Andrew Penny
Conductor Andrew Penny is a major specialist in British music on recordings, having made more than 50 albums, including a complete cycle of the symphonies of Malcolm Arnold. He is the music director of the Hull Symphony Orchestra.
Penny was born on December 4, 1952, in Hull (Kingston upon Hull) in Yorkshire, England. He was not especially oriented toward music as a youth but was encouraged by a teacher named William Arter, who had been partially deafened by a blast during World War II. He took up the clarinet, which he studied at the Royal Northern College of Music, and also sang in the Hallé Choir. As early as age 16, he enjoyed gathering groups of his fellow students to perform orchestral works so that he could conduct them. Thus he began taking conducting courses, working with Timothy Reynish and Charles Groves, and later, at the BBC Conductors Seminar in 1985, with Edward Downes. By that time, Penny was already conductor of the Hull Symphony Orchestra, having been appointed in 1982; he has held the position ever since and is the longest-serving individual to hold the position. In 1999, Penny conducted two performances of Mahler's Symphony No. 8 ("Symphony of a Thousand") during Hull's millennium celebrations. He was named a Member of the Order of the British Empire in 2014.
Penny is especially well known for his large collection of recordings, many of them made with the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland and often recorded for the Marco Polo label, and, after the acquisition of its catalog by Naxos, for that label. He has received considerable attention for his cycle of Arnold's symphonies with the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, and he has recorded a great deal of lesser-known of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, from Britain and elsewhere, such as that of Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco. Penny is an early champion of the revival of the non-operetta music of Arthur Sullivan. He has also recorded with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, with which he issued an album of Sullivan's instrumental music in 1994, reissued in 2021.
© James Manheim /TiVo
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Symphonies Nos. 7 and 8
National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, Andrew Penny
Classical - Released by Naxos on Aug 26, 2001
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Piano Concertos Nos. 1 and 2 / Xylophone Sonata
Anthony Goldstone, Peter Donohoe, Royal Northern College of Music Symphony Orchestra, Andrew Penny
Classical - Released by Naxos on Oct 3, 2005
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
British Light Music
RTE Concert Orchestra, Andrew Penny
Classical - Released by Marco-Polo on Mar 21, 1995
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Tansman: Concertino pour guitare et orchestre
Royal Ballet Sinfonia, Frédéric Zigante, Andrew Penny
Classical - Released by Stradivarius on Jun 24, 1999
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Ouvertures pour les pièces de Shakespeare (Volume 2)
West Australian Symphony Orchestra, Andrew Penny
Classical - Released by Naxos on Oct 6, 2010
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Richard III - Theme & Six Diversions - Les Saisons
RTE Concert Orchestra, Andrew Penny
Classical - Released by Marco-Polo on Aug 22, 1995
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
GIBBS: Symphonies Nos. 1 and 3
National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, Andrew Penny
Classical - Released by Marco-Polo on Sep 14, 1994
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Symphonie n°2 - Welsh Rhapsody
National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, Andrew Penny
Classical - Released by Marco-Polo on Jun 28, 1995
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
MENDELSSOHN: Concerto for Violin, Piano and Strings / Violin Concerto in D minor
Marat Bisengaliev, Benjamin Frith, Northern Sinfonia, Andrew Penny
Classical - Released by Naxos on Aug 7, 1998
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
WALTON: Henry V
Michael Sheen, Anton Lesser, RTE Concert Orchestra, Andrew Penny
Classical - Released by Naxos on Apr 27, 1998
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
SULLIVAN: Macbeth / King Arthur / Merry Wifes of Windsor
Margaret MacDonald, RTE Chamber Choir, RTE Concert Orchestra, Andrew Penny
Opera - Released by Marco-Polo on Feb 25, 2022
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Children of Don - The Birds of Rhiannon
Ukraine National Symphony Orchestra, Andrew Penny
Classical - Released by Marco-Polo on Jun 6, 1995
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
W.H. Smiths Vol. 16 (British Light Music)
Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra, RTE Concert Orchestra, Adrian Leaper, Ernest Tomlinson, Gary Carpenter, Andrew Penny
Classical - Released by Naxos on Jan 28, 1999
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
British Light Music
Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra, Kenneth Edge, Andrew Penny
Classical - Released by Marco-Polo on Sep 23, 1998
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
BRIAN: Symphonies Nos. 20 and 25
Ukraine National Symphony Orchestra, Andrew Penny
Classical - Released by Marco-Polo on Jan 1, 1996
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Scandinavian String Music
Orchestra of the Mill, Andrew Penny
Classical - Released by Amadis on Jan 9, 2017
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
British Festival (A)
Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra, CSR Symphony Orchestra, Bratislava, Slovak Philharmonic Chorus, Andrew Penny, Adrian Leaper
Classical - Released by Naxos on Jan 1, 2007
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Hamlet - As You like
RTE Concert Orchestra, Andrew Penny
Classical - Released by Naxos on Jan 18, 1999
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
SULLIVAN: Ile Enchantee (L') / Thespis
RTE Concert Orchestra, Andrew Penny
Ballets - Released by Marco-Polo on Oct 7, 1992
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
SULLIVAN: Merchant of Venice / Henry VIII / Sapphire Necklace
Emmanuel Lawler, RTE Concert Orchestra, Andrew Penny
Classical - Released by Marco-Polo on Oct 7, 1992
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo