Claude Hobday


Claude Hobday was an English double-bass player, a member of a well-known musical family, who took part in various early chamber-music recordings.

Biography

Early life

Claude Hobday was the younger brother of the violist Alfred Charles Hobday and the brother-in-law of the pianist Ethel Hobday.
He studied with A.C. White at the Royal College of Music in London from 1888-1892.

Career

He played in leading orchestras, including the English Opera">England">English Opera under Sir Arthur Sullivan, the Glasgow Choral Union under Augustus Manns, the Scottish Orchestra under George Henschel, in the Richter (conductor)|Richter] Concerts in London, in the London Symphony Orchestra as a founding member from 1904–10, in the Beecham Symphony Orchestra from 1910–16 and in the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, before becoming a founder member of the BBC Symphony Orchestra in 1930. He retired from playing in 1940. He was professor of double-bass at the Royal College of Music from 1902–46, his pupils including Adrian Beers, Ernest Ineson and Francis Baines. He was a notable collector of basses, owning instruments by Testore, Montagnana, Gasparo da Salò, Gennaro Gagliano, and Vincenzo Panormo.
Hobday was a major chamber musician, appearing in the South Place Concerts for thirty five years.

Recordings

Hobday was a prolific recording artist. He appeared with members of the International Quartet, Frank Howard and Herbert Withers ) and Wilhelm Backhaus in an early Austrian His Master's Voice recording of Schubert's Trout Quintet .
He also appears with the Léner Quartet in the Columbia Records electric microphone recordings of the Beethoven Septet in E flat major and the Schubert Octet in F major, with Charles Draper, E.W. Hinchliffe and Aubrey Brain.
For His Master's Voice, with the Quatuor Pro Arte, he recorded Mozart's Eine kleine Nachtmusik and, with Artur Schnabel at the piano, a second version of the Trout Quintet. He also played on the Busch Chamber Players' recordings of the Bach Brandenburg Concertos and Orchestral Suites and Mozart's Adagio and Fugue.