SAM Bor, who died aged 96 in November 2008, was leader of the (Royal) Scottish National Orchestra from 1959 until his retirement in 1974, when the above picture was taken.
One of the most polished of Britain’s principal orchestral violinists, he led his fellow players through their first great period of expansion under Alexander Gibson’s conductorship, when the SNO not only grew in size but made its first big European tours, first major recordings and first internationally important appearances at the Edinburgh Festival.
Among these, as our music critic, Conrad Wilson, observed in Bor's obituary, were the premiere of Iain Hamilton's sensationally controversial Sinfonia for Two Orchestras, composed for the Robert Burns Federation in 1959, and the famed Scottish premiere of Mahler's Eighth Symphony in 1965, which marked the debut of the Edinburgh Festival Chorus.
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