Obituary, Barry Tuckwell (1931-2020)

The Australian horn player and conductor Barry Tuckwell has died aged 88. Widely regarded as inheriting the mantle of Dennis Brain following the latter’s death in 1957, he began his professional career while still in his teens, after a musical upbringing as a treble at St Andrew’s Cathedral Sydney and forays into the violin, piano and organ.

Posts at Sydney and the Hallé soon followed, followed by the Scottish and Bournemouth Symphony Orchestras and over a decade as Principal at the LSO. In 1968, though, he took the bold decision to relinquish this orchestral position and carve out a niche as a soloist – a move rarely attempted and almost never successful. It soon became apparent that Tuckwell was more than capable of bucking this trend, and he made his mark as a solo performer on an instrument that has often been overshadowed by the violin and piano. Among others, he drew commissions from Thea Musgrave, Richard Rodney Bennett and Oliver Knussen – whom he had known as a child and with whom as ‘Uncle Barry’ he had a warm relationship.

After retiring as a performer in 1997, Tuckwell sought mentorship from the leading conductors of the time (as well as drawing on a vast amount of player-side experience of conducting techniques) and forged a successful second career on the podium in his own right, conducting the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra in his native Australia and founding the Maryland Symphony Orchestra in the USA.

In a 2007 interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s Mairi Nicolson, Tuckwell was characteristically blunt about the idea of pursuing a ‘legacy’: “If one tried to lead one’s life thinking of being remembered, one will become narcissistic. I never ever think that way. I couldn’t care less what my epitaph might be.” Be that as it may, he leaves to posterity a vast legacy in the form of recordings, writings, masterclasses and above all inspiration to an entire generation of horn players.