John Underwood

About

John Underwood was a viola player, part of The Delmé Quartet, whose members played on several recordings by The Beatles or Paul McCartney. From Wikipedia:

The Delmé Quartet, aka The Delmé String Quartet, was a String quartet, founded in London in 1962. In 1967, it became the first string quartet to be attached to a British university as Artist-in-residence—in this case, the University of Sussex. The quartet also spent four years as performing Fellows at Lancaster University, and taught the art of quartet performance at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. They toured extensively and released 30 albums.

History

The Delmé Quartet was founded by former London Symphony Orchestra lead violinist Granville Delmé Jones, former English Chamber Orchestra violinist Jürgen Hess (violins), John Underwood (viola) and Joy Hall (cello), who came up with the idea during a cab ride over London Bridge. Their plan was to play for their own pleasure but when the BBC asked them to play in a concert series of international chamber music at Royal Festival Hall, they were ‘discovered’ and were immediately booked into a concert schedule. Jones died in 1968; he was replaced by Galina Solodchin. John Trusler and Jonathan Williams replaced Hess and Hall in the 1970s; Hess left to become Leader of the London Bach Orchestra. Painter joined the quartet in 1981.

The quartet collaborated with many notable composers, particularly with Robert Simpson—they recorded ten of his quartets, one of which (No. 9) they commissioned, plus his String Trio, the Clarinet Quintet (with Thea King), and the two-cello Quintet (with Christopher van Kampen). They also worked with John McCabe, Christopher Headington, Wilfred Josephs and Daniel Jones, whose quartets they performed regularly at Jones’s Gower Festival.

Members of the Delmé Quartet played on several recordings by The Beatles. Hall can be heard on “Strawberry Fields Forever“; Hess played on three Beatles albums: Revolver, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and Yellow Submarine. On the latter album, Hall, Hess and Underwood are the notable strings performance on “Eleanor Rigby“, and on “She’s Leaving Home” from Sgt Pepper (among other songs). Solodchin played on three solo albums by Paul McCartney: Tug Of War (1992), Pipes Of Peace (1983) and Off The Ground (1993). […]

John Underwood played the viola on The Beatles’ songs “Eleanor Rigby“, “She’s Leaving Home“, “Glass Onion” and “Piggies“. He also played on the soundtrack of the Family Way.

Last updated on December 21, 2022