Hugh Ottaway

Hugh Ottaway (27 July 1925 – 6 November 1979) was a prominent British writer and lecturer on classical music.

Ottaway studied history at Exeter University (then the University of the South-West) from 1944. His career began as a teacher, freelance writer and from the 1950s as a presenter of musical talks on BBC Radio. His most significant contributions to music criticism were as a commentator on that portion of twentieth-century music which retained an allegiance to tonality; thus Nielsen, Shostakovich, Sibelius and William Walton featured largely in his output.

Ottaway was especially associated with British composers such as Edmund Rubbra and Robert Simpson, and a staunch supporter of the politically active Alan Bush. But David Scott has pointed out that he "was not limited by a nationalist outlook. His ability to view English composition in a broader context also made his reviews valuable".

He died in Malvern, aged 54. An archive of his papers is held at the Bodleian Library in Oxford.

Books

 * Vaughan Williams (Novello Short Biographies; 1966)
 * ‘Carl Nielsen’, ‘Prospect and Perspective’, chapter in Robert Simpson (ed). The Symphony, Vol.2 (1967, rev. 1972), pp. 268–77
 * ‘The Enlightenment and the Revolution’, chapter in A. Robertson, D Stevens (ed.) The Pelican History of Music, 1968), pp. 11–96
 * Sibelius (Novello Short Biographies; 1968)
 * Vaughan Williams Symphonies (BBC Music Guides series; 1972 [reprinted 1977, 1980 and 1987]) ISBN 0-563-12242-0.
 * William Walton (Novello Short Biographies; 1972, revised 1977)
 * Shostakovich Symphonies (BBC Music Guides, No 39; 1978)
 * Mozart (1979)
 * Edmund Rubbra, an appreciation: Together with a complete catalogue of compositions to May 1981 (Lengnick; 1981)

Articles

 * ‘The Piano Music of John Ireland’, Monthly Musical Record 84 (1954), pp. 258–66
 * 'Nielsen's Sixth Symphony'; The Musical Times, Vol. 95, No. 1337 (Jul., 1954), pp. 362–363
 * ‘Vaughan Williams’s Eighth Symphony’, ''Music & Letters 38 (1957), pp. 213–25
 * 'Clues and Keys' - Hugh Ottaway on the music of Robert Simpson'; The Listener, 21 May 1970
 * ‘Rubbra’s Symphonies’, Musical Times 112 (1971), pp. 430–32, 549–52
 * Review: 'Simpson's New Symphonies'; Tempo (New Ser.), No. 105 (Jun., 1973), pp. 53–54