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Boyd Neel

Boyd Neel is one of a handful of conductors who can rightfully take credit to discovering (or, more properly, rediscovering) an entire performing genre. The fact that music was his second career--he was first a fully trained, licensed, and practicing physician--makes his achievement even more remarkable. Since the 1970's and the growth of popularity of early music, the existence of string orchestras has been every common, with dozens springing up every year. But in the 1930's, the idea of a professional ensemble of chamber orchestra dimensions was virtually unknown, until Boyd Neel decided to found one. Boyd Neel was already training to be a naval officer during the period immediately after World War I, when the reduction in the size of the Royal Navy forced him to choose another career. Neel studied medicine at Cambridge, and became a fully qualified and licensed physician in 1930. But during the course of his medical training, he'd also taken up music theory at the Guildhall School of Music, and by 1932, he was recruiting members of a proposed new orchestra by placing notices on the bulletin boards of various London colleges. The Boyd Neel London String Orchestra--consisting of 11 violins, two violas, two cellos, and two double-basses--made its debut at London's Aeolian Hall in June of 1933, with a program that included the British premiere of Respighi's Ancient Airs and Dances Suite No. 3, Haydn's Piano Concerto in D Major, Tchaikovsky's Serenade for Strings, and the Adagietto from Mahler's Symphony No. 5. Immediately after that concert debut, Neel was called away to deliver a baby, but the more important cultural birth that day took place in the concert hall--the beginnings of the modern chamber orchestra, and the roots of the early music and authentic performance movements. Up to that time, professional orchestral activity in England, as elsewhere, was confined to large-scale, Romantic era sized orchestras, consisting of upwards of 100 players. Those few Baroque and Classical era works that were performed were, except under unusual circumstances, played by forces that were far larger than the music demanded, and modern works such as the Respighi and the Mahler were considered novelty pieces. The success of the Boyd Neel Orchestra proved that this repertory could stand on its own and, in the hands of the right players, provide boundless inspiration for musicians and listeners alike. The orchestra made its first broadcast in December of 1933, and in the autumn of 1934 they made their recording debut under contract to England's Decca Records, with Gustav Holst's St. Paul's Suite. The Holst piece, released as a 78 r.p.m. album for a cost of three shillings--the equivalent of about a dollar and a half, in 1934 dollars--was an immediate success. The group's second release, Vaughan Williams' Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis (recorded under the supervision of the composer in January of 1936), was to prove even more popular. In August of 1937, the Boyd Neel Orchestra performed at the Salzburg Festival, premiering a new work written specifically for the occasion, Benjamin Britten's Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge, which established the reputation of the then little known Britten and made the orchestra well known in international circles. The orchestra itself recorded the piece the following month in London, and it quickly became one of Britten's most popular instrumental works. In addition to performances of these modern works, the orchestra made its name by re-establishing seldom heard Baroque string works by Johann Sebastian and Johann Christian Bach, Handel (including the Water Music), Vivaldi, Torelli, and Geminiani, and made the first recording ever done of Handel's Concerti Grossi Op. 6, today regarded as a staple of the Baroque repertory, and also the piano concertos of Mozart. World War II brought an interruption to the group's activities, as Neel's skills as a doctor were more necessary for the national emergency. After the war, however, the orchestra was revived under Neel's leadership, and undertook a new round of tours and recordings. Neel by that time was regarded as far more than a talented music enthusiast, and conducted the Sadler's Wells Opera and the D'Oyly Carte Opera. In 1953, he was appointed the dean of the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, the most important music college in Canada. He held the position for 18 years and became a major contributor to the musical life of Canada. He formed the Hart House Orchestra, a Canadian counterpart to the Boyd Neel Orchestra, with which he appeared at festivals around the world, and also became director of the Sarnia Light Opera Festival in Ontario. Meanwhile, the Boyd Neel Orchestra was renamed Philomusica of London after Neel's departure. It continued performing as well as recording for English Decca, specializing in the works of Bach, Handel, and other Baroque era composers into the early stereo period. Philomusica of London served as an early vehicle for the work of such noted figures in the early music movement as harpsichordist/scholar Thurston Dart, and provided the model for the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields (with which Dart later worked) and the entire next generation of chamber orchestra ensembles.
© Bruce Eder /TiVo
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