Constant Lambert, English composer and conductor (d. 1951)
Leonard Constant Lambert (23 August 1905 – 21 August 1951) was a British composer, conductor, and author. He was the Founder Music Director of the Royal Ballet, and (alongside Ninette de Valois and Frederick Ashton) he was a major figure in the establishment of the English ballet as a significant artistic movement.His ballet commitments, including extensive conducting work throughout his life, restricted his compositional activities. However one work, The Rio Grande, for chorus, orchestra and piano soloist, achieved widespread popularity in the 1920s, and is still regularly performed today. His other work includes a jazz influenced Piano Concerto (1931), major ballet scores such as Horoscope (1937) and a full-scale choral masque Summer's Last Will and Testament (1936) that some consider his masterpiece.
Lambert had wide-ranging interests beyond music, as can be seen from his critical study Music Ho! (1934), which places music in the context of the other arts. His friends included John Maynard Keynes, Anthony Powell and the Sitwells. To Keynes, Lambert was perhaps the most brilliant man he had ever met; to de Valois he was the greatest ballet conductor and advisor his country had ever had; to the composer Denis ApIvor he was the most entertaining personality of the musical world.
![Constant Lambert](https://cdn.calendarz.com/uploads/events/august/23/80036/constant-lambert_compressed.jpg)
1905Aug, 23
Constant Lambert
Choose Another Date
Events on 1905
- 27May
Battle of Tsushima
Russo-Japanese War: The Battle of Tsushima begins. - 28May
Battle of Tsushima
Russo-Japanese War: The Battle of Tsushima ends with the destruction of the Russian Baltic Fleet by Admiral Tōgō Heihachirō and the Imperial Japanese Navy. - 26Sep
Special theory of relativity
Albert Einstein publishes his first paper on the special theory of relativity. - 26Oct
Norway
Sweden accepts the independence of Norway. - 30Oct
Nicholas II of Russia
Czar Nicholas II of Russia issues the October Manifesto, granting the Russian peoples basic civil liberties and the right to form a duma. This was October 17 in the Julian calendar.