Richard Adeney
| Richard Adeney | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Richard Gilford Adeney 1920 |
| Died | 2010 (aged 89–90) Paddington |
| Education | Royal College of Music |
| Occupation | Classical flautist |
| Organization | |
Richard Gilford Adeney (25 January 1920 – 16 December 2010) was a British flautist who played principal flute with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the English Chamber Orchestra, was a soloist and a founding member of the Melos Ensemble.
Richard Adeney was born the son of the painter Bernard Adeney (1878–1966). He was determined early in life, to "become the best flute player in the world", as he stated in his autobiography. He was educated at Dartington Hall School and subsequently studied at the Royal College of Music, where one of his contemporaries and close friends was Malcolm Arnold, who composed in 1940 a Grand Fantasia for flute, trumpet and piano for him and a pianist, premiered in February 1941. In his student days in the late 1930s Adeney worked with Vaughan Williams and Sir Malcolm Sargent. In the Second World War he was unconditionally exempted from military service as a conscientious objector.
He joined the London Philharmonic Orchestra in 1941, initially as second flute, and played with them until 1950 and again from 1961 to 1970, under such conductors as Henry Wood and Wilhelm Furtwängler. He was one of the founding members of the Melos Ensemble, principal flautist of the English Chamber Orchestra (ECO) until the 1970s when he was succeeded by William Bennett, and also regularly performed as a soloist. Malcolm Arnold composed a Divertimento for Flute, Oboe and Clarinet for him and other particular friends. Richard Adeney, Sidney Sutcliffe and Stephen Waters gave the work its first performance in 1952. In 1954 Malcolm Arnold wrote a Concerto for Flute and Strings for his friend, who recorded it in 1979, together with the concerto for flute and orchestra (1972).
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