Sir Michael became involved with the County School of Music in 1965 when he agreed to become patron of the Schools Festival and conduct two concerts at the De Montfort Hall. The problems in actually rehearsing for this festival were overcome by the orchestra travelling down to Corsham, close to Sir Michael' s home, and taking up residence in a local school for a full week during the Easter holidays. This enabled Sir Michael to work with the orchestra after his usual day's schedule. In this way, his routine was not disrupted but perhaps more importantly, from an L.S.S.O. perspective, there was substantial rehearsal time for the players and Sir Michael to get to know each other. In the mid 1960's ABC Television ran an Arts programme called Tempo and the week's events at Corsham were filmed for an edition entitled Overtures with Beginners. Sir Michael proved to be great fun and a rapport was immediately established. This was the start of a relationship which continued to grow throughout the 1960's and 1970's.

The 1965 festival included Sir Michael' s Concerto for Double String Orchestra

and A Child of Our Time along with two new pieces he had written specially for the occasion: Prologue and Epilogue. These were used to open and close the festival. The Epilogue, of course, has real significance for the orchestra because it is a setting of Non Nobis Domine and Sir Michael heard this sung as a grace during the visit to Corsham. The Prologue and Epilogue would prove to be the opening and closing movements of a new suite which was written for the L.S.S.O. between 1965 and 1970. On its completion, this became known as The Shires Suite.

After the 1965 festival, Sir Michael's appearances with the orchestra included a wonderful Enigma Variations in Brussels (1966), a second Schools Festival (1967) and a gramophone recording of his Suite in D for the Pye Golden Guinea label. In 1969 the second phase of The Shires Suite was unveiled at the L.S.S.O.'s Easter residential course in Cirencester. Orchestral parts, in manuscript, for Interlude II turned up at sectional rehearsals one morning. I personally found the title somewhat confusing. What on earth happened to Interlude I ? Did I miss a rehearsal or had Michael lost count? Of course, by 1970 all had become clear but more of that later. First rehearsals for Interlude II were directed by Norman Del Mar. Sir Michael joined us later in the week and a BBC television crew also arrived to film him conducting Interlude II and Ives' Putnam's Camp for a BBC-2 programme called Music Now. The television recording was somewhat disrupted by the Red Arrows flying above the school but a personal plea from Sir Michael to the Red Arrows H.Q. soon put a stop to the noise. I am reliably informed that this was the first time in history that the Red Arrows had been 'grounded' in such a manner. Looking back, the rehearsals for Interlude II were absolutely riotous mainly due to the novel inclusion of a part for electric guitar.

The new trilogy of Prologue, Interlude II and Epilogue received its first public performance at the Bath Festival on June 21st 1969 where the L.S.S.O. was conducted by Sir Michael. In one of the reviews, an eminent critic '...failed to detect the promised part for electric guitar...'. The guitar part, played by David Abbott, was nigh on deafening from where I was sitting in the 2nd fiddles. That's critics for you, I suppose.

It was a great year, 1969. Sir Michael and the L.S.S.O. played a memorable concert in the Philharmonie, Berlin which included Prologue, Interlude II and Epilogue, Ives' Putnam's Camp, Copland's Quiet City and Brigg Fair by Delius. Richard Rodney Bennett was the soloist in Rhapsody in Blue. We were hailed as Britain's best cultural export but most of us in the orchestra also had the feeling that our programme was rather alien to a German public weaned on Brahms and Beethoven. The sounds of Charles Ives must have been a real shock, let alone Interlude II.

The 1970 Easter course was held at Oxford. Yet another week of fun and games, sleeping on camp beds in a school and being rehearsed by Sir Arthur Bliss, Bryan Kelly, Herbert Chappell and Sir Michael. The preparations this time were focused on rehearsals for an appearance at the Cheltenham Festival in July and a new recording for Argo, which would include Interlude II and Epilogue. During this week at Oxford, Sir Michael introduced us to Interlude I . The Shires Suite was almost ready for its premier at Cheltenham.

By this time, Sir Michael had made some close friendships at the County School of Music and he kept in regular contact by telephone. On one famous occasion he was chatting to Jack Richards about the problems he was having with the percussion scoring in the Cantata of The Shires Suite. Jack's miniscule office was situated next door to the school canteen and as the conversation progressed a careless dinner lady dropped a tray of cutlery. This sparked the composer's imagination and Jack spent the next quarter of an hour or so dropping various combinations of forks and spoons onto the floor from different heights until the correct sound was achieved to the satisfaction of the composer. Who suggested the title given to the completed work? Jack Richards.

The Cheltenham Festival concert took place in the Town Hall on July 8th and the podium was shared by Sir Arthur Bliss and Sir Michael, who directed Ives' Circus Band, Gershwin' s Rhapsody in Blue and The Shires Suite with choral contributions from the fabulous Schola Cantorum of Oxford. It must be mentioned that in the early hours of July 8th, Sir Michael was involved, as a passenger, in a serious road traffic accident whilst he was travelling from the Queen Elizabeth Hall. Despite this he continued his journey to Cheltenham, took a three hour rehearsal in the afternoon and then directed the concert in the evening. Even 30 years after the event I still vividly recall the electric atmosphere at this concert, which was one of our best performances. The critics were united in their praise of the music and the standard of the playing. Sir Arthur referred to the concert as the best one of the 1970 festival. Later that evening Jack Richards appeared on the orchestra's coach after the concert wearing a huge grin and clutching a tape recording of The Shires Suite.

The Interlude II and Epilogue were recorded by Sir Michael and the L.S.S.O. on August 31st, 1970 for Argo Records. The session took place in Decca Studio No.3, West Hampstead and the disc was released in April 1971. The sound quality and performance, however, seemed a real let down compared to the concert at Cheltenham.

In September 1998, during a project to fully update some personal archives relating to the Leicestershire Schools Symphony Orchestra, the mystery tape from Cheltenham finally resurfaced 28 years after the event. It had been recorded in stereophonic sound of excellent quality. I simply couldn't believe my luck. This recording has now been transferred to C.D. (with the kind permission of Schott and Co.) and shared with some colleagues and friends who played in the concert. The sound is little short of amazing and the performance is also highly accomplished - a world premier beautifully captured as it took place that night in Cheltenham Town Hall and a permanent reminder of the special relationship between the Leicestershire County School of Music and Sir Michael Tippett.

John Whitmore 1999