John Lanchbery

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
John Lanchbery

John Arthur Lanchbery OBE (born May 15, 1923 in London , † February 27, 2003 in Melbourne , Australia ) was an English, later also Australian conductor and composer , who is best known for his ballet compositions.

Life

John Lanchbery was born in London. He received violin lessons at an early age and began composing at the age of eight; thanks to a scholarship he was accepted at the Royal Academy of Music . However, he had to interrupt his studies because of military service in World War II. After the end of his military service he returned to England and continued his studies, he also worked for the Anglo Soviet Music Press. A little later he was appointed director of the Metropolitan Ballet, with which he made his debut in Edinburgh in 1948. However, only two years later the orchestra had to be dissolved for financial reasons. Lanchbery began working with choreographer Celia Franca and wrote the music for The Eve of St Agnes , the story of which was based on John Keats ' poem of the same name. It was one of the first commissioned works to be shown on BBC television.

Lanchbery then moved to London's Sadler's Wells Theater , where he conducted Stan Kenton's music for Kenneth MacMillan's ballet Sonnambulism (1953). In 1960 he arranged Ferdinand Hérolds La Fille mal gardée for the Royal Ballet with a choreography by Frederick Ashton . At that time, Lanchbery was already living mainly on the royalties on his own ballet music compositions, although he was also involved in numerous recordings. In 1966 he rewrote the Don Quixote by Léon Minkus for Rudolf Nurejew and for Natalia Makarowa in 1980 he rewrote the ballet La Bayadère, also by Minkus, for performance at the American Ballet Theater . Also noteworthy is the reworking of MacMillan's Mayerling in 1978, for which he changed 30 pieces by Franz Liszt , whereby it must be noted that Lanchbery has been criticized several times for his drastic reworking. In 1970 Lanchbery composed the score for the ballet film The Tales of Beatrix Potter , mainly working with influences from the operas of Michael William Balfe and Arthur Sullivan. He also composed the music for the 1980 biography of Vaslav Nijinsky, directed by Herbert Ross .

John Lanchbery was the first to rework operas into ballets ( Hoffmann's stories , The Merry Widow , The Fledermaus ). He also composed several film scores, such as for Herbert Ross' Am Wendpunkt (1977) and the silent films The Birth of a Nation (1915) and John Ford's The Iron Horse (1924). Based on pieces of music by Cole Porter , Lanchbery composed the music for The Evil Under the Sun (1982), where he also interpreted Diana Riggs You're the Top .

In 1991 Lanchbery was accepted as an officer in the Order of the British Empire and has also received awards in Russia and Sweden . He was married to the director of Sadler's Wells Theater, Elaine Fifield, from 1951 to 1960; they have a daughter together. In 2002 Lanchbery became an Australian citizen. He died in Melbourne on February 27, 2003.

Works (selection)

Recordings

  • Swan Lake with the London Philharmonia Orchestra (1982)

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Noel Goodwin: John Lanchbery . In: The Guardian , February 28, 2003. Retrieved November 14, 2013. 
  2. ↑ a b c d e f Nadine Meisner: Obituary: John Lanchbery . In: The Independent , March 3, 2003. Retrieved June 21, 2009. 
  3. ↑ Rodney Stenning Edgecombe : "It had been [Frederick] Ashton's good fortune to have Constant Lambert as his mentor in his early career, but his later years were dominated by a musical butcher called John Lanchbery." The Edinburgh Companion to Shakespeare and the Arts edited by Mark Thornton Burnett, Adrian Streete, Ramona Wray. Edinburgh University Press, 2011, p. 211
personal data
SURNAME Lanchbery, John
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Lanchbery, John Arthur (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English and Australian conductor
DATE OF BIRTH May 15, 1923
PLACE OF BIRTH London
DATE OF DEATH February 27, 2003
Place of death Melbourne , Australia