John Lanchbery Obituaries

Emma Pegler · **Posted:** Fri Feb 28, 2003 10:07 am

John Lanchbery

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Composer who, with Frederick Ashton, created one of the 20th century's best and most popular ballets

The great moment in John Lanchbery’s career came when he collaborated with Frederick Ashton on La Fille mal gardée, the most widely successful work ever made for the Royal Ballet, and arguably the best full-evening ballet created anywhere in the 20th century. They were not starting from scratch: Ashton took the story from Jean Dauberval’s production of 1789 in Bordeaux, and even some of the action was drawn from traditional versions that had survived over the years. But until Ashton and Lanchbery reworked it in 1960, recent stagings had all looked tired and old-fashioned. This pair brought the ballet to new life: vital, touching, brilliant, human and full of fun.

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John Lanchbery

Composer and conductor whose musical mastery enriched the ballet for more than 50 years

Noel Goodwin
Friday February 28, 2003
The Guardian

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A conductor and music director of unmatched experience, John Lanchbery, who has died aged 79, was respected and admired on three continents. He spent more than half a century serving the art of ballet, and was directly responsible for raising the status and the standards of musical performance as a composer and arranger.

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Stuart Sweeney · **Posted:** Fri Feb 28, 2003 3:53 pm

I've combined two topics here:

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Azlan posted 28 February 2003 02:11 AM
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John Lanchbery, Who Arranged Music for Ballet, Dies at 79

By JACK ANDERSON, NY Times

John Lanchbery, one of the dance world's most successful and sought-after conductors and arrangers of ballet scores, died on Wednesday at a hospital in Melbourne, Australia. He was 79 and lived in Melbourne. <a href=http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/28/obituaries/28LANC.html target=_blank>more</a>

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sugar plum fairy posted 28 February 2003 05:07 AM
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I have a lot of ballet recordings that he did , especially with The Royal Opera House Orchestra.I found that he could portray the music as it was supposed to be heard , which , as yet i haven't found with any other conductor.
He will be sadly missed .
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Auntie posted 28 February 2003 10:27 AM -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Absolutely right! I saw him any number of times when the Royal appeared here locally. I also won his recording of Swan Lake in a contest a couple of years ago...and I rarely win anything...so it was a real treat.

<small>[ 28 February 2003, 04:54 PM: Message edited by: Stuart Sweeney ]</small>

gaeadea · **Posted:** Sat Mar 01, 2003 3:36 pm

John Lanchbery, ballet composer-conductor, dies
By MOLLY GLENTZER
Copyright 2003 Houston Chronicle

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British composer and conductor John Lanchbery, one of ballet's most gifted and prolific musical voices, died in Australia Wednesday of cancer. He was 79.

Lanchbery arranged the scores for many of Houston Ballet's blockbuster story ballets. He drew on the music of Edward Grieg for Peer Gynt (1981), Ludwig Minkus for Don Quixote (1995), Franz Liszt for Dracula (1997), Peter Tchaikovsky for The Snow Maiden (1998) and Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov for Cleopatra (2000). All the works were choreographed by Ben Stevenson, Houston's artistic director emeritus.

<a href="http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/ae/dance/1798125">click here for more</a>

Stuart Sweeney · **Posted:** Mon Mar 03, 2003 4:06 pm

John Lanchbery
Tireless and ubiquitous conductor/composer for ballet - from The Indpendent

A conductor and arranger, John Lanchbery was a pivotal figure in ballet. As arranger he collaborated with choreographers such as Frederick Ashton to compile the scores of many of the most popular ballets of the last half of the 20th century. As conductor he acted as jovial referee between the sometimes opposing visions of performers and composers, and his tactful sensitivity made him the trusted choice of innumerable stars, including Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev. Conducting the scores which he had arranged, he reached the top of a field which he had largely created and monopolised. As such, he worked with leading companies all over the world.

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Stuart Sweeney · **Posted:** Wed Mar 05, 2003 2:42 am

John Lanchbery
Obituary by ALASDAIR STEVEN for The Scotsman

John Lanchbery, ballet composer and conductor. Born: 15 May, 1923, in London Died: 27 February, 2003, in Melbourne, aged 79

CONDUCTING ballet is never straightforward: the music is the servant of the drama and the choreography. Worse, the maestro has to cater for the whims of the dancers on stage. It is something of a (grudging) artistic compromise. John Lanchbery accepted, but was never bogged down by, such strictures and was a much respected musician in his own right. He also gained an international reputation as a musical arranger for the movies.

He was involved in some of the Royal Ballet’s most popular works and adapted the music for Scottish Ballet’s Tales of Hoffmann. He often conducted at Covent Garden during the heydays of Fonteyn and Nureyev and became a close friend of both. Mark you, that did not stop him having several spats with Nureyev, who sometimes considered that Lanchbery’s tempi were not quite as he thought they should be.

John Arthur Lanchbery was a scholar at the Royal College of Music and studied conducting under Sir Henry Wood. On graduation, he joined the Royal Army Corps and served with them throughout the Second World War. After several freelance posts, he joined the Royal Ballet in 1951 as principal conductor.

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LMCtech · **Posted:** Wed Mar 05, 2003 12:23 pm

From the LA Times, but appearing in the SF Chronicle.

Quote:

John Lanchbery -- gave new life to ballet music

Los Angeles Times

John Lanchbery, who helped upgrade music for ballet in a 55-year career of conducting, arranging and recomposing scores for many of the world's great companies, died of cancer Wednesday in Melbourne, Australia. He was 79.

"I try to inspire the dancers and hope, in turn, to be inspired by them," he said in a 1986 interview. "The trick (with ballet music) is to maintain the pulse but adjust it to allow phrasing fluctuations. Too many conductors, not knowing what crimes they're committing, give in to dancers. I try to honor my obligations."

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Stuart Sweeney · **Posted:** Tue Apr 01, 2003 3:27 am

John Lanchbery
From The Daily Telegraph

John Lanchbery, who has died aged 79, was the principal conductor of the Royal Ballet from 1959 to 1972 and a talented composer and arranger; during a career spanning more than 50 years, he worked with the greatest names in ballet, including Sir Frederick Ashton, Sir Kenneth MacMillan, Dame Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev.

Lanchbery was considered by many (including Nureyev) to be the greatest conductor of his time. Following his spell at the Royal Ballet he spent five years as musical director at the Australian Ballet and two years at the American Ballet Theatre. Dancers and choreographers alike were always inspired by his vitality, sensitivity and masterly control. As one critic put it, when Lanchbery was in the orchestra pit, "the music was always on its best behaviour".

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