My father, Patrick Ireland, who has died aged 100, was the original viola player with the Allegri Quartet, a British chamber music ensemble.
He joined the quartet in 1953 with its founding members William Pleeth, Eli Goren and James Barton. By 1956 the Allegri had become the chosen quartet for John Barbirolli’s notable recording of Elgar’s Introduction and Allegro, with the Sinfonia of London. From then on they went from strength to strength, developing an international career and giving world premieres of dozens of new pieces over the years.
Patrick left the Allegri in 1977, after which he became assistant head of strings at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester until his retirement.
Born in Helston, Cornwall, to William, a dentist, and Eileen (nee Dale), an artist, Patrick went to Wellington college in Berkshire and also became a chorister at St Paul’s Cathedral, singing at the jubilee of George V and the coronation of George VI.
He joined the RAF during the second world war in 1942, aged 19, but by the time he had been trained as a bomber pilot it was fortunately too late for him to drop any bombs. After hostilities ceased he was able to join the Royal College of Music as a violin student in 1946. There he met the pianist Peggy Gray, and they married in 1948.
That year he also joined the Peter Gibbs Quartet as second violinist, but switched to viola after the original violist left, and thus found his true musical voice. When the quartet disbanded in 1953, he had decided on a change of career to become a museum curator, so when Pleeth approached him to join the Allegri Quartet he was initially minded to say “no”.
Patrick’s reputation grew along with that of the quartet, and during the late 1950s he played with Yehudi Menuhin in the Bath Festival Orchestra, which Menuhin directed. With Menuhin he also recorded Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No 6, which has two solo violas, and was chosen by Menuhin to teach viola at his newly founded specialist music school.
After leaving the Allegri Quartet and joining the Royal Northern College, his focus turned more fully to teaching, though he continued to play into his 70s and took the role of second viola in countless quintet performances with many of the best-known UK quartets, including with the Lindsay Quartet.
He remained as assistant head of strings at the Royal Northern College until he took early retirement in his late 50s, although he continued to teach privately for many years afterwards.
Outside music he was a maker of hand-crafted furniture, of which he constructed about 100 magnificent pieces. He was still woodworking until the age of 95.
Peggy died in 2021. He is survived by their four children, Simon, Jennifer, Richard and me, seven grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
