Adrian
A. Smith
b. Kingston-upon-Hull,
28 October 1931
d. Huddersfield,
6 December 2005
Contributions from
John Quinn
Paul Serotsky
Sir Malcolm
Arnold, CBE
Arthur
Butterworth MBE
Mathew
Curtis
Keith
Llewellyn
Elaine
Carter
Marilyn
and Dick Myers, Edgewood Symphony
Orchestra
Stuart
Marsden, SPO Trumpeter
David
Golightly Composer
Maggie
Cotton CBSO Principal Percussionist
(retired), writer, critic
Pauline
Thornburn - pupil
Jean
Gooden, SPO oboe/cor anglais player
(retired)
Christopher
Woodhead, SPO Secretary and Violinist
Jenny
Carter, pupil
Graham
Moon – SPO Timpanist (1981- )
Web link: Slaithwaite
Philharmonic Orchestra
Following a protracted and debilitating
illness, Adrian Smith died peacefully
in his sleep at Kirkwood Hospice,
Huddersfield, on the evening of Tuesday
6 December.
Figuratively speaking,
Adrian was not just one man but a hundred
men. As John Quinn intimates below,
Adrian touched the lives of so many
people - from both within and far beyond
the bounds of Huddersfield - for so
many disparate reasons that it is all
but impossible for any one person to
do full justice to his life and achievements.
John’s admirable "appreciation"
richly deserves its "top billing"
because it fulfils, as well as any is
likely to, the rôle of a formal
obituary. However, it also opens a book
of remembrance, into which others can
add their own personal tributes – so
if you have one, then please send it
to Rob Barnett for inclusion. By this
means we hope to be able to build up
a composite picture which will do something
like "full justice" to this
remarkable man.
-~oOo~-
Obituary and Appreciation,
by John Quinn
I knew Adrian Smith
for over 40 years, first as a stimulating
teacher, then as a greatly valued friend
and mentor, and always as a consummate
and inspiring musician. In the following
appreciation I have drawn heavily on
an article I contributed, in early 2000,
to the Slaithwaite Philharmonic’s quarterly
magazine, Philharmonic. The title
of that article, ‘An Impressive Anniversary’:
thirty years of Adrian Smith and the
Slaithwaite Phil’ was a shameless
borrowing from the title of Adrian’s
own history of the orchestra, An
Improbable Centenary. The Life and Times
of the Slaithwaite Philharmonic Orchestra
1891-1990. That fascinating book
was as masterly a piece of historical
writing by a trained historian as it
was an affectionate and entertaining
portrait of a remarkable musical institution
by a perceptive and enthusiastic musician.
My links with Adrian
Smith go back to 1963 when I arrived
at what was then St. Gregory’s Grammar
School, Huddersfield (subsequently All
Saints’ Comprehensive School) as a first
form pupil. By coincidence, Adrian joined
the staff at the same time. Initially,
I encountered him as a teacher of History
but it was not long before he was stamping
his own personality very firmly on the
musical life of the school and the manner
in which he did so is, I believe, highly
relevant to his subsequent role with
the Slaithwaite Philharmonic Orchestra.
St Gregory’s was then
a fairly new school and did not have
much of a musical tradition. Though
Adrian was not the music master, within
a short time of his arrival at the school
he had formed a boy’s choir, which I
joined. Though few if any of the members
of the new choir could have done any
serious singing at our previous schools
Adrian had no interest in a ‘softly,
softly’ style. Instead we were pitched
straight in at the deep end and were
confronted with Britten’s Missa Brevis
in D, composed as recently as 1959 for
the choir of Westminster Cathedral,
no less. Adrian followed the Missa
Brevis with another work by Britten,
the even more demanding Ceremony
of Carols.
In due course Adrian
became involved with the school’s fledgling
orchestra and, as voices broke, he was
also able to develop a full choir. This
choir too was stretched from the outset.
The first major work to be undertaken
was Zoltan Kodaly’s Missa Brevis,
in the full orchestral version. I think
that it was in the programme for that
concert that a note appeared under the
name of the Headmaster in which Pierre
Boulez was quoted in support of the
ambitious choice of music. The Head
(prompted, I’m sure, by Adrian) reminded
the audience that, according to Pierre
Boulez: "without danger there is
no excitement; one does not learn to
swim in six inches of water." I
hope I have remembered the quotation
accurately for it seems to me to sum
up what was one of Adrian’s guiding
principles throughout his conducting
career.
The successful performance
of the Kodály Mass was later
followed by what in the mid 1960s was
another rarity at least in the UK, the
Requiem of Maurice Duruflé.
For this difficult score the school
orchestra again needed some stiffening.
By this time, however, Adrian was able
to ‘summon the cavalry’ from Slaithwaite
for by then his association with the
SPO had begun. He’d initially joined
as a violinist but after a short time
he was asked in 1969 to become Conductor
on a trial basis
I have dwelt at some
length on Adrian’s musical achievements
at St. Gregory’s because I think that
these may offer signposts to his future
musical career. The keynotes seem to
me to be enterprise; catholicity of
taste (Adrian’s accomplishments at that
time also included acting as M.D. for
very successful runs of three Broadway
musicals, produced by a neighbouring
school); a determination to involve
as many people as possible in music;
and a conviction that people could have
fun making music without any reduction
in standards.
I was able to continue
my links with Adrian after leaving St
Gregory’s thanks to my continuing membership
of the SPO and it was my good fortune
to play some part in the rejuvenation
and expansion of the orchestra in the
first few years of Adrian’s conductorship.
The Slaithwaite Philharmonic
Orchestra was based in a small mill
town a few miles outside Huddersfield
on the road to Oldham. It was typical
of the many long-established choirs,
brass bands and orchestras that existed
in even the smaller communities around
industrial towns such as Huddersfield.
The orchestra had enjoyed some true
glory days in the early twentieth century,
making successful appearances at what
was then the very prestigious Morecambe
Festival, but in more recent years it
had fallen on hard times with audiences
and playing membership in steep decline.
In short it was a pretty parlous state
when Adrian became its conductor in
1969. He set about the task of rebuilding
the orchestra with characteristic vigour.
Additional players were recruited from
various sources, usually attracted by
word of mouth and the rumour that something
interesting was beginning to happen
in Slaithwaite.
In 1980 Adrian led
the SPO in a performance of Elgar’s
First Symphony In my view it
was the key concert during my
time with the SPO. Indeed, I would suggest
that, with due deference to the many
triumphs which followed it (not to mention
the great successes of the SPO’s early
years), that performance of the Elgar
symphony has claims to be the single
most important performance the orchestra
has ever given. The players had to stretch
themselves significantly to surmount
the difficulties with which that glorious
score abounds. However, in Adrian they
had the best possible trainer and the
performance was a great success. To
do justice to such a complex, rich work
required the SPO membership of 1980
to make a quantum leap not just in terms
of technical competence but, crucially,
in terms of confidence and self-belief.
The undertaking, which was Adrian’s
idea of course, was therefore a risk,
but definitely a carefully calculated
risk.
That concert proved
that the SPO was capable of tackling
ambitious music and certainly gave the
committee the confidence to plan accordingly.
On that performance, I venture to suggest,
was founded the subsequent success of
Adrian’s SPO. We followed that performance
with successful renditions of the Vaughan
Williams London Symphony and
Shostakovich 10th Symphony.
These, in turn, paved the way for the
accounts of literally dozens of symphonies
and other major works by Nielsen, Rachmaninov,
Mahler, Malcolm Arnold, Walton, George
Lloyd and others, all of which lay in
the future (sadly, after I had left
the Orchestra.) In due course both the
other two Elgar symphonies were done.
Adrian stepped down
from the Slaithwaite podium at the end
of 2001 after an unprecedented thirty-two
years at the helm of the orchestra.
By the time he retired Adrian had led
the orchestra for over a quarter of
its (then) 110 year history and it is
almost certain that such a lengthy tenure
of office will never occur again; indeed,
it is probable that few other conductors
of amateur orchestras or choirs could
claim such a long period of service
to one organization.
Despite retiring from
conducting (sadly, guest conducting
invitations rarely seem to have come
his way) Adrian continued his immersion
in music in other ways. For some time
he’d been a concert reviewer for the
Huddersfield Examiner newspaper
and he continued this work. I know he
was never afraid to court controversy
– though never for its own sake – and
his reviews were always succinct, opinionated
and extremely well informed. To everything
he did he brought the same high standards
of intellectual rigour, economic prose
style and an insistence on correct grammar,
spelling and punctuation that, as a
teacher, he had always instilled in
his history pupils.
Those qualities he
also brought for a while to MusicWeb.
He retired from MusicWeb shortly after
introducing me to the reviewing panel
but only very recently, at the end of
November 2005, he began what was to
be, sadly, a very short-lived relationship
as a reviewer of classical CDs for the
Birmingham Post newspaper. He
wrote characteristically to me just
a few days before he died that he was
anticipating his second batch of reviews:
"This week should see a 'thumbs
down' for two discs of Mendelssohn's
organ music and possibly a mixed bag
from Gloucester [of choral music?] which
I haven't yet heard." Unfortunately,
his death probably means that the Mendelssohn
discs gained a critical reprieve!
In reviewing his farewell
SPO concert for the Orchestra’s magazine
I attempted to sum up Adrian’s achievements
by reference to some of the descriptions
others had applied to him. My MusicWeb
colleague, Paul Serotsky, made a characteristically
provocative comparison with Leonard
Bernstein and I know what he meant:
whatever your opinion of Bernstein there
is no denying his role as a musical
educator and proselytiser. However,
the comparison that I myself made was
with the work of Sir John Barbirolli
at the Hallé. I don’t think the
comparison is too far-fetched. Both
came to an orchestra almost on the brink
of extinction and both built their bands
up patiently over time and took them
to new heights of achievement. Both
remained loyal to "unfashionable"
orchestras for long periods of time
(in fact Barbirolli’s long tenure of
the Halle (1943-1970) was shorter than
Adrian’s with the SPO). Both championed
English music and Mahler and had several
other musical enthusiasms in common.
Both were excellent accompanists for
soloists. Both of them aspired to achieve
always the highest standards. And finally
both always gave warm, generous performances
and drew the best out of their players.
However, even more
apposite, and certainly more succinct
was, the verdict of Maggie Cotton, a
long-serving percussionist with the
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra,
who came to know Adrian well. In my
view she really coined the mot juste
with her description of "Adrian
the Enabler". What a felicitous
expression and how aptly does it sum
up Adrian’s achievements both as a conductor
and as a teacher (and I was lucky enough
to experience him as both).
Adrian Smith was a
remarkable man and an inspiring musician.
It is entirely fitting that in recognition
of his contribution to the musical life
of the Huddersfield area his portrait
hangs in the Town Hall crush bar joining
those of many other distinguished musicians,
including ‘Glorious John’ Barbirolli
himself.
I can hear him now
gently, or perhaps not so gently, chiding
me for the fact that this appreciation
is so lengthy. He taught me so much
but even he could not instil concision
in me! Still, with the passing of a
remarkable teacher and musician, who
I was privileged to count as a close
friend, it is right that these things
should be said. Many in the Huddersfield
area and beyond will mourn his passing,
and rightly so. But it is far more important
that we should celebrate his life and
achievements and in particular give
thanks that one man was able so greatly
and so positively to influence the lives
of so many people.
