Leonard Salzedo’s Concerto for Percussion, op.74 (1968)

I was in an antique/collectors shop the other day. In a box of classical vinyl LPs, I discovered a copy of Leonard Salzedo’s Concerto for Percussion, op.74. It was priced £20. Salzedo’s piece was one of three works commissioned by Pye Records (4FE 8003) for an album of percussion music released during 1969. The other two works were Talas by the Indian composer John Mayer and Inconsequenza by Geoffrey Grey. They were performed by the London Percussion Ensemble.

The liner notes by Leonard Salzedo (1921-2000) explain the progress of the music. Setting the Concerto in context, the composer recalls that in 1964 he had composed Disneos for percussion. This work was conceived in Spain and has a “distinct Spanish and Latin American flavour.” This concerto called for six players and a vast array of instrument. The work achieved “its effect by the variety of tone colour.”  It remains unrecorded. 

Five years later, the new Concerto was more rhythmical and used only four soloists. There are five contrasting movements. Salzedo explains: The Preludio contrasts a rhythmic figure against a melodic one, while the Scherzo is pure rhythm. (Although the timpani are tuned, the notes are not important.). The Arioso uses only tuned instruments and develops the melodic idea from the first movement. In the Antifona, two snare drums comment over a timpani ostinato which is derived from an old plainsong tune. The Finale is in two sections, the first part using both tuned and percussive instruments, but it is rhythm that dominates in the end, the second part consisting of a gradual accelerando to the climax.”

Paul Conway (MusicWeb International, September 2000) writes that Salzedo’s Concerto for Percussion “had a number of concert performances both in the UK and the USA and was also used for the ballet The Empty Suit first produced by the Batsheva Ballet in Israel in October 1970, and in the following month by the Ballet Rambert in England. This demonstrated how even works never intended to be danced [can] make eminently suitable ballet music, so strong is the dance element in Leonard Salzedo's writing.”  It has subsequently been produced by a university ballet company in Johannesburg and, most recently, in Milwaukee at the University of Wisconsin. The earliest appearance as ballet music was in an experimental production by Scottish Ballet, directed by Norman Morrice.  

The London Percussion Ensemble was formed in 1964, by a few London-based percussion players. Their debut was at that year’s Cheltenham Festival, and was followed by many performances in London and several BBC broadcasts. They seem to disappear from concert listings in the late 1980s. The line up on this present album are James Holland, Terry Emery, David Johnson and Tristan Fry. 

M.H. reviewing the Pye album for The Gramophone (October 1969, p.561) wrote that “…Leonard Salzedo's Concerto is longer yet more lightweight [than the other two works on the LP] …Many people might find its five movements an easy introduction to this kind of music, a gateway to the more complex deployment of percussion elsewhere”.

Sadly, this remarkable Pye album has not been reissued. Fortunately, there is an excellent performance of Salzedo’s Concerto for Percussion uploaded to YouTube.  This is a live performance given on 13 August 2003, in the Sigyn-Hall, Turku, Finland, performed by the Kroustikon Percussion Ensemble, featuring Antti Suoranta, Juha Kangassalo, Tomi Salo and Olli Lehti.

Surely some enterprising CD company could remaster the aging Pye LP. Certainly, Leonard Salzedo’s Concerto for Percussion is a satisfying and interesting example of the genre.