CONSTANT LAMBERT 1905 - 1951

Leonard Constant Lambert (23 August 1905 – 21 August 1951) was a British composer and conductor. He was at the centre of a brilliant literary and intellectual circle including Michael Ayrton, Sacheverell Sitwell and Anthony Powell, and despite Powell's denial, he is often said to be the prototype of the character Hugh Moreland in Powell's A Dance to the Music of Time. His father, although born in Russia and of American heritage, identified as an Australian, and Constant was always conscious of his Australian connections, although he never visited that country. He had his pick of British pianists but he chose the Australian pianist and composer Arthur Benjamin to premiere his Piano Concerto in 1931. He formed a strong bond with the dancer Robert Helpmann on his arrival in London. And he chose the young Australian pianist Gordon Watson to play the virtuoso piano part at the premiere of his last ballet, Tiresias. As a conductor he had an instinctive appreciation of Liszt, Chabrier, Waldteufel and romantic Russian composers, and made fine recordings of some of their works. Wikipedia Bio links at amazon.com...