Patrick Thomas remembers….

My contact with Adelaide music began in 1965 and continued until 1992, when my last assignment with the ASO was a series of recordings made with the Double Bass virtuoso, Gary Karr,  released subsequently by ABC Classics. 

 

From 1965 until the end of 1972, I was the SASO's Assistant Conductor, and its Acting Resident Conductor for some months during 1969, when Henry Krips was absent abroad.  Apart from a year as conductor of the ABC's Tasmanian SO in 1968, and when engaged overseas or interstate on ABC or other commitments, my time was spent with the Adelaide Singers, the Adelaide Philharmonic Choir and the SASO.  When I left Adelaide at the end of 1972 to become Chief Conductor of the QSO, four people shared most of the various duties I had handled.  The eight years spent in Adelaide and the numerous subsequent visits to the city from 1972-1992 as Guest Conductor, now provide me with fantastic memories of a wonderful Orchestra and many eventful episodes shared with it.  Among these, are the first Janacek and Shostakovich Operas performed in Australia, for which the ASO played quite brilliantly;  an early performance of Britten's "War Requiem" in 1969; a shared concert with Sir Michael Tippett in February, 1978,  and countless other occasions, including one subscription concert when the visiting celebrity pianist developed a nasty nosebleed in the middle of a Mozart Concerto!  There was also a television documentary, "Sounds of the Orchestra", which I conducted and presented with the SASO and school students in 1972 for ABC TV, and innumerable visits to SA country centres, and also to the Northern Territory in 1967.  (Actually, this was the first time a symphony orchestra had played in Alice Springs and Darwin).  One project which drew hundreds of letters from country centres was in 1965, when an SASO ensemble, which I conducted, visited centres as far afield as Port Augusta, Ceduna, and Streaky Bay.  In that pre-television era (i.e., for distant SA country centres), the children who attended were absolutely fascinated to see and hear real people playing real instruments and, come to think of it, the children in centres even further afield were clearly excited by our presentation over the "School of the Air" in Port Augusta.  One landmark concert I conducted at the 1968 Adelaide Festival of Arts, included performances by SASO players with the Adelaide Wind Quintet of Alban Berg's Chamber Concerto (very probably its first professional performance in Australia), in which the SASO's Concert Master, Robert Cooper, and pianist, Clemens Leske snr., were soloists,  together with Mozart's "Gran Partita" Serenade in B flat, K361.