Ashley Lawrence
Encyclopedia
Ashley Macdonald Lawrence, born Hamilton, New Zealand
, on 5 June 1934, died Tokyo on 7 May 1990 was a New Zealand conductor mainly active in the UK and Germany, and particularly associated with ballet.
, Lawrence went to London in 1956 and spent three years at the Royal College of Music
studying piano and conducting. He also studied with Rafael Kubelik
. In 1962 he joined the Royal Ballet and soon made his debut at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.
In September 1966 he became Music Director of the ballet company of the Deutsche Oper in West Berlin, and in 1971 was appointed Music Director of the Stuttgart Ballet
. In 1971 he also became Principal Conductor of the BBC Concert Orchestra
. In 1972 he was appointed as Principal Conductor of the Royal Ballet at Covent Garden, and in 1973 Music Director of the same company, leaving in 1987. He also regularly conducted the Sadler's Wells Royal Ballet, including on a tour to his home country in late 1989. He was Principal Guest Conductor of the Paris Opera Ballet
from 1987 to 1989, and had been appointed to a similar position at the New York City Ballet
shortly before his death.
At the Deutsche Oper, Lawrence not only played piano for rehearsals, but conducted all the ballet performances, and made time to learn Benesh Movement Notation
. Kenneth MacMillan
credited him with suggesting music by Martinů to be used in the ballet Anastasia.
He had a wide repertoire in the concert hall, with many studio broadcasts on BBC radio with the BBC Concert Orchestra. He conducted at the Proms with programmes of Tchaikovsky; Delius, Grainger and Sullivan (1974) and Sullivan (1975). Lawrence conducted the premieres of works by Arthur Butterworth
, Anthony Hedges
, Anthony Payne
, Gerard Schurmann, Patric Standford and Robert Farnon
.
He conducted the premieres of many ballet productions, including:
He also conducted the premiere of MacMillan's production of The Sleeping Beauty for American Ballet Theater.
With the Royal Ballet, he conducted several televised performances that have been released on video, including Swan Lake
(1980), Manon (ballet) (1982) and Romeo and Juliet (Prokofiev)
(1984). With Stuttgart Ballet, Giselle und die Wilis (1990).
Peter Wright described him as "the most proficient and responsive conductor of ballet I have ever come across". In preparation for touring engagements with the Royal Ballet, he would often go well in advance to countries as distant as China and India to take the local orchestra through the music. Barry Wordsworth
considered him to be "one of the most modest yet self-reliant and determined men" he had met.
Lawrence was a private, reticent man but generous to colleagues with advice and knowledge. He often had a punishing schedule, conducting alternative nights in Paris and London with BBC recordings in the daytime in between. He died while on tour with the Stuttgart Ballet.
at the Royal Ballet in 1990 has been issued. Lawrence conducted the ballet music in the pioneering BBC recording of Verdi's Les vêpres siciliennes
in 1969. Radio recordings of Tchaikovsky, Bridge, Delius and Grainger, Milhaud, have been issued on CD, along with The Wedding on the Eiffel Tower
by Auric, Milhaud, Poulenc, Tailleferre, and Honegger. In association with the BBC television series, he conducted ballet music for the LP 'The Magic of Dance' in 1979.
In 1988 he conducted Patience
for a broadcast on BBC Radio 2 on 22 October 1989.
Hamilton, New Zealand
Hamilton is the centre of New Zealand's fourth largest urban area, and Hamilton City is the country's fourth largest territorial authority. Hamilton is in the Waikato Region of the North Island, approximately south of Auckland...
, on 5 June 1934, died Tokyo on 7 May 1990 was a New Zealand conductor mainly active in the UK and Germany, and particularly associated with ballet.
Career
After having graduated from the University of AucklandUniversity of Auckland
The University of Auckland is a university located in Auckland, New Zealand. It is the largest university in the country and the highest ranked in the 2011 QS World University Rankings, having been ranked worldwide...
, Lawrence went to London in 1956 and spent three years at the Royal College of Music
Royal College of Music
The Royal College of Music is a conservatoire founded by Royal Charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, England.-Background:The first director was Sir George Grove and he was followed by Sir Hubert Parry...
studying piano and conducting. He also studied with Rafael Kubelik
Rafael Kubelík
Rafael Jeroným Kubelík was a Czech conductor and composer.-Early life:Kubelík was born in Býchory, Bohemia, Austria-Hungary, today's Czech Republic. He was the sixth child of the Bohemian violinist Jan Kubelík, whom the younger Kubelík described as "a kind of god to me." His mother was a Hungarian...
. In 1962 he joined the Royal Ballet and soon made his debut at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.
In September 1966 he became Music Director of the ballet company of the Deutsche Oper in West Berlin, and in 1971 was appointed Music Director of the Stuttgart Ballet
Stuttgart Ballet
Stuttgart Ballet was the first major German ballet company. It rose to fame in the 1960s under Artistic Director John Cranko. The company, which is renowned for presentations of full-length narrative ballets including Romeo and Juliet, Eugene Onegin, The Taming of the Shrew, John Neumeier's Die...
. In 1971 he also became Principal Conductor of the BBC Concert Orchestra
BBC Concert Orchestra
The BBC Concert Orchestra is a British orchestra based in London, one of the British Broadcasting Corporation's five radio orchestras. With around fifty players, it is the only one of the five which is not a full-scale symphony orchestra....
. In 1972 he was appointed as Principal Conductor of the Royal Ballet at Covent Garden, and in 1973 Music Director of the same company, leaving in 1987. He also regularly conducted the Sadler's Wells Royal Ballet, including on a tour to his home country in late 1989. He was Principal Guest Conductor of the Paris Opera Ballet
Paris Opera Ballet
The Paris Opera Ballet is the oldest national ballet company in the world, and many European and international ballet companies can trace their origins to it...
from 1987 to 1989, and had been appointed to a similar position at the New York City Ballet
New York City Ballet
New York City Ballet is a ballet company founded in 1948 by choreographer George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein. Leon Barzin was the company's first music director. Balanchine and Jerome Robbins are considered the founding choreographers of the company...
shortly before his death.
At the Deutsche Oper, Lawrence not only played piano for rehearsals, but conducted all the ballet performances, and made time to learn Benesh Movement Notation
Benesh movement notation
Benesh Movement Notation is a system of dance notation that can document any form of dance or human movement...
. Kenneth MacMillan
Kenneth MacMillan
Sir Kenneth MacMillan was a British ballet dancer and choreographer. He was artistic director of the Royal Ballet in London between 1970 and 1977.-Early years:...
credited him with suggesting music by Martinů to be used in the ballet Anastasia.
He had a wide repertoire in the concert hall, with many studio broadcasts on BBC radio with the BBC Concert Orchestra. He conducted at the Proms with programmes of Tchaikovsky; Delius, Grainger and Sullivan (1974) and Sullivan (1975). Lawrence conducted the premieres of works by Arthur Butterworth
Arthur Butterworth
Arthur Butterworth MBE is an English composer, conductor and teacher.Butterworth attended the Royal Manchester College of Music , where he studied composition with Richard Hall and also learned the trumpet and conducting...
, Anthony Hedges
Anthony Hedges
Anthony Hedges is an English composer whose output covers most musical genres. His orchestral music includes two symphonies, a Sinfonia Concertante, concertinos for Flute, Horn, Trumpet, Bassoon, Variations on a theme of Rameau, together with a substantial number of light music compositions...
, Anthony Payne
Anthony Payne
Anthony Payne is an English composer, most famous for the work published as Edward Elgar: The Sketches for Symphony No. 3 Elaborated by Anthony Payne...
, Gerard Schurmann, Patric Standford and Robert Farnon
Robert Farnon
Robert Joseph Farnon was a Canadian-born composer, conductor, musical arranger and trumpet player. As well as being a famous composer of original works , he was recognised as one of the finest arrangers of his generation...
.
He conducted the premieres of many ballet productions, including:
- Berlin: Cain und Abel, 1968 (music by Panufnik), Scarecrows, 1970 (Reimann)
- Stuttgart: Carmen, 1970 (Wolfgang Fortner)
- Royal Ballet: Requiem, 1983 (Fauré), Valley of Shadows, 1983 (Tchaikovsky/Martinů), Varii capricci, 1983 (Walton), Young Apollo, 1984 (Britten/Crosse), The Sons of Horus, 1985 (Peter McGowan), The Prince of the PagodasThe Prince of the PagodasThe Prince of the Pagodas is a ballet created for The Royal Ballet in 1957, by choreographer John Cranko, with music commissioned from Benjamin Britten. The ballet was later revived in a new production by Kenneth MacMillan in 1989, achieving widespread acclaim for Darcey Bussell's premiere in a...
, 1990 (Britten).
He also conducted the premiere of MacMillan's production of The Sleeping Beauty for American Ballet Theater.
With the Royal Ballet, he conducted several televised performances that have been released on video, including Swan Lake
Swan Lake
Swan Lake ballet, op. 20, by Pyotr Tchaikovsky, composed 1875–1876. The scenario, initially in four acts, was fashioned from Russian folk tales and tells the story of Odette, a princess turned into a swan by an evil sorcerer's curse. The choreographer of the original production was Julius Reisinger...
(1980), Manon (ballet) (1982) and Romeo and Juliet (Prokofiev)
Romeo and Juliet (Prokofiev)
Romeo and Juliet is a ballet by Sergei Prokofiev based on William Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet. It is one of the most enduringly popular ballets...
(1984). With Stuttgart Ballet, Giselle und die Wilis (1990).
Peter Wright described him as "the most proficient and responsive conductor of ballet I have ever come across". In preparation for touring engagements with the Royal Ballet, he would often go well in advance to countries as distant as China and India to take the local orchestra through the music. Barry Wordsworth
Barry Wordsworth
Barry Wordsworth is a British conductor.From 1989 to 2006, Wordsworth was principal conductor of the BBC Concert Orchestra, and now holds the title of conductor laureate. From 1990 to 1995, Wordsworth was music director of the Royal Ballet, Covent Garden. He began his second tenure in that post in...
considered him to be "one of the most modest yet self-reliant and determined men" he had met.
Lawrence was a private, reticent man but generous to colleagues with advice and knowledge. He often had a punishing schedule, conducting alternative nights in Paris and London with BBC recordings in the daytime in between. He died while on tour with the Stuttgart Ballet.
Recordings
Along with TV recordings, a performance of Britten's The Prince of the PagodasThe Prince of the Pagodas
The Prince of the Pagodas is a ballet created for The Royal Ballet in 1957, by choreographer John Cranko, with music commissioned from Benjamin Britten. The ballet was later revived in a new production by Kenneth MacMillan in 1989, achieving widespread acclaim for Darcey Bussell's premiere in a...
at the Royal Ballet in 1990 has been issued. Lawrence conducted the ballet music in the pioneering BBC recording of Verdi's Les vêpres siciliennes
Les vêpres siciliennes
Les vêpres siciliennes is an opéra in five acts by the Italian romantic composer Giuseppe Verdi set to a French libretto by Charles Duveyrier and Eugène Scribe from their work Le duc d'Albe, which was written in 1838 and offered to Halevy and Donizetti before Verdi...
in 1969. Radio recordings of Tchaikovsky, Bridge, Delius and Grainger, Milhaud, have been issued on CD, along with The Wedding on the Eiffel Tower
Les mariés de la tour Eiffel
Les mariés de la tour Eiffel is a ballet to a libretto by Jean Cocteau, choreography by Jean Börlin, set by Irène Lagut, costumes by Jean Hugo, and music by five members of Les six – Georges Auric, Arthur Honegger, Darius Milhaud, Francis Poulenc and Germaine Tailleferre. The score calls for two...
by Auric, Milhaud, Poulenc, Tailleferre, and Honegger. In association with the BBC television series, he conducted ballet music for the LP 'The Magic of Dance' in 1979.
In 1988 he conducted Patience
Patience
Patience is the state of endurance under difficult circumstances, which can mean persevering in the face of delay or provocation without acting on annoyance/anger in a negative way; or exhibiting forbearance when under strain, especially when faced with longer-term difficulties. Patience is the...
for a broadcast on BBC Radio 2 on 22 October 1989.
Filmography
Ashley Lawrence featured as conductor in various television programmes:- This is Rudolf Nureyev (1965)
- The Tribute (1966)
- The Royal Ballet in rehearsal: Concerto (1967) (Piano)
- Arena: Theatre (1975)
- Gala Performance (28 March 1975)
- Gala Performance (2 January 1976)
- The Queen's Silver Jubilee Gala (1977)
- Dance Month: The Dream; A Month in the Country (1978)
- The Magic of Dance - Reflections by Dame Margot Fonteyn: The Romantic Ballet / What is New / The Ebb and Flow / The Magnificent Beginning / Out in the Limelight, Home in the rain (1979)