Gerald Drucker, 84, Outstanding double-bass player, teacher and photographer [guardian.co.uk]

[Hoodoo]

Gerald Drucker obituary

Outstanding double-bass player, teacher and photographer

Rodney Slatford
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 13 May 2010 18.49 BST
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/may/13/gerald-drucker-obituary

Loading Image...
The Philharmonia Orchestra's double bass section: left to right, Ian
Hall, Maurice Neal, their principal, Gerald Drucker, and Gordon Bailey


The double bassist Gerald Drucker, who has died at the age of 84, was an
outstanding player with an unmistakable physical presence. The largest
stringed instrument of the orchestra seemed a mere toy in his hands. Few
have played as a section principal throughout such a long career as his,
the last three decades of which were spent leading the basses of the
Philharmonia Orchestra. He had an individual style that few could
emulate, along with a rare ability to sustain the bow at full volume
while apparently using little more effort than that required to hold a
pencil.

Drucker was born in east London, the third of four children, to Sarah
and Simon, co-owners of a small clothing company. In the early
post-second world war days, when purchase of a double bass for £5 could
secure work with one of the London orchestras after a couple of lessons,
the arrival of a young virtuoso with a thirst for musical understanding
and the mastery of everything from Bach to Bottesini must have raised an
eyebrow or two.

Not only that, but the tall and imposing young Drucker, with enormous
hands and benign smile, was fresh from the Guildhall School of Music in
London, where from the age of 15 a £10 scholarship had enabled him to
study violin with the legendary Max Rostal, horn with Dennis Brain,
cello and piano, and also where he eventually attended the double-bass
class of James Merritt, the original principal bass of the Philharmonia
Orchestra. Drucker was also a virtuoso tuba player. At the same time he
went to classes at the Northern Polytechnic Institute in Islington,
following his family's intended career path in piano design, tuning and
repair.

Poor eyesight prevented a wartime call-up, so he earned pocket money
playing in dance bands (often with the American bandleader Xavier Cugat
at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel in New York).

A fellow student at the Guildhall, the double bass player Gordon Pearce,
recalled a conversation when Drucker confided that he was unhappy as a
violinist because his hands "were built in the bass clef". Pearce
responded: "So why not try the double bass?" Drucker adapted his
excellent violin technique to the larger instrument, using all four
left-hand fingers in an "extended" system, although it was considered
unorthodox at the time.

His first professional engagement in London during the war had been
playing the organ at St Mary Magdalene church, Holloway Road,
subsequently working as a violinist or violist with both the leading
chamber orchestras of the time, the Boyd Neel Orchestra and the Jacques
String Orchestra.

Drucker abandoned a promising career as a tuba player when he was
headhunted by Maurice Miles for his Yorkshire Symphony Orchestra in 1946
as the founding principal bass. He stayed with the orchestra for six
years, during which he met his future wife, Leslie. Asked to join the
BBC Symphony Orchestra under Sir Malcolm Sargent in 1953, when the
principal Stuart Knussen moved to the London Symphony Orchestra, Drucker
relocated to London and stayed at the BBC until 1964, once deputising on
the tuba at short notice in Walton's First Symphony. That year he was
invited to join Walter Legge's Philharmonia Orchestra under Otto
Klemperer, at the time one of the finest recording orchestras in the
world. It was a golden age, with great conductors such as Maazel, Muti
and Giulini appearing regularly.

Work was demanding but Drucker, together with many Philharmonia
colleagues, also did freelance sessions. This frequently involved
three-tier days; a rehearsal on the South Bank in the morning, an
afternoon recording on the other side of London, then a concert at the
Festival Hall in the evening. Often there were late-night jingles too,
recorded in small studios.

There were 30 fruitful years with the Philharmonia. Drucker was happy in
his work, held the respect of his section, and there were plenty of
opportunities to pursue another passion – photography. He was the
orchestra's principal photographer from the early 1960s, and when on
tours abroad would disappear for hours to capture landscapes and
portraits with such flair that his work appeared regularly in
newspapers, journals, magazines and books all over the world.

Only once did he become involved with the orchestra's management. On 10
March 1964, Legge announced that he was disbanding the orchestra, a
decision the world found outrageous. Adrian Boult, conducting a Festival
Hall concert at the time, spoke from the podium, saying how everyone had
been let down. Legge and his wife, the soprano Elisabeth Schwarzkopf,
left their box and had nothing further to do with the orchestra. Drucker
was among those who set up a temporary council to secure a future for
the players, although, alas, not for a number of unissued master tapes
that were thrown in anger into Lake Geneva by the irate Legges.

Drucker's professional life included the London Double Bass Quartet,
founded with Philharmonia colleagues, for which he commissioned new
works from Robert Simpson and Alun Hoddinott, and he joined the Wine
Society to ensure the quality of the ensemble's refreshments. There were
concertos with the Philharmonia, chamber music and recitals.

Although he never held a teaching post other than at the National Centre
for Orchestral Studies, in retirement he spent a lot of time encouraging
and managing young artists, notably the violinist Vanessa-Mae, the
Japanese pianist Hiromi Okada and the Koreans Min Jin (violin) and Min
Jung (piano). Although the cancer he suffered for 17 years had long
since claimed his sight, Drucker was regularly seen at concerts and
remained keenly interested.

He is survived by Leslie, his children, Graham, Stephanie and Victoria,
and sister, Ann.

• Gerald Drucker, double-bass player, born 5 August 1925; died 19 March 2010

[Hoodoo]

Gerald Drucker

Gerald Drucker, who has died aged 84, was one of the country's most
respected classical musicians and a dedicated photographer of the music
world.

Published: 5:25PM BST 04 Jun 2010
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/culture-obituaries/music-obituaries/7804184/Gerald-Drucker.html

Loading Image...
Gerald Drucker


Drucker was appointed principal double bass of the Philharmonia
Orchestra of London in 1964, remaining with it throughout its
reincarnation as the New Philharmonia Orchestra and its return to the
Philharmonia name, finally retiring in 1990. Thereafter he continued to
play an active role in music, organising the anniversary Far East tour
of the London Mozart Players, and mentoring violinists Vanessa Mae and
Min Jin Kym and the pianist Hiromi Okada.

Drucker played in concerts with most of Britain's finest orchestras and,
in 1978, appeared as the soloist in works for double bass by Bottesini
and Mortari under Riccardo Muti at the Royal Festival Hall. He was also
the soloist in the romantic comedy film Romance with a Double Bass
(1974), inspired by an Anton Chekhov story and starring John Cleese,
Connie Booth and Andrew Sachs. He even taught Cleese how to play the
instrument.

Gerald Jack Drucker was born on August 5 1925 and brought up at Bow in
East London. He was evacuated to Cambridge in 1940 but returned to
London before the Blitz and remained there throughout the war.

He became interested in music at an early age, studying first the piano
and later the violin. Encouraged by his teacher at the Malmesbury Road
school, he joined the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in Blackfriars
during the height of the German attacks on London. He was returning home
from music lessons when the first bombs fell on the East End.

He studied organ and piano design and repair at the North London
Polytechnic in Islington; his first musical engagement was as organist
at St Mary Magdalene church in Highbury. Throughout the war he played
with the Boyd Neel String Orchestra at the Wigmore Hall. Some of
Drucker's earliest recordings date from this time.

By this stage Drucker had already mastered several instruments –
including the tuba. He took up the double bass largely by accident when
his lifelong friend, the bassist Gordon Pearce, was unable to attend an
Ensa concert for Canadian troops on the south coast prior to D-Day.
Knowing Drucker's musical flexibility, Pearce asked him if he could
stand in.

Drucker quickly mastered the new instrument and in 1946, when he was 20,
was offered the position of principal double bass with the newly founded
Yorkshire Symphony Orchestra. The following year he moved to Leeds,
where he met his future wife, a violinist in the orchestra. He returned
to London as the new principal bassist of the BBC Symphony Orchestra in
1953.

Under the baton of Sir Malcolm Sargent, Drucker was to play every year
in the Proms at the Royal Albert Hall. One of his first tours abroad was
to Scandinavia, where the orchestra played for the Swedish Royal Family,
and he went on to visit many countries around the world, including
Eastern European states at the height of the Cold War.

He first started photographing the Philharmonia Orchestra in 1961. His
photographs have been exhibited at the Festival Hall and featured in the
international press. Drucker was proud of his dual title of the
orchestra's principal double bass and photographer.

Gerald Drucker, who died on March 19, married, in 1948, Leslie
Baker-Falkner, who survives him with their two daughters and a son.