Gordon and Prokofiev Ballet Scores with Lambert and Braithwaite

This post is another in a series devoted to Constant Lambert's recordings as composer, conductor and orchestrator.

Today he and Warwick Braithwaite conduct scores from notable 20th century ballet scores as mounted by the Sadler's Wells Ballet - Gavin Gordon's score for The Rake's Progress and Sergei Prokofiev's music for Cinderella.

The Rake's Progress

Constant Lambert by Lola Walker (1951)

Gordon (1901-83) wrote his score for the Vic-Wells Ballet, which first mounted it in 1935. This recording dates from a 1946 revival soon after the Sadler's Wells Ballet took residence at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Lambert had led the 1935 premiere of the ballet, many intervening performances, and the March 1946 revival and recording. Lambert was one of the three artistic directors of the ballet along with choreographers Ninette de Valois and Frederick Ashton. 

Here, as in the Prokofiev work, the Royal Opera House Orchestra performs, as it did for the ballet performances themselves.

The Rake's Progress is notable in that it has remained in the repertory for many decades even though its composer is known for no other works. Gordon was not a full-time composer;  he also worked as an actor and singer, appearing both in the first performance of Vaughan Williams'Hugh the Drover and in a stage production of My Fair Lady. In the musical realm, Gordon did produce a series of ballets and other compositions, but none were nearly as successful as The Rake's Progress.

It was Gordon himself who conceived mounting a ballet based on William Hogarth's series of pictures known as A Rake's Progress, bringing his ideas and music to the Vic-Wells Ballet. This was presumably through the intercession of Lambert, a friend from the Royal College of Music. It turned out to be quite a good conception, not the least because of the brilliant choreography by de Valois and the scenic design and costumes from the remarkable Rex Whistler.

Costume designs for The Rake and The Dancer

Among the leading roles in the 1935 premiere were Robert Helpmann as The Rake and Alicia Markova as The Betrayed Girl. Helpmann also took the leading role in the 1946 revival, with Margot Fonteyn as the girl.

Robert Helpmann as The Rake

The current recording includes three scenes of the eight in the one-act ballet. Gordon's music is lively and descriptive, even though his "Orgy" music is more of a genteel English romp than a Dionysian revel.  Lambert is fully in command of the proceedings, as always in his recordings.

Igor Stravinsky was later to produce far better known Rake's Progress music in the form of his 1951 opera, but Gordon's music remained closer to Hogarth's scenario.

Cinderella

Moira Shearer as Cinderella

Profofiev's Cinderella ballet music was first heard in Moscow in 1945. The Sadler's Wells production was the ballet's first Western performance. It premiered on December 23, 1948 with choreography by Ashton and scenery and costumes by Jean-Denis Malcles. Moira Shearer was Cinderella and Michael Soames the Prince, with Helpmann and Ashton himself as the wicked stepsisters.

Just as Prokofiev's glorious music is in part an homage to Tchaikovsky, Ashton's choreography is a tribute to his predecessor Marius Petipa.

Conducting was Warwick Braithwaite (1896-1971), who had become music director of the ballet company. He had previously been an opera conductor for Vic-Wells and then chief conductor of the Scottish Orchestra.

Warwick Braithwaite by Howard Coster (c. 1944)

The recording sessions, held in January and February 1949, encompassed seven selections from the more than 40 in the three-act ballet. Braithwaite's reading has been described as dull, but I prefer to think he is setting tempos appropriate for the dancers and scenario. But then, many recorded ballet performances seem overly dramatic and demonstrative to me.

This was the second recording of Cinderella excerpts. Yuri Fayer, who had conducted the 1945 premiere, recorded two scenes with the Bolshoi orchestra in 1946. Braithwaite's Cinderella selections do not correlate with any of the three orchestral suites from the ballet published by Prokofiev.

The Rake's Progress and Cinderella recordings were originally issued on 78 by English Columbia. My transfer comes from a circa 1949-50 LP pressing by US Columbia with very well balanced sound. The LP's cover design is by Darrill Connelly, and is typical of the many such illustrations he devised for Columbia during the early days of the LP.

The download includes many additional production photos and images, some from my modest collection of vintage ballet books.

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Cinderella: Moira Shearer, Michael Soames and the corps de ballet