Under Sir Henry’s baton
SIR: Peter Mullen’s article on Sir Henry Wood (September issue) – generally known as ‘Old Timber’ to his orchestral contemporaries – reminded me of stories related to me by my father, a concert violinist and founder member of the BBC Symphony Orchestra in 1930, who played regularly under his baton.
Sir Henry had an idiosyncratic turn of phrase in getting the best out of his players, as recorded by my father. Classic examples were, to horns and woodwind players in a difficult passage of a Beethoven symphony, ‘Blow out your inner parts. I want to hear your chatty little semiquavers.’ To strings: ‘Your bowing’s like an old lady getting out of a sack – clarity, clarity.’ Gervase Hamilton, Stroud, Gloucestershire