbach, in a critical review of two recordings for Gramophone, found the Cello Concerto no. 1 overlong, and described it and the concertos for horn and oboe as being written in an "innocuously tuneful, wanly pastoral idiom stifling in its timidity".[19]

Ball died on 7 April 2022 at Denville Hall.[29]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j John Turner (summer 2005). The Recorder Music of Christopher Ball, Part 1. Recorder Magazine 25 (2); 43
  2. ^ a b c d e Thomas Hancox (September 2007). New faces: Adam Walker. Pan: The Flute Magazine 37–41
  3. ^ a b c d Robert Markow (1 May 2010). A Conversation with Christopher Ball. Fanfare
  4. ^ Christopher Monk (1973). Where the wind blows. Early Music 1: 101–105 JSTOR 3125992
  5. ^ Robert Donington (1975). Music in London: Early Music. The Musical Times 116: 262–63 JSTOR 959125
  6. ^ Robert Donington (1974). Music in London: Early Music. The Musical Times 115: 965 JSTOR 958220
  7. ^ Howard Mayer Brown (1974). Music in London: Early Music. The Musical Times 115: 588–89 JSTOR 959777
  8. ^ Clifford Armstrong (1977). Zadar Festival 1976. Early Music 5: 125–27 JSTOR 3125868
  9. ^ Christopher Monk (1975). Where the wind blows. Early Music 3: 393–97 JSTOR 3125414
  10. ^ Anon. (1975). Activities. Early Music 3: 420–27 JSTOR 3125439
  11. ^ David Fallows (1977). Review: Medieval Paris by Praetorius Consort, Ball; Purcell Consort, Burgess. The Musical Times 118: 739 JSTOR 959513
  12. ^ Peter Willsher (1977). Recordings: Quarterly Checklist 21. Early Music 5: 445–51; lists reviews by Gramophone, Hi-Fi News and Record Review and Records and Recording JSTOR 3126123
  13. ^ Mark Steighner (1979). Consorting with Praetorius: Establishing an Early Music Ensemble. Music Educators Journal 66: 50–53, 80 doi:10.2307/3395717
  14. ^ Joan Chissell (3 April 1974). London debuts. The Times (59055)
  15. ^ a b c d R. James Tobin (2012), CD Review: Christopher Ball Concertos. Classical Net (accessed 17 April 2022)
  16. ^ a b Robert Markow (January/February 2010). Ball Violin Concerto. 5 Bagatelles. From the Hebrides. Celtic Twilight. Christopher Ball, cond; Thomas Gould (vn); Paul Arden-Taylor (ob, Eh, rcr); Leslie Craven (c); Celia Birkinshaw (bn); Emerald Concert O. OMNIBUS 5003 (74:40) Fanfare
  17. ^ a b c d Jack Sullivan (November/December 1999). Ball: Recorder Concerto; Oboe Concerto; Scenes from a Comedy; Pagan Piper; Pan Overheard. American Record Guide 62 (6): 89
  18. ^ a b Recorder Music by Christopher Ball Recorder Magazine (accessed 17 April 2022); quotes from reviews in Classic FM Magazine, Classical Record Reviews and Recorder Magazine
  19. ^ a b c d Andrew Achenbach (July 2012). Concertos from clarinetist, conductor and composer Christopher Ball. Gramophone (accessed 17 April 2022)
  20. ^ a b Julian Coward (March 2007). Reviews: CDs: Something Old. Something Borrowed, Something New. Jacob and Molly Roseman (flute and piano) / The Jennings-Johnson Duo. Concertartistsguild / Christopher Ball: Works featuring wind instruments, with Leslie Craven (Clarinet), Adam Walker (flute). Quantum QM 7040. Pan: The Flute Magazine 53–54
  21. ^ Julian Haylock (31 August 2009). Celtic Twilight. Ball: Violin Concerto, Five Bagatelles for wind trio, From the Hebrides, Celtic Twilight. The Strad (accessed 17 April 2022)
  22. ^ Tim Homfray (25 July 2012). Ball: Cello Concerto no.1, Song Without Words, Roundelay, Close of the Day, Folksong Arrangements, For Stjepan. The Strad (accessed 17 April 2022)
  23. ^ Christine Woodward (December 2009). Pan: The Flute Magazine 69
  24. ^ Patrick Hanudel (May/Jun 2009). Expressions: Schocker, Wakefield, Jackson, Bimbi, Hexel, Ball. Leslie Craven, Tom Jackson, cl; Rachel Attwell, p; Katherine Thomas, hp; Jonathan Burgess, fl. American Record Guide 72 (3): 173–74
  25. ^ Frank Michael (2009). Christopher Ball: Invocations of Pan. Tibia 34 (4): 626
  26. ^ John Turner (autumn 2005). The Recorder Music of Christopher Ball, Part 2. Recorder Magazine 25 (3): 77–85
  27. ^ Stephen H. Smith. "Survey" in Albion's Glory: A Celebration of Twentieth Century English Composers (Troubador; 2022) (ISBN 9781800466968)
  28. ^ Alan Titchmarsh (1 February 2014). Alan Titchmarsh: why I love to listen to film and TV music. The Daily Telegraph
  29. ^ Christopher Ball: Composer – Conductor – Recorder soloist – Photographer (accessed 17 April 2022)
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