An Engagement With Time

Winton Dean (1916-2013), the renowned musical scholar and
critic, gives a sparkling account of his early life - and of his disparate set
of forbears. He writes of his controversial father, Basil Dean, the theatrical
and film producer and founder of ENSA, his great uncle Rufus Isaacs (supplying
new information about his first marriage) and Daisy, Countess of Warwick,
mistress of Edward, Prince of Wales. A
deeply divided personality, Winton hoped to pursue a career as a creative
artist rather than as a scholar and critic. To this extent he considered his
life at least in part a failure. But he
was a brilliant and witty writer, as these memoirs repeatedly demonstrate.



He records
his grim years at Elstree and Harrow Schools, where however he was
outstandingly successful academically, and the titanic family rows that
followed. King's, Cambridge, where he read Classics, then English, brought an
immense release of emotions and inhibitions. There are sharp pen portraits of
the dons, including Edward Dent. Alan
Turing was his tennis partner. A trip to Greece in 1936 is described in
luminous detail. Though not a performer,
he became increasingly interested in music, encouraged by a young don, Philip
Radcliffe, who became a life-long friend.
On two visits to the Salzburg Festival he was bowled over by the
conducting of Arturo Toscanini, especially in opera. He gives highly
entertaining accounts of the chaotic rehearsals of The Frogs of
Aristophanes (in Greek) and the stage production of Handel's Saul (in
both of which he played minor roles). The overwhelming dramatic power of Handel's
music impelled him, after the war, to devote ten years of his life to the study
of Handel's oratorios. Among his many interests, which encompassed trams, steam
trains, stamp collecting, old churches and naval history, Winton had a passion
for cricket (though he was an indifferent performer with the bat) and later for
shooting pheasants and grouse.



His first
book, Bizet, was published in 1948; his second, the classic Handel's
Dramatic Oratorios and Masques (1959), established him as a musicologist of
world renown. Winton worked independently and held no university appointments,
apart from a visiting professorship at the University of California, Berkeley,
in 1965-6, which gave rise to his third book, Handel and the Opera Seria. The last of the gentleman scholars, he played
a leading role in astonishing revival of Handel's operas and dramatic oratorios
in recent years.



Winton began
his memoirs at the age of 72 but never finished them, breaking off at the
beginning of 1946, when his career as scholar and critic had barely begun. His early life and young manhood were what
mattered to him. The later chapters, provided by his son Stephen, follow his
career as scholar and sportsman up to 1966.