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Elgar Howarth

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Elgar Howarth
Howarth in 2012
Born(1935-11-04)4 November 1935
Cannock, Staffordshire, England
Died13 January 2025(2025-01-13) (aged 89)
Alma materUniversity of Manchester
Royal Manchester College of Music
Occupations
  • Conductor
  • composer
  • trumpeter
OrganizationsNew Music Manchester

Elgar Howarth (4 November 1935 – 13 January 2025) was an English conductor, composer and trumpeter. Grove noted that "his performances are marked by powerful concentration and a clear communication of sometimes complex scores2.[1] He conducted many world premieres.

Life and career

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Howarth was born in Cannock, Staffordshire, on 4 November 1935.[2] He was educated in the 1950s at University of Manchester and the Royal Manchester College of Music (the predecessor of the Royal Northern College of Music), where his fellow classmates included the composers Harrison Birtwistle, David Ellis, Alexander Goehr, Peter Maxwell Davies and the pianist John Ogdon. Together they formed New Music Manchester, a group dedicated to the performance of new music.[3]

He started his career in the trumpet section of the Royal Opera orchestra and with other London orchestras.[1]He worked with all leading British orchestras,[like whom?] as well as many orchestras worldwide.[like whom?] He played the opening bars of Tippett's King Priam at its Coventry premiere in 1962, conducting the whole work years later for English National Opera.[4] His, unplanned, conducting debut was with the London Sinfonietta on tour in Italy and following further work on the concert platform he was engaged for the premiere of György Ligeti's Le Grand Macabre at the Royal Swedish Opera in Stockholm in 1978, as well as in Hamburg, Paris, and London at ENO.[1] He later conducted the premieres of four operas by Harrison Birtwistle: The Mask of Orpheus at English National Opera (1986), Yan Tan Tethera for Opera Factory (1986), Gawain at the Royal Opera in London (1991) and The Second Mrs Kong at Glyndebourne (1994).[5] He was Principal Guest Conductor of Opera North from 1985 to 1988 where he led the UK premiere of Nielsen's Maskarade in 1990,[1] and Music Advisor to the company from 2002 to 2004. At Glyndebourne (and on tour with the company) he conducted Il Barbiere di Siviglia and Falstaff in 1981, The Electrification of the Soviet Union in 1987 and 1988, The Second Mrs Kong in 1994, and The Last Supper in 2000 and 2001.[6] He appeared at the Proms 23 times from 1970 to 1989, conducting several UK and world premieres.[7]

Howarth (centered) conducting the London Symphony Orchestra at the Piccolo Teatro di Milano in 2008

As a composer and former trumpet player, he wrote mainly for brass instruments. Swedish trumpeter Håkan Hardenberger premiered several of his works on cornet, including his Cornet Concerto, Canto, and Capriccio. He wrote arrangements such as The Carnival of Venice Variations for brass ensemble[8] and Modest Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition arranged for Philip Jones Brass Ensemble (Howarth himself participated in this group as a player and conductor). Composer Roy Newsome remarked that "Howarth's masterly rendition of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition (1979) dwarfed all previous transcriptions".[9]

He was brought up in a brass band family and maintained his interest in the art form. Howarth made a huge contribution to the modern repertoire of brass band music. Many of his works are recorded, most notably by the Grimethorpe Colliery Band[10] and the Eikanger-Bjørsvik band. He also was one of the trumpeters who performed with The Beatles on the song "Magical Mystery Tour". Howarth conducted the soundtrack for Frank Zappa and Tony Palmer's film 200 Motels.[11]

His discography includes Pierrot lunaire with Cleo Laine and the Nash Ensemble, and the suite from The Soldier's Tale, Dumbarton Oaks and Octet for wind in 1974, works by Brian Ferneyhough with the London Sinfonietta in 1978, Appalachian Spring and Music for Movies by Copland with the London Sinfonietta in 1981, music for brass by Hindemith with the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble in 1981, Gawain with the orchestra and chorus of the Royal Opera House in 1996, and Bliss with the forces of Opera Australia in 2015.

A number of personal copies of works he conducted (some including annotations) are catalogued[12] at the University of East Anglia's School of Music.[13]

In December 2003, he was revealed to have rejected a CBE.[14] Howarth died on 13 January 2025, at the age of 89.[15][16]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d Goodwin, Noel. Elgar Howarth. In: The New Grove Dictionary of Opera. Macmillan, London and New York, 1997, p.758.
  2. ^ "Elgar und Brahms". Hochschule für Musik Saar (in German). 31 October 2007. Retrieved 13 January 2025 – via lifePR.
  3. ^ Elgar Howarth. Archived 26 July 2014 at the Wayback Machine. Royal Academy of Music.
  4. ^ Clark A. King Priam (review of English National Opera at the London Coliseum). Opera. January 2000. Vol. 51, No. 1. p. 104–107.
  5. ^ "Elgar Howarth". Archived from the original on 3 October 2015. Retrieved 2 October 2015.
  6. ^ Elgar Howarth in the Glyndebourne Archive accessed 14 January 2025.
  7. ^ Results for Elgar Howarth in the BBC Proms database accessed 14 January 2025.
  8. ^ "The Carnival of Venice Variations". BBC. Archived from the original on 7 November 2015. Retrieved 16 August 2015.
  9. ^ Newsome, Roy (2006). The Modern Brass Band: From the 1930s to the New Millennium. Ashgate Publishing. p. 125. ISBN 9780754607175. Retrieved 16 August 2015. However, Howarth's masterly rendition of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition (1979) dwarfed all previous transcriptions.
  10. ^ Elgar Howarth. Archived 26 July 2014 at the Wayback Machine. Grimethorpe Colliery Band.
  11. ^ "200 Motels – Details". AFI Catalog of Feature Films. Retrieved 31 May 2019.
  12. ^ Elgar Howarth Scores. University of East Anglia. Archived 7 February 2012 at the Wayback Machine.
  13. ^ School of Music. Archived 18 June 2006 at the Wayback Machine. University of East Anglia.
  14. ^ "Honoured? No thanks, say elite of arts and TV". The Independent. 22 December 2003. Retrieved 16 September 2021.
  15. ^ "Elgar Howarth 1935-2025". The National Youth Brass Band of Great Britain. 14 January 2025. Retrieved 15 January 2025.
  16. ^ Anderson, Colin (14 January 2025). "Elgar Howarth, 1935 - 2025". Colin's Column. Retrieved 15 January 2025.
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Cultural offices
Preceded by
Paul Daniel
(Music Director)
 Music Advisor, Opera North
1997–1999 		Succeeded by
Steven Sloane
(Music Director)
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