Oh my goodness! The conductor Kenneth Alwyn has died.
Alwyn recorded many popular classics and much film music. I remember the thrill of discovering his first, extensive digital recordings of music from “The Bride of Frankenstein” and “The Quiet Man” – two of my desert island film scores – in the bins at Tower Records.
He also conducted Decca’s first stereophonic recording of the “1812 Overture” and several albums devoted to the works of Richard Addinsell, including, of course, the ubiquitous “Warsaw Concerto.”
He was an experienced ballet and musical theater conductor. He held posts at the Sadler’s Wells Theatre Ballet and the Royal Ballet, Covent Garden. He served as musical director at the English premieres of many British and Broadway musicals. He recorded ballet music by Lord Berners. He made at least two very fine recordings of works by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, including the complete oratorio, “The Song of Hiawatha.”
Some of Alwyn’s other memorable records include albums devoted to Max Steiner, a selection of music from Ealing Studios comedies, and orchestral highlights from classic British film scores by Vaughan Williams, Sir Arthur Bliss, and others. For Silva records, he led collections devoted to Alfred Newman, Miklós Rózsa, and Ennio Morricone, as well as any number of thematically-organized anthologies.
In 1992, he toured with the BBC Concert Orchestra, with his friend, Dudley Moore, at the piano.
Alwyn died yesterday at the age of 95. By coincidence, I happened to include his recording of Sir Arnold Bax’s “Oliver Twist” on last night’s broadcast of “Picture Perfect,” and on Friday, shipped his recording of Paul Ben-Haim’s Symphony No. 2, as part of a Christmas mailing to a friend.
R.I.P. Kenneth Alwyn.