The son of Arnold Dolmetsch, he was born in Fontenay-sous-Bois on 23 August 1911 but lived in England from 1914. After three years in Hampstead he lived in Haslemere for the rest of his life. Dolmetsch was educated at St George's Wood in Haslemere, before leaving to work alongside his father in the Dolmetsch workshops.
He took part in the first of his father's Haslemere Festival of Early Music, and from then on throughout his life.[3] Dolmetsch developed and improved the production of recorders at Haslemere. He became an accomplished player and gave his first recital at Wigmore Hall in 1939.[4]
After the death of his father in 1940 he became head of the firm. During the war it produced plastic aircraft parts, and when peace returned Dolmetsch began producing huge numbers of plastic recorders for use in schools.[5] In 1978 the firm split in two after a boardroom dispute but reunited in 1982. Dolmetsch was also pivotal in getting composers to write pieces for the recorder. He was "the first virtuoso recorder player in England in the twentieth century".[6] He toured annually between 1961 and 1981.
Dolmetsch died on 11 July 1997[8] and is buried in Shottermill Cemetery.
Commissioned works
Dolmetsch gave his first Wigmore Hall recital in February 1939, with another later that year. A third followed in 1941. Then, from 1948 until 1989, there was an unbroken series of 42 recitals. At each he presented a new work (sometimes two or more) for the recorder.[9] These included:
Carl Dolmetsch. Theme and Variations for recorder and harpsichord (1939)
Lennox Berkeley. Sonatina for treble recorder or flute and piano (1939, repeated 1951)
Martin Shaw. Sonata in E flat for flute and piano (or recorder and harpsichord) (1941)
York Bowen. Sonata for treble recorder and piano, Op. 121 (1948)
Edmund Rubbra. Meditazioni sopra "Coeurs desolés for recorder & harpsichord (1949)
Herbert Murrill. Sonata for treble recorder and harpsichord (1950)
Cyril Scott. Aubade for treble recorder and piano (1952)
Antony Hopkins. Suite for descant (soprano) recorder and piano (1953)
Norman Fulton. Scottish Suite for treble recorder and piano (1954)
Edmund Rubbra. Fantasia on a Theme of Machaut, Op. 86. for recorder, string quartet and harpsichord (1955)
Lennox Berkeley. Concertino, Op. 49, for treble recorder and piano or harpsichord (1956)
Edmund Rubbra. Cantata Pastorale for high voice, treble recorder, cello and harpsichord or piano, Op. 92 (1957)
Gordon Jacob. Suite for treble recorder and strings or piano (1958)
Robert Simpson. Suite for treble recorder and strings (1959)
Arnold Cooke. Divertimento for alto recorder and strings (1960)
^'Haslemere Festival' The Times Thursday, Aug. 22, 1929 Issue 45288 p.10; passim; 'Haslemere Festival' The Times Friday, July 12, 1996 Issue 65630 p.32
^.'Recitals of the week. Mr Carl Dolmetsch' The Times Friday, Feb. 3, 1939 Issue 48220 p.10
^Obituary: Carl Dolmetsch, "Mr Recorder" Shelagh Godwin The Independent Monday 14 July 1997
