Sydney Conservatorium early 1920s, venue of the concert in Chapter 50.
(Public domain pre 1955, NLA, Fairfax collection)
The first director (and only salaried staff member) was Henri Verbrugghen, a Belgian conductor and violinist, and its aims were “providing tuition of a standard at least equal to that of the leading European Conservatoriums” and to “protect amateurs against the frequent waste of time and money arising from unsystematic tuition”.
William Arundel Orchard directed the Con from 1923 to 1934, and its orchestra faced some competition from the ABC Symphony Orchestra, which later became the Sydney Symphony.
A fictitious Mr Pippin appears in A Distant Prospect as the director in 1928, when a climactic concert sees our quartet members perform Haydn’s “Fifths” and Borodin’s 2nd String Quartet, with its achingly beautiful Nocturne movement.
Acacia Quartet
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