Hugh Bean preceded the 2001 AGM concert and delighted the audience with his amusing stories and reminiscences of his life as a leading violinst. Claiming to be a ‘bar fiddler’ and no public speaker Hugh immediately disproved his second statement. As for the first, the facts speak for themselves. Hugh had been a pupil of Albert Sammons, with whom he studied for nearly twenty years, which included his student years at the Royal College of Music. He was appointed Professor of Violin at the Royal College of Music, London, at the age of 24, a position in which he remained for the next 37 years. In 1957, he was made leader of the Philharmonia Orchestra, which he later left to become leader of the BBC Symphony Orchestra. He then became leader of the London Symphony Orchestra.
Hugh recollected his time as a student, meeting Vaughan Williams when VW was visiting Professor at the RCM. He was extremely forthright in his views of VW as a conductor and also expressed his great admiration for VW as a composer and teacher.
Hugh is famous for his recording of The Lark Ascending under Sir Adrian Boult, his Elgar Concerto with Sir Charles Groves and unusually for the time since it was less common than it is today, Vivaldi’s Four Seasons with Stokowski. Hugh was appointed F.R.C.M. in 1968, was awarded the Cobbett Gold Medal for chamber music in 1969 and created C.B.E. in 1970.
Above: Hugh Bean is warmly applauded for his talk. The audience could have listened to him for hours.