George Anthony Thomas Weldon (5 June 1908 – 17 August 1963) was an English conductor.

Biography

Born in

Chichester Chichester ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and civil parish in the Chichester District, Chichester district of West Sussex, England.OS Explorer map 120: Chichester, South Harting and Selsey Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher ...

Sussex Sussex (Help:IPA/English, /ˈsʌsɪks/; from the Old English ''Sūþseaxe''; lit. 'South Saxons'; 'Sussex') is an area within South East England that was historically a kingdom of Sussex, kingdom and, later, a Historic counties of England, ...

, Weldon was the son of Major F H Weldon of the

Sherwood Foresters The Sherwood Foresters (Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment) was a line infantry regiment of the British Army in existence for just under 90 years, from 1881 to 1970. In 1970, the regiment was amalgamated with the Worcestershire Regiment to ...

."Mr. George Weldon", ''The Times'', 9 August 1963, p. 2 He was educated at

Sherborne School Sherborne School is a full-boarding school for boys aged 13 to 18 located beside Sherborne Abbey in the Dorset town of Sherborne. The school has been in continuous operation on the same site for over 1,300 years. It was founded in 705 AD by Ald ...

and the

Royal College of Music The Royal College of Music (RCM) is a conservatoire established by royal charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, UK. It offers training from the undergraduate to the doctoral level in all aspects of Western Music including pe ...

. He studied conducting with

Malcolm Sargent Sir Harold Malcolm Watts Sargent (29 April 1895 – 3 October 1967) was an English conductor, organist and composer widely regarded as Britain's leading conductor of choral works. The musical ensembles with which he was associated include ...

and

Aylmer Buesst Aylmer Buesst (28 January 18833 January 1970) was an Australian conductor, teacher and scholar, who spent his career in the United Kingdom. He was mainly associated with opera and vocal music. He also wrote a work on the leitmotifs in Richard Wag ...

. Weldon gained experience conducting regional orchestras in Newbury,

Tunbridge Wells Royal Tunbridge Wells (formerly, until 1909, and still commonly Tunbridge Wells) is a town in Kent, England, southeast of Central London. It lies close to the border with East Sussex on the northern edge of the High Weald, whose sandstone ...

and

Hastings Hastings ( ) is a seaside town and Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in East Sussex on the south coast of England, east of Lewes and south east of London. The town gives its name to the Battle of Hastings, which took place to th ...

.Obituary, ''The Musical Times''
Vol. 104, No. 1448 (October 1963), p. 731 In 1943, at 36 years of age, he became the conductor of the

City of Birmingham Orchestra The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO) is a British orchestra based in Birmingham, England. It is the resident orchestra at Symphony Hall, Birmingham in Birmingham, which has been its principal performance venue since 1991. Its adminis ...

in succession to Leslie Heward. He was dismissed in 1950, following unsubstantiated rumours that he was having an affair with

Ruth Gipps Ruth Dorothy Louisa ("Wid") Gipps (21 February 1921 – 23 February 1999) was an English composer, oboist, pianist, conductor and educator. She composed music in a wide range of genres, including five symphonies, seven concertos and ma ...

, choirmaster of the Birmingham orchestra's chorus. It was announced that Weldon would be replaced by Rudolf Schwarz; according to Gipps, Weldon resigned before he could be dismissed. In 1952 Weldon became assistant to

Sir John Barbirolli Sir John Barbirolli ( Giovanni Battista Barbirolli; 2 December 189929 July 1970) was a British conductor and cellist. He is remembered above all as conductor of the Hallé Orchestra in Manchester, which he helped save from dissolution in 1943 ...

at the Hallé Orchestra and remained in that position until his death. Supporting Barbirolli he conducted many of the more challenging new works introduced at the

Cheltenham Music Festival The Cheltenham Music Festival is a British music festival, held annually in Cheltenham in the summer months (June, July) since 1945. The festival is renowned for premieres of contemporary music, hosting over 250 music premieres as of July 2004. ...

. In 1955 and 1956 he also conducted the

Sadler's Wells Ballet The Royal Ballet is a British internationally renowned classical ballet company, based at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, London, England. The largest of the five major ballet companies in Great Britain, the Royal Ballet was founded in ...

. 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 - with the support of

Walter Legge Harry Walter Legge (1 June 1906 – 22 March 1979) was an English classical music record producer, most especially associated with EMI. His recordings include many sets later regarded as classics and reissued by EMI as "Great Recordings of th ...

- many records.George Weldon conducts British music
, review of Dutton Labs CDCLP4002 in ''Gramophone'', July 1997

Personal life and death

Weldon became well known for his love of sports cars and was an

Aston Martin Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings PLC () is a British manufacturer of Luxury car, luxury sports cars and grand tourers. Its predecessor was founded in 1913 by Lionel Martin and Robert Bamford. Headed from 1947 by David Brown (entrepreneur ...

owner and enthusiast. In 1961 was one of the first buyers of a

Jaguar E-Type The Jaguar E-Type, or the Jaguar XK-E for the North American market, is a British FMR layout, front mid-engined sports car that was manufactured by Jaguar Cars, Jaguar Cars Ltd from 1961 to 1974. Its sleek appearance, advanced technologies, ...

. His Birmingham address was 41 Portland Road,

Edgbaston Edgbaston () is a suburb of Birmingham, West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. It lies immediately south-west of Birmingham city centre, and was historically in Warwickshire. The Ward (electoral subdivision), wards of Edgbaston and Nort ...

. From the 1950s he occupied the first floor flat at 37 St. John’s Wood Road in London. Suffering from increasing ill-health (asthma and angina), Weldon nevertheless embarked on a conducting tour of South Africa in the Summer of 1963. He was found dead in his bed on the morning of 17 August at the West Country Hotel, Cape Town. ''The Cape Argus'' for Monday August 19th stated that the cause of his death ‘was officially established as heart failure’.

Recordings

Weldon made a series of recordings for the Columbia, EMI and Pye record labels. His stereophonic recording of

Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky ( ; 7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893) was a Russian composer during the Romantic period. He was the first Russian composer whose music made a lasting impression internationally. Tchaikovsky wrote some of the most popular ...

's '' The Sleeping Beauty'' with the

Philharmonia Orchestra The Philharmonia Orchestra is a British orchestra based in London. It was founded in 1945 by Walter Legge, a classical music record producer for EMI Classics, EMI. Among the conductors who worked with the orchestra in its early years were Rich ...

has been reissued on CD.

Elgar Sir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet, (; 2 June 1857 – 23 February 1934) was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orchestr ...

was one of his favourite composers. Numerous other recordings by Weldon are also available.George Weldon & the CBO Historic Recordings
, ''MusicWeb International'', 2013

Notes

References

* *

External links

''George Weldon: A Life of Music and Very Fast Cars'' (2007), Margery Law & Jean Powrie

Portrait of George Weldon
by

Juliet Pannett Juliet Kathleen Pannett (née Somers; 15 July 1911 – 22 August 2005) was an English portrait painter. Background Born in Hove, East Sussex, Pannett started painting at three, and wanted to be a professional artist by seventeen. She trained ...

(1956), Royal Academy of Music
Royal Tunbridge Wells Choral Society archive. 1942-3
* Richard Bratby.

' (2019) 1908 births 1963 deaths English male conductors (music) Musicians from Chichester People educated at Sherborne School Alumni of the Royal College of Music 20th-century English conductors (music) 20th-century English male musicians Principal conductors of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra {{UK-conductor-stub