Lawrance Collingwood

Lawrance Arthur Collingwood CBE (14 March 1887 – 19 December 1982) was an English conductor, composer and record producer.

Career Collingwood was born in London and attended Westminster Choir School, beginning his musical career as a choirboy at Westminster Abbey from 1897 to 1902. Around 1903 he attended High Wycombe Royal Grammar School. Appointed organist at St Thomas's Hospital and then at All Saints, Gospel Oak,

In the autumn of 1911 he went to Russia and enrolled at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory where he studied under Alexander Glazunov, Maximilian Steinberg and Nikolai Tcherepnin. He also served as interpreter for Winston Churchill's expedition in support of White Russian forces in Northern Russia (1918-1919). His two piano sonatas, which show the influence of Alexander Scriabin, were published in Saint Petersburg. In 1920 Lilian Baylis appointed Collingwood as the chorus master for her opera company at the Old Vic in London. Despite the poor conditions he persevered and made a significant contribution to the improved musical standards at the company. Collingwood did much to establish Sadler's Wells as a viable alternative to Covent Garden. He gave early British performances of operas by Mussorgsky and Rimsky-Korsakov. Music from the opera had already been played in the Queen's Hall on 10 November 1927 and it would be revived in Hammersmith in 1970.

Collingwood made his debut at the Royal Opera House in December 1936 with Humperdinck's Hänsel und Gretel. His premieres as a conductor included: on 30 September 1935 at Sadler's Wells, the first performance outside Russia of Modest Mussorgsky's original version of Boris Godunov. It was sung to an English translation by M. D. Calvocoressi on 9 April 1946, the first professional performance of Ralph Vaughan Williams' opera Sir John in Love.

Nikolai Medtner dedicated his song The Raven to Lawrance Collingwood.

Collingwood died in Killin, Perthshire, Scotland on 19 December, 1982, at the age of 95.

Recordings Collingwood recorded for His Master's Voice from 1922 until 1971. orchestral accompaniments for some of the most famous singers of his time: Marian Anderson, Beniamino Gigli, Lauritz Melchior, Elisabeth Schumann, John McCormack, Walter Widdop, Joseph Hislop, Elsie Suddaby, Norman Walker, Joan Hammond, Webster Booth, and Sir Keith Falkner Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 24 K. 491 with Edwin Fischer and the London Philharmonic Orchestra in 1937 originally issued on eight His Master's Voice/Victor 78 sides and subsequently transferred LP and finally to EMI CD. Ernst von Dohnányi's Variations on a Nursery Tune, Op. 25, with the London Symphony Orchestra and the composer at the piano Lighter music of Elgar (1964): includes Chanson de Matin, Minuet from Beau Brummel, Salut d'amour, Dream Children, Organ Grinder's songs from The Starlight Express, with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Other miscellaneous orchestral works include Glinka's 'Jota aragonesa' (Philharmonia Orchestra, 1948), Thomas Overture to Raymond (Philharmonia Orchestra, 1948), Dvorak Carnival Overture, op. 92 (Philharmonia Orchestra, 1953), Borodin "In the Steppes of Central Asia" (Philharmonia Orchestra, 1953), Gliere The Red Poppy – Russian Sailor's Dance (1953), Schumann Overture, Scherzo and Finale, op. 52 (London Symphony Orchestra, 1953), Grieg 'Two elegiac melodies, op. 34, no. 2 – The Last Spring' (London Symphony Orchestra, 1957), Elgar Serenade in E minor, op. 20 (London Symphony Orchestra, 1953), Smetana, Overture Prodaná Nevestá (The Bartered Bride) (Sadler's Wells Orchestra, 1946), Beethoven Egmont overture, op. 84 (London Symphony Orchestra, 1953), Wagner Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg – Prelude to act 1 (Westminster Symphony Orchestra, 1953).