RIP Maurice Murphy

[Matthew]

Maurice Murphy, former principal trumpet of the LSO for 30 years, passed away on 28th October. I saw Maurice play in a few LSO concerts back in the 1990s and always marvelled at his rock-solid technique and blazing sound. He was also a wonderfully lyrical player. Maurice was "the man" on all the big John Williams soundtracks (Star Wars, Superman, Indiana Jones), and Williams says he had Maurice's trumpet sound in mind when writing these scores (see podcast below).

There are tributes on the LSO website and a podcast from 2007 (when Maurice retired from the LSO), with contributors including John Williams and Michael Tilson Thomas (including an amusing M5 story at the very end of the podcast).

http://lso.co.uk/mauricemurphy

[barry guerrero]

I personally liked William Lang's playing even more. but M.M. was certainly a solid player. For my taste, his sound was a bit bright, but that's wat made him desirable for the John Williams material. He seems pretty young to have passed away just now. Then again, the L.S.O.'s super-star tuba player, John Fletcher, died quite young also. Maybe somebody should examine the building materials in R.F.H.

[Eric Nagamine]

I personally liked William Lang's playing even more. but M.M. was certainly a solid player. For my taste, his sound was a bit bright, but that's wat made him desirable for the John Williams material. He seems pretty young to have passed away just now. Then again, the L.S.O.'s super-star tuba player, John Fletcher, died quite young also. Maybe somebody should examine the building materials in R.F.H.

I think all but 5 years of Maurice Murphy's LSO tenure involved playing at the Barbican which was the LSO's home. Prior to then he was principal of the BBC Northern and before that the Black Dyke Band (like William Lang) Also, didn''t JF die of a stroke?

From the times I heard him in concert, i thought Maurice Murphy had a more traditional symphonic sound than William Lang who had that Brass Band vibrato. The LSO of the 90's had an impressive esprit de corps and it really showed in their playing. Undoubtedly, the best of the London Bands.

--------
Eric Nagamine

[barry guerrero]

"William Lang who had that Brass Band vibrato"

Yeah, I guess that's true.

[david johnson]

i recall that william lang did the posthorn solo on the horenstein/lso m3 on nonesuch records.

dj

[barry guerrero]

Yes, that's correct. You can get a good look at him on the Bernstein/LSO M2 dvd from Ely Cathedral.