George Guest 1924-2002 - Four decades of musical excellence at St. Johns College, Cambridge
This year we mark the centenary of the birth of George Guest in 1924. His father, Ernest, was a church organist and he encouraged George to learn the instrument under the tuition of the sub-organist at Chester Cathedral. He was awarded his ARCO diploma in 1940 and his FRCO in 1942, aged just 18. After National Service George took up an appointment as sub-organist at Chester Cathedral, and then won a scholarship to St. John’s College, Cambridge.
As it turned out he was to spend his entire professional career at St. John’s. The director of music was Robin Orr, who towards the end of 1951 retired from the position and recommended that Guest took his place. This was quite a leap of faith by the College. His initial success was in establishing a choir school to replace a somewhat ad hoc arrangement with a local school.
Guest rapidly developed the choir to be one of the finest choral ensembles in the UK. Under his direction the choir gained a very distinctive clean sound, influenced by the work of George Malcolm at Westminster Cathedral (1947-1959). Guest was of course a contemporary of Sir David Willcocks, who was Director of Music at King’s College from 1957-1974. Guest remained at St. John’s until he retired in 1991, being awarded the CBE in 1987.
Many distinguished organists served as organ scholars under Guest, including Sir Stephen Cleobury, Jonathan Bielby, David Hill (who became Director of Music at the College from 2003-2007), Adrian Lucas, Andrew Nethsingha (Director of Music from 2002-2022), Brian Runnett and John Scott. As a result Guest had a very significant impact on the performance and development of choral music across the UK.
A feature of Guest’s time at St. John’s was the introduction of BBC broadcasts of the service for Ash Wednesday from 1972 and an Advent Carol Service from 1981. Both these services contributed enormously to my discovery of a vast range of choral music (notably the Allegri Miserere!) sung to perfection. There is no better way to judge the sound and skill of the choir than listening to the BBC broadcast of Choral Evensong that was the final service of Guest’s time at the College.
Although always vigorously striving for choral and organ perfection in performance, Guest never took himself too seriously. He wrote a delightful book A Guest at Cambridge in 1994 which is full of anecdotes as well as his wisdom on choir management. By good fortune we also have a BBC recording of his choice of Desert Island Discs. His luxury was a clavichord. The music choice is interesting, including the Monks of the Abbey of St Pierre de Solesmes singing Salve Regina followed by Cleo Lane singing On a Clear Day!
The title of the book is taken from a fascinating BBC documentary on Guest and his work at St. Johns that was broadcast in 1978. What comes across very clearly is Guest’s philosophy about the challenges and accomplishments of collegiate choirs. He also comments on the difference of approach between St. John’s College and King’s College! The video quality is, inevitably given the year, not very good.
Another very important contribution by Guest was his early and enthusiastic commitment to recording, resulting in around 60 LPs and CDs, mostly on the Argo label. It was through his recordings that I discovered the Haydn Masses, for which the sound of the St. John’s choir seemed to be a superb match. His recording of the Harmoniemesse in particular I must have listened to on many occasions, enjoying not only the quality of the singing but the pulse that Guest maintains throughout the performance. His recordings of the Masses remain among the very best.
In 1986 Guest was interviewed in Chicago for a local radio station by the eminent US music journalist Bruce Duffie and the transcript is available on the web. It is full of insights about the way in which Guest gained the best from his choir.
Guest died in 2002. The Guardian newspaper published an obituary which sums up the extraordinary contributions that Guest made to St. John’s College, music in Cambridge and above all the way that he communicated his enthusiasm for choral music across the UK. The heading of the obituary is ‘Musical master who revitalised England’s cathedral choirs’. Well said.