[citation needed] The Rev J H Thomas was a Cambridge graduate, expert linguist and accomplished musician, who was initially ordained into the Church of England but who later abandoned Anglicanism in favour of Unitarianism.
The October 1888 concert, for instance, featured two vocalists, two pianists and a violinist; the purely orchestral works ranged from Rossini’s Semiramide overture and a gavotte (True Love) to a selection from Cellier’s Dorothy and a Waldteufel waltz.
[citation needed] For many years before and during the First World War the orchestra was conducted by another prominent local musician, J E Ibeson (a descendant of whom is a current playing member).
Arthur Willie Kaye was a local musician of humble origin who by dint of self-sacrifice and sheer hard work had turned himself into one of the country’s greatest violin teachers (it is estimated that he launched over 100 violinists on professional careers); and in Huddersfield at any rate, he had become a ‘legend in his own lifetime’.
Some signs of better days ahead had already appeared when T H Crowther became the orchestra’s conductor in 1935 (a concert in 1936, for instance, included Franck’s Symphonic Variations and Tchaikovsky’s ‘Pathétique’ Symphony) .
A one-time student under Felix Weingartner and former violinist with the Hallé, Rees was an experienced musician who quickly became a firm favourite with orchestra and audience alike.
In 1958 a bold programme featured Brahms’ Alto Rhapsody and Wagner’s rarely heard Love Feast of the Apostles (in which the orchestra was joined by the Colne Valley Male Voice Choir).
The orchestra was responsible for the first Huddersfield performance of the Beethoven triple Concerto (with ‘local’ soloists Margaret Binns, Pauline Dunn and Keith Swallow).
William Rees’ retirement in 1964 was a matter of great regret; for almost twenty years he had enjoyed an exceptionally warm rapport with members of the orchestra, but it was understood that the time had come when he wished to be released from the strain of the road journey from his home in Lytham St Anne’s for rehearsals and concerts.
He inherited a well-established, confident orchestra – already large, it was to grow under him still further (in the 1971-72 Centenary [sic] Season no fewer than 113 players are listed in the programme including an amazing 81 strings).
Standard classics were not neglected (there were memorable performances of Beethoven’s Eroica and, in the Centenary [sic] Season, with the Huddersfield Choral Society, that composer’s Ninth Symphony) but works as diverse as Hindemith’s Symphonic Metamorphoses, Berlioz’s Harold in Italy, Prokofiev’s Firth Symphony, Respighi’s The Pines of Rome, Janáček’s Sinfonietta, Holst’s The Planets and the Mussorgsky/Ravel Pictures at an Exhibition figured in Butterworth’s early years.
[citation needed] Later years brought performances of Béla Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra, Edward Elgar's Falstaff, Claude Debussy's La mer and Benjamin Britten's "Four Sea Interludes".
When John Harle was taken ill, a potential problem became the beginning of a new musical friendship when his place was taken by Jack Liebeck, in a performance of the Mendelssohn Violin concerto.
“Victory snatched from the jaws of defeat “read the headline in the Huddersfield Examiner, and the reviewer commented “Clearly, members knew this piece but, to dust it down in one hour and give such a performance demonstrates the talent which the Huddersfield Philharmonic has in its ranks.”[This quote needs a citation] If this concert tested the abilities of the players, the plans for Mahler’s Third Symphony were to With the sudden unavailability of Rupert D’Cruze, Nicholas Cleobury stepped in to take on the task of performing Mahler’s Third Symphony and, following this success, he was appointed as Principal Guest Conductor within two years.
He has attracted comments including: ‘Guest conductor Nicholas Cleobury paid the orchestra the supreme compliment of making no concession to its “amateur” status’ (Huddersfield Examiner 23 April 2001, review of Mahler concert).
‘Nicholas Cleobury turned what could have been a hairy experience into a convincing one, full of raw energy and glittering colour’ (Yorkshire Post, 22 April 2002, review of Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast).
The latter concert, featuring Huddersfield Choral Society, was dedicated to the memory of Maurice Wray, orchestral manager of the Phil for some eleven years and who had been the prime mover and shaker in bringing the two organisations together on stage.
February 2008 saw a packed Town Hall, and heard the voice of Robert Powell as narrator in Sergei Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf, which the Huddersfield Examiner described as "utterly engaging and absorbing.