Edward Sackville-West, 5th Baron Sackville
The Lord Sackville | |
---|---|
Baron Sackville | |
Tenure | 8 May 1962 – 4 July 1965 |
Successor | Lionel Sackville-West, 6th Baron |
Born | Edward Charles Sackville-West 13 November 1901 Cadogan Gardens, London, England |
Died | 4 July 1965 Cooleville House, Clogheen, Ireland | (aged 63)
Parents | Charles Sackville-West, 4th Baron Sackville Maud Cecilia Bell |
Edward Charles Sackville-West, 5th Baron Sackville (13 November 1901 – 4 July 1965) was a British music critic, novelist and, in his last years, a member of the House of Lords. Musically gifted as a boy, he was attracted as a young man to a literary life and wrote a series of semi-autobiographical novels in the 1920s and 1930s. They made little impact, and his more lasting books are a biography of the essayist Thomas De Quincey and The Record Guide, Britain's first comprehensive guide to classical music on record, first published in 1951.
As a critic and a member of the board of the Royal Opera House, he strove to promote the works of young British composers, including Benjamin Britten and Michael Tippett. Britten worked with him on a musical drama for radio and dedicated to him one of his best known works, the Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings.
Biography
Early years
Sackville-West was born at Cadogan Gardens, London, the elder child and only son of Major-General Charles John Sackville-West, who later became the fourth Baron Sackville, and his first wife, Maud Cecilia, née Bell (1873–1920). He was educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford.[1] While at Eton he studied the piano with Irene Scharrer, his housemaster's wife, and became highly proficient, winning the Eton music prize in 1918. His partner Desmond Shawe-Taylor said of him, "not many boys can have played at a school concert the Second Concerto of Rachmaninov. He even contemplated a pianist's career, but was deterred by poor health."[2] At Oxford he made many literary friends, including Maurice Bowra, Roy Harrod and L. P. Hartley, and literature began to rival music as his chief interest.[3] He left Oxford without taking his degree and embarked on a career as a novelist, writing a series of autobiographical novels.[1]
Novelist
His first novel, The Ruin: A Gothic Novel, was plainly autobiographical, and its depiction of turbulent, unconventional and ultimately calamitous relationships included characters readily identifiable from Sackville-West's circle. Its publication was therefore delayed, and his second novel, Piano Quintet, was published first.[4] Sackville-West's biographer, Michael de-la-Noy, wrote, "The Ruin, like all the gothic literary efforts over which Sackville-West took infinite but rather pointless pains, was heavily laced with the mannered style of the late nineteenth-century 'decadent' movement … with whose work Eddy had unfortunately become enamoured when he was seventeen."[1]
He published a further three novels, Mandrake over the Water-Carrier (1928), Simpson: A Life (1931) and The Sun in Capricorn (1934). They were reviewed politely but made little stir. Reviewing the third novel,
Musical work
In 1935 Sackville-West became music critic of the magazine New Statesman, a post he held for twenty years, contributing weekly reviews of recordings. The Times wrote that his articles "were distinguished not only for their command of the jewelled phrase but for their zealous propagation of young British composers."[3] He was an early admirer of and campaigner for the music of Benjamin Britten. During World War II, Sackville-West joined the BBC as "an arranger and director of programmes".[3] In 1943, he wrote The Rescue: a Melodrama for Broadcasting, for which Britten composed the music. It was first broadcast that year and was revived several times. The BBC producer Val Gielgud rated it as "a genuine broadcasting classic".[1] The theme of The Rescue was the end of The Odyssey. Maurice Bowra dubbed it "The Eddyssey."[2] In the same year, Britten dedicated his Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings to Sackville-West.[1]
In addition to his column in The New Statesman, Sackville-West contributed a substantial quarterly article to
From 1950 to 1955, Sackville-West was a member of the board of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, where he continued to work for the cause of modern British music, including that of Michael Tippett, whose opera The Midsummer Marriage was premiered in 1955.[1]
Personal life
Sackville-West's family home was
He died suddenly in 1965 at Cooleville, aged 63.
Legacy
On his death in 1965, Sackville-West bequeathed a large collection of paintings to his friend and former lover Eardley Knollys, who added to it and in turn on his own death in 1991, left the collection to the Bulgarian emigre and picture framer Mattei Radev, a former lover of
Notes
- ^ a b c d e f g h De-la-Noy, Michael. "West, Edward Charles Sackville-, fifth Baron Sackville (1901–1965)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press. Retrieved 9 December 2009.
- ^ a b c d Shawe-Taylor, Desmond, The Gramophone, October 1965, p. 24
- ^ a b c d e The Times obituary, 6 July 1965, p. 14
- ^ a b "Edward Charles Sackville-West", Contemporary Authors Online, Gale, 2003. Retrieved 8 December 2009 (subscription required).
- ^ The Times, 22 June 1928, p. 10
- ^ The Times, 10 February 1931, p. 19
- ^ Published in the U.S. as Thomas de Quincey: His Life and Work (Yale University Press, 1936).
- ^ "Life and times of artist in public gaze". Farnham Herald. Archived from the original on 17 April 2021. Retrieved 8 October 2020.
- ^ News. InSight No. XVI Archived 4 March 2021 at the Wayback Machine in Piano Nobile, 1 June 2020. Retrieved 11 November 2020
- ^ Owen, Nick (22 September 2011) "The Radev Collection at Pallant House Gallery tells remarkable tale of three art lovers". Culture24. Archived from the original on 24 November 2016. Retrieved 8 October 2020.. Retrieved 8 October 2020
- ^ Brown, Mark (18 September 2011). "Radev collection: tale of three art lovers to be told in new touring exhibition". The Guardian.. Retrieved 8 October 2020