Neil McCauley
03-10-2016, 08:29
Prolific conductor who founded the Academy of St Martin in the Fields.
On the strength of what he had achieved by his early 30s, Sir Neville Marriner, who has died aged 92, would have been remembered as a decent orchestral and chamber music violinist. But at 34 he made a brilliant career move that led to his becoming one of the world’s best-known conductors. His chamber orchestra, the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, not only inaugurated a fashion for long-winded ensemble titles, but shot straight to the top of its class, beating the Germans and Italians at their own game. To achieve this feat in Britain, a land not noted for its string playing, was extraordinary.
Recordings were vital to the success of the Academy of St Martin’s, which initially played only .....
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/oct/02/sir-neville-marriner-obituary
On the strength of what he had achieved by his early 30s, Sir Neville Marriner, who has died aged 92, would have been remembered as a decent orchestral and chamber music violinist. But at 34 he made a brilliant career move that led to his becoming one of the world’s best-known conductors. His chamber orchestra, the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, not only inaugurated a fashion for long-winded ensemble titles, but shot straight to the top of its class, beating the Germans and Italians at their own game. To achieve this feat in Britain, a land not noted for its string playing, was extraordinary.
Recordings were vital to the success of the Academy of St Martin’s, which initially played only .....
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/oct/02/sir-neville-marriner-obituary