Kenneth Alwyn conducts Grieg & Rossini

Kenneth Alwyn was a principal conductor of the Royal Ballet at Covent Garden where he shared the rostrum with such luminaries working with the company at that time as Malcolm Sargent, Ernest Ansermet, Arthur Bliss, William Walton, Hans Werner Henze and Benjamin Britten the latter nominated him as conductor of the original production of The Prince of the Pagodas. In 1958 he was invited by John Culshaw – at short notice – to make Decca’s first stereo recording to launch their new SXL series. Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture, which, issued that same year (alongside other popular Tchaikovsky orchestral works) went on to become a bestseller. The next year he was invited back to the studio to make two further records from which his Grieg Peer Gynt Suite No. 1 (with one of the most beautifully-shaped accounts of ‘Morning mood’ to be committed to disc) as well as a selection of Rossini Overtures now appear on CD for the first time. The release was instigated by Alwyn himself and he provides the colourful notes for this release.