<<  -- 5 --  Bill Newman    LIFE'S FULFILMENT

Again, there were the selected orchestra principals specially picked out for barbs, or regular criticisms -- usually behind the scenes. Gervase de Peyer was particularly affable, and sweet-smiling to The Maestro. Dead centre and face on to Doráti, any muttered comments and grunts from the podium were greeted by his nonchalant politeness backed by half-turns to his colleagues for musical support, but in the event of a delayed appearance -- usually due to heavy traffic, Doráti viewed his vacant chair then stalked off the rostrum. Half an hour later, de Peyer would emerge, quickly tune while librarian Henry Greenwood would summon the fuming conductor from his dressing room. Gervase's 'Good morning!' amidst considerable laughter quickly sent him back again, but all seemed forgotten during the next two hours, especially following some wonderful phrasings from the clarinet section. Bernard Walton was invited to 'sit in' during the de Peyer annual leave period, with Dorááti eulogising to all and sundry, but this was quickly countered by Harold Lawrence who well knew the LSO's preferences. I also entered the death chamber on at least two occasions, and was lucky to be reprieved. One, where I invited EMI colleagues and their families to a Sunday session, and 'hid' them behind the organ console where they were soon discovered. They left in embarrassment, but that was not to be compared to my half request to bring the artist Juliet Pannett -- sister to Mercury's International Director, Brice Somers -- to draw Doráti in action for a publicity still. A 24-hour silence ban was eventually lifted while he examined his perfect likeness!

During all these activities, I managed to persuade him to be Guest of Honour at the LSO Club, one evening after a hectic recording session. As soon as he entered the Holborn Library premises in Theobald's Road he became transformed by the warm welcome and talked most entertainingly about his younger years, older Hungarian colleagues like Kodály, Bartók, Weiner, and the joys of musicmaking. About this time, Mercury had started making records with the Philharmonia Hungarica (Respighi, Haydn) and BBC Symphony Orchestra (Bartók), with both of which Doráti would become permanently involved. Then, the Mercury Record Corporation was suddenly, without warning put on the market to be purchased by Philips whilst I took over other responsibilites for Westminster Records, now a subsidiary of ABC Paramount in the USA. James Grayson, Westminster's founder, along with Hermann Scherchen, Paul Badura Skoda, Joerg Demus and Robert Gerle, together with a very large classical catalogue became my new EMI allegiances and responsibilities, but I was by no means finished with Doráti.

Quite by accident, we met in Tillett-Holt's Record Shop, near EMI's Manchester Square premises. Following his 1963/4 Chief Conductor appointment, he had made more new BBC Symphony recordings for the HMV label under the Auspices of the Gulbenkian Foundation of works by Messiaen and Gerhard (to be followed later by other works with the Washington Orchestra). He pushed me into a taxi for Maida Vale Studios, raving about his Mahler 6 performance with the orchestra that was recently broadcast. More busy than ever, he instructed me not to work too hard without insisting on a pay rise, but I quickly realised I was beginning to live like a fish out of water. Accountants were now ruling the roost in the Entertainment Business, and any associations with artists was on a strictly productive basis. Apart from concerts at the Royal Festival and Royal Albert Halls -- I remember a stunning Bartók The Miraculous Mandarin -- there were the brief tours, then the highly successful trip to the States, including a remarkable Vaughan Williams' Fourth Symphony.

The 'new look' Doráti in succeeding years that gravitated between the Royal Philharmonic, the National Symphony Orchestra of Washington, the Philharmonia Hungarica, the Stockholm Philharmonic and Detroit Symphony Orchestras, had recording commitments with Deutche Grammophon, Decca and BIS. It was during the RPO's Beethoven Symphonies Cycle at the Royal Albert Hall that we met one final time. I went round to his dressing room during the interval of the first concert. He was tired, and just about remembered me.

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