Landon Ronald

In the absence of operatic or symphonic work he made his living as a conductor and composer in West End shows in the late 19th and early 20th century.

Ronald was born in Kensington, London, the illegitimate son of Henry Russell, singer, songwriter and merchant, and his partner Hannah de Lara, a painter.

[2] In her memoirs, Nellie Melba told how Ronald coached her in Manon, playing the accompaniment from memory, having learned the piece from scratch overnight.

[1] Operatic and concert work was in short supply for young English conductors at the time; Ronald was obliged to seek employment in musical comedy in the late 1890s and early 1900s.

Among those for whom he conducted and composed were Harry Graham, Lionel Brough, Kate Cutler, Evie Greene and John Le Hay.

[7] Neither this employment nor his engagement from 1898 as conductor of the Winter Gardens concerts in Blackpool helped his professional advancement in the snobbish atmosphere of fin de siècle England.

[8] The music critic of The Manchester Guardian called the songs "melodious", but added that they "impressed by their graceful lyrical character rather than by evidence of any inventive fancy.

Ronald helped the company to sign up Melba and other leading singers including Adelina Patti, Charles Santley and Enrico Caruso.

Their recorded repertoire comprised mostly overtures and short orchestral pieces, mainly by Tchaikovsky and Wagner, but also longer works including the Peer Gynt Suite and Schubert's Unfinished Symphony.

[14] His last performance at the Hall was on 4 February 1936 for the 'Memorial Concert in Commemoration of His Late Most Gracious Majesty King George V', where he conducted and played the piano.

In later life he recalled Parry's "smacking me on the back and saying 'I heard yesterday Richter perform the Enigma Variations by a Mr. Elgar, which is the finest thing I have listened to for years.

According to his biographer, Raymond Holden, "By modernizing teaching methods, and increasing the morale of those working and studying at the institution, he raised the status of the school.

[24] The critic Michael Kennedy writes, "His compositions include a symphonic poem, an overture, a ballet, Britannia's Realm, composed for the coronation of Edward VII in 1902, and incidental music to Robert Hichens’s The Garden of Allah (1921, Drury Lane), but it is his song Down in the Forest that has survived.