George Weldon

born on 5/6/1908 in Chichester, West Sussex, England, United Kingdom

died on 17/8/1963

George Weldon

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

George Weldon (5 June 1908, Chichester, England – 17 August 1963, South Africa) was an English conductor.

Biography

Weldon was the son of Major F H Weldon of the Sherwood Foresters.[1] He was educated at Sherborne School and the Royal College of Music. He studied conducting with Malcolm Sargent[2] and Aylmer Buesst.[3] In 1943, at 36 years of age, he became the conductor of the City of Birmingham Orchestra in succession to Leslie Heward. He was dismissed in 1950, following unsubstantiated rumours that he was having an affair with Ruth Gipps, choirmaster of the Birmingham orchestra's chorus.[4] It was announced that Weldon would be replaced by Rudolf Schwarz; according to Gipps, Weldon resigned before he could be dismissed.[5]

In 1952 Weldon became assistant to Sir John Barbirolli at the Hallé Orchestra and remained in that position until his death. In 1955 and 1956 he also conducted the Sadler's Wells Ballet.[1] He became well known for his love of sports cars.[1] While in Manchester, Weldon took charge of the Hallé summer seasons of promenade concerts, and many industrial concerts around the north of England. He frequently conducted in London and abroad, made broadcasts and many records.[6]

Recordings

Weldon made a series of recordings for EMI. His recording of Tchaikovsky's The Sleeping Beauty with the Philharmonia Orchestra has been reissued on CD. Numerous other recordings by Weldon were also available on CD as of 2008.[7]

Notes

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 "Mr. George Weldon", The Times, 9 August 1963, p. 2
  2. Halstead, p. 15
  3. Naxos
  4. Halstead, p. 151
  5. Halstead, p. 32
  6. Chislett W A. Notes to British Concert Pops. EMI LP, 30123, 1970.
  7. amazon.com

References

  • Halstead, Jill (2006). Ruth Gipps: Anti-modernism, Nationalism, and Difference in English Music, Burlington, VT: Ashgate.

External links

  • George Weldon - A Life of Music and Very Fast Cars (2007)- Margery Law & Jean Powrie
This page was last modified 17.05.2014 00:47:02

This article uses material from the article George Weldon from the free encyclopedia Wikipedia and it is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.