conductor

Lawrance became a conductor in 1906 by mistake; as a favourite pupil of the Westminster Organist, Frederick Bridge, he ended up conducting the Abbey Choir as Lady Bridge lay dying. In 1920, long after his studies at Oxford and St.Petersburg, and a freezing interlude translating behind the frontline of the White Army 1919 in Arkhangelsk (recorded in his diary), he was called upon to conduct the Chorus of Sadler’s Wells. Not only did he transform that venerable institution into the modern English National Opera (ENO), but this was his thirties’ playing field, allowing him to première his Opera “Macbeth” to some acclaim under his own baton in 1934. As a conductor, he is best known for his 1964 recording of “the Miniature Elgar”,  witnessed by the composer himself on his deathbed over the phone.