No 4 -- March 1976 Edited by Michael Walters
GEORGE BAKER DIES IN HIS 91st YEAR
To me the death of George Baker is a far greater personal tragedy than the death of Martyn Green could ever have been. George Baker epitomised for me everything that was good about G & S singing - in a sense he taught me to sing, for by incessantly listening to his records I learned to appreciate the essential union of words and music that is G & S. George never (as unfortunately many singers do) made the notes mere pegs on which to hang the words, or the words pegs on which to hang the notes. To meet someone that one has admired from afar is often a disappointment, but when I first met Baker at his flat in St. John's Wood, he proved to be as kind and as charming as I could ever have dared to hope. And talk! On my first visit I was there for three hours which seemed to pass like as many minutes, so packed with excitement and interest was his conversation. He was a man who had obviously loved life and lived it to the full. As we parted, he smiled and clasped me by both shoulders. I never forgot that. I visited him on a number of occasions after that and I had a fair amount of correspondence with him. The last time I met him was about three years ago at his home in Hereford. I went down with Richard Ault from Birmingham and we made a tape-recording of him chatting and reminiscing. George Baker lived to see the centenary of G & S. My real sorrow was that he did not survive to see the centenary of the invention of the Gramophone which falls in 1977, 100 years since Thomas Edison first said "Mary had a little lamb" into a piece of tinfoil. As the singer with the longest recording career in history it would have made such a difference to the celebrations if he could have been there. However, it will not be. Few baritones can have recorded a wider range of music than George Baker, and to everything he did he brought distinction. As a collector of George Baker records I can say that, while there are songs recorded by Baker that I have heard done better by other singers, I can think of no-one who could have recorded such a wide range of music at such a consistently high standard. I don't think I have ever heard a bad Baker record, and most singers make bad records at some time or other.
BEATRICE ELBURN. It is with great sorrow that I write of the death of Beatrice Elburn, which has already been noticed in The Savoyard. She was with the D’Oyly Carte from 1925 to 1930 playing at first minor soprano and mezzo roles, graduating in her last two years to the soubrettes (she took over some of Aileen Davies' parts when the latter left). She appeared on five recordings, playing first Peep-Bo (in which recording she was allowed the privilege of singing "Sit with downcast eye"), Vittoria, Leila (which she shared with Nellie Walker) and Phoebe and Tessa on the abridged recordings that appeared in 1931. She had a wonderfully warm and creamy voice, full of emotion, and in my opinion, ranks as the finest performer in the five roles I heard her in. Of the D’Oyly Carte singers whom I have heard, either on disc or in person, only Patricia Leonard approaches her in style and beauty of tone. Beatrice Elburn's recording of "When a merry maiden marries" in particular, I consider to be the finest rendering of this song. Here is someone who really sounds like a woman who has just got married and is full of the joy and beauty of youth. Latterly she produced Gilbert & Sullivan for an amateur company in the south of England. I intended to try to contact her for some years, but alas, I left it too late.
JACK HABBICK, former member of the Company and great friend of Aidan Evans, died recently of cancer, thus adding yet another to the tragic list of D’Oyly Cartites who have been called away untimely by this disease. I never saw him on stage and his voice has never been recorded, but I had the pleasure of meeting him a couple of years ago at Aidan Evans' house. He played some of the smaller bass roles, such as the Carpenter's Mate, and was for a time Business Manager of the Company.
MADGE TERRY, Chairman and founder member of the Gilbert & Sullivan Society, died of a heart attack last December. She presided at the Centenary Celebrations. Her loss will be keenly felt.
Web page created 16 February 1999