Custodian of music: a biography of Basil Cameron

Basil Cameron was one of Britain's most famous orchestral conductors of the twentieth century but is now largely forgotten. He was Sir Henry Wood's first associate conductor of the Promenade Concerts and continued to conduct at these concerts for twenty-five seasons. No previous biography of this great musician has been published and this book attempts to fill a significant gap in performance history in Britain. It also seeks to restore Cameron to is proper place among eminent British conductors where his stature as an fine and resourceful musician has been under-rated. The length of Cameron's professional life also saw many changes in musical performance, from the importance of small orchestras in spa towns to the emergence of broadcasting and recording, from municipal and private funding to Arts Councils and business sponsorship, from the part-time existence of one or two orchestras in London and the provinces to the presence of five major orchestras in London alone with an inevitable effect on concert life. This biography also acknowledges Cameron's work for some important composers including Sibelius, Britten, Stravinsky and Bax, often regarded as 'difficult' at this time and where his contribution has not always been recognised.