John Georgiadis, star violinist who led the LSO under Previn and Abbado – obituary

John Georgiadis, who has died aged 81, was twice leader of the London Symphony Orchestra, serving under the batons of André Previn and Claudio Abbado; a fine violinist, he was also an outspoken one with forthright views on conductors, and his return to the LSO prompted George Szell to observe: “I hope you behave yourself this time.”

As a soloist Georgiadis gave the first English performance of Gian Carlo Menotti’s violin concerto and an early London performance of Bartok’s first violin concerto. He also made the first recordings of concertos by Arthur Bliss and Ernest Moeran. Later he turned to conducting, spending much of the 1990s in Thailand with the Bangkok Symphony Orchestra, before returning to the violin in Dustin Hoffman’s 2012 film Quartet.

Georgiadis caused a stir in the musical world in 2019 with his uncomplimentary observations of the great maestros in his memoir Bow to Baton, recounting how Karl Böhm was known in the LSO as “the U-boat commander” and that Eugen Jochum’s approach was “heavy going and somewhat turgid”.

He also recalled a concert in Columbus, Ohio, with Previn, who was determined to impress on his home soil, observing: “Instead of the careful upbeat … we got a gesture resembling the quick-drawing of two six-gun revolvers.”

John Alexander Georgiadis was born in Southend-on-Sea on July 17 1939, the son of Alec Georgiadis, an amateur violinist of Greek descent who dealt in rabbit pelts, and his wife Nancy (née Warren), known as Pat.

In 1952 his parents met Willi Boskovsky, leader of the Vienna Philharmonic, while on holiday in the Austrian Alps and invited him to Essex, where he gave the star-struck teenager “an invaluable weekend of violin lessons, recitals and duets”.

By then Georgiadis was a student at the Royal Academy of Music and playing in the National Youth Orchestra. Shortly after his 19th birthday he was a soloist in Vivaldi’s Concerto for Four Violins at the Proms. He also studied in Paris, playing chess and drinking beer with the student flautist James Galway.

He was appointed leader of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in 1963 and two years later succeeded Erich Gruenberg at the LSO, recalling that his first seven days were a gruelling three-session-a-day stint recording Tchaikovsky symphonies under Antal Doráti. His greatest satisfaction, however, came from scoring a goal against the London Philharmonic Orchestra in the rival orchestras’ annual football match.

Disillusioned with orchestral life, Georgiadis left the LSO in 1973 to concentrate on freelance work, but returned in 1976 on the understanding that he should also be free to pursue his career as a soloist and conductor.

For 40 years he directed an annual New Year’s Day concert in London, following the Strauss family’s “Vorgeiger” style of conducting with violin in hand, as Boskovsky had done.

In 1972 he formed the London Virtuosi with friends including Galway and in the 1980s was leader of the Gabrieli String Quartet. Having spent eight years studying conducting with Sergiu Celibidache, in 1992 he took the opportunity to introduce Thai audiences to music by Brahms, Tchaikovsky and Elgar.

Georgiadis was interested in gadgetry, filming orchestral tours on his cine camera and making two home records that were released by CBS. He also enjoyed golf and cycling. Having retired in 2010, he was astonished to be recruited the next summer to play Bill, a string quartet leader, rubbing shoulders with Maggie Smith and others as inmates of a retired musicians’ home, in Quartet.

In 1961 John Georgiadis married Susan Salter, a viola player and pianist who accompanied him in concerts of gipsy music. The marriage was dissolved in 1979 and in 1996 he married Monica Mollerstrom, who survives him with three children from his first marriage.

John Georgiadis, born July 17 1939, died January 5 2021