Sir John Michael Pritchard
born on 5/2/1921 in London, England, United Kingdom
died on 5/12/1989 in San Francisco, CA, United States
John Pritchard (conductor)
Sir John Michael Pritchard CBE (5 February 19215 December 1989) was an English conductor. He was known for his interpretations of Mozart operas and for his support of contemporary music.
Life and career
Pritchard was born in London, to a musical family. His father, Albert Edward Pritchard, was a violinist with the London Symphony Orchestra. The young Pritchard studied violin, piano, and conducting in Italy.[1]
Pritchard, as a conscientious objector, refused to serve in the Second World War, but was in any case registered unfit on medical grounds. In 1943 he took over the semi-professional Derby String Orchestra and was its principal conductor until 1951. He joined the music staff of Glyndebourne Festival Opera in 1947 and was appointed chorus master in 1949. He remained associated with Glyndebourne for most of his career, as conductor, music counsellor (from 1963), principal conductor (1968) and musical director (196978).[1][2]
Beyond Glyndebourne, Pritchard appeared with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, at Edinburgh in 1952 (deputising for Ernest Ansermet, who was ill). He made his début at the Royal Opera House in 1951 and at the Vienna State Opera in 1952. He appeared regularly with the Vienna Symphony (19535).[1][2]
For Glyndebourne in this period he conducted Mozart's Idomeneo and Richard Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos at the Edinburgh festivals of 1953 and 1954 and Rossini's La Cenerentola at the Berlin Festival, a performance described by the Dictionary of National Biography as 'a triumph'.[1]
In 1957, Pritchard was appointed principal conductor of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic where he launched the Musica Viva series showcasing contemporary music. His success in Liverpool led to his appointment as musical director of the London Philharmonic Orchestra (19626). Freelancing after leaving the LPO, he conducted concerts in Berlin, Leipzig, Dresden, Philadelphia and the Far East, and opera in Buenos Aires, Chicago, San Francisco, New York, Salzburg, Florence, and Munich. In 1973 he conducted the London Philharmonic in Chinathe first visit by a Western orchestra.[1]
His later permanent posts were chief conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, (198289) and musical director of the Cologne Opera (1978), La Monnaie, Brussels (1981), and the San Francisco Opera (1986). At the time of his death he was preparing Wagner's Ring cycle for San Francisco.[1]
Pritchard was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1962 and knighted in 1983. The prestigious Shakespeare Prize (Hamburg) was awarded him in 1975.[1]
He died in 1989 in Daly City, California, USA. His homosexuality was described as "unabashed"; he left a large part of his estate to his partner, Terry MacInnes.[1]
Repertoire
John Pritchard was a champion of a wide range of new music, conducting the premieres of Britten's Gloriana and Tippett's The Midsummer Marriage and King Priam, all at Covent Garden, and the British première of Henze's Elegy for Young Lovers at Glyndebourne. Of the classics of the repertoire he was noted for his Mozart and Richard Strauss. His recordings include Idomeneo, L'incoronazione di Poppea, Falstaff, Macbeth, Hansel and Gretel, L'elisir d'amore (with Plácido Domingo), Il segreto di Susanna (with Renata Scotto and Renato Bruson), Lucia di Lammermoor and La traviata (the last two with Joan Sutherland).[2]
Recordings
- Lucia di Lammermoor Joan Sutherland (Lucia), André Turp (Edgardo), John Shaw (Enrico), Joseph Rouleau (Raimondo), Kenneth MacDonald (Arturo), Margreta Elkins (Alisa), Edgar Evans (Normanno), Chorus & Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, John Pritchard, recorded 1961 Celestial Audio CA 345
- Idomeneo Richard Lewis (Idomeneo), Leopold Simoneau (Idamante), Sena Jurinac (Ilia), Lucille Udovick (Elettra), Chorus & Orchestra of the Glyndebourne Festival, John Pritchard, recorded 1956
Notes
- 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 Ponsonby, Robert, "Pritchard, Sir John Michael (1918-1989)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004, accessed 4 November 2007
- 2.0 2.1 2.2 Goodwin, Noel: 'John Pritchard', Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy (Accessed 4 Nov 2007), [1]
References
- Conway, Helen (1994). Sir John Pritchard: His Life in Music, London: Andre Deutsch Ltd.
External links
- Interview #1 with John Pritchard by Bruce Duffie, December 3, 1980 (before knighthood)
- Interview #2 with Sir John Pritchard (mostly about Wagner) by Bruce Duffie, September 29, 1984
- Interview with Kiri Te Kanawa and Sir John Pritchard by Bruce Duffie, December 19, 1987
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Principal Conductors | |
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Julius Benedict (1860s) Max Bruch (1880) Charles Hallé (1883) Henry Wood Louis Cohen (1930s) Malcolm Sargent (1942) Hugo Rignold (1948) Paul Kletzki (1954) Efrem Kurtz (1955) John Pritchard (1957) Charles Groves (1963) Walter Weller (1977) David Atherton (1980) Marek Janowski (1983) Libor Peek (1987) Petr Altrichter (1997) Gerard Schwarz (2001) Vasily Petrenko (2006) |
London Philharmonic Orchestra Principal Conductors | |
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Thomas Beecham (1932) Eduard van Beinum (1947) Adrian Boult (1950) William Steinberg (1958) John Pritchard (1962) Bernard Haitink (1967) Georg Solti| (1979) Klaus Tennstedt (1983) Franz Welser-Möst (1990) Kurt Masur (2000) |
BBC Symphony Orchestra Chief Conductors | |
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Adrian Boult (1930) Malcolm Sargent (1950) Rudolf Schwarz (1957) Antal Doráti (1962) Colin Davis (1967) Pierre Boulez (1971) Rudolf Kempe (1976) Gennady Rozhdestvensky (1978) John Pritchard (1982) Andrew Davis (1989) Leonard Slatkin (2000) Jií Blohlávek (2006) |
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