Robert Irving – The Decca Recordings
Robert Irving
Label
Decca
Catalogue No.
4827289
Barcode
00028948272891
Format
2-CD
About

Robert Irving: the pre-eminent ballet conductor of his day on home turf and vividly captured in Decca’s superbly life-like, late mono-sound with his complete recordings for that label.

Despite bringing the orchestras of both The Royal Ballet and the New York City Ballet to celebrated peaks of brilliance in execution, the conductor Robert Irving left no more than a handful of recordings, nearly all made in the 1950s and 60s. They display his unfailing sensitivity to the needs of dancers, sometimes adopting slower tempi than concert performances but deftly maintaining a lively momentum. The works presented here are a mere fraction of the many important ballet scores Irving was closely associated with during his years at Sadler’s Wells and the Royal Ballet and the recordings amply demonstrate his gifts for musical nuance and spry agility.

Four Decca LPs have been compiled in their entirety for this newly remastered release. The first of them was recorded in July 1952: selections from Massenet’s ‘Le Cid’ and Constant Lambert’s polished arrangement of music by Meyerbeer for Frederick Ashton’s ballet ‘Les Patineurs’. In the early spring of 1953, there followed another Ashton commission, Lambert’s own ‘Horoscope’ and then the two suites from Walton’s ‘Façade’, interleaved together in the composer’s own recommended ordering.

On two days in February 1955, Irving and the ‘New Symphony Orchestra’ (a studio band drawn from London’s ever-whirling pool of talented orchestral freelancers) set down a pairing of Gluck and Grétry from the golden age of French classical ballet, the one grave and gracious (including the celebrated ‘Dance of the Blessed Spirits’), the other more lively and comic in spirit. Irving’s short career with Decca came to a close later that year with ‘The Lady and the Fool’, an arrangement by Sir Charles Mackerras of lesser-known Verdi numbers for a ballet at Sadler’s Wells created by John Cranko.

TRACK LISTING / ARTISTS

CD 1
CHRISTOPH WILLIBALD VON GLUCK: Ballet Suite No. 1 (arranged by Felix Mottl)
ANDRÉ GRÉTRY: Céphale et Procris – Ballet Suite (arranged by Constant Lambert)
JULES MASSENET: Le Cid – Ballet Music (Act II)*
GIACOMO MEYERBEER: Les Patineurs (arranged by Constant Lambert)*

CD 2
CONSTANT LAMBERT: Horoscope – Ballet Suite
WILLIAM WALTON: Façade – Suites Nos. 1 & 2
GIUSEPPE VERDI: The Lady and the Fool – Ballet Suite (arranged by Sir Charles Mackerras)*

New Symphony Orchestra (Gluck, Grétry, Verdi)
London Symphony Orchestra (Massenet, Meyerbeer, Lambert, Walton)
Robert Irving

*FIRST CD RELEASE ON DECCA

Track previews
Façade, Suite No. 1 for Orchestra: 3. Jodelling Song
Céphale et Procris (arr. Lambert): 7. Tambourin
Les Patineurs (Arr. Lambert): 3. Pas de deux
Les Patineurs (Arr. Lambert): 4. Ensemble
Les Patineurs (Arr. Lambert): 5. Pas de trois
Céphale et Procris (arr. Lambert): 1. Largo - Andante
Céphale et Procris (arr. Lambert): 2. Gigue légère
Céphale et Procris (arr. Lambert): 3. Pantomime
Céphale et Procris (arr. Lambert): 4. Passepied
Céphale et Procris (arr. Lambert): 5. Largo
Céphale et Procris (arr. Lambert): 6. Pantomime
Céphale et Procris (arr. Lambert): 8. Loure
Les Patineurs (Arr. Lambert): 1. Entrée
Céphale et Procris (arr. Lambert): 9. Air lent
Céphale et Procris (arr. Lambert): 10. Passepied
Céphale et Procris (arr. Lambert): 11. Gavotte
Céphale et Procris (arr. Lambert): 12. Finale
Ballet Suite No. 1, Wq. 30 [Arr. Mottl]: 1a. Introduction (Don Juan, Wq. 52)
Ballet Suite No. 1, Wq. 30 [Arr. Mottl]: 1b. Air gai - Lento - Air gai (Iphigénie en Aulide, Wq. 40)
Ballet Suite No. 1, Wq. 30 [Arr. Mottl]: 2. Dance of the Blessed Spirits (Orfeo ed Euridice, Wq. 30)
Ballet Suite No. 1, Wq. 30 [Arr. Mottl]: 3. Musette (Armide, Wq. 45)
Ballet Suite No. 1, Wq. 30 [Arr. Mottl]: 4a. Air gai (Iphigénie en Aulide, Wq. 40)
Ballet Suite No. 1, Wq. 30 [Arr. Mottl]: 4b. Sicilienne (Armide, Wq. 45)
Les Patineurs (Arr. Lambert): 2. Pas seul
Le Cid, Act 2, Ballet Music: 7. Navarraise
Façade, Suite No. 2 for Orchestra: 3. Country Dance
Horoscope - Suite: Valse Of the Gemini
Façade, Suite No. 1 for Orchestra: 1. Polka
Façade, Suite No. 2 for Orchestra: 4. Noche Espagnole
Façade, Suite No. 2 for Orchestra: 5. Popular Song
Façade, Suite No. 2 for Orchestra: 6. Old Sir Faulk
Façade, Suite No. 1 for Orchestra: 5. Tarantelle Sevillana
Les Patineurs (Arr. Lambert): 6. Duet
Les Patineurs (Arr. Lambert): 7. Pas des patineurs
Les Patineurs (Arr. Lambert): 8. Finale
Horoscope - Suite: Dance Of The Followers Of Leo
Horoscope - Suite: Saraband For the Followers Of Virgo
Horoscope - Suite: Bacchanale
Le Cid, Act 2, Ballet Music: 6. Madrilène
Horoscope - Suite: Invocation To The Moon and FInale
Façade, Suite No. 2 for Orchestra: 1. Fanfare
Façade, Suite No. 2 for Orchestra: 2. Scotch Rhapsody
Façade, Suite No. 1 for Orchestra: 2. Valse
Façade, Suite No. 1 for Orchestra: 4. Tango-Pasodoble
Le Cid, Act 2, Ballet Music: 1. Castillane
Le Cid, Act 2, Ballet Music: 2. Andalouse
Le Cid, Act 2, Ballet Music: 3. Aragonaise
Le Cid, Act 2, Ballet Music: 4. Aubade
Le Cid, Act 2, Ballet Music: 5. Catalane
Ballet Suite No. 1, Wq. 30 [Arr. Mottl]: c. Air gai (Iphigénie en Aulide, Wq, 40)
Recording information

Recording Producers: Peter Andry (Gluck, Grétry), John Culshaw (Massenet, Meyerbeer, Lambert, Walton); unidentified (Verdi)
Balance Engineer: Kenneth Wilkinson (Massenet, Meyerbeer, Lambert, Walton); unidentified (Gluck, Grétry, Verdi)
Recording Locations: Kingsway Hall, London, UK, 14–16 July 1952 (Massenet, Meyerbeer), 26–27 February 1953 (Lambert), 10 & 27 March 1953 (Walton), 14–15 February 1955 (Gluck, Grétry); Carlton Rooms, Maida Vale, London, UK, 23 May 1955 (Verdi)
Remastering Engineer: Chris Bernauer
Original Decca LP Releases: LXT 5063 (Gluck, Grétry), LXT 2746 (Massenet, Meyerbeer); LXT 2791 (Lambert, Walton); LW 5208 (Verdi)

Reviews

‘An attractive record… spirited, elegant and colourful performances. The recording is excellent.’ Gramophone (Massenet/Meyerbeer)

‘The LSO is on top form, and is persuaded by Robert Irving to give some parts of the enchanting Façade suites more point than I remember hearing ever before … [a] recording of the very highest quality: this is the best to be had.’ Gramophone (Lambert/Walton)

‘The Suite is perhaps the best possible introduction to [Gluck] … Ears cannot resist its miraculous simplicity. The disc is a good one, especially in the delivery of a smooth relaxed orchestral sound’
High Fidelity (Gluck/Grétry)