William Crotch (1775-1847) - Overture in G Major (1815)

Happy birthday William Crotch! 🎻📯 Composer: William Crotch (1775-1847) Work: Overture in G Major (1815) Performers: Milton Kеynes Chamber Orchestra; Hilary Davon Wеtton (conductor) Drawing: Edward Dayes (1763-1804) - Interior of St Paul's during the day of General Thanksgiving, 23 April 1789 HD image: Further info: Listen free: --- William Crotch (Norwich, 5 July 1775 - Taunton, 29 December 1847) English composer, organist, theorist and painter. He was an exceptional child prodigy and became one of the most distinguished English musicians of his day. He was the youngest son of Michael Crotch, a master carpenter, and his wife Isabella. In his teens he attended Oxford University, where he obtained a B.A. degree. His first oratorio (set twice during his life), The Captivity of Judah, was performed at Oxford successfully in 1789, and by 1797 he was awarded a professorship in music at the university, receiving his doctorate two years later. From 1793 he began deputizing for the professor of music, Philip Hayes, as the conductor of the Music Room concerts, which he continued to direct until 1806. In 1806-07 he withdrew from Oxford, resigning his organistships, and settled in London. In London he became well known as a teacher, composer and scholar. Between 1812 and 1823 he gave courses annually at the Surrey Institution and during the 1820s at the Royal Institution and London Institution. On the establishment of the Royal Academy of Music in 1822 Crotch was appointed its principal. He resigned the principalship on 21 June 1832. He was also well known for his paintings during the early part of the 19th century. His music written prior to 1800 consists of the aforementioned oratorio, as well as two symphonies, an organ concerto, and several anthems. During his later years he continued to write sacred music but also turned toward the catch and glee. The evidence of Crotch’s precocity is incontestable, being based in part on contemporary printed accounts in many sources, including those of such qualified observers as Barrington and Burney. The fact that Crotch’s ultimate achievement as a composer hardly lived up to this promise may perhaps be put down to the psychological damage he suffered as a child. Crotch himself later confessed: ‘I look back on this part of my life with pain and humiliation … I was becoming a spoilt child and in danger of becoming what too many of my musical brethren have become under similar circumstances and unfortunately remained through life’.