Rignold Conducts Delibes Ballet Suites

Longtime reader centuri praised this record back in June when I posted Prokofiev's Cinderella ballet score conducted by Hugo Rignold. Centuri is a knowledgeable fellow, so I quickly put this LP on the schedule for transfer. It contains suites from Léo Delibes' ballets Sylvia and Coppélia conducted by Hugo Rignold, who also led the Prokofiev recording.

Hugo Rignold

Rignold was the conductor of the Royal Ballet when these recording sessions took place in May 1959. He conducted Coppélia there in 1958 and both ballets in 1959. But rather than utilizing the Covent Garden band, as it did in the Prokofiev record, RCA Victor went with the Paris Conservatoire Orchestra, a not-unreasonable choice considering the repertoire.

The English maestro and the French ensemble turned out to be a good match. Rignold and the orchestra seem to have had a good time together, at least from the audible evidence. The famous Mazurka from Coppélia is tremendous fun, for example. The Parisians, not noted for virtuosity, play well for Rignold, and the sound is good. As with the Prokofiev LP, RCA utilized the English Decca production team. The result was the usual FFSS sonics, with elevated high- and low-frequency responses. I don't know how accurate it is, but it is glamorous! A few notes: my pressing had a bit of mild periodic noise on the right channel, which will only be noticeable over headphones. Also, RCA (or Decca) mastered the LP quite sharp, which I've adjusted. This was possibly because of a long side one.

I don't believe these recordings have been reissued, except in RCA's mid-60s Victrola line (see below), but I have been wrong before on such matters. The download includes a 1961 review from High Fidelity magazine.

Ad for Victrola reissue in High Fidelity, 1965
(click to enlarge)

Rignold Conducts Prokofiev's Cinderella

About a month ago, I featured excerpts from Prokofiev's score for the ballet Cinderella, from the Royal Opera House Orchestra under Warwick Braithwaite. Now here, on request, are two of the three suites that the composer authorized from the score - also from the ROH Orchestra, this time under Hugo Rignold.

The Braithwaite recording was made in conjunction with the ballet first Western performance, which was by the Sadler's Wells Ballet in 1948. Frederick Ashton's staging became a mainstay of the company, and in 1957 was the basis of an American television program, which was likely the impetus behind this second recording.

Margot Fonteyn and Michael Somes

The televised production was in the prestigious NBC series Producers' Showcase, broadcast live and in color from 1954-57. It marked the second time that the ballet company had appeared in the series. First was Sleeping Beauty in late 1955, followed by the May 1957 Cinderella staging. Both featured Margot Fonteyn and Michael Somes in the leading roles. A DVD of the televised Cinderella is available; you can see an excerpt on YouTube.

Hugo Rignold

Although the NBC telecast was on April 29 and the recording session for this LP was the following week, they employed two different conductors. Robert Irving led the orchestra for the TV show, as he had for the most recent performances at Covent Garden. But Hugo Rignold, then new to the company, was in charge for the recording session at Kingsway Hall. What is more peculiar, later in May Irving took the Royal Philharmonic into the studio to make a competing recording for EMI. While this was presumably done for contractual reasons, the Royal Ballet's administration could not have been happy to see its longtime (1949-58) music director become a competitor.

The online biographies of Irving and Rignold both state that they were music directors of the Royal Ballet in 1957 and 1958, so it is unclear who was in charge when this record was made. In any event, Irving was off to the US in the latter year to take up residence with the New York City Ballet.

Rignold stayed with the ballet until 1960, when he moved to the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. Previously he had been with the Liverpool Philharmonic. Rignold had a background in popular music, so he was not (and is not) taken very seriously as a classical conductor. Nonetheless, this present effort is well done, and moreover is nicely recorded. This was during a period when RCA Victor's sessions were handled by English Decca's production staffs.

First Red Seal cover

The record first came out in mono in 1957. I believe the initial stereo issue was this 1965 pressing in RCA's budget Victrola series. I own a mono Red Seal pressing (cover above), but have never seen an early stereo Red Seal and Philip Stuart does not list such an issue in his UK Decca discography. All stereo Red Seals that I have seen date from the 1990s or later (and use the mono back cover). The Irving recording for EMI also was first issued in mono, which is the format of my copy on American Angel.

The download includes several photos from the television production, a few brief reviews of the Rignold LP, and front and back scans of both the Red Seal and Victrola covers.