Julian Clifford
Encyclopedia
Julian Seymour Clifford was an English
conductor, composer
and pianist
particularly associated with the orchestras at Harrogate
and Hastings
, which he carried to a high level of accomplishment, introducing new works by English composers and encouraging soloists of national standing to perform in the provinces. His wife, the Hon. Mrs Julian Clifford, was a soprano singer. After his early death his example was followed by their son, also Julian Clifford (born 1903), who was a composer and a conductor working for Decca Records
in early days, and championed works by English composers.
, Kent) studied at the Leipzig Conservatory and under Józef Śliwiński
and Sir Walter Parratt
. After terms as conductor of the Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and the Yorkshire Permanent Orchestra in Leeds, he became musical director to the Corporations of Harrogate
(Yorkshire) and Eastbourne
(Sussex). He frequently conducted in London, and was considered a particularly fine conductor of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
's music.
Clifford performed his own piano solo compositions, Three Episodes and Grand Valse Caprice, in a concert in Doncaster
in 1899. On 17 December 1902 he married the Hon. Alice Margaret Mary Henniker-Major (b. 23 May 1870), daughter of the 5th Baron Henniker
and 2nd Baron Hartismere (formerly MP for East Suffolk
and Lieutenant Governor of the Isle of Man
, who died in 1902). The Hon. Mrs (Margaret) Clifford was an accomplished soprano singer. Their son Julian Major Herbert Henniker Clifford was born in 1903 and their daughter Margaret in 1912.
Clifford, who was considered a musical 'phenomenon', as General Entertainment Manager to the Harrogate Spa took over the Harrogate Orchestra from C.L. Naylor in 1906, with a budget of £3,500 to spend on the orchestra. He built it into a fine ensemble, attracting such artists as Fritz Kreisler
, Nellie Melba
, Ferruccio Busoni
, Ignacy Paderewski and Anna Pavlova. The fully professional orchestra moved to Hastings
for the winter seasons, an arrangement which continued until 1930. Clifford was also conductor of the Westminster Orchestral Society in 1906-7. Clifford worked closely with his friend and colleague Ernest Farrar
, a pupil of Charles Villiers Stanford
's. In October 1914 at the first Yorkshire production of the 1913 William Russell film Tannhauser Clifford and Farrar arranged the accompanying music.
In 1904 the Cliffords were assisting Mrs Patrick Campbell
in a concert at the Harrogate Kursaal (Royal Hall). In August 1911 the Harrogate orchestra gave the first provincial performance of Elgar's 2nd Symphony. In July 1913 Clifford conducted Zygmunt Stojowski
in a performance of his 1st Piano concerto. The Orchestra's quality attracted other conductors, notably Ralph Vaughan Williams
, who gave the second performance of his A London Symphony with them in August 1914. In August 1915 Mrs Julian Clifford gave one of the earliest declamations of Edward Elgar
's Carillon
. A month later was given the first Harrogate performance of Beethoven
's Ninth Symphony
, with the new Harrogate Municipal Choir led by Farrar, and conducted by Clifford, together with his own Ode to New Year. In October 1916, Clifford conducted the Birmingham Symphony Orchestra at the Town Hall, in a programme including Friedemann's Slavonic Rhapsody and John Foulds
's Keltic Suite, which were said to have been 'presented with fine precision and due observation of gradation of light and shade.'
During 1915 Gerald Finzi moved from London to Harrogate. Julian Clifford recommended to him to study composition with Ernest Farrar, who was a friend of Frank Bridge
, Clive Carey
and Vaughan Williams. It is stated that Finzi and Farrar had a strong mutual respect and that Farrar nurtured his talent. Farrar died in 1918, and at a concert dedicated to his memory, at Harrogate 17 September 1919, Clifford conducted the first performance of his own work, the tone-poem 'Lights Out'.
Other compositions include a Piano Concerto in E minor, a Ballade in D for orchestra, a Suite de Concert, and the song-cycle A Dream of Flowers. Julian Seymour Clifford died in December 1921 aged only 44 and the Hon. Mrs Clifford died in July 1923. The Harrogate Orchestra then continued its daily concerts and weekly symphony concerts under Howard Carr (until 1924), and then under Basil Cameron
. Julian Clifford senior, conducting at the Kursaal, appears in a silhouette of 1919 by Harry Lawrence Oakley.
's The Land of the Mountain and the Flood which impressed a reviewer for the Musical Times, who called him 'gifted'.
Clifford succeeded his father as director of the orchestra at Eastbourne. In 1929 he became one of the original group of conductors, with Basil Cameron and Leslie Heward
, to work on the classical recordings for the new company of Decca Records
, where he undertook some important commissions. Among them were Rossini
's La Boutique Fantasque in the Respighi
orchestration, Delius
's Sea Drift
with Roy Henderson (who had excelled that year at the Delius Festival) and possibly assisted Basil Cameron in recording Rachmaninoff's 2nd Piano Concerto with pianist Vassily Sapellnikov
, who had introduced the work to England in 1902.
Clifford conducted a Royal Philharmonic concert for the Society on November 13, 1930, giving Haydn's Symphony no. 88 in G, Elgar's Cello Concerto (with Antoni Sala), Rugby by Honegger
and Le Poème d'Extase by Scriabin. He was also conducting for broadcast on the BBC, and in 1932 gave the first performance of E. J. Moeran's orchestral work Farrago with the BBC Orchestra (Section C) on the National Programme.
During the War there are notices of Clifford conducting at the Glasgow
Alhambra Theatre, for instance in May 1941 an international ballet tour with Mona Inglesby and Harold Turner, and there in November 1943 conducting two concerts by Anne Ziegler
and Webster Booth
, the first with pianist Frederic Lamond and the second with Mark Hambourg
, both with the National Philharmonic Orchestra. He was also connected with, if not certainly the first, conductor of William Walton
's ballet The Quest at the New Theatre, London, with the Sadler's Wells Ballet under Ninette de Valois
on 6 April 1943.
His connection with ballet continued after the War, and he is found at the Cambridge Theatre
in Camden
in October 1951 conducting a series of ballets given by the 'Grand Ballet du Marquis de Cuevas' for the impresario Peter Daubeny. He is well represented conducting Carousel at the New Theatre, Oxford, in April 1953 in a caricature pencil sketch by Gilbert Sommerlad in the collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum
.
English people
The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
conductor, composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
and pianist
Pianist
A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers.-Choice of genres:...
particularly associated with the orchestras at Harrogate
Harrogate
Harrogate is a spa town in North Yorkshire, England. The town is a tourist destination and its visitor attractions include its spa waters, RHS Harlow Carr gardens, and Betty's Tea Rooms. From the town one can explore the nearby Yorkshire Dales national park. Harrogate originated in the 17th...
and Hastings
Hastings
Hastings is a town and borough in the county of East Sussex on the south coast of England. The town is located east of the county town of Lewes and south east of London, and has an estimated population of 86,900....
, which he carried to a high level of accomplishment, introducing new works by English composers and encouraging soloists of national standing to perform in the provinces. His wife, the Hon. Mrs Julian Clifford, was a soprano singer. After his early death his example was followed by their son, also Julian Clifford (born 1903), who was a composer and a conductor working for Decca Records
Decca Records
Decca Records began as a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934; however, owing to World War II, the link with the British company was broken for several decades....
in early days, and championed works by English composers.
Julian Clifford senior
Julian Seymour Clifford (the son of Thomas Clifford of TonbridgeTonbridge
Tonbridge is a market town in the English county of Kent, with a population of 30,340 in 2007. It is located on the River Medway, approximately 4 miles north of Tunbridge Wells, 12 miles south west of Maidstone and 29 miles south east of London...
, Kent) studied at the Leipzig Conservatory and under Józef Śliwiński
Józef Śliwiński
Józef Śliwiński was a Polish classical pianist, one of the outstanding interpreters of the poetic and romantic repertoire, especially Chopin and Schumann. He was taught by Theodor Leschetizky and Anton Rubinstein. For many years he was professor of piano at the Riga Conservatory...
and Sir Walter Parratt
Walter Parratt
Sir Walter Parratt KCVO was an English organist and composer.-Biography:Born in Huddersfield, son of a parish organist, Parratt began to play the pipe organ from an early age, and held posts as an organist while still a child...
. After terms as conductor of the Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and the Yorkshire Permanent Orchestra in Leeds, he became musical director to the Corporations of Harrogate
Harrogate
Harrogate is a spa town in North Yorkshire, England. The town is a tourist destination and its visitor attractions include its spa waters, RHS Harlow Carr gardens, and Betty's Tea Rooms. From the town one can explore the nearby Yorkshire Dales national park. Harrogate originated in the 17th...
(Yorkshire) and Eastbourne
Eastbourne
Eastbourne is a large town and borough in East Sussex, on the south coast of England between Brighton and Hastings. The town is situated at the eastern end of the chalk South Downs alongside the high cliff at Beachy Head...
(Sussex). He frequently conducted in London, and was considered a particularly fine conductor of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Russian: Пётр Ильи́ч Чайко́вский ; often "Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky" in English. His names are also transliterated "Piotr" or "Petr"; "Ilitsch", "Il'ich" or "Illyich"; and "Tschaikowski", "Tschaikowsky", "Chajkovskij"...
's music.
Clifford performed his own piano solo compositions, Three Episodes and Grand Valse Caprice, in a concert in Doncaster
Doncaster
Doncaster is a town in South Yorkshire, England, and the principal settlement of the Metropolitan Borough of Doncaster. The town is about from Sheffield and is popularly referred to as "Donny"...
in 1899. On 17 December 1902 he married the Hon. Alice Margaret Mary Henniker-Major (b. 23 May 1870), daughter of the 5th Baron Henniker
John Henniker-Major, 5th Baron Henniker
John Major Henniker-Major, 5th Baron Henniker , was a British peer and Conservative politician.-Background and education:...
and 2nd Baron Hartismere (formerly MP for East Suffolk
East Suffolk
East Suffolk, along with West Suffolk, was created in 1888 as an administrative county of England. The administrative county was based on the eastern quarter sessions division of Suffolk...
and Lieutenant Governor of the Isle of Man
Lieutenant Governor of the Isle of Man
The Lieutenant Governor is the representative on the Isle of Man of the Lord of Mann . He/she has the power to grant Royal Assent and is styled His Excellency. In recent times the Governor has either been a retired diplomat or senior military officer...
, who died in 1902). The Hon. Mrs (Margaret) Clifford was an accomplished soprano singer. Their son Julian Major Herbert Henniker Clifford was born in 1903 and their daughter Margaret in 1912.
Clifford, who was considered a musical 'phenomenon', as General Entertainment Manager to the Harrogate Spa took over the Harrogate Orchestra from C.L. Naylor in 1906, with a budget of £3,500 to spend on the orchestra. He built it into a fine ensemble, attracting such artists as Fritz Kreisler
Fritz Kreisler
Friedrich "Fritz" Kreisler was an Austrian-born violinist and composer. One of the most famous violin masters of his or any other day, he was known for his sweet tone and expressive phrasing. Like many great violinists of his generation, he produced a characteristic sound which was immediately...
, Nellie Melba
Nellie Melba
Dame Nellie Melba GBE , born Helen "Nellie" Porter Mitchell, was an Australian operatic soprano. She became one of the most famous singers of the late Victorian Era and the early 20th century...
, Ferruccio Busoni
Ferruccio Busoni
Ferruccio Busoni was an Italian composer, pianist, editor, writer, piano and composition teacher, and conductor.-Biography:...
, Ignacy Paderewski and Anna Pavlova. The fully professional orchestra moved to Hastings
Hastings
Hastings is a town and borough in the county of East Sussex on the south coast of England. The town is located east of the county town of Lewes and south east of London, and has an estimated population of 86,900....
for the winter seasons, an arrangement which continued until 1930. Clifford was also conductor of the Westminster Orchestral Society in 1906-7. Clifford worked closely with his friend and colleague Ernest Farrar
Ernest Farrar
Ernest Bristow Farrar was an English composer, pianist and organist-Life:Ernest Farrar was born in Lewisham, London. The son of a clergyman, he was educated at Leeds Grammar School, where he began organ studies and in May 1905 won a scholarship to the Royal College of Music...
, a pupil of Charles Villiers Stanford
Charles Villiers Stanford
Sir Charles Villiers Stanford was an Irish composer who was particularly notable for his choral music. He was professor at the Royal College of Music and University of Cambridge.- Life :...
's. In October 1914 at the first Yorkshire production of the 1913 William Russell film Tannhauser Clifford and Farrar arranged the accompanying music.
In 1904 the Cliffords were assisting Mrs Patrick Campbell
Mrs Patrick Campbell
Mrs Patrick Campbell was a British stage actress.-Early life and marriages:Campbell was born Beatrice Stella Tanner in Kensington, London, to John Tanner and Maria Luigia Giovanna, daughter of Count Angelo Romanini...
in a concert at the Harrogate Kursaal (Royal Hall). In August 1911 the Harrogate orchestra gave the first provincial performance of Elgar's 2nd Symphony. In July 1913 Clifford conducted Zygmunt Stojowski
Zygmunt Stojowski
Zygmunt Denis Antoni Jordan de Stojowski was a Polish pianist and composer.-Life:Born near the city of Kielce, Stojowski began his musical training with his mother, and with Polish composer Władysław Żeleński. In Kraków, as a seventeen-year-old student, he made his debut as a concert pianist...
in a performance of his 1st Piano concerto. The Orchestra's quality attracted other conductors, notably Ralph Vaughan Williams
Ralph Vaughan Williams
Ralph Vaughan Williams OM was an English composer of symphonies, chamber music, opera, choral music, and film scores. He was also a collector of English folk music and song: this activity both influenced his editorial approach to the English Hymnal, beginning in 1904, in which he included many...
, who gave the second performance of his A London Symphony with them in August 1914. In August 1915 Mrs Julian Clifford gave one of the earliest declamations of Edward Elgar
Edward Elgar
Sir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet OM, GCVO was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orchestral works including the Enigma Variations, the Pomp and Circumstance Marches, concertos...
's Carillon
Carillon (Elgar)
”Carillon” is a recitation with orchestral accompaniment written by the English composer Edward Elgar as his Op. 75, in 1914. The words are by the Belgian poet Émile Cammaerts....
. A month later was given the first Harrogate performance of Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
's Ninth Symphony
Symphony No. 9 (Beethoven)
The Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125, is the final complete symphony of Ludwig van Beethoven. Completed in 1824, the symphony is one of the best known works of the Western classical repertoire, and has been adapted for use as the European Anthem...
, with the new Harrogate Municipal Choir led by Farrar, and conducted by Clifford, together with his own Ode to New Year. In October 1916, Clifford conducted the Birmingham Symphony Orchestra at the Town Hall, in a programme including Friedemann's Slavonic Rhapsody and John Foulds
John Foulds
John Herbert Foulds was a British composer of classical music. Largely self-taught as a composer, he was one of the most remarkable and unjustly forgotten figures of the "British Musical Renaissance"....
's Keltic Suite, which were said to have been 'presented with fine precision and due observation of gradation of light and shade.'
During 1915 Gerald Finzi moved from London to Harrogate. Julian Clifford recommended to him to study composition with Ernest Farrar, who was a friend of Frank Bridge
Frank Bridge
Frank Bridge was an English composer and violist.-Life:Bridge was born in Brighton and studied at the Royal College of Music in London from 1899 to 1903 under Charles Villiers Stanford and others...
, Clive Carey
Clive Carey
Francis Clive Savill Carey CBE , known as Clive Carey, was a British baritone, singing teacher, composer, opera producer and folk song collector.-Biography:Clive Carey was born at Sible Hedingham, Essex in 1883...
and Vaughan Williams. It is stated that Finzi and Farrar had a strong mutual respect and that Farrar nurtured his talent. Farrar died in 1918, and at a concert dedicated to his memory, at Harrogate 17 September 1919, Clifford conducted the first performance of his own work, the tone-poem 'Lights Out'.
Other compositions include a Piano Concerto in E minor, a Ballade in D for orchestra, a Suite de Concert, and the song-cycle A Dream of Flowers. Julian Seymour Clifford died in December 1921 aged only 44 and the Hon. Mrs Clifford died in July 1923. The Harrogate Orchestra then continued its daily concerts and weekly symphony concerts under Howard Carr (until 1924), and then under Basil Cameron
Basil Cameron
Basil Cameron, CBE was an English conductor. He was born in Reading, Berkshire, England, the son of a German immigrant family. His birth name was Basil George Cameron Hindenberg. -Career:...
. Julian Clifford senior, conducting at the Kursaal, appears in a silhouette of 1919 by Harry Lawrence Oakley.
Julian Clifford junior
Julian Major Herbert Henniker Clifford, known as Julian Clifford, was introduced as a conductor at a Harrogate concert by his father in early 1921, aged 18, when he gave an account of Hamish MacCunnHamish MacCunn
thumb|right|Portrait of MacCunn, 1889, by [[John Pettie]]Hamish MacCunn , Scottish romantic composer, was born in Greenock, the son of a shipowner, and was educated at the Royal College of Music, where his teachers included Sir Hubert Parry and Sir Charles Villiers Stanford.MacCunn's first success...
's The Land of the Mountain and the Flood which impressed a reviewer for the Musical Times, who called him 'gifted'.
Clifford succeeded his father as director of the orchestra at Eastbourne. In 1929 he became one of the original group of conductors, with Basil Cameron and Leslie Heward
Leslie Heward
Leslie Heward was an English composer and conductor.He was particularly associated with the Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and the Halle....
, to work on the classical recordings for the new company of Decca Records
Decca Records
Decca Records began as a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934; however, owing to World War II, the link with the British company was broken for several decades....
, where he undertook some important commissions. Among them were Rossini
Gioacchino Rossini
Gioachino Antonio Rossini was an Italian composer who wrote 39 operas as well as sacred music, chamber music, songs, and some instrumental and piano pieces...
's La Boutique Fantasque in the Respighi
Respighi
Respighi may refer to:* Ottorino Respighi , Italian musician and composer* Elsa Respighi, wife of Ottorino Respighi* Pietro Respighi, Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church...
orchestration, Delius
Delius
Delius is a surname. It may refer to:* Ernst von Delius - German racing car driver* Frederick Delius - English composer* Nicolaus Delius - German philologist* Tobias Delius Delius is a surname. It may refer to:* Ernst von Delius (1912–1937) - German racing car driver* Frederick Delius...
's Sea Drift
Sea Drift (Delius)
Sea Drift is among the larger-scale musical works by the composer Frederick Delius. Completed in 1903-1904 and first performed in 1906, it is a setting for baritone, chorus and orchestra of words by Walt Whitman.- The poem adaptation :...
with Roy Henderson (who had excelled that year at the Delius Festival) and possibly assisted Basil Cameron in recording Rachmaninoff's 2nd Piano Concerto with pianist Vassily Sapellnikov
Wassily Sapellnikoff
Wassily Sapellnikoff , was a Russian pianist.A more true transliteration of his name is Vasily Lvovich Sapelnikov, however when he concertised in England he chose the above version....
, who had introduced the work to England in 1902.
Clifford conducted a Royal Philharmonic concert for the Society on November 13, 1930, giving Haydn's Symphony no. 88 in G, Elgar's Cello Concerto (with Antoni Sala), Rugby by Honegger
Arthur Honegger
Arthur Honegger was a Swiss composer, who was born in France and lived a large part of his life in Paris. He was a member of Les six. His most frequently performed work is probably the orchestral work Pacific 231, which is interpreted as imitating the sound of a steam locomotive.-Biography:Born...
and Le Poème d'Extase by Scriabin. He was also conducting for broadcast on the BBC, and in 1932 gave the first performance of E. J. Moeran's orchestral work Farrago with the BBC Orchestra (Section C) on the National Programme.
During the War there are notices of Clifford conducting at the Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
Alhambra Theatre, for instance in May 1941 an international ballet tour with Mona Inglesby and Harold Turner, and there in November 1943 conducting two concerts by Anne Ziegler
Anne Ziegler
Anne Ziegler was an English singer, known for her light operatic duets with her husband Webster Booth. The pair were known as the "Sweethearts in Song" and were among the most famous and popular British musical acts of the 1940s.-Life and career:She was born Irené Frances Eastwood in the Sefton...
and Webster Booth
Webster Booth
Leslie Webster Booth , better known by his stage name, Webster Booth, was a British tenor. He is largely remembered today as the duettist partner of Anne Ziegler, but he was also one of the finest British tenors of his generation and was a distinguished oratorio soloist.He was a chorister at...
, the first with pianist Frederic Lamond and the second with Mark Hambourg
Mark Hambourg
Mark Hambourg was a distinguished Russian-British concert pianist, among the most famous of his age.- Life :Mark Hambourg was the eldest son of the pianist Michael Hambourg , and was brother of the cellist Boris Hambourg and the violinist Jan Hambourg , and of the musical organiser Clement...
, both with the National Philharmonic Orchestra. He was also connected with, if not certainly the first, conductor of William Walton
William Walton
Sir William Turner Walton OM was an English composer. During a sixty-year career, he wrote music in several classical genres and styles, from film scores to opera...
's ballet The Quest at the New Theatre, London, with the Sadler's Wells Ballet under Ninette de Valois
Ninette de Valois
Dame Ninette de Valois, OM, CH, DBE, FRAD, FISTD was an Irish-born British dancer, teacher, choreographer and director of classical ballet...
on 6 April 1943.
His connection with ballet continued after the War, and he is found at the Cambridge Theatre
Cambridge Theatre
The Cambridge Theatre is a West End theatre, on a corner site in Earlham Street facing Seven Dials, in the London Borough of Camden, built in 1929-30. It was designed by Wimperis, Simpson and Guthrie; interior partly by Serge Chermayeff, with interior bronze friezes by sculptor Anthony Gibbons...
in Camden
London Borough of Camden
In 1801, the civil parishes that form the modern borough were already developed and had a total population of 96,795. This continued to rise swiftly throughout the 19th century, as the district became built up; reaching 270,197 in the middle of the century...
in October 1951 conducting a series of ballets given by the 'Grand Ballet du Marquis de Cuevas' for the impresario Peter Daubeny. He is well represented conducting Carousel at the New Theatre, Oxford, in April 1953 in a caricature pencil sketch by Gilbert Sommerlad in the collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum
Victoria and Albert Museum
The Victoria and Albert Museum , set in the Brompton district of The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, England, is the world's largest museum of decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 4.5 million objects...
.