Most of this album
is devoted to the ballet music of Constant
Lambert; but all of it is very theatrical.
Constant Lambert appears
to have had violent disagreements with
Diaghliev over the latter’s concept
for Romeo and Juliet which developed
somewhat crazily into a ‘cocktail ballet’
- in the parlance of the time. Its story
revolves around a company rehearsing
Romeo and Juliet, the action
split over two tableaux: in the first,
the maître de ballet
tries to teach a pas de deux
to the two rebellious principals who
become over-affectionate. In the second
tableau, Shakespeare’s story is in rehearsal,
the action following the usual story-line
until the lovers don flying gear and
elope by aeroplane. Such lunacy obviously
called for correspondingly eccentric
music and Lambert responded with predominantly
light-hearted material, often hedonistic,
commedia dell’arte in mood -
one movement is actually marked ‘Burlesca’
- with occasional shadows as befitting
the Bard’s tragedy. Much material sounds
like quintessentially English folk dance
with a splash of Poulenc-like insouciance
and Waltonian colouring. Del Mar and
the ECO clearly enjoy the music’s high-spirited
frivolity.
The ballet Pomona
is based on the story of the goddess
of fruits and Vertumnus, god of the
seasons. Pomona is first seen dancing
with her nymphs. They run away when
the flirtation of Vertumnus and his
followers alarms them. The god, later
in the guise of an old woman, successfully
encourages Pomona to wed the god. Lambert’s
music for this more straightforward
story - choreographed first by Nijinska
and later by Ashton - follows the French
neo-classical school of the 1920s. Similarities
with Stravinsky’s Pulcinella
and Poulenc’s Les Biches are
apparent. The music is lyrical; the
markings of the ballet suite’s movements
after the innocent, idyllic setting
of the ‘Prelude’, are self-explanatory
including: ‘Pastorale’, ‘Menuetto’,
‘Rigadoon’, ‘Sicilliana’ and the celebratory
‘Marcia’. Colourful music, more refined
than Romeo and Juliet.
Music for Orchestra
dates from 1927 and was written when
Lambert was a counterpoint student of
R.O. Morris at the RCM. Dedicated to
Lord Berners, it was played by Diaghilev
as a symphonic interlude during his
last season in 1929. The notes do not
mention the context of this performance
although one can detect the influence
of The Rite of Spring in the
first Andante movement, particularly
in the final cataclysmic outburst. The
other Risoluto-Vivace movement
continues in agitation – conceived in
vigorous and thunderous fugual style.
Lambert may have suggested that this
is abstract music but surely it would
not disgrace any ballet.
From Lambert’s masterpiece
Summer’s Last Will and Testament,
comes King Pest: Rondo Burlesca.
This title is a punning reference
to Henry VIII’s jester, Will Somers.
One imagines that Will’s barbs might,
on occasion, have brought him close
to being beheaded, for this music is
not just jaunty and mischievous but
stark and threatening. Lambert makes
imaginative use of a large orchestra
and, correspondingly, Simon Joly delivers
a jeering, sardonic performance that
triggers the shivers.
Ian Lace
See also review
by Rob Barnett (Recording of the
Month- August)
The
Lyrita Catalogue
for details
English Chamber Orchestra/Norman Del Mar
