The familiar face of Frank Mathison no longer fills the LSO bass trombone chair. Peter Gane invited him to look back over a long career.

When the London Symphony Orchestra published its book in 1970 and cast around for a subject for the dust jacket, whose face was chosen to give the orchestra's image? - bass trombonist, Frank Mathison. Concert-goers worldwide, from as far back as the early 1960s, are missing a very distinguished presence in the brass section. Frank retired in 1993 after more than 30 years on the bass trombone chair, and the departure of his distinctive beard, twinkling eyes and good-humoured, throaty chuckle, spells the end of an era that partnered him with Denis Wick as principal for 20 years, and a sequence of second trombones that has included Paul Lawrence, Roger Groves, Simon Wills, Eric Crees and myself. Frank is the last to retire of the British bass trombonists who began their careers on the G trombone, and he has seen a great many changes in orchestral life and attitudes over his long career. I asked my former colleague what attracted him to the trombone in the first place and at what age.

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Part II: 1957-1987 - Denis Wick

When I joined the LSO, it wasn't really a proper job at all. There had been what was called 'the big split' when the Sinfonia of London was created. Most of our best work including the film sessions, together with many of the older members, most of the wind principals among them, went to the new orchestra. This left the LSO with a rather empty diary and in fact, if I hadn't had a lot of deputising work with the CBSO while they found my successor I'd have had a very hard time indeed during my first year. At first I was absolutely horrified by the terrible standard of conductors. All sorts of conductors who shouldn't have been there were foisted upon us and made the job much more difficult than it needed to be. The ones that did impress me were Josef Krips, Stokowski and Antal Dorati. Working with Dorati was the biggest kick up the backside that the orchestra ever had and it really began to play very much better. Conductors make such a difference to the way orchestras work. I managed to cope with the awkward ones by smiling and looking intelligent! When I was at a vulnerable age I had enough ability and gumption to hold them at bay by doing the job and relying on experience gained in the Bournemouth and Birmingham orchestras: you really need to have served some kind of apprenticeship. Musicologists then, and to some extent now, don't give the aspiring orchestral player enough repertoire to make him feel experienced and the fact that the National Centre for Orchestral Studies exists is, in a way, an admission of defeat by the colleges of music in not providing what they should provide."

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Part I: 1936-1956 - Jock Ashby

The recent retirement (1987) of Denis Wick as Principal Trombone of the London Symphony Orchestra brings to a close a half-century in which that prestigious post has been entirely in the hands of just two musicians: Jock Ashby and Denis himself. It is appropriate that such a world-class orchestra has been graced by the loyalty and skill of these gifted instrumentalists and that The Trombonist should endeavour to record the unique achievement. With this in mind I wended my way through south London's frantic thoroughfares to talk to an old friend and esteemed colleague: the man who held the fort for the first twenty of these historic fifty years.

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One of the small regrets of my musical career is that I've never played any jazz," says Maisie Ringham, Principal Trombone of the Hallé Orchestra for ten years at a time when women sitting in the brass section of a symphony orchestra was almost unheard of. "Playing in a dance band, as a member of the Salvation Army, would have been frowned on at that time. I nearly joined Ivy Benson and actually spent a day with the band, but my parents didn't think it would be the thing for me to do, so I didn't take up Ivy's offer. They were always very supportive of my musical career, but as Salvation Army officers, it would have been an embarrassment to them."

Maisie came into the world with music ringing in her ears. On the day she was born at Woolwich, the Abercarn Salvation Army Band from Wales was on a visit to London and spending Sunday in Woolwich, where Maisie's parents were the SA Commanding Officers. On hearing the news of the birth, they played outside the Ringham house.

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