Celebrating Leonard Salzedo’s 100th Anniversary

It is difficult for listeners to immerse themselves in the music of Leonard Salzedo (1921-2000). There are only a handful of CDs dedicated to his work currently available. It is possible to find a wider selection of his music on YouTube, SoundCloud and some file sharing websites. It is unlikely that his work will be heard in the concert hall: the massive Newsbank database returns only 54 ‘hits’ from the past 40 years. And several of these are articles syndicated to multiple newspapers and record rather than concert reviews. Yet, many people will have heard Salzedo’s music without realising it. He composed widely for the cinema, most famously in The Revenge of Frankenstein (Hammer Films) (1958).

Brief Biography of Leonard Salzedo: 

• Born in London on 24 September 1921.
• Private lessons from William Lloyd Webber
• Studied at the Royal College of Music between 1940-44, where his teachers included Isolde Menges for violin and Herbert Howells, for composition.
• First and Second-String Quartets written in 1942/3.
• Commissioned by Marie Rambert, Salzedo composed the score for her ballet The Fugitive (1944). It was the first of seventeen examples of the genre that Salzedo composed.
• In 1945, he married Pat Clover, business manager and occasional dancer of the Les Ballets Nègres
• Played as a violinist with the London Philharmonic Orchestra (1947-50) and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (1950-66).
• First performance of the ballet The Witch Boy in Amsterdam, 1956.
• In 1956, Thomas Beecham and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra gave the premiere of Salzedo’s Symphony No.1 (1952) at the Royal Festival Hall.
• Appointed to musical directorship of the Rambert Company (1966-72), the Scottish Ballet (1972-74) and the London City Ballet (1982-6)
• In 1986, Salzedo devoted his time to composition. Important works include the Requiem without Voices for orchestra, a Stabat Mater (1991), the Violin Concerto (1992) and a Piano Concerto (1994)
• Retired from composition due to ill health in 1997.
• Died in Leighton Buzzard on 6 May 2000.

Five Key Works: 

As noted above, Salzedo suffers from a lack of recorded material, so any assessment of his music by listeners is based on the very small number of works that are/have been available on CD or vinyl. The backbone of Salzedo’s opus are the 17 ballet scores, the 10 string quartets and the two symphonies. The list below is a fair cross section of the composer’s achievement presented in chronological order. All are available on YouTube. 

1. Symphony No.2 (1954)
2. The Witch Boy Ballet Suite (1955)
3. Rendezvous for Jazz Group and Orchestra (with David Lindup) (1960)
4. Capriccio for brass quartet (1977)

5. String Qartet No.10, op.140 (1997)

With more than 140 works with opus numbers and some 47 works without, including film scores, there is plenty of potential for professional recordings and concert performances. This would seem to demand a conspectus of the two symphonies and the concerted works.  An essential project must be the completion of the cycle of String Quartets: Nos. 1, 2, 5, 7 and 10 have already been released. It is a desideratum that a few of the ballet scores are recorded. Certainly, a new edition of The Witch Boy would be worthwhile. The early The Fugitive and the Divertimento Espagñol would make ideal companion pieces. Finally, a new or remastered edition of Rendezvous for Jazz Group and Orchestra (with David Lindup) would introduce Leonard Salzedo’s music to a wide range of listeners.

Bibliography:

There is no formal biography of Leonard Salzedo. However, one major source of material is Paul Conway’s long essay on the composer published on MusicWeb International. Other details must be gleaned from Grove’s Dictionary, obituaries, reviews and record sleeves. Salzedo does not yet have an entry in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. The ‘Salzedo’ webpage is located at the Impulse Music Consultants website. This includes a concise biography of the composer, his catalogue of works, details of publishers and an incomplete list of recordings. There is also information about ‘recent’ concert performances. Links to the Salzedo Society’s Facebook, Instagram and Twitter accounts are included. This is a good place for browsing.

If you can only listen to one CD featuring Leonard Salzedo’s music:

As noted, there are few CDs devoted to Salzedo’s music. I guess that the enthusiast should opt for the recent disc of String Quartets on MPR104, performed by The Archaeus Quartet. These three works present a cross section of the composer’s music from the ear
ly String Quartet no.1 in one movement op.1 written in 1942 to the late String Quartet no.10 op.140, composed three years before his death. The other Quartet, no,5, on this CD dates from 1950/52 but was revised in 1995. The album makes a good introduction to Leonard Salzedo’s musical aesthetic.

On the other hand, the ballet The Witch Boy can be heard on YouTube (accessed 30 December 2020) in a version by the London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by the composer. It was released on the Classics for Pleasure label (EMI CFP179) in 1970 and is coupled with Jacques Ibert’s ever popular Divertissement. Despite the technical limitations of this LP, the playing is brilliant. If ever a piece needs to be rediscovered in the concert hall and the recording studio it is this one.