Lambert Conducts Warlock, Delius and Lambert

The composer-conductor Constant Lambert has been a periodic subject of posts hereabouts. Today he takes on the music of two people he knew well - "Peter Warlock" (Philip Heseltine) and Frederick Delius, along with his own most famous composition, "The Rio Grande."

Peter Warlock

Philip Heseltine by Gerald Brockhurst

In the 1920s, the young Lambert (1905-1951) was a close friend of the composer Philip Heseltine (1894-1930), who published his music under the name "Peter Warlock," supposedly because of his affinity for the occult.

Heseltine was principally known for his brilliant songs, which have appeared here more than once. His song cycle "The Curlew," set to Yeats, is one of the finest in the English language. Both "The Curlew" and the first work on today's program, the Capriol Suite, betray the influence of Vaughan Williams. The Suite was supposedly based on Renaissance dances, but it is more Warlock's work than any ancient source material.

The second Warlock work is his Serenade to Frederick Delius on His 60th Birthday, from 1922. Heseltine was a confirmed Delius disciple earlier in his life. Although the influence had faded by the time this music was written, this particular piece is a conscious homage to the older composer, and makes a good segue between Warlock's music and Delius' own.

These recordings were made at Abbey Road with the Constant Lambert String Orchestra in 1937.

Frederick Delius

Frederick Delius by Achille Ouvré

In 1938, Lambert was again in Abbey Road, this time with the London Philharmonic and Delius' most famous work, "On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring."

He returned to the studio in 1941 for two interludes from Delius opera, the Serenade from Hassan in Thomas Beecham's edition and "La Calinda" from Koanga as arranged by Eric Fenby. This time the orchestra was the Hallé and the site was the Houldsworth Hall in Manchester.

All these works are nicely handled and the recordings are more suitably atmospheric than those done in 1937.

Lambert's The Rio Grande

Vocal score

Lambert was well aware of currents in music, and was particularly inspired by what he considered jazz. He had been very impressed with the short-lived Florence Mills, whom he had seen in the West End revue Blackbirds in 1926. The composer wrote, "The colour and rhythm of the singing was an absolute revelation of the possibilities of choral writing and this Rio Grande is the first example of a serious and perfectly natural use of jazz technique in a choral work."

All this may be true, but the first name that comes to mind when listening is Gershwin. The writing in the important piano part is Gershwinesque in its rhythms and phrasing. The critic Angus Morrison also cites Liszt's Faust Symphony as a direct influence. Lambert was fond of Liszt; he mined the Abbe for the ballet music Apparitions, done for Sadler's Wells and for a setting of the Dante Sonata for piano and orchestra.

Sacheverall Sitwell

As we have seen before on this blog, Lambert was close with the Sitwells, serving both as conductor and reciter in William Walton's various settings of Edith's Façade. For 1928's The Rio Grande, Lambert set a poetic exercise in exoticism by Sacheverall Sitwell. The poet moved the Rio Grande from North America to South America for the purpose of his verse, and imagines a dream world of dancing and revelers.

"The music of The Rio Grande no more represents any actual scene or event than the poem that inspired it," wrote Lambert. "It is an imaginary picture that it conjures up, a picture of the gay life of a riverside town which may be in either South or North America, as the listener chooses to fancy."

Kyla Greenbaum

The poetry is atmospheric, if dated, but you would have a hard time telling from the woolly diction of the Philharmonia Chorus and even at times the well-known contralto Gladys Ripley. I've included the text for those who want to understand the words. 

The Philharmonia Orchestra plays well for Lambert. The stand-out performance is by pianist Kyla Greenbaum, one exposed slip aside. She did not have a big career, but on this evidence, was a fine talent.

For this recording, Lambert returned to Abbey Road in early 1949, two years before his early death. The recording is good. My transfer of The Rio Grande comes from a 1950s LP reissue on UK Columbia. The other works were remastered from lossless transfers found on Internet Archive and CHARM.