David Adam Cairns (born 8 June 1926,

Loughton Loughton () is a town and civil parish in the Epping Forest District of Essex. Part of the metropolitan and urban area of London, the town borders Chingford, Waltham Abbey, Theydon Bois, Chigwell and Buckhurst Hill, and is northeast of Chari ...

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and Grea ...

) is a British journalist, non-fiction writer and musician. He is a leading authority on the life of Berlioz.Grove, ''Cairns, David (Adam)''

Biography

He is the son of the distinguished neurosurgeon, Sir Hugh Cairns. He co-founded the Chelsea Opera Group (COG) in 1950, together with Stephen Gray. Their first concert was a concert performance in Oxford of Mozart's '' Don Giovanni'' under the baton of a 22-year-old Colin Davis. Cairns and Davis went on to form a partnership to champion the music of Berlioz. During the early 1960s, Davis conducted the COG in concert performances of several of Berlioz's large-scale works, including ''

La Damnation de Faust ''La damnation de Faust'' (English: ''The Damnation of Faust''), Op. 24 is a work for four solo voices, full seven-part chorus, large children's chorus and orchestra by the French composer Hector Berlioz. He called it a "''légende dramatique'' ...

'', '' Roméo et Juliette'', '' Les Troyens'' and '' Benvenuto Cellini''. Cairns became classical programme coordinator for

Philips Records Philips Records is a record label founded by the Dutch electronics company Philips. It was founded as Philips Phonographische Industrie in 1950. In 1946, Philips acquired the company which pressed records for British Decca's Dutch outlet in ...

between 1967 and 1972 (in the London division of

Phonogram Phonogram may refer to: * A sound recording – see Geneva Phonograms Convention * ''Phonogram'' (comics), a comic book by Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie * Phonogram (linguistics), a grapheme which represents a phoneme or a combination of phone ...

), when Davis released his ground-breaking cycle of Berlioz recordings for the label (with sleeve notes by Cairns). His translation of Berlioz's autobiography ('' Mémoires'') was first published by Gollancz in the United Kingdom in 1969. His work in journalism has spanned a number of high-profile newspapers and magazines. He was chief music critic of the '' Sunday Times'' from 1983 to 1992, having earlier been music critic and arts editor of ''

The Spectator ''The Spectator'' is a weekly British magazine on politics, culture, and current affairs. It was first published in July 1828, making it the oldest surviving weekly magazine in the world. It is owned by Frederick Barclay, who also owns ''The ...

''. Other publications for which he has been a music critic include the ''

Evening Standard The ''Evening Standard'', formerly ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), also known as the ''London Evening Standard'', is a local free daily newspaper in London, England, published Monday to Friday in tabloid format. In October 2009, after be ...

'', ''

Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Ni ...

'' and ''

New Statesman The ''New Statesman'' is a British Political magazine, political and cultural magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first connected with Sidney Webb, Sidney and Beatrice ...

''. Before becoming a music journalist, he worked in the House of Commons Library. His two-volume biography of Berlioz: ''Berlioz: The Making of an Artist 1803–1832'' and ''Berlioz: Servitude and Greatness 1832-1869''. has been widely praised. Reviewing the second volume for ''

Opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a libr ...

'' magazine, Michael Kennedy described it as "one of the finest of all biographies of a composer" going on to praise his depiction "of Berlioz's lifelong struggle against the philistinism of Parisian musical life", and proclaims that "he has given Berlioz the literary memorial he deserves".Kennedy, M. Berlioz's literary memorial - Michael Kennedy on the Cairns biography. Opera, January 2000, Vol 51 No 1, p45-47. The books won several major awards, including the

Royal Philharmonic Society The Royal Philharmonic Society (RPS) is a British music society, formed in 1813. Its original purpose was to promote performances of instrumental music in London. Many composers and performers have taken part in its concerts. It is now a memb ...

's Music award, the

Yorkshire Post ''The Yorkshire Post'' is a daily broadsheet newspaper, published in Leeds in Yorkshire, England. It primarily covers stories from Yorkshire although its masthead carries the slogan "Yorkshire's National Newspaper". It was previously owned by ...

'Book of the Year', the

British Academy The British Academy is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. It was established in 1902 and received its royal charter in the same year. It is now a fellowship of more than 1,000 leading scholars spa ...

's Derek Allen prize, the

Samuel Johnson Prize The Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction, formerly the Samuel Johnson Prize, is an annual British book prize for the best non-fiction writing in the English language. It was founded in 1999 following the demise of the NCR Book Award. With its ...

for non-fiction, and biography of the year in the

Whitbread Book Awards The Costa Book Awards were a set of annual literary awards recognising English-language books by writers based in UK and Ireland. Originally named the Whitbread Book Awards from 1971 to 2005 after its first sponsor, the Whitbread company, then ...

. In 1983, he founded the Thorington Players, a London-based orchestra that he conducted regularly in St Mary's Church,

Putney Putney () is a district of southwest London, England, in the London Borough of Wandsworth, southwest of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. History Putney is an ancient paris ...

, and at

St. John's, Smith Square St John's Smith Square is a redundant church in the centre of Smith Square, Westminster, London. Sold to a charitable trust as a ruin following firebombing in the Second World War, it was restored as a concert hall. This Grade I listed churc ...

. In his book ''Mozart and his Operas'', published in 2006 by University of California Press, Cairns stated part of the appeal of Mozart's music was its simultaneous embodiment of both "the perfection our souls long for and the sensation of our longing". In 2019, a substantial collection of his essays on the composer was published under the title ''Discovering Berlioz - Essays, Reviews, Talks''.

Honours

In 1991, the French government named him an Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres for his work in promoting Hector Berlioz as a key French composer. In 2013, he was elevated to the position of Commandeur. In the UK, he was appointed CBE in the

1997 New Year Honours The New Year Honours 1997 were appointments by most of the Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries, and honorary ones to citizens of other countri ...

References

Sources

* Grove Music Online, ''Cairns, David (Adam)'', article by Stanley Sadie. {{DEFAULTSORT:Cairns, David British music journalists British non-fiction writers British music critics Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Commandeurs of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres Opera critics People educated at The Dragon School 1926 births Living people People from Loughton Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature British male writers Male non-fiction writers Berlioz scholars