Kirjahaku

This is the first study of the life and music of Balfour Gardiner (1877–1950), a composer of some distinction and a generous patron of British music. But it is necessarily more than the story of just one man: it is an account of many friendships (chiefly musical) during that exciting period of British music's struggle out of mediocrity to prominence. It was Balfour Gardiner who, before the First World War, launched in Queen's Hall a remarkable series of concerts that did much to establish the reputations of several young composers. It was he, too, who made possible in a war-torn England the first performance of Holst's The Planets, and who gave considerable assistance to his close friend Delius, the plight of whose last years forms a tragic undercurrent to this book. Stephen Lloyd brings to light for the first time the full story of this once greatly respected musician and benefactor. He has traced Gardiner's student days in Germany, his early struggles as a composer, his involvement first in the folk-song movement and later with the ill-fated Musical League, his extensive patronage of music, his dabbling in architecture, and his eventual forsaking of composition for afforestation, which proved an equally remarkable undertaking.

This acclaimed biography draws on first-hand accounts, including new material on Walton's circle of the 20s and 30s; the composer's work in film a particular focus. When in June 1923 a bewildered audience in London's Aeolian Hall heard Edith Sitwell declaim her Façade poems through a megaphone, the 21-year-old William Walton - conducting behind a painted backcloth - stood on the threshold of fame. Throughout the 1920s and 1930s he was regarded as the white hope of British music, and a succession of works including the Viola Concerto, Belshazzar's Feast and the First Symphony more than fulfilled that early promise; he was also one of the first serious composers to be involved in films. Using first-hand accounts, this book explodes the myth of Façade's riotous reception, examines Walton's work in both films and radio and, through contemporary correspondence, articles and interviews - wherever possible in his own words - explores Walton's life and troubled times. It brings to the fore his complex personality - "remote, removed, distant" in Laurence Olivier's words, in dynamic contrast with music of such vitality and drama. Composition for him was an arduous, often painful, process riddled with difficulties, uncertainties and self-doubts, and further complicated by severallove affairs (one being with Italy) that inspired his finest works. STEPHEN LLOYD's previous books include a biography of H. Balfour Gardiner and a collection of Eric Fenby's writings on Delius, which he edited. In addition to record sleeve notes, programme notes, reviews and articles, he has contributed to the Percy Grainger Companion, the Studies in Music Grainger Centennial Volume, An Elgar Companion, and volumes on Delius, Waltonand Bliss.

An indispensable biography for anyone interested in Constant Lambert, ballet and British musical life in the first part of the twentieth century. Association for Recorded Sound Collections Award of Excellence - Certificate of Merit in Historical Recorded Sound Research in Classical Music To the economist and ballet enthusiast John Maynard Keynes he was potentially the most brilliant man he'd ever met; to Dame Ninette de Valois he was the greatest ballet conductor and advisor this country has ever had; to the composer Denis ApIvor he was the greatest, most lovable, and most entertaining personality of the musical world; whilst to the dance critic Clement Crisp he was quite simply a musician of genius. Yet sixty years after his tragic earlydeath Constant Lambert is little known today. As a composer he is remembered for his jazz-inspired The Rio Grande but little more, and for a man who selflessly devoted the greater part of his life to the establishment of English ballet his work is largely unrecognized today. This book amply demonstrates why he deserves to be held in greater renown. With numerous music examples, extensive appendices and a unique iconography, every aspect of thecareer and life of this extraordinary, multi-talented man is examined. It looks not only at his music but at his journalism, his talks for the BBC, his championing of jazz (in particular Duke Ellington), and - more privately - his long-standing affair with Margot Fonteyn. This is an indispensable biography for anyone interested in Constant Lambert, ballet and British musical life in the first part of the twentieth century. STEPHEN LLOYD is a writer on British music and author of William Walton: Muse of Fire (Boydell, 2001).

Portrait Miniatures from the Merchistion Collection is the fifth in a series of titles which examines the portrait miniature. This collection, which has never been on public display, was assembled on the London art market during the 1970s and 1980s. Scottish miniaturists from the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries are particularly well represented with fine works by Scouler, Bogle, and Skirving and Sir William Charles Ross. Of outstanding interest is Nicholas Hilliard's matching pair of tiny lockets of Queen Elizabeth and her admirer Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester. Stephen Lloyd's essay discusses the formation of the collection and the impact of the invention of photography on the art of miniature painting. It also explores the social history of the miniature. Twenty of the key works are illustrated in colour, with extended captions, and a complete list of the collection is also included.

This book reveals the wealth of British and European miniatures preserved in Scottish private collections, most of which are not normally on show to the public. Some of these intimate and private works are new discoveries, published here for the first time. These works are drawn from some of the notable private collections in Scotland, led by the most famous of all, that of the Duke of Buccleuch & Queensberry. The protagonists of the Stuart cause are well represented in portraits of Prince James and his sons Prince Charles Edward and Prince Henry Benedict, taken from the collection of one of the most significant Jacobite families, that of the Dukes of Perth. The book illustrates some of the most personal portraits of the leading figures among the great families of Scotland from the early seventeenth to the mid-nineteenth century. Twenty of the key works are illustrated in colour, with extended captions, and a complete catalogue of the collection is also included. AUTHOR: Dr Stephen Lloyd is a senior curator at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, where he has worked since 1993. SELLING POINTS: The sixth book in the National Galleries of Scotland's Portrait Miniatures series devoted to the art of the portrait miniature; subject of an exhibition to be held at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in July 2006