Anthony Collins (composer)

Anthony Collins (3 September 1893 – 11 December 1963) was a British conductor and composer.

Biography

Anthony Vincent Benedictus Collins was born in Hastings, East Sussex in 1893. At the age of seventeen he began to perform as violinist in the Hastings Municipal Orchestra. He then served four years in the army. Beginning in 1920 he studied violin with Achille Rivarde and composition with Gustav Holst at the Royal College of Music. In 1926, he began his musical career performing as principal viola in the London Symphony Orchestra. For ten years he performed in that orchestra and also in the Royal Opera House Covent Garden Orchestra. He resigned these positions in 1936. For the rest of his career he divided his time between conducting, beginning with opera and moving to orchestra; and composition. His conducting debut was on 20 January 1938, when he led his former colleagues in the London Symphony Orchestra in Elgar's 1st symphony, and the following year he founded the London Mozart Orchestra.

He moved to the United States in 1939 to conduct orchestras in Los Angeles and New York as well as composing film music for RKO Pictures. He was nominated for three Academy Awards for best music and original score in three consecutive years (1940–1942) for Nurse Edith Cavell, Irene and Sunny. He returned to England in 1945, continuing to conduct the major British orchestras and also compose for British film studios. He retired at the end of the 1950s, returning to Los Angeles, where he died at the age of 70 in 1963.

Compositions

Collins arranged and composed many major works and lighter pieces, which include the still-popular Vanity Fair. This work and numerous other miniatures and suites by Collins are to be found on a 2005 CD, featuring John Wilson conducting the BBC Concert Orchestra. Collins also edited the Threnody for a Soldier Killed in Action from sketches left by Michael Heming, a young composer killed in World War II. His Elegy for Edward Elgar has been recorded, including a theme from the third movement of Elgar's third symphony.

Other works include two symphonies, two violin concertos, Romney Marsh for viola and orchestra (1944), four short operas: Perseus and Andromeda, Catherine Parr, The Blue Harlequin and Kanawa, a cantata The Lay of Rosabelle, and chamber works and songs.

Recordings

Collins conducted a series of classical recordings, notably of music of Elgar and Sibelius, for Decca Records and EMI. His Decca recordings made between 1952-1955 of the seven Sibelius symphonies (the second complete cycle with one orchestra and conductor; the first was by Sixten Ehrling and the Stockholm Philharmonic, 1952-1953) and tone poems were regarded very highly. He recorded with Decca from May 1945 to December 1956.

Film music

Victoria the Great, 1937 The Rat, 1937 A Royal Divorce, 1938 Sixty Glorious Years, 1938 Marigold, 1938 Nurse Edith Cavell, 1939 Allegheny Uprising, 1939 Swiss Family Robinson, 1940 Tom Brown's School Days, 1940

Irene, 1940 Sunny, 1941 Unexpected Uncle, 1941 The Nazis Strike, 1943 Appointment in Berlin, 1943 Destroyer, 1943 I Live in Grosvenor Square, 1945 Piccadilly Incident, 1946 The Courtneys of Curzon Street, 1947

The Fabulous Texan, 1947 Odette, 1950 Thunder in God's Country, 1951 The Lady With The Lamp, 1951 Macao, 1952 Derby Day, 1952 Trent's Last Case, 1952 Laughing Anne, 1953 Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, 1954

References

• ”London Concerts - London Symphony Orchestra”, The Musical Times, February 1938, p. 143 (Collins’ debut as conductor reviewed)
• Obituary, The Musical Times, May 1964, p. 374.
• Kennedy, Michael (2006), The Oxford Dictionary of Music, 985 pages, ISBN 0-19-861459-4
• Naxos biographical page, accessed 8 February 2010

External links

• Classics Online biography
• Anthony Collins at the Internet Movie Database