Albert Edward Sammons CBE (23 February 188624 August 1957) was an English violinist, composer and later violin teacher. Almost self-taught on the violin, he had a wide repertoire as both chamber musician and soloist, although his reputation rests mainly on his association with British composers, especially Elgar. He made a number of recordings over 40 years, many of which have been re-issued on CD.

Life

Albert Sammons was born in

Fulham Fulham () is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham in West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea. The area faces Wandswor ...

, the second eldest of four children. His father was a shoemaker and good amateur violinist. Sammons started to receive some lessons from his father around the age of seven. Apart from these lessons, he was virtually self-taught. His first professional engagement was in the band at the Earls Court Exhibition in 1898; the conductor was so impressed by the 12-year-old that he made him

leader Leadership, both as a research area and as a practical skill, encompasses the ability of an individual, group or organization to "lead", influence or guide other individuals, teams, or entire organizations. The word "leadership" often gets v ...

. He left school at this time and became a professional musician – partly to bring extra income to the household, as his father was a compulsive

gambler Gambling (also known as betting or gaming) is the wagering of something of value ("the stakes") on a random event with the intent of winning something else of value, where instances of strategy are discounted. Gambling thus requires three elem ...

.Wetherell E. ''Albert Sammons violinist.'' Thames Publishing, London, 1998. Sammons's father took both Albert and his eldest brother Tom to symphony concerts at

St James's Hall St. James's Hall was a concert hall in London that opened on 25 March 1858, designed by architect and artist Owen Jones, who had decorated the interior of the Crystal Palace. It was situated between the Quadrant in Regent Street and Piccadilly, ...

and

Queen's Hall The Queen's Hall was a concert hall in Langham Place, London, Langham Place, London, opened in 1893. Designed by the architect Thomas Knightley, it had room for an audience of about 2,500 people. It became London's principal concert venue. Fro ...

. The boy began to gain a reputation for his reliability and was engaged by many London musical establishments, as well as in the 'Hungarian' and 'White Viennese' bands popular at the time. Sammons also received a few free lessons from the

Eugène Ysaÿe Eugène-Auguste Ysaÿe (; 16 July 185812 May 1931) was a Belgian virtuoso violinist, composer, and conductor. He was regarded as "The King of the Violin", or, as Nathan Milstein put it, the "tsar". Legend of the Ysaÿe violin Eugène Ysa ...

-trained Spanish violinist Alfredo Fernandez. At 16, relations with his father reached a point where Albert and his brother left home to stay with friends, only returning when his father walked out to join the band on an

ocean liner An ocean liner is a passenger ship primarily used as a form of transportation across seas or oceans. Ocean liners may also carry cargo or mail, and may sometimes be used for other purposes (such as for pleasure cruises or as hospital ships). Ca ...

and the two brothers were therefore obliged to provide for the rest of the family. His first concerto performance was the Mendelssohn E minor Concerto at the Kursaal Concert Hall in

Harrogate Harrogate ( ) is a spa town and the administrative centre of the Borough of Harrogate in North Yorkshire, England. Historically in the West Riding of Yorkshire, the town is a tourist destination and its visitor attractions include its spa ...

in 1906. He married Laura Tomkins in Middlesbrough on 31 October 1907 (divorced 1920). Around this time Sammons was recruited to play at musical parties for the upper classes at their country houses. He was the leader of the

British Symphony Orchestra The British Symphony Orchestra (BSO or BrSO) is the name of a number of symphony orchestras, active in both concert halls and recording studios, which have existed at various times in Britain since c1905 until the present day. There were gaps of ...

in a series of Amalgamated Musicians' Union Sunday concerts at the

London Coliseum The London Coliseum (also known as the Coliseum Theatre) is a theatre in St Martin's Lane, Westminster, built as one of London's largest and most luxurious "family" variety theatres. Opened on 24 December 1904 as the London Coliseum Theatre ...

in 1908–1909. Conductors of the concerts included

Jimmy Glover James Mackey Glover (18 June 1861 – 8 September 1931), originally James Mackey, and known as Jimmy Glover, was an Irish composer, conductor, music critic, and journalist, most notable as Director of Music and conductor at the Theatre Royal, Drur ...

and Alick Maclean. He was also engaged by Ernesto Bucalossi at the Waldorf Hotel and

Wyndham's Theatre Wyndham's Theatre is a West End theatre, one of two opened by actor/manager Charles Wyndham (the other is the Criterion Theatre). Located on Charing Cross Road in the City of Westminster, it was designed c.1898 by W. G. R. Sprague, the archit ...

. It was at the Waldorf that

Thomas Beecham Sir Thomas Beecham, 2nd Baronet, Order of the Companions of Honour, CH (29 April 18798 March 1961) was an English conductor and impresario best known for his association with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, London Philharmonic and the Roya ...

heard him and in August 1909 offered him the position of sub-leader (soon to be leader) of his orchestra, which later included opera seasons at

Covent Garden Covent Garden is a district in London, on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit-and-vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist si ...

, and the 1911

Diaghilev Sergei Pavlovich Diaghilev ( ; rus, Серге́й Па́влович Дя́гилев, , sʲɪˈrɡʲej ˈpavləvʲɪdʑ ˈdʲæɡʲɪlʲɪf; 19 August 1929), usually referred to outside Russia as Serge Diaghilev, was a Russian art critic, pa ...

season. He also consolidated his solo career by playing the Bruch Violin Concerto No. 1 with the

London Symphony Orchestra The London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) is a British symphony orchestra based in London. Founded in 1904, the LSO is the oldest of London's orchestras, symphony orchestras. The LSO was created by a group of players who left Henry Wood's Queen's ...

at the

in 1910. The conductor

Adrian Boult Sir Adrian Cedric Boult, CH (; 8 April 1889 – 22 February 1983) was an English conductor. Brought up in a prosperous mercantile family, he followed musical studies in England and at Leipzig, Germany, with early conducting work in Londo ...

commented on his rise in British violin-playing, "he had had no special preparations, no training abroad, no scholarship luxuries".Boult, A. Albert Sammons tribute broadcast, 1957. In: ''Boult on music.'' Toccata Press, London, 1983. In 1910, with Thomas Petre (second violin), Warwick Evans (cello), and Harry Waldo Warner (viola) he formed the

London String Quartet The London String Quartet was a string quartet founded in London in 1908 which remained one of the leading English chamber groups into the 1930s, and made several well-known recordings. Personnel The personnel of the London String Quartet was: ...

, with whom he remained until 1917. The quartet gave concerts mainly in the UK but travelled to Amsterdam and Paris, with a repertoire extending from the classical period to contemporary works – including

Verklärte Nacht ''Verklärte Nacht'' (''Transfigured Night''), Op. 4, is a string sextet in one movement composed by Arnold Schoenberg in 1899. Composed in just three weeks, it is considered his earliest important work. It was inspired by Richard Dehmel's p ...

in the presence of the composer. Sammons,

William Murdoch William Murdoch (sometimes spelled Murdock) (21 August 1754 – 15 November 1839) was a Scottish engineer and inventor. Murdoch was employed by the firm of Boulton & Watt and worked for them in Cornwall, as a steam engine erector for ten yea ...

(piano),

Lionel Tertis Lionel Tertis, CBE (29 December 187622 February 1975) was an English violist. He was one of the first viola players to achieve international fame and a noted teacher. Career Tertis was born in West Hartlepool, the son of Polish-Jewish immigra ...

(viola) and Lauri Kennedy (cello), founded ''The Chamber Music Players'' in 1921, giving their first private performance on 6 January of that year, and first public concert at Haverstock Hill, London on 13 January, going on to give many concerts at the

Wigmore Hall Wigmore Hall is a concert hall located at 36 Wigmore Street, London. Originally called Bechstein Hall, it specialises in performances of chamber music, early music, vocal music and song recitals. It is widely regarded as one of the world's leadi ...

and around the UK. He mainly appeared in the UK, although he did lead the Beecham orchestra for a six-week season with the Diaghilev company at the

Kroll Opera House The Kroll Opera House (german: Krolloper, Kroll-Oper) in Berlin, Germany, was in the Tiergarten district on the western edge of the '' Königsplatz'' square (today ''Platz der Republik''), facing the Reichstag building. It was built in 1844 as ...

, Berlin in 1913 and, having played under

Pierre Monteux Pierre Benjamin Monteux (; 4 April 18751 July 1964) was a French (later American) conductor. After violin and viola studies, and a decade as an orchestral player and occasional conductor, he began to receive regular conducting engagements in ...

for the Diaghilev seasons, was invited to lead the orchestra at the Casino de

Dieppe Dieppe (; Norman: ''Dgieppe'') is a coastal commune in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region of northern France. Dieppe is a seaport on the English Channel at the mouth of the river Arques. A regular ferry service runs to N ...

, giving two concerts a day, and extending both his orchestral and chamber music repertoire.Potter T. Liner note to Naxos Historical CD transfer, 2002. Sammons was particularly associated with

Edward Elgar Sir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet, (; 2 June 1857 – 23 February 1934) was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orchestr ...

's Violin Concerto in B minor, which he first played on 23 November 1914. He made the first complete recording of the concerto on 18 March and 10 April 1929 with the New Queen's Hall Orchestra conducted by

Sir Henry Wood Sir Henry Joseph Wood (3 March 186919 August 1944) was an English conductor best known for his association with London's annual series of promenade concerts, known as the The Proms, Proms. He conducted them for nearly half a century, introd ...

, which displays "wonderfully assured portamenti carried as if on the breath of a great singer" and "immense structural strength". He estimated that he played the concerto over a hundred times, including at

The Proms The BBC Proms or Proms, formally named the Henry Wood Promenade Concerts Presented by the BBC, is an eight-week summer season of daily orchestral classical music concerts and other events held annually, predominantly in the Royal Albert Hal ...

. He gave his last performance of the Elgar on his 60th birthday in 1946, with

George Weldon George Anthony Thomas Weldon (5 June 1908, in Chichester, England – 17 August 1963, in South Africa) was an English conductor. Biography Weldon was the son of Major F H Weldon of the Sherwood Foresters."Mr. George Weldon", ''The Times'', ...

conducting the

BBC Symphony Orchestra The BBC Symphony Orchestra (BBC SO) is a British orchestra based in London. Founded in 1930, it was the first permanent salaried orchestra in London, and is the only one of the city's five major symphony orchestras not to be self-governing. T ...

. He also made the first recording of Elgar's Violin Sonata in E minor in 1935. Among other concertos in his repertoire were those by

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 classic ...

Brahms Johannes Brahms (; 7 May 1833 – 3 April 1897) was a German composer, pianist, and conductor of the mid-Romantic period. Born in Hamburg into a Lutheran family, he spent much of his professional life in Vienna. He is sometimes grouped with ...

, Bruch, and the Mozart G major. In May 1915 a chance encounter in London with

Frederick Delius Delius, photographed in 1907 Frederick Theodore Albert Delius ( 29 January 1862 – 10 June 1934), originally Fritz Delius, was an English composer. Born in Bradford in the north of England to a prosperous mercantile family, he resisted atte ...

led directly to the composition of a violin concerto in which Sammons probably assisted considerably even to the point of writing some link passages. On 13 July 1916 Sammons gave the first UK performance of the

Violin Sonata A violin sonata is a musical composition for violin, often accompanied by a keyboard instrument and in earlier periods with a bass instrument doubling the keyboard bass line. The violin sonata developed from a simple baroque form with no fixed fo ...

Claude Debussy (Achille) Claude Debussy (; 22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918) was a French composer. He is sometimes seen as the first Impressionism in music, Impressionist composer, although he vigorously rejected the term. He was among the most infl ...

, only six weeks after its Paris premiere. After the end of the First World War, Sammons all but gave up string quartet and orchestral playing to concentrate on a large, regular programme of solo work and chamber music recitals throughout Britain and Ireland, and later, broadcasts. He played a part in the rehabilitation of

Fritz Kreisler Friedrich "Fritz" Kreisler (February 2, 1875 – January 29, 1962) was an Austrian-born American violinist and composer. One of the most noted violin masters of his day, and regarded as one of the greatest violinists of all time, he was know ...

, by presenting (along with Dame

Nellie Melba Dame Nellie Melba (born Helen Porter Mitchell; 19 May 186123 February 1931) was an Australian operatic dramatic coloratura soprano (three octaves). She became one of the most famous singers of the late Victorian era and the early 20th centur ...

) a laurel wreath at the Austrian violinist's first appearance in England after the war. Between May and the autumn of 1929 Sammons and Tertis carried out around 1,000 string

auditions An audition is a sample performance by an actor, singer, musician, dancer or other performer. It typically involves the performer displaying their talent through a previously memorized and rehearsed solo piece or by performing a work or piece giv ...

for the formation of the new BBC Symphony Orchestra. He married Olive Hobday (the daughter of one of his accompanists) on 5 December 1921. Shortly after, they moved to

Bognor Regis Bognor Regis (), sometimes simply known as Bognor (), is a town and seaside resort in West Sussex on the south coast of England, south-west of London, west of Brighton, south-east of Chichester and east of Portsmouth. Other nearby towns i ...

(in the same road as William Murdoch), where he lived for the rest of his life. During the Second World War, he continued his busy concert schedule around the UK, travelling by train, as well as appearing at the

National Gallery The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current Director ...

concerts. From 1946 Sammons spent less time playing and more teaching. As a teacher, he had worked at the Midland Institute in Birmingham from the 1920s, but from 1939 he taught privately and at the

Royal College of Music The Royal College of Music is a conservatoire established by royal charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, UK. It offers training from the undergraduate to the doctoral level in all aspects of Western Music including perform ...

. His pupils included Alan Loveday,

Hugh Bean Hugh Cecil Bean (22 September 1929 – 26 December 2003) was an English violinist. He was born in Beckenham. After lessons from his father from the age of five, he became a pupil of Albert Sammons (and Ken Piper) when he was nine years old. La ...

and Samuel Kutcher.Radio Times ''Samuel Kutcher violinist.'' ''Radio Times'' 13 February 1925. He became a Fellow (FRCM) in 1944. He composed many short pieces for violin and piano, which he included in his recital programmes and recorded. A ''Cradle Song'' of 1915 is dedicated to his second daughter and the ''Lullaby'' of 1923 to the third, Colleen. His ''Phantasy Quartet'' of 1915 won the Cobbett Prize. He also made editions of others' works and published books of studies and exercises. The onset of

Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a long-term degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that mainly affects the motor system. The symptoms usually emerge slowly, and as the disease worsens, non-motor symptoms beco ...

forced his retirement from public performance in June 1948. He attended a testimonial concert at the Royal Albert Hall on 7 December in a wheelchair, and heard a tribute from

Arthur Bliss Sir Arthur Edward Drummond Bliss (2 August 189127 March 1975) was an English composer and conductor. Bliss's musical training was cut short by the First World War, in which he served with distinction in the army. In the post-war years he qu ...

, with others in the programme from

Joseph Szigeti Joseph Szigeti ( hu">Szigeti József, ; 5 September 189219 February 1973) was a Hungarian violinist. Born into a musical family, he spent his early childhood in a small town in Transylvania. He quickly proved himself to be a child prodigy on ...

, Fritz Kreisler and

Sir Adrian Boult Sir Adrian Cedric Boult, CH (; 8 April 1889 – 22 February 1983) was an English conductor. Brought up in a prosperous mercantile family, he followed musical studies in England and at Leipzig, Germany, with early conducting work in London ...

. He died in Middleton-on-Sea in 1957, aged 71. Boult said of him after his death that he was distinguished by "his selfless interest in music-making of all kinds, whether in

or in some humble mission hall in far-off Wales or Scotland. He was a great musician in every sense of the word".

Instruments

His violins included a

Gofriller Matteo Goffriller (1659–1742) was a Venetian luthier, particularly noted for the quality of his cellos. He was active between 1685–1735 and was the founder of the " Venetian School" of luthiers, during a time when Venice was one of the most imp ...

(he bought another, 1696, Gofriller in 1927), a Felice

Guadagnini Giovanni Battista Guadagnini (often shortened to G. B. Guadagnini; 23 June 1711 – 18 September 1786) was an Italian luthier, regarded as one of the finest craftsmen of string instruments in history. Reprint with new introduction by Stewart Pol ...

, and a Nicolas Gagliano. At the

Cobbett Cobbett is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Hilary Dulcie Cobbett (1885–1976), British artist * William Cobbett (1763–1835), British radical agriculturist and prolific journalist. * Walter Willson Cobbett (1847–1937), ...

competition in February 1923 he played in a 'blind' comparison of a 1731

Stradivarius A Stradivarius is one of the violins, violas, cellos and other string instruments built by members of the Italian family Stradivari, particularly Antonio Stradivari (Latin: Antonius Stradivarius), during the 17th and 18th centuries. They are c ...

and a modern instrument by Alfred Vincent. When Sammons sold the Gofriller in 1951 he gave the new owner a list of all the works he had played on it.

Premieres

As leader of the London String Quartet (1910–1919): * 23 March 1914,

Ralph Vaughan Williams Ralph Vaughan Williams, (; 12 October 1872– 26 August 1958) was an English composer. His works include operas, ballets, chamber music, secular and religious vocal pieces and orchestral compositions including nine symphonies, written over ...

: Phantasy Quintet (1912) * 4 November 1915,

Frank Bridge Frank Bridge (26 February 187910 January 1941) was an English composer, violist and conductor. Life Bridge was born in Brighton, the ninth child of William Henry Bridge (1845-1928), a violin teacher and variety theatre conductor, formerly a m ...

: String Quartet No 2 * 16 June 1916, ''Sally in our alley & Cherry Ripe'' arranged by Bridge * 12 June 1917,

John Ireland John Benjamin Ireland (January 30, 1914 – March 21, 1992) was a Canadian actor. He was nominated for an Academy Award for his performance in ''All the King's Men'' (1949), making him the first Vancouver-born actor to receive an Oscar nomin ...

: Trio in one movement * 17 November 1916,

: String Quartet (3 movements) * 1 February 1919, Delius: String Quartet (4 movements) * 26 April 1919,

String Quartet The term string quartet can refer to either a type of musical composition or a group of four people who play them. Many composers from the mid-18th century onwards wrote string quartets. The associated musical ensemble consists of two violinist ...

and

Piano Quintet In classical music, a piano quintet is a work of chamber music written for piano and four other instruments, most commonly a string quartet (i.e., two violins, viola, and cello). The term also refers to the group of musicians that plays a pian ...

(private performance) * 21 May 1919, Elgar: String Quartet and Piano Quintet (public performance, with W. H. Reed, Raymond Jeremy and

Felix Salmond Felix Adrian Norman Salmond (19 November 188820 February 1952) was an English cellist and cello teacher who achieved success in the UK and the US. Early life and career Salmond was born to a family of professional musicians. His father Norman S ...

;

played in the Piano Quintet) As soloist: * March 1917, Ireland: Violin Sonata No. 2 (with William Murdoch) * 30 January 1919, Delius: Violin Concerto * 1 May 1920, Eugene Goossens: Violin Sonata * 7 October 1924, Delius: Violin Sonata No 2 (with Murdoch) * 20 March 1925 Herbert Howells: Violin Sonata No. 3 * 2 June 1930,

Granville Bantock Sir Granville Ransome Bantock (7 August 186816 October 1946) was a British composer of classical music. Biography Granville Ransome Bantock was born in London. His father was an eminent Scottish surgeon.Hadden, J. Cuthbert, 1913, ''Modern Music ...

: Violin Sonata * 20 January 1931, Goossens: Violin Sonata No. 2 * 14 July 1933,

Guirne Creith Guirne Creith (born Gladys Mary Cohen; 21 February 1907, in London – 1996) was an English composer and pianist most active in the 1920s and 1930s. She received the Charles Lucas Prize in 1925, having entered the Royal Academy of Music just two y ...

: Violin Sonata No. 2 * 19 May 1936, Creith: Violin Concerto (BBC studio performance) * 26 February 1937 Stanley Wilson: Concerto for Violin and Viola (with

Bernard Shore Bernard Shore (17 March 1896 – 2 April 1985) was an English viola player and author. Early life Shore studied at the Royal College of Music from 1912, with Sir Walter Alcock (organ) and Thomas Dunhill (composition), but his time there was inte ...

) * 26 November 1940,

Edmund Rubbra Edmund Rubbra (; 23 May 190114 February 1986) was a British composer. He composed both instrumental and vocal works for soloists, chamber groups and full choruses and orchestras. He was greatly esteemed by fellow musicians and was at the peak o ...

: Violin Sonata No. 1 * 10 May 1942, George Dyson: Violin Concerto (with BBC broadcast)All mentioned in: Wetherell E. ''Albert Sammons violinist.'' Thames Publishing, London, 1998.

Recordings

Albert Sammons made his first recording in October 1908; his last was made on 16 April 1946 (Edmund Rubbra's 2nd sonata with

Gerald Moore Gerald Moore CBE (30 July 1899 – 13 March 1987) was an English classical pianist best known for his career as a collaborative pianist for many distinguished musicians. Among those with whom he was closely associated were Dietrich Fischer-Di ...

). Other recordings (with dates) include, as leader of the London String Quartet: * various movements and extracts from string quartets * Mozart K428, Beethoven op18/2 and Schumann op41/3 * (with

Gervase Elwes Gervase Henry Cary-Elwes, DL (15 November 1866 – 12 January 1921), better known as Gervase Elwes, was an English tenor of great distinction, who exercised a powerful influence over the development of English music from the early 1900s up u ...

) "On Wenlock Edge" As a soloist: * Elgar: Violin Concerto (abridged October 1916, complete 1929 – see below) * Elgar: Violin Concerto (recorded by Columbia in London 18 March & 10 April 1929 with New Queen's Hall Orchestra under Sir Henry J. Wood atrices WAX 4785–4794, 4846–7; released Dec. 1929 on 78s L2346/51 The performance "possesses a fire, poetry and nobility that have rarely been matched, and certainly not surpassed" – review by Andrew Achenbach in ''

Gramophone A phonograph, in its later forms also called a gramophone (as a trademark since 1887, as a generic name in the UK since 1910) or since the 1940s called a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogu ...

'' Oct. 1998. CD re-issues include Avid Masters AMSC587 998 Pearl GEM0050 999 Naxos Historical 8.110951 002 * Bruch: Violin Concerto No. 1 (December 1925) * Beethoven: Violin Concerto (March 1927, unpublished, matrixes destroyed) * Mozart:

Sinfonia Concertante Sinfonia concertante (; also called ''symphonie concertante'') is an orchestral work, normally in several movements, in which one or more solo instruments contrast with the full orchestra.Collins: ''Encyclopedia of Music'', William Collins Sons & C ...

(with

) (September 1933) * Moeran: Violin Concerto (live performance, April 1946) * Delius: Violin Concerto (September 1944) * Delius: Violin Sonatas (recorded in 1929, 1924, 1944) * Elgar:

(recorded 2 February 1935)

References

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sammons, Albert Edward 1886 births 1957 deaths English classical violinists British male violinists People with Parkinson's disease Commanders of the Order of the British Empire People from Bognor Regis English composers People from Fulham Musicians from London Academics of the Royal College of Music 20th-century classical violinists 20th-century British male musicians Male classical violinists