Alan Cuckston
{{Short description|English harpsichordist (1940–2025)}}
{{EngvarB|date=September 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2025}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Alan Cuckston
| image = Alan Cuckston.jpg
| caption =
| birth_date = {{birth date|1940|7|2|df=yes}}
| birth_place = Horsforth, England
| death_date = {{death date and age|2025|3|22|1940|7|2|df=yes}}
| death_place =
| education = King's College, Cambridge
| occupation = {{ubl| Harpsichordist | Conductor | Pianist | Lecturer}}
| organization = Barber Institute of Fine Arts
}}
Alan George Cuckston (2 July 1940 – 22 March 2025) was an English harpsichordist, pianist, conductor and lecturer. He recorded for the BBC, especially on historic instruments. Cuckston was the harpsichordist in the 1968 Proms concert of Monteverdi's Vespro della Beata Vergine by the Monteverdi Choir, conducted by John Eliot Gardiner. He toured internationally with the Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields and Pro Cantione Antiqua. He recorded a broad repertoire of music for keyboards instruments, including the complete piano works by Alan Rawsthorne.
Life and career
Cuckston was born in Horsforth near Leeds on 2 July 1940, to Percy Cuckston and his wife Florence née Titchmarsh, the third of their six children. He studied music with Fanny Waterman and Lamar Crowson and at King's College, Cambridge, where he studied with Thurston Dart,{{cite journal |last1=Jenkins |first1=Larry |url=https://sgcimages.s3.amazonaws.com/Diapason/Digitized%20Issues/1970_s/1975/January%201975.pdf |title=An Interview with Alan Cuckston |journal=The Diapason |date=January 1975 |volume=66 |issue=2[782] |page=10 }} from 1959 to 1963. He became a keyboard soloist for the BBC featured frequently. He taught at the Barber Institute of Fine Arts at the University of Birmingham from 1965 to 1969.[https://books.google.com/books?id=y0b0_CQATAIC&pg=PA174 Cuckston, Alan (George)] The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music (Fourth Edition), p. 174. Oxford University Press. {{ISBN|0-19-860884-5}}
He made his debut at Wigmore Hall in 1965, playing with the Lydian Ensemble. In 1968, he was harpsichordist for a Proms concert at the Royal Albert Hall of Monteverdi's Vespro della Beata Vergine by the Monteverdi Choir, the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble and the English Chamber Orchestra, conducted by John Eliot Gardiner.[http://www.bbc.co.uk/proms/archive/search/1960s/1968/september-11/8001 "Prom 49"], BBC, London. Archive from 11 September 1968. The same year he played the world premiere of the Harpsichord Sonata by Ronald Stevenson at the Harrogate Festivals.[https://harrogateinternationalfestivals.com/timeline/ Timeline], Harrogate Festivals 2025.
Cuckston was recognised internationally;{{cite news |url=http://www.thirskweeklynews.com/samples/TWN010907.pdf |title=Diana: Making news again |work=The Thirsk Weekly News |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120905042026/http://www.thirskweeklynews.com/samples/TWN010907.pdf |date=1 September 2007 |archive-date=5 September 2012}} specialising in early keyboard instruments (harpsichord, organ and fortepiano), Cuckston gave concerts in many parts of Europe and North America.[https://www.naxos.com/Bio/Person/Alan_Cuckston/144 Alan Cuckston], Naxos, 2025. He toured as harpsichordist with the Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields and as organist with Pro Cantione Antiqua.{{cite web |last1=Lebrecht |first1=Norman |author1-link=Norman Lebrecht |title=Eminent harpsichordist, 85 |url=https://slippedisc.com/2025/03/eminent-harpsichordist-85/ |publisher=Slipped Disc |date=24 March 2025 |access-date=25 March 2025}}
Cuckston produced recordings in a broad repertoire, from medieval music to contemporary. In 1965 he recorded an album of early Scottish music and dances from the Dublin Virginal Manuscript, reviewed by Gramophone: “Cuckston admirably catches the dance spirit of all these with his alert, clean, rhythmically controlled performances.” He recorded music by Handel, John Tomkins, Matthew Locke, Purcell, William Croft, John Blow, Fritz Hart,Wright, David: [http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2000/feb00/organ.htm Organ Music / Played on the Father Smith organ at St Peter's Chapel, Auckland, County Durham by Alan Cuckston.] musicweb-international.com, February 2000 Rameau and Couperin (Naxos Records).[http://www.classicalarchives.com/album/730099546126.html#tv=about François Couperin: Pièces de Clavecin, Books 3 and 4 (Selections)], Classical Archives. Cuckston studied the music played in the Brontë family household and recorded A Musical Evening with the Brontë Family in 1979. In 1991 he recorded piano pieces by Herbert Howells and Armstrong Gibbs.Barnett, Rob: [https://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2001/apr01/howells.htm Lakeland Pictures: Piano Music of Howells and Armstrong Gibbs] musicweb-international.com, April 2001 Cuckston's organ playing was described as of "bright tone and impeccable, unobtrusive and exemplary playing".
Cuckston recorded the complete piano music of Alan Rawsthorne (Swinsty Records), who was his friend. Cuckston authored a tribute to Rawsthorne in The Creel, a journal of the Rawsthorne Trust.Cuckston, Alan: [https://www.musicweb-international.com/rawsth/THE_CREEL_VOL7_No2.pdf Tributes to John], The Creel, summer 2012, pp. 18–19 He recorded Britten’s Cabaret Songs with jazz singer Norma Winstone.
Cuckston commissioned a piece for the Cuckston Trio for clarinet, viola and piano from Dick Blackford.[https://www.broekmans.com/en/bladmuziek/dance-trio-clar-bb-va-vi-fl-piano-score-parts-advlevel-206133 Dance Trio] Broekmans & Van Poppel, 2025 He commissioned works for harpsichord from Elizabeth Maconchy,[https://ascrecords.com/primafacie/inventions.html Inventions: Contemporary Music for Harpsichord Vol 2] ascrecords.co, 2025 Stevenson, Phillip Ramey, and David Wooldridge. He had a harpsichord built by John Rooks of Ticknall, Derbyshire, based on a 1638 harpsichord made by Andreas Ruckers for playing Baroque music. He owned a one-manual organ that may have belonged to Handel; dated 1742, it was made by Johannes Schnetzler who worked in London when Handel lived there.
Cuckston married Joan Vivien Caswell, née Broadbent, and became stepfather to her two sons. They shared three daughters. Joan Cuckston died in 2008. Alan Cuckston died on 22 March 2025, at the age of 84.{{cite news |title=Alan Cuckston, harpsichordist who recorded on period instruments for the BBC Sound Archives |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2025/03/28/alan-cuckston-harpischordist-bbc-sound-archives/ |access-date=29 March 2025 |work=Telegraph Obituaries |date=28 March 2025}}{{Cite web |title=Alan Cuckston Obituary (2025) - The Yorkshire Post |url=https://www.legacy.com/uk/obituaries/yorkshirepost-uk/name/alan-cuckston-obituary?id=58008775 |access-date=2025-03-31 |website=Legacy.com}}
References
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External links
- {{IMDb name}}
- [https://www.naxos.com/Bio/Person/Alan_Cuckston/144 Alan Cuckston] at Naxos
- [https://archive.today/20130420150410/http://www.harpsichordist.co.uk/ Official website] (archived)
- {{Discogs artist|Alan Cuckston}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cuckston, Alan}}
Category:English harpsichordists
Category:English conductors (music)