My brother-in-law Martin Loveday, who has died aged 62 from Covid-19 while undergoing treatment for myeloma, was an accomplished and popular cellist.
From 1984 until retiring last year, he was a member of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, the chamber orchestra founded by Sir Neville Marriner. He greatly admired Martin “as a musician as well as a player and a splendid tourer …”
Martin loved his great Gagliano cello and distinguished himself with what one colleague called “a rock-solid technique, eloquent sonority and ability to express human qualities”. He also played with ensembles including the Hanson Quartet, the Pleeth Cello Octet and the Hartley Trio.
Unsurprisingly Martin was one of the inner circle in the session scene and always gave the same high level of utmost concentration and commitment to whatever music he was recording or performing. He played on the soundtracks of numerous Bond, Star Wars, Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings films, and especially enjoyed playing for the TV series Morse, Lewis and Endeavour; he was chuffed to have made a cameo appearance in the penultimate episode of Endeavour. His playing can be heard on albums by Adele, Shirley Bassey, Björk, Eric Clapton, Kylie Minogue, Massive Attack, Oasis, Simply Red, the Spice Girls, Tina Turner, Take That, the Verve and Robbie Williams.
Martin was born in Harare (then known as Salisbury) in Zimbabwe, the third of four children of Paul, an accountant, and Eleonore, a concert pianist. The family emigrated to the UK in 1964. Each of the children learned the piano and one or two other instruments with a view to forming a family string quartet and from an early age Martin shone at the cello. From Collingwood school, Camberley, in Surrey, he won a scholarship as a junior exhibitioner at the Royal College of Music in London.
In 1995 Martin married Elisabeth Crestin, and they settled in St Margaret’s, south-west London, and had two children, Olivia and Emile. He valued the company of his extended family and musical friends. He was good with his hands and meticulous in everything he did, including the tasteful restoration of a medieval barn and its grounds near Bergerac, in Elisabeth’s native France. He spoke French fluently and enthusiastically embraced the lifestyle, notably its cuisine.
Martin never raged against his illness and just got on with it. Even when he was manifestly too unwell to perform he was desperate to fulfil his commitments, which showed both how much he loved to play, and his innate professionalism and reliability.
At Easter he and I installed a “stairway to heaven” in Bergerac, steps descending through woodland to what Martin described as “the most perfect resting place on earth”, which is where his ashes will be scattered.
He is survived by Elisabeth, Olivia and Emile; and by his brothers, Robert and Eric, his sister, Beatrice, and his mother.
