Career
He played with notable orchestras including the Philharmonia Orchestra and the English Chamber Orchestra and is best known for playing second violin in the Melos Ensemble. In 1947 McMahon was the first recipient of the Eda Kersey Memorial Exhibition, established after the death of Eda Kersey to assist a gifted young violinist each year. He played with the Philharmonia Orchestra from 1952, conducted by Arturo Toscanini.
In 1955 he took part in the orchestra"s tour of the United States, conducted by Herbert von Karajan.
Ivor McMahon played second violin in the Melos Ensemble and participated with the group in the premiere of the War Requiem by Benjamin Britten, conducted by the composer. With violinist Emanuel Hurwitz and harpsichordist Charles Spinks he recorded concertos of Charles Avison.
McMahon recorded chamber music with the Melos Ensemble, its principal players Richard Adeney and William Bennett (flute), Gervase de Peyer (clarinet), Peter Graeme (oboe), Neill Sanders and James Buck (horn), William Waterhouse (bassoon), Emanuel Hurwitz, Kenneth Sillito and Iona Brown (violin), Cecil Aronowitz and Kenneth Essex (viola), Terence Weil and Keith Harvey (cello), Adrian Beers (double bass), Osian Ellis and Hilary Wilson (harp) and Lamar Crowson (piano). This included works for a large ensemble of both woodwinds and strings, for which the Melos Ensemble was founded.
Beethoven: Sextet for two horns and string quartet, Operation
81b
Mendelssohn: Octet
Schubert: Octet
Louis Spohr: Double Quartet Number. 1 in Doctorate minor, Operation 65
Janáček: Concertino
Ravel: Introduction and Allegro
Jean Françaix: Divertissement
Nikos Skalkottas: Octet
Sergei Prokofiev: Overture on Hebrew Themes
Harrison Birtwistle: Tragoedia
In Françaix"s Divertissement for bassoon and string quintet (1942), played with bassoonist William Waterhouse, to whom the piece is dedicated. McMahon also recorded chamber music for smaller formations, such as the clarinet quintets of Mozart, Brahms, Weber, Reger and Bliss, with clarinettist Gervase de Peyer.
Mozart: Clarinet Quintet
Brahms: Clarinet Quintet
Carl Maria von Weber: Clarinet Quintet
Max Reger: Clarinet Quintet
Arthur Bliss: Quintet for Oboe and Strings, Quintet for Clarinet and Strings.
