A Concert in 1943

In defiance of the Second World War, cultural events carried on in London and were well-attended, and so in July 1943 at a Concert organised by the Society for the Promotion of New Music (SPNM) (now called Sound and Music), Leonard Salzedo‘s 2nd String Quartet was premiered.

Students Leonard Salzedo and Neville Marriner are playing

Leonard was one of the players that night, as was fellow student Neville Marriner. It was a difficult piece and they were all nervous but it went well.
Afterwards the Chair of SPNM invited questions and comments from audience members expecting the usual hesitancy to speak.

Modern music is rubbish!

But no! A white-haired gentleman dressed in a black suit, black tie, white shirt and wing collar, stood up and declared all modern music, and Leonard Salzedo’s piece in particular, to be rubbish. Leonard recollected:

‘Indeed he was so vehement in his condemnation – which he delivered with great erudition – that he provoked an immediate reaction and a lively discussion ensued.  I am not absolutely sure – it is a long time ago now – but I think it must have been some twenty minutes later when one of the speakers referred to the white haired gentleman as Mr Salzedo that the rest of the audience realised he was, in fact, my father!’

Samuel Salzedo

Yes, it was Leonard’s father Samuel, referred to in the last blog post, an interpreter and translator at the Law Courts who spoke 16 languages. His most famous trial was of Lord Haw Haw. He hated modern music even if his son wrote it.

Leonard wasn’t surprised, he knew his father’s opinions, and most of the audience defended both the music and his piece.

Marie Rambert

And that night he was introduced to Marie Rambert, director of Ballet Rambert, who heard something in the piece that told her he was a born ballet composer. She commissioned him to write The Fugitive, the first of 17 ballet scores, many for Rambert. More on that in a future post.

Buy tickets here for the 24^th September Leonard Salzedo Celebration Concert:

Buy a CD including String Quartet no 2 here.