Remembered in his native Ireland primarily as a harpsichordist and
interpreter of Bach’s music, and in the UK as a conductor of the
ground-shaking early music group Musica Reservata, John Beckett
also composed avant-garde incidental music, performed on several
instruments and was an authoritative, if controversial, conductor.
Music was not his only passion: he was interested in films, the
theatre, art and pottery, and loved to travel. His varied career
included devising music programmes for Radio Éireann, writing for
The Bell magazine, working in Dublin’s Pike Theatre, presenting
and performing for the BBC Third Programme, composing music for his
famous cousin Samuel Beckett, founding Musica Reservata, conducting
Bach cantata concerts in Dublin over a ten-year period, and working
as a producer and presenter for BBC Radio 3. Despite his reputation
as a gruff, confrontational individual with a fondness for
Guinness, whiskey and garlic, he made many friends and was familiar
with Dublin’s intellectual, musical and bohemian milieu, such as
the writers Aidan Higgins, Anthony Cronin, Patrick Kavanagh,
Brendan Behan and James Plunkett, composers E.J. Moeran and
Frederick May, counter-tenor Alfred Deller, musician John
O’Sullivan, Desmond MacNamara, Ralph Cusack, singer and sculptor
Werner Schürmann, publisher John Calder and musician David Cairns.
Complex, self-deprecating and private, John’s character and
achievements are examined with detail garnered from information
both published and in archival collections in Ireland and the UK.
Recollections from those who knew him at different stages of his
life enliven this fascinating biography. The book also examines the
development of Musica Reservata, and contains excerpts from
unpublished letters written by Samuel Beckett. Extracts from
correspondence between John and James Plunkett, Aidan Higgins,
Arland Ussher and music critic Charles Acton are also included.
General
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