Concordia 2025

Concordia Winter 2024

Chris Pollard (1970–1975)

W hen Chris’s family asked me to say a few words about his work at Gramophone , I imagined the impossible – giving him a quick call for advice. ‘Look, old thing’ I’d hear him saying, ‘Keep it short. And don’t be morbid. It was one of the happiest periods of my life – after all, how many people get to work alongside their Old Man for so long and so harmoniously.’ Chris’s role at Gramophone was a perfect example of nurture not nature. His involvement could even be said to have been ordained in 1924, long before his birth when his grandfather, Cecil, took the huge risk of giving up a secure job as an accountant to come aboard Compton Mackenzie’s fledgling magazine, and creating not just a going concern but an impressive business. Then Chris’s father, Tony, continued at the helm, making it a great British success story, both as a publication with a truly international reputation, but also a company that thrived, through thick and thin, with an extraordinarily loyal staff. So when Chris joined Gramophone in 1981, he’d learnt alongside the best and absorbed the traditions and much of the history of a great industry. Chris was a hugely popular figure in the recorded classical music world. His generosity – both materially, at the dining table, but also with his warmth, his time and his ability to get things done — was enormous. He was a wonderfully sympathetic listener, whether to a self-obsessed diva, the President of a multi-national record label, a cranky reviewer or simply the guy who cleaned his car. He would listen and comment with the same warmth and engagement to anyone. One friend who now heads a large PR firm told me the other day about how, as a fledgling press officer, he’d been taken out to lunch by Chris who asked his opinion and listened to everything he had to say. ‘I’ll never forget his kindness,’ he recalled. As a colleague too, he listened. He had a way of supporting new initiatives and making things happen. Like producing a CD-ROM of all of Gramophone’s CD reviews – the first step in a process that would lead to every issue of Gramophone being scanned and posted to the internet, greatly enhancing the magazine’s heritage and status. He launched a number of subsidiary sister titles, Songlines being the one that has gone on to have an important life of its own. He offered ‘bed and board’ at our offices for Gregor and Angela to launch Food and Travel , now a major and highly successful magazine. And he constantly raised the bar for the Gramophone Awards , a journey that culminated in the 1997 ceremony at Alexandra Palace and one of the most glittering arrays of classical music’s stars to gather under one roof – Luciano Pavarotti, Kiri Te Kanawa, Murray Perahia, Roberto Alagna, Angela Gheorghiu, Mstislav Rostropovich to name just a few of the

musicians who assembled for an event that was hosted by Jill Dando. Two and half million people tuned in on ITV to watch the broadcast. Chris also loved a good spat — and the industry of the 1980s and 90s had its fair share of characters who made things very — and usually unnecessarily — political. Chris rose to the challenge and had a remarkable knack of smoothing feathers with great tact and diplomacy. Lunch at the River Café, and a bottle or two of Tignanello, would invariably be involved. He’d fly the flag for Gramophone wherever he went and his calendar featured two events that also satisfied a number of his other pleasures – fine food, great wine, and driving. He’d hop into his sporty Audi Quattro and roar down to Cannes for the annual industry gathering, MIDEM, and later in the year, would drive to Arles for our yearly meeting with the French independent label, Harmonia Mundi . I’d fly – but Chris’s journeys would be designed to necessitate a pit stop somewhere in Burgundy and he’d arrive in the south raring to go, and effortlessly dispensing his charm to anyone he met. We’d have a tradition with Eva and Bernard Coutaz of Harmonia Mundi – dinner on the Sunday night would be conducted in French, the meeting the next morning in English. Chris’s French was remarkably effective! In many ways, he led a charmed life at Gramophone – apart from being able to work with his father so productively (though he’d drive Tony mad with his rather languid approach to submitting his monthly expenses!), he turned many of us colleagues into friends, and in the 25 or so years since the Pollards sold Gramophone he retained an interest and passion for the classical record industry that never dimmed. Last year Gramophone notched up its centenary. For me, it was a chance to re-connect in a focused way with Chris and Tony. And with their help, guidance and memories, I think we marked this remarkable anniversary with style. In many ways, it was also a celebration of one family’s extraordinary devotion to a business, and how it became the cement — a word Chris would often use — to bring the industry together and generate real devotion, a devotion shared and constantly articulated by Gramophone’s readers too. I was never sure how much Chris actually liked classical music — mind you, he sampled the best, Karajan in Salzburg, Bernstein in Vienna and so forth — but he absolutely ‘got’ the industry that surrounded that music. He will be sorely missed, but he also left us, colleagues, friends and of course family, with so many memories. And those will never fade. James Jolly Editor Emeritus, Gramophone

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Obituaries

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