Wyn Morris (14 February 192923 February 2010) was a Welsh conductor.

Biography

Morris was born in

Trellech Trellech (occasionally spelt Trelech, Treleck or Trelleck; cy, Tryleg) is a village and parish in Monmouthshire, south-east Wales. Located south of Monmouth and north-north-west of Tintern, Trellech lies on a plateau above the Wye Valley on t ...

Monmouthshire Monmouthshire ( cy, Sir Fynwy) is a county in the south-east of Wales. The name derives from the historic county of the same name; the modern county covers the eastern three-fifths of the historic county. The largest town is Abergavenny, with ...

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

, the son of composer

Haydn Morris Haydn Morris (14 July 1928 – 17 January 2021) was a Cardiff, and British and Irish Lions international rugby union wing three-quarter. Career Morris was born in Mountain Ash, Rhondda Cynon Taf, and joined Cardiff from his home club Mountain ...

. His musical education included spells at the

Royal Academy of Music The Royal Academy of Music (RAM) in London, England, is the oldest conservatoire in the UK, founded in 1822 by John Fane and Nicolas-Charles Bochsa. It received its royal charter in 1830 from King George IV with the support of the first Duke of ...

and the

Salzburg Mozarteum Mozarteum University Salzburg (German: ''Universität Mozarteum Salzburg'') is one of three affiliated but separate (it is actually a state university) entities under the “Mozarteum” moniker in Salzburg municipality; the International Moz ...

where he was a pupil of

Igor Markevitch Igor Borisovich Markevitch (russian: Игорь Борисович Маркевич, ''Igor Borisovich Markevich'', uk, Ігор Борисович Маркевич, ''Ihor Borysovych Markevych''; 27 July 1912 – 7 March 1983) was a Russian- ...

. He was especially acknowledged for his interpretations of

Gustav Mahler Gustav Mahler (; 7 July 1860 – 18 May 1911) was an Austro-Bohemian Romantic composer, and one of the leading conductors of his generation. As a composer he acted as a bridge between the 19th-century Austro-German tradition and the modernism ...

's works, which he recorded almost complete during the 1960s and 1970s. He was the first to record

Deryck Cooke Deryck Cooke (14 September 1919 – 26 October 1976) was a British musician, musicologist, broadcaster and Gustav Mahler expert. Life Cooke was born in Leicester to a poor, working-class family; his father died when he was a child, but his mother ...

's second performing version of Mahler's Symphony No. 10 in 1972, only the third time a recording of the work had been made. He also conducted the first recording of Barry Cooper's realisation of

Ludwig van Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classical ...

's Symphony No. 10 in 1988. Morris was music director of the Royal National

Eisteddfod In Welsh culture, an ''eisteddfod'' is an institution and festival with several ranked competitions, including in poetry and music. The term ''eisteddfod'', which is formed from the Welsh morphemes: , meaning 'sit', and , meaning 'be', means, a ...

from 1960 to 1962, and the

Huddersfield Choral Society Huddersfield Choral Society is a choir based in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England. It was founded in 1836, and is recognised as one of Britain's leading choirs. Over the years the choir has performed most of the major works in the choral rep ...

from 1969 to 1972 He was responsible for the first British performance of

Sergei Rachmaninoff Sergei Vasilyevich Rachmaninoff; in Russian pre-revolutionary script. (28 March 1943) was a Russian composer, virtuoso pianist, and conductor. Rachmaninoff is widely considered one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, one o ...

's ''

All-Night Vigil The All-night vigil is a service of the Eastern Orthodox and Byzantine Catholic churches consisting of an aggregation of the canonical hours of Compline (in Greek usage only), Vespers (or, on a few occasions, Great Compline), Matins, and the First H ...

'' (often referred to as his ''Vespers''). He founded the Symphonica of London in 1965, with which he recorded several of the Mahler symphonies. Morris could be somewhat abrasive in style, both with orchestras and administrators. In his obituaries he was described as variously "truculent" and "cantankerous", alienating even those who indulged his temperament for the sake of the artistic results. Others observed that he was essentially a maestro out of time; his wilful, demanding behaviour belonged to an era when conductors could command orchestras in such a manner, and hence ultimately found himself out of favour.

References

External links

Detailed Biography
at the Welsh Music Guild

at mymusicbase.ru 1929 births 2010 deaths People from Monmouth, Wales Welsh conductors (music) British male conductors (music) People educated at Llanelli Boys' Grammar School {{UK-conductor-stub