Constant Lambert

August 22, 2005 2:51 AM

Constant Lambert, born 100 years ago this week, was briefly the biggest star in British music in the 1930s, famous for the jazz-tinged choral piece, The Rio Grande. The BBC are playing a retrospective of his music, together with pieces by his contemporary Alan Rawsthorne, every day this week at 11:00 GMT, repeated at midnight a week later, as part of their Composer of the week slot (buttons on this page for the live stream, plus the previous five programmes). Unfortunately they aren't playing the whole of his masterpiece, the Concerto for Piano and Nine Players, dedicated to his late friend Peter Warlock, which can be read as a elegy for the Jazz Age itself.
A heavy drinker, Constant died in 1951; his son Kit Lambert, who managed The Who during their rise to fame, also died young after drug troubles. Andrew Motion wrote a biography of three generations of the Lambert family, and reflects on Constant here.
posted by gdav (2 comments total)

Constant Lambert was also the driving musical force behind the formation of the Sadler's Wells Ballet, which became the Royal Ballet.
posted by JanetLand at 7:41 AM on August 22, 2005

I read Music Ho! a long time ago, but can't remember much about it, apart from some slightly worrying remarks like 'it is a curious fact that most Negro music is actually composed by Jews'.

On the other hand, Lambert = Moreland (in the Gospel according to St Anthony), not a bad way to go down to posterity.
posted by verstegan at 2:20 PM on August 22, 2005