Jump to content
 







Main menu
   


Navigation  



Main page
Contents
Current events
Random article
About Wikipedia
Contact us
Donate
 




Contribute  



Help
Learn to edit
Community portal
Recent changes
Upload file
 








Search  

































Create account

Log in
 









Create account
 Log in
 




Pages for logged out editors learn more  



Contributions
Talk
 



















Contents

   



(Top)
 


1 Life and career  





2 References and sources  



2.1  References  





2.2  Sources  
















Sidney Sutcliffe






Français
 

Edit links
 









Article
Talk
 

















Read
Edit
View history
 








Tools
   


Actions  



Read
Edit
View history
 




General  



What links here
Related changes
Upload file
Special pages
Permanent link
Page information
Cite this page
Get shortened URL
Download QR code
Wikidata item
 




Print/export  



Download as PDF
Printable version
 
















Appearance
   

 






From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 


three middle aged white men in informal snapshot, outdoor setting
Sutcliffe, left with fellow oboist Terence MacDonagh centre and cor anglais player John Wolfe, c. 1969

Sidney Clement Sutcliffe (6 October 1918 – 1 July 2001) was a British oboist. He played in the London Philharmonic, Philharmonia and BBC Symphony orchestras, and was professor of oboe at the Royal College of Music in London.

Life and career

[edit]

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.[1] 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 scholarship to the Royal College of Music (RCM) in London, where he studied for three years with Léon Goossens;[2] he also studied the cello.[3]

At the age of 17, while a student at the RCM, Sutcliffe made his professional debut, at the Wigmore Hall, London. In 1938 he was appointed principal oboe in the Sadler's Wells orchestra, but was recalled to the army on the outbreak of the Second World War the following year. He was due to be sent to Calais during the evacuation of Dunkirk, but was discovered to have astigmatism, and was kept on home duties. He was posted to Winchester to help to form a new band, and played the saxophone in a Dixieland group and a big band. The principal oboist of the London Philharmonic Orchestra (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.[3]

At the LPO Sutcliffe spent what he called "four happy but strenuous years".[3] 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 and seven times as many as the Philharmonia and Royal Philharmonic orchestras.[4] In 1948 Sutcliffe married Thelma Roberts, one of the orchestra's secretaries.[3]

In 1949 after turning him down once, Sutcliffe accepted Walter Legge'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" of wind players in the Royal Philharmonic was the most admired.[5][6] Legge aimed to rival it with what he called his "royal flush", comprising Sutcliffe, Bernard Walton (clarinet), Gareth Morris (flute) and (from 1951) Cecil James (bassoon].[7] In 1964 Sutcliffe moved to the BBC Symphony Orchestra, where he remained for seven years.[2][3]

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'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.[3]

References and sources

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Gaster, p. 707
  • ^ a b "Sidney Sutcliffe: Oboist and teacher with a sweet tone and a sweet nature", The Times, 20 July 2001, p. 21
  • ^ a b c d e f "Sidney Sutcliffe" Archived 2021-03-04 at the Wayback Machine, The Guardian, 12 July 2001
  • ^ Hill, pp. 49–50
  • ^ Melville-Mason, Graham. "Gwydion Brooke – Bassoonist in Sir Thomas Beecham's 'Royal Family'" Archived 2015-09-30 at the Wayback Machine, The Independent, 5 April 2005
  • ^ "Geoffrey Gilbert", The Times, 22 May 1989, p. 20
  • ^ Schwarzkopf, p. 114
  • Sources

    [edit]
    Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sidney_Sutcliffe&oldid=1198274320"

    Categories: 
    1918 births
    2001 deaths
    20th-century classical musicians
    Alumni of the Royal College of Music
    British classical oboists
    Hidden categories: 
    Webarchive template wayback links
    Articles with ISNI identifiers
    Articles with VIAF identifiers
    Articles with WorldCat Entities identifiers
    Articles with BIBSYS identifiers
    Articles with BNE identifiers
    Articles with BNF identifiers
    Articles with BNFdata identifiers
    Articles with GND identifiers
    Articles with J9U identifiers
    Articles with LCCN identifiers
    Articles with PLWABN identifiers
    Articles with CINII identifiers
    Articles with MusicBrainz identifiers
    Articles with SUDOC identifiers
     



    This page was last edited on 23 January 2024, at 17:47 (UTC).

    Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 4.0; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.



    Privacy policy

    About Wikipedia

    Disclaimers

    Contact Wikipedia

    Code of Conduct

    Developers

    Statistics

    Cookie statement

    Mobile view



    Wikimedia Foundation
    Powered by MediaWiki