From Bow to Baton

“I never considered my violin playing good enough to sustain an interesting musical career.”

Towards the end of the 1960s, as Marriner was (it seemed) making the transition from the leader’s chair to the conductor’s podium, he began to attract attention in the latter role from overseas – especially from Los Angeles, where plans were afoot to add to the musical distinction of that city by founding a chamber orchestra on the lines of the Academy. So it was that for a decade, 1969-79, Neville and Molly spent three months a year in California, where the newly-fledged maestro soon cultivated a first-rate band. As later in Minneapolis, Marriner didn’t make many recordings with his American orchestras; but a disc like the one made with the LA Chamber Orchestra for – guess who? – Argo in 1974 bears eloquent witness to his transfer of the highest standards to his new position.

Once established in the USA, Marriner began to be invited to conduct – including the ‘big five’ – in not just baroque/early classical music but also the 19th century romantics. In fact, he found it easier to be accepted as a full-blown symphonic conductor over there precisely because there was less awareness of his origins as (largely) a chamber musician on the violin.