| Biography | Anthony Camden, who has died aged 67 after a long battle with motor neurone disease, made his name as principal oboe with the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO). An organiser of boundless energy, he then found new outlets for his wide range of activities as the head of conservatoires in Australia and Hong Kong, and leaves an outstanding legacy of concerto recordings.
Born in London, he was the son of the celebrated bassoonist Archie Camden and his wife Joyce (born Jan Kerrison), a cellist, pianist and composer. Since Archie was a member of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the family had to move during the second world war to Bristol and then Bedford, where Anthony twice had double pneumonia and serious attacks of asthma.
Once the family had returned to London after the war, Anthony went to Highgate school. His first instruments were piano and violin, but asthma hindered his sporting activities, and he took up the suggestion that the breath control demanded by the oboe might help.
Lessons with Evelyn Rothwell were followed by study at the Royal College of Music in London, where his professor was Terence MacDonagh. While at the RCM, Anthony and his elder brother Kerry formed the Camden Wind Quintet, whose flautist I became; later, the Camden Trio, originally Evelyn Rothwell, Archie and pianist Wilfred Parry, evolved into the line-up of Anthony, Kerry and Ian Lake. These ensembles started Anthony's love of chamber music: in 1972, with flautist James Galway and violinist John Georgiadis, he founded the London Virtuosi, which made numerous recordings and appeared in venues around the world.
As soon as he graduated from the RCM, in 1960, Anthony was appointed principal oboe of the Northern Sinfonia. His many concerto performances there included the Haydn Sinfonia Concertante with violinist Isaac Stern and cellist Leonard Rose, and I recall with great pleasure playing alongside him in the solos in Mozart's Posthorn Serenade, and in performances of Bach cantatas directed by Benjamin Britten. Next came his five-year stay as principal with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. While there, Anthony met and married his first wife, Diane Lewis.
In 1968, Anthony moved to the LSO, where he remained for 20 years, 14 of them as principal and 12 (1975-87) as chairman of the board. In this role, "the Whizzer" led the orchestra through difficult times to a position of artistic and financial security in its new home at the Barbican Centre. During his time with the LSO, he recorded the Bach concerto for oboe and violin with Yehudi Menuhin; played the Mozart concerto with André Previn conducting; the Strauss with Claudio Abbado; and numerous film scores, including Star Wars. Anthony was also visiting professor at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
In 1988, he changed tack, leaving the LSO to become the provost and director of the Queensland Conservatorium of Music in Brisbane. Despite his full-time appointment, he managed to practise three hours each day and kept up a busy playing schedule in Europe and Asia. Five years later, Anthony accepted the post of dean of music at the Academy for the Performing Arts in Hong Kong, and worked tirelessly to place it among the world's leading institutions, as well as performing throughout the region.
During the 1990s, he recorded a series of 36 concertos largely by Italian composers such as Albinoni, Cimarosa and Bellini, with the accompaniment shared between his London Virtuosi and the City of London Sinfonia. With the Queensland Philharmonic Orchestra, he recorded the Mozart concerto, and with the LSO that by Grace Williams, entitled Carillons. It was one of the 10 concertos that were written for and premiered by him: others came from Loris Tjeknavorian, called Moods, and from the Australian composers Philip Bracanin and Richard Mills. |