Ballet Music from Meyerbeer-Lambert and Bliss

Here are two souvenirs from the Sadler's Wells Ballet's 1950 season, directed by its staff conductors John Hollingsworth and Robert Irving - Les Patineurs, a pastiche of Giocomo Meyerbeer's music, and Checkmate, with a score by Arthur Bliss. 

Both works were premiered in 1937 and conducted then by Constant Lambert, the Vic-Wells music director at the time.

Massenet-Lambert - Les Patineurs

The Royal Ballet's 2009 production of Les Patineurs 

Les Patineurs has no connection with Émile Waldteufel's famous waltz of the same name. Lambert arranged Les Patineurs from melodies found in Meyerbeer's operas Le Prophète and L'Etoile du Nord, principally the former. Although seldom heard today, Meyerbeer's works were very popular in the 19th century, and this immensely tuneful and pleasing score shows why.

Margot Fonteyn and Robert Helpmann - Les Patineurs 1937

Lambert conceived the idea of the ballet and using Meyerbeer's music; Frederick Ashton was the choreographer. As the title implies, the complete ballet depicts skaters, with the setting a Victorian skating party. Ashton's biographer Julie Kavanaugh notes that such productions were not a novelty: "Skating ballets themselves were a genre of sorts... but only Ashton's work has endured... [I]t is the paradigm of an Ashton ballet, perfectly crafted, with a complex structure beneath the effervescent surface."

Les Patineurs was something of a recorded specialty for Sadler's Wells/Royal Ballet conductors - Lambert recorded it in 1939, Robert Irving in 1952 and Hugo Rignold in 1958. John Hollingsworth conducted this recording, although he and Irving shared 1950's live performances, as also was the case with the Bliss ballet.

Bliss - Checkmate

The 1947 Sadler's Wells staging of Checkmate

Bliss's Checkmate ballet music could not be more of a contrast to Les Patineurs. The composer himself conceived the idea of the ballet, with Ninette de Valois executing it. The concept is simple, taking place on a chess board with the pieces coming to life and eventually battling until a tragic checkmate.

Gillian Lynne as the Black Queen, Checkmate 1937

The music is dramatic and Robert Irving's performance with the Covent Garden orchestra is a good one. However, the reviews of the music as heard on this LP were not kind. "Meretricious melodies" sneered one. "Noisy, overscored and without anything musical to say" asserted another. Nor was Irving spared - Hollingsworth was deemed a "far superior leader." I think both positions were overstated.

Harold Turner as First Red Knight, Checkmate 1947

Regardless of the disdainful notices for the music, Checkmate has been a staple in the Sadler's Wells/Royal Ballet repertoire for many years.

Both these recordings are somewhat abridged from the complete scores. To my knowledge this was the first recording of music from Checkmate. The sound is excellent in both works. The download includes additional production photos and reviews.

Hollingsworth has appeared here several times recently. Irving was heard in music by Arnold and Britten. Constant Lambert has been a frequent guest on the blog. Bliss' music for the ballet Miracle in the Gorbals, as conducted by Lambert, can be found here.

1947 poster