Alexander Gibson

Biography

Sir Alexander Drummond Gibson was a leading British conductor, known especially for late Romantic-era and British music performances.

He studied piano at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music, continuing his musical studies at Glasgow University. He won a scholarship to the Royal College of Music in London in 1948, as a piano student.

While there, he formed and conducted a student orchestra. This convinced the administration to allow him to enter the conducting course. At the Mozarteum in Salzburg he studied with Igor Markevitch, and then in Siena with Paul van Kampen.

He was a rehearsal coach at Sadler's Wells Opera in London beginning in 1951. His professional conducting debut was the next year, in Smetana's opera The Bartered Bride. In the same year he took the position as associate conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, in Glasgow. After 1954 he returned to a staff conducting position at Sadler's Wells.

In 1957 he made his debut conducting at Covent Garden. In 1959 he returned to Scotland as principal conductor of the Scottish National Orchestra. He founded the Scottish Opera, also in Glasgow, and was appointed its music director. He remained in that position until 1987 and with the orchestra until 1984. With the opera, he conducted the first totally uncut performance of Berlioz's Les Troyens. During that period he was especially well-known for his performances of Sibelius and of British composers, but he also was interested in the most advanced music, premiering Stockhausen's Gruppen in Glasgow in 1961.

From 1981 to 1983 Gibson was the principal guest conductor of the Houston Symphony Orchestra. ~ Joseph Stevenson, Rovi

Discography

William Walton: Belshazzar's Feast; Coronation Te Deum; Cello Concerto Buy this CD	Neilsen: Symphony No. 5; Sibelius: Night Ride and Sunrise Buy this CD	Berlioz: Overtures Buy this CD	Sir Edward Elgar: Pomp and Circumstance Marches/Cockaigne Overture/The Crown of India Buy this CD	Sibelius: The Complete Tone Poems Buy this CD
Sibelius: Scènes Historiques Suites 1 & 2; Rakastave; Valse Lyrique Buy this CD	Sibelius: Symphonies Nos. 2 & 5 Buy this CD	Rachmaninov: Symphony No. 2 Buy this CD	Britten: Variations On A Theme Of Frank Bridge; Matinées Musicales; Soirées Musicales Buy this CD	Carl August Nielsen: Symphony No 04/Jean Sibelius: En Saga Buy this CD

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