Constant Lambert and Brian Easdale

I'm planning to present a series of posts devoted to the 20th century English composer-conductor Constant Lambert, starting with this 10-inch LP that couples scenes from his Horoscope ballet with music from The Red Shoes composed by Brian Easdale.

Lambert was a talented man, skilled at both writing and performing music. He wrote the music for Horoscope in 1937 for a production at the Vic-Wells Ballet choreographed by Frederick Ashton. It is thought that the scenario in some ways paralleled his relationship with dancer Margot Fonteyn, who assumed one of the leading roles.

Michael Somes and Margot
Fonteyn in Horoscope

Lambert was then only 32, but he had already written most of the music he would finish in his brief life, which ended in 1951, two years after these recording sessions.

This LP contains just two of the nine surviving sections of the ballet music: the gorgeous, Ravelian "Saraband for the Followers of Virgo" and a Bacchanale slightly reminiscent of another astrological work, Holst's The Planets.

Lambert actually recorded five of the ballet's scenes - three with the Liverpool Philharmonic in 1945 and these two with the Philharmonia in 1949. The Liverpool sessions are not represented on this LP, but I have included them in the download as a bonus. (Not my transfer, although I did clean up the sound.)

Constant Lambert

Lambert was also a witty critic, notably in his 1934 book Music, Ho!, which contains the oft-cited assessment, "The whole trouble with a folk song is that once you have played it through there is nothing much you can do except play it over again and play it rather louder." I've included the book in the download, courtesy of Project Gutenberg Canada.

Brian Easdale

I don't mean to slight the other work on this record, which combines Brian Easdale's prelude and ballet music from the remarkable 1948 Powell-Pressburger film, The Red Shoes. This is far and away the composer's best known work, although it does not match the quality of Lambert's score. Easdale had a long and fruitful working arrangement with Powell and Pressburger, scoring seven of their films. He won an Academy Award for this music.

This record is not the original soundtrack, which was conducted by Easdale and, in the ballet, Sir Thomas Beecham. It is a version done in 1949 by film music specialist Muir Mathieson and the Philharmonia.

Both recording sessions were held in Abbey Road Studio No. 1, and both resulted in superb sound. The English Columbia ad below suggests that the company thought that both the Lambert and Easdale 78 sets would make dandy Christmas presents in 1949, and I might have liked to receive them myself, had I not been nine months old and more inclined to the likes of "Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo."

Click to enlarge

Over the Rainbow with Les Brown

I haven't been able to accomplish much recently due to a faltering computer (not to mention its faltering operator), but I did get this enjoyable set by Les Brown in the can.

It's organized around colors, a common motif for record sets then and now. The most common theme over the years has probably been travel, followed by colors and women's names, I would guess.

So no prize for originality, nor are the song choices anything special, although "Red Wing" and "Azure" aren't all that well known.

But, as I said, the program is a good one, played by Brown's superb band, which was a working unit at the time, I believe. Among the soloists are pianist Jeff Clarkson and guitarist Tony Rizzi; the featured tenor sax is probably Dave Pell, and the trombonist is likely Dick Noel.

Frank Comstock

The smooth arrangements are by Frank Comstock, who had been on Brown's staff for a few years and then continued to write for him for many years thereafter. Comstock later made some LPs under his own name, backed the Hi-Los and other singers on their records, and wrote and arranged for films and television (I fondly remember his Rocky and Bullwinkle themes.)

This set dates from 1951 and is Brown's first LP (a 10-incher) on Coral, which he had joined from Columbia. I transferred two of his Columbia LPs previously, which can be found here and here. The sound on the Coral disc is vivid.

LINK to remastered version in ambient stereo (June 2025)

Barbara Cook and Glen Campbell

Two brilliant but very different singers died earlier this week - Barbara Cook and Glen Campbell.

I have nothing new for you to commemorate their passing, but I did want to point you to a few items that may be of interest.

There have been three posts here of Barbara Cook material, all relatively obscure, which you can find via this link. They include:

Songs of Perfect Propriety, a 1958 LP that married texts by Dorothy Parker to music by Seymour Barab. It was Cook's first solo album, and not entirely successful, but worth hearing.

Hansel and Gretel, a 1958 TV musical with songs by Alec Wilder and William Engvick, featuring Cook, Red Buttons, Stubby Kaye and Paula Lawrence.

Yeomen of the Guard, a promotional EP for a 1957 televised version of the Gilbert & Sullivan opus, starring Cook, Alfred Drake, Bill Hayes and Celeste Holm.

In contrast, Glen Campbell has never been mentioned on this blog, although I greatly admire his artistry. Let me simply direct you to this YouTube video of his extraordinary singing on the Brian Wilson song "Guess I'm Dumb," written for him.

Paul Bowles and Peggy Glanville-Hicks

Here is a second entry in a series devoted to M-G-M's classical recordings of the 1950s. This LP presents two works by composer-author Paul Bowles, and one by composer Peggy Glanville-Hicks, setting words by Bowles. The two were close friends.

Bowles's "The Wind Remains" is a 1943 setting of an excerpt from Federico García Lorca's 1931 play Así que pasen cinco años. The work was introduced in 1943; this recorded version is an adaptation that Glanville-Hicks commissioned for a 1957 concert series at the Metropolitan Museum. It was prepared with her assistance and that of conductor Carlos Surinach, per Edward Cole's detailed notes. The recording was made shortly after the concert.

Paul Bowles

The M-G-M record does not include the text nor a translation, but the synopsis provided in the notes may be helpful. (Here is a link to the text of Lorca's play.)

Also by Bowles is "Music for a Farce," composed in 1938, performed here by an ensemble led by Arthur Winograd, who was just beginning a career as conductor after leaving the Juilliard Quartet, where he was the founding cellist.

Arthur Winograd

The contribution by Glanville-Hicks is "Letters from Morocco," her 1953 setting of excerpts from correspondence to her from Bowles. He had left the U.S. in 1947 to take up residence in Tangier, intending to write the novel that became The Sheltering Sky, a major literary success in 1949. Bowles had always been both a composer and writer, but the balance shifted to literary endeavors after the novel was published. Bowles said he was tired of writing things "for other people" - principally incidental music for plays. (An example of that output can be found on this blog - music for Jose Ferrer's 1946 production of Cyrano de Bergerac.)

Peggy Glanville-Hicks

Glanville-Hicks, born in Australia, was a music critic for the New York Herald-Tribune when these recordings were made. She in fact succeeded Bowles in the post. Both were appointed by Virgil Thomson. A few years ago I transferred a promotional recording of her brief "Prelude and Presto for Ancient American Instruments," which can be found on my other blog.

Loren Driscoll

Tenor Loren Driscoll is featured in "The Wind Remains" and "Letter from Morocco." A specialist in contemporary music, he sang the lead role in the 1958 production of Glanville-Hicks's opera The Transposed Heads. Soprano Dorothy Renzi, heard in "The Wind Remains," also was noted for performances of new music. She sang on the M-G-M recording of works by Marga Richter.

The performances here are sturdy (although I do not care for Driscoll's voice), and the sound is good. [Note (July 2023): I've now remastered the recording in ambient stereo.]

Quick note: this transfer is from a 1960s reissue series. To save money, M-G-M reprinted some of its classical titles in simpler packaging. The color covers were jettisoned, and the original back covers became the front. The cover you see above was sourced from the web. There are high-res scans of the front and back in the download.