Constant Lambert
Beyond The Rio Grande
- Author: Lloyd, Stephen
Lambert's fascinating, multifaceted personality and Lloyd's informed insights keep us turning the pages. (Four stars out of five.)
Constant Lambert
Beyond The Rio Grande
- Author: Lloyd, Stephen
Purchase product
Lambert's fascinating, multifaceted personality and Lloyd's informed insights keep us turning the pages. (Four stars out of five.)
About
To the economist and ballet enthusiast John Maynard Keynes he was potentially the most brilliant man he'd ever met; to Dame Ninette de Valois he was the greatest ballet conductor and advisor this country has ever had; to the composer Denis ApIvor he was the greatest, most lovable, and most entertaining personality of the musical world; whilst to the dance critic Clement Crisp he was quite simply a musician of genius. Yet sixty years after his tragic earlydeath Constant Lambert is little known today. As a composer he is remembered for his jazz-inspired The Rio Grande but little more, and for a man who selflessly devoted the greater part of his life to the establishment of English ballet his work is largely unrecognized today. This book amply demonstrates why he deserves to be held in greater renown. With numerous music examples, extensive appendices and a unique iconography, every aspect of thecareer and life of this extraordinary, multi-talented man is examined. It looks not only at his music but at his journalism, his talks for the BBC, his championing of jazz (in particular Duke Ellington), and - more privately - his long-standing affair with Margot Fonteyn. This is an indispensable biography for anyone interested in Constant Lambert, ballet and British musical life in the first part of the twentieth century. STEPHEN LLOYD is a writer on British music and author of William Walton: Muse of Fire (Boydell, 2001).
Contents
- A Meteor Fell . . . 1905-1914
- At Christ's Hospital 1914-1922
- The College 'Whizz-Kid' 1922-1926
- Diaghilev and Disagreement 1925-1926
- Early Ballets and Philip Heseltine 1926-1927
- The Rio Grande and Jazz 1927-1930
- Camargo and the Birth of British Ballet 1928-1931
- Marriage and Journalism 1931
- A Permanent Post 1932-1934
- Let's to Billiards - Music Ho! 1934
- Elgar and Delius; Enter Fonteyn 1934
- Van Dieren and Walton 1935
- Pestilence and Apparitions 1936
- Checkmate and Horoscope 1937-1938
- Double Bishops and Limericks 1939-1940
- Escape from Holland 1940-1943
- Small Fish and Large Cats 1944-1945
- The Second Mrs Lambert 1945-1946
- The Third Programme and The Fairy Queen
- Snakes and Tiresias
- Appendix 1: The Compositions of Constant Lambert
- Appendix 2: Synopsis of Tiresias
- Appendix 3: A Constant Lambert Discography
- Appendix 4: Constant Lambert's Journalism
- Appendix 5: Constant Lambert's Talks for the BBC
- Appendix 6: Constant Lambert's BBC Talks on Modern Dance Music (Jazz)
- Appendix 7: Constant Lambert's Third Programme Broadcasts
- Appendix 8: Constant Lambert's Conducting Engagements at the Henry Wood Promenade Concerts
- Appendix 9: A Dance to the Music of Time: Anthony Powell, Hugh Moreland and Constant Lambert
- Appendix 10: C. B. Rees on Constant Lambert
- Appendix 11: A Constant Lambert Iconography
- Appendix 12: Lambert's Limericks and Other Verses
- Appendix 13: Vic-Wells/Sadler's Wells London Repertoire
- Bibliography
- Index
Awards and reviews
Lambert's fascinating, multifaceted personality and Lloyd's informed insights keep us turning the pages. (Four stars out of five.)
This magisterial book is the best possible case for a Lambert revival. No Lambert enthusiast should miss it
A model of meticulous scholarship, as authoritative as it is compendious. ... The result is both majestic and moving
Intensely researched ... Lloyd covers every aspect of the man's life ... there is scarcely a dull page throughout the book. [Five stars]
This magnificent book is a wholly remarkable achievement ... This book is more than valuable, appearing at a time when one had begun to imagine that studies of this importance and quality were in serious danger of dying out. Stephen Lloyd has restored this reader's faith in British musical scholarship and the publishers equally deserve our praise for the distinguished manner in which this book is presented
As close to definitive as a biography can be. Mr Lloyd gets absolutely everything right ... Far more important, Mr. Lloyd makes a compelling case for Mr. Lambert's continuing significance ... I hope it soon finds its way into the hands of a smart orchestral conductor looking for an underappreciated composer to champion
Music and Letters
Lloyd is the first biographer to tell the full unexpurgated story
