Alan Raymond Loveday, violinist, born 29 February 1928; died 12 April 2016
The violinist Alan Loveday, who has died aged 88, went on from prodigious beginnings in New Zealand to London, and in particular the Academy of St Martin in the Fields (ASMF). As one of the ensemble’s soloists and leaders, he helped create its distinctively brilliant and even string sound.
The ASMF’s founder, Neville Marriner, asked Loveday to be the solo violin in a recording of Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons (1969); his beautiful, unmannered playing led to sales of half a million copies and the ASMF’s first gold disc. Marriner, a contemporary at the Royal College of Music in London, recalled that Loveday “was better than any of us. I would say that he was the best individual violin player that the RCM has ever produced.”
The Guardian Obit
