Malcolm Sargent

A couple of weeks before he died, Sir Malcolm Sargent made a brief appearance at the BBC Promenade Concerts to the loudest ovation ever given by a Proms audience. Such was the esteem held for probably one of the greatest orchestral conductors of all-time.

As a schoolboy, Sargent obtained a diploma as Associate of the Royal College of Organists and in 1914 took his degree as a Bachelor of Music and was appointed organist at Melton Mowbray Parish Church. It was a post he held for 10 years, interrupted briefly with service in the 27th Durham Light Infantry during World War I.

Sargent was not only an excellent conductor, he was an accomplished pianist, and arranger and orchestrator of other musicians works. As a conductor he held many important posts. He was conductor of the Leicester Symphony Orchestra and Choral Society between 1922-39 and in 1923 was appointed to the teaching staff at the Royal College of Music. He started his long association with the D’Oyly Carte company in 1926, and in 1932, along with Sir Thomas Beecham, founded the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Between 1942-48 Sargent was the musical director of the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra.

A true ambassador for British music abroad, Sargent conducted orchestras across Europe, in the Far East, across the Commonwealth, in the United States, South America, and even in the Soviet Union. He was knighted in 1947, and that same year became the chief conductor of the BBC Proms, a post he held until his death in 1967. He was also conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra from 1950-57. Malcolm Sargent was given the Freedom of Stamford, the Lincolnshire town where he was brought up, and where he is buried.