Sidney Clement Sutcliffe (6 October 1918 – 1 July 2001) was a British

oboist An oboist (formerly hautboist) is a musician who plays the oboe or any oboe family instrument, including the oboe d'amore, cor anglais or English horn, bass oboe and piccolo oboe or oboe musette. The following is a list of notable past a ...

. He played in the

London Philharmonic The London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO) is one of five permanent symphony orchestras based in London. It was founded by the conductors Thomas Beecham, Sir Thomas Beecham and Malcolm Sargent in 1932 as a rival to the existing London Symphony O ...

Philharmonia 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. Among the conductors who worked with the orchestra in its early years were Richard Strauss, ...

and BBC Symphony orchestras, and was professor of oboe at the

Royal College of Music The Royal College of Music is a music school, conservatoire established by royal charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, UK. It offers training from the Undergraduate education, undergraduate to the Doctorate, doctoral level in a ...

in London.

Life and career

Sutcliffe, known informally as "Jock", was born in Edinburgh on 6 October 1918, the son of the cellist Stanley Sutcliffe and his wife Elsie, ''née'' Hall, a pianist. He was educated at

George Watson's College George Watson's College is a co-educational independent day school in Scotland, situated on Colinton Road, in the Merchiston area of Edinburgh. It was first established as a hospital school in 1741, became a day school in 1871, and was merge ...

.Gaster, p. 707 He began his musical studies as a cellist, but joined the army in 1934 to earn a living as a bandsman and was assigned to the oboe. He won a

Kneller Hall Kneller Hall is a Grade II listed mansion in Whitton, in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. It housed the Royal Military School of Music, training musicians for the British Army, which acquired the building in the mid-19th century. It ...

scholarship to the

(RCM) in London, where he studied for three years with

Léon Goossens Léon Jean Goossens, CBE, FRCM (12 June 1897 – 13 February 1988) was an English oboist. Career Goossens was born in Liverpool, Lancashire, and studied at Liverpool College of Music and the Royal College of Music. His father was violinist an ...

;"Sidney Sutcliffe: Oboist and teacher with a sweet tone and a sweet nature", ''The Times'', 20 July 2001, p. 21 he also studied the cello."Sidney Sutcliffe"
, ''The Guardian'', 12 July 2001 At the age of 17, while a student at the RCM, Sutcliffe made his professional debut, at the

Wigmore Hall Wigmore Hall is a concert hall located at 36 Wigmore Street, London. Originally called Bechstein Hall, it specialises in performances of chamber music, early music, vocal music and song recitals. It is widely regarded as one of the world's leadi ...

, London. In 1938 he was appointed principal oboe in the

Sadler's Wells Sadler's Wells Theatre is a performing arts venue in Clerkenwell, London, England located on Rosebery Avenue next to New River Head. The present-day theatre is the sixth on the site since 1683. It consists of two performance spaces: a 1,500-se ...

orchestra, but was recalled to the army on the outbreak of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

the following year. He was due to be sent to Calais during the evacuation of Dunkirk, but was discovered to have

astigmatism Astigmatism is a type of refractive error due to rotational asymmetry in the eye's refractive power. This results in distorted or blurred vision at any distance. Other symptoms can include eyestrain, headaches, and trouble driving at ni ...

, and was kept on home duties. He was posted to Winchester to help to form a new band, and played the

saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of Single-reed instrument, single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed (mouthpi ...

in a

Dixieland Dixieland jazz, also referred to as traditional jazz, hot jazz, or simply Dixieland, is a style of jazz based on the music that developed in New Orleans at the start of the 20th century. The 1917 recordings by the Original Dixieland Jass Band ...

group and a

big band A big band or jazz orchestra is a type of musical ensemble of jazz music that usually consists of ten or more musicians with four sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section. Big bands originated during the early 1910s ...

. The principal oboist of the

London Philharmonic Orchestra The London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO) is one of five permanent symphony orchestras based in London. It was founded by the conductors Sir Thomas Beecham and Malcolm Sargent in 1932 as a rival to the existing London Symphony and BBC Sym ...

(LPO), Michael Dobson, heard him playing and asked him to deputise for him for a recording session. This led to his replacing Dobson when the latter moved on in 1945. At the LPO Sutcliffe spent what he called "four happy but strenuous years". The LPO, lacking public or private subsidy, had to be exceptionally hard-working. In a typical post-war season the orchestra gave more than twice as many concerts as the

London Symphony Orchestra The London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) is a British symphony orchestra based in London. Founded in 1904, the LSO is the oldest of London's orchestras, symphony orchestras. The LSO was created by a group of players who left Henry Wood's Queen's ...

and seven times as many as the

and

Royal Philharmonic The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO) is a British symphony orchestra based in London, that performs and produces primarily classic works. The RPO was established by Thomas Beecham in 1946. In its early days, the orchestra secured profitable ...

orchestras. In 1948 Sutcliffe married Thelma Roberts, one of the orchestra's secretaries. In 1949 after turning him down once, Sutcliffe accepted

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 the ...

's invitation to join the Philharmonia. The orchestra was gaining a reputation as the best in Britain except for its woodwind section, where Sir Thomas Beecham's celebrated "

Royal Family A royal family is the immediate family of kings/queens, emirs/emiras, sultans/ sultanas, or raja/ rani and sometimes their extended family. The term imperial family appropriately describes the family of an emperor or empress, and the term p ...

" of wind players in the Royal Philharmonic was the most admired. Legge aimed to rival it with what he called his "royal flush", comprising Sutcliffe, Bernard Walton (clarinet),

Gareth Morris Gareth Charles Walter Morris (13 May 192014 February 2007) was a British flautist. He was the principal flautist of a number of London orchestras including the Boyd Neel Orchestra before joining the Philharmonia Orchestra. He was the princip ...

(flute) and (from 1951)

Cecil James Cecil Edwin James (10 April 1913 – 13 January 1999) was a prominent English bassoonist born in London to a musical family. His father Wilfred (1878-1941) was a bassoonist in the Queen's Hall Orchestra and professor at the Royal College of Music ...

(bassoon].Schwarzkopf, p. 114 In 1964 Sutcliffe moved to the

BBC Symphony Orchestra The BBC Symphony Orchestra (BBC SO) is a British orchestra based in London. Founded in 1930, it was the first permanent salaried orchestra in London, and is the only one of the city's five major symphony orchestras not to be self-governing. T ...

, where he remained for seven years. Sutcliffe was a teacher at the RCM for 20 years and had ties with the National Youth Orchestra, the National Youth Orchestra of Wales and the Schools Music Association. He retired in 1983, but after his wife died, he accepted

Yehudi Menuhin Yehudi or Jehudi (Hebrew: יהודי, endonym for Jew) is a common Hebrew name: * Yehudi Menuhin (1916–1999), violinist and conductor ** Yehudi Menuhin School, a music school in Surrey, England ** Who's Yehoodi?, a catchphrase referring to t ...

's invitation to return to his first instrument, the cello, and teach at the Menuhin School, which he did until his death. He died on 5 July 2001, aged 82.

References and sources

References

Sources

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sutcliffe, Sydney 1918 births 2001 deaths 20th-century classical musicians Alumni of the Royal College of Music British classical oboists