James Walker (conductor)
Encyclopedia
James Walker was an Australian musician, known both as a conductor of ballet and opera and as a recording producer, supervising classical recording sessions.
As a conductor, Walker was musical director of the International Ballet company from 1947 to 1953, and of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company
from 1968 to 1971 in succession to Isidore Godfrey
. For D'Oyly Carte, he supervised, and sometimes conducted, recordings from the 1950s to the 1970s.
Before and after his years with D'Oyly Carte, Walker was a producer for Decca Records
, working with a large number of international artists including Benjamin Britten
, Pierre Monteux
, Renata Tebaldi
, Herbert von Karajan
and Vladimir Ashkenazy
. Many of the 1950s and 1960s recordings produced by Walker have been transferred to CD and remain in the catalogues.
. His musical talent became clear at an early age; when he was seven, The Sydney Morning Herald
printed an article headed "Child Wonder at Ashfield", reporting on a recital at which he performed on piano, organ and violin. He was educated at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music
and then at the Royal Academy of Music
in London, where some of his compositions were given public performances. At an Academy concert, he played a movement of Rachmaninov's Third Piano Concerto
under the baton of Sir Henry Wood
, and was judged by The Musical Times
to show great promise. By 1935, towards the end of his studies at the Academy, he had received three Commendations for his piano performances and one for his quick study.
After leaving the Academy, Walker worked as assistant to Ernest Irving
, the musical director of Ealing Studios
. In that capacity he supervised or conducted recording sessions, working with leading British composers including Ralph Vaughan Williams
. During World War II, Walker served in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve.
In the Christmas season of 1945-46, Walker made his professional London debut, as conductor of The Glass Slipper, "A Pantomime
with Music, Ballet and Harlequinade
" by Herbert
and Eleanor Farjeon
at the St. James's Theatre. In 1947, he was appointed musical director of the International Ballet company, which played in London and on tour in Britain and continental Europe. Although ballet critics rarely mention conductors, the critic in The Manchester Guardian singled Walker out for praise: "The timing of the orchestra under James Walker has also a large share in the pace and poise of the spectacle." Walker remained with the International Ballet until it disbanded in 1953.
, supervising a set of Mozart
violin sonatas that has long vanished from the catalogues. Within the year he was working alongside John Culshaw
on Sir Adrian Boult's
Vaughan Williams
symphony cycle. These recordings have been reissued on CD, as have many other mono Decca recordings produced by Walker, including Holst's
The Planets
, conducted by Sir Malcolm Sargent
, Alfredo Campoli
's recording of Elgar's Violin Concerto
, and Britten
's Les Illuminations, sung by Peter Pears
. Walker was co-producer of Decca's 1954 Vienna recording of Der Rosenkavalier
, conducted by Erich Kleiber
, which has remained in the catalogues since its first issue.
In 1954, Walker produced Decca's first stereophonic recordings; they were of Russian works, recorded in Geneva with the Suisse Romande Orchestra conducted by Ernest Ansermet
. Walker was Decca's principal producer in Geneva for the rest of the 1950s. He also supervised sessions in Rome of operatic recordings starring Renata Tebaldi
. Many of Walker's stereo recordings from the late 1950s have been reissued on CD, including Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream
conducted by the composer, Elgar's Enigma Variations
conducted by Pierre Monteux
(1958), Sir Thomas Beecham's
extravagantly rescored Messiah (1959) and Boult's more scholarly recording of the same work (1961). With Culshaw, Walker produced Herbert von Karajan
's 1959 recording of Aida
, with Tebaldi and Carlo Bergonzi
.
Walker produced a series of Decca recordings of the Gilbert and Sullivan
operas performed by the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company
. These were Princess Ida
in 1954, The Pirates of Penzance
and The Mikado
in 1957, H.M.S. Pinafore
in 1959, Iolanthe
and The Gondoliers
in 1960, and Cox and Box
and Patience
in 1961. All these sets were conducted by the D'Oyly Carte company's long-serving musical director, Isidore Godfrey
. In 1961, Walker accepted Bridget D'Oyly Carte
's invitation to leave Decca to become Godfrey's deputy musical director. He served in that capacity until Godfrey's retirement in 1968, when Walker took over as musical director. As one historian of the D'Oyly Carte company noted, "Godfrey left on a huge tide of affection and regret – and he was a hard act to follow". Walker nevertheless attracted good notices from the critics: "a fine degree of precision without any loss of spontaneity", although Walker was judged "less of a disciplinarian than Isidore Godfrey."
While with D'Oyly Carte, Walker continued to produce some of the company's Decca recordings. During the same period, as a conductor, he directed a series of popular classical pieces recorded by Decca crews for Reader's Digest
s record label in 1962. This was followed in 1963 by a three disc set of excerpts from the Savoy opera
s, also for Reader's Digest, with D'Oyly Carte principals singing, for contractual reasons, roles that they did not normally sing on stage. These recordings were produced by Charles Gerhardt
. In 1964, Walker conducted the D'Oyly Carte company and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
in a soundtrack recording for an animated film of Ruddigore
by Halas and Batchelor
. In the same year, Walker married Angela Lang, a member of the D'Oyly Carte company's office staff.
After he became musical director of the D'Oyly Carte company, Walker conducted a disc of 21 choruses from the Savoy operas (1969), and another of excerpts from the operas (1970), both of which he also produced. In 1971 he conducted a complete H.M.S. Pinafore for Decca, but he was not the recording producer, and the close, dry sound and prominent sound effects favoured by the new producer caused the set to be called "the most detested D'Oyly Carte recording of all time" and "an artistic disaster".
and others. He also produced many recordings of English music made by Decca on behalf of the independent Lyrita
label. Among his 1970s recordings for the main Decca label were a large number of solo piano recordings with Vladimir Ashkenazy
, and the complete Haydn
piano sonatas played by John McCabe
. When the D'Oyly Carte company under Walker's successor, Royston Nash
, recorded for Decca in the 1970s, Walker was not the producer, and the recorded sound was generally judged inferior to that obtained by Walker and his colleagues in the 1950s and 1960s. Walker's last recording sessions for Decca were in February 1985, with Ashkenazy, in piano music by Chopin
.
Walker died in Surrey
, aged 75.
As a conductor, Walker was musical director of the International Ballet company from 1947 to 1953, and of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company
D'Oyly Carte Opera Company
The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company was a professional light opera company that staged Gilbert and Sullivan's Savoy operas. The company performed nearly year-round in the UK and sometimes toured in Europe, North America and elsewhere, from the 1870s until it closed in 1982. It was revived in 1988 and...
from 1968 to 1971 in succession to Isidore Godfrey
Isidore Godfrey
Isidore Godfrey was musical director of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company for 39 years, from 1929 to 1968...
. For D'Oyly Carte, he supervised, and sometimes conducted, recordings from the 1950s to the 1970s.
Before and after his years with D'Oyly Carte, Walker was a producer for Decca Records
Decca Records
Decca Records began as a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934; however, owing to World War II, the link with the British company was broken for several decades....
, working with a large number of international artists including Benjamin Britten
Benjamin Britten
Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten, OM CH was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He showed talent from an early age, and first came to public attention with the a cappella choral work A Boy Was Born in 1934. With the premiere of his opera Peter Grimes in 1945, he leapt to...
, Pierre Monteux
Pierre Monteux
Pierre Monteux was an orchestra conductor. Born in Paris, France, Monteux later became an American citizen.-Life and career:Monteux was born in Paris in 1875. His family was descended from Sephardi Jews who came to France in the wake of the Spanish Inquisition. He studied violin from an early age,...
, Renata Tebaldi
Renata Tebaldi
Renata Tebaldi was an Italian lirico-spinto soprano popular in the post-war period...
, Herbert von Karajan
Herbert von Karajan
Herbert von Karajan was an Austrian orchestra and opera conductor. To the wider world he was perhaps most famously associated with the Berlin Philharmonic, of which he was principal conductor for 35 years...
and Vladimir Ashkenazy
Vladimir Ashkenazy
Vladimir Davidovich Ashkenazy is a Russian-Icelandic conductor and pianist. Since 1972 he has been a citizen of Iceland, his wife Þórunn's country of birth. Since 1978, because of his many obligations in Europe, he and his family have resided in Meggen, near Lucerne in Switzerland...
. Many of the 1950s and 1960s recordings produced by Walker have been transferred to CD and remain in the catalogues.
Early years
Walker was born in Ashfield, New South WalesAshfield, New South Wales
Ashfield is a suburb in the inner-west of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Ashfield is about 9 kilometres south-west of the Sydney central business district and is the administrative centre for the local government area of the Municipality of Ashfield.The official name for the...
. His musical talent became clear at an early age; when he was seven, The Sydney Morning Herald
The Sydney Morning Herald
The Sydney Morning Herald is a daily broadsheet newspaper published by Fairfax Media in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1831 as the Sydney Herald, the SMH is the oldest continuously published newspaper in Australia. The newspaper is published six days a week. The newspaper's Sunday counterpart, The...
printed an article headed "Child Wonder at Ashfield", reporting on a recital at which he performed on piano, organ and violin. He was educated at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music
Sydney Conservatorium of Music
The Sydney Conservatorium of Music is one of the oldest and most prestigious music schools in Australia...
and then at the Royal Academy of Music
Royal Academy of Music
The Royal Academy of Music in London, England, is a conservatoire, Britain's oldest degree-granting music school and a constituent college of the University of London since 1999. The Academy was founded by Lord Burghersh in 1822 with the help and ideas of the French harpist and composer Nicolas...
in London, where some of his compositions were given public performances. At an Academy concert, he played a movement of Rachmaninov's Third Piano Concerto
Piano Concerto No. 3 (Rachmaninoff)
The Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor, Op. 30, composed in 1909 by Sergei Rachmaninoff is famous for its technical and musical demands on the performer...
under the baton of Sir Henry Wood
Henry Wood
Henry Wood was a British conductor.Henry Wood may also refer to:* Henry C. Wood , American Civil War Medal of Honor recipient* Henry Wood , English cricketer...
, and was judged by The Musical Times
The Musical Times
The Musical Times is an academic journal of classical music edited and produced in the United Kingdom. It is currently the oldest such journal that is still publishing in the UK, having been published continuously since 1844. It was published as The Musical Times and Singing Class Circular until...
to show great promise. By 1935, towards the end of his studies at the Academy, he had received three Commendations for his piano performances and one for his quick study.
After leaving the Academy, Walker worked as assistant to Ernest Irving
Ernest Irving
Ernest Irving was an English composer and conductor, primarily remembered for his involvement in film music. He composed the score for the Ealing comedy Whisky Galore!, Turned Out Nice Again starring George Formby, Ralph Vaughan Williams dedicated his Sinfonia antartica to him...
, the musical director of Ealing Studios
Ealing Studios
Ealing Studios is a television and film production company and facilities provider at Ealing Green in West London. Will Barker bought the White Lodge on Ealing Green in 1902 as a base for film making, and films have been made on the site ever since...
. In that capacity he supervised or conducted recording sessions, working with leading British composers including Ralph Vaughan Williams
Ralph Vaughan Williams
Ralph Vaughan Williams OM was an English composer of symphonies, chamber music, opera, choral music, and film scores. He was also a collector of English folk music and song: this activity both influenced his editorial approach to the English Hymnal, beginning in 1904, in which he included many...
. During World War II, Walker served in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve.
In the Christmas season of 1945-46, Walker made his professional London debut, as conductor of The Glass Slipper, "A Pantomime
Pantomime
Pantomime — not to be confused with a mime artist, a theatrical performer of mime—is a musical-comedy theatrical production traditionally found in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Jamaica, South Africa, India, Ireland, Gibraltar and Malta, and is mostly performed during the...
with Music, Ballet and Harlequinade
Harlequinade
Harlequinade is a comic theatrical genre, defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as "that part of a pantomime in which the harlequin and clown play the principal parts". It developed in England between the 17th and mid-19th centuries...
" by Herbert
Herbert Farjeon
Herbert Farjeon was a major figure in the British theatre from 1910 until his death. He was a presenter of revues in London's West End, a theatre critic, lyricist, librettist, playwright, theatre manager and researcher....
and Eleanor Farjeon
Eleanor Farjeon
Eleanor Farjeon was an English author of children's stories and plays, poetry, biography, history and satire. Many of her works had charming illustrations by Edward Ardizzone. Some of her correspondence has also been published...
at the St. James's Theatre. In 1947, he was appointed musical director of the International Ballet company, which played in London and on tour in Britain and continental Europe. Although ballet critics rarely mention conductors, the critic in The Manchester Guardian singled Walker out for praise: "The timing of the orchestra under James Walker has also a large share in the pace and poise of the spectacle." Walker remained with the International Ballet until it disbanded in 1953.
Decca and D'Oyly Carte
In January 1953, Walker first worked as a recording producer for Decca RecordsDecca Records
Decca Records began as a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934; however, owing to World War II, the link with the British company was broken for several decades....
, supervising a set of Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
violin sonatas that has long vanished from the catalogues. Within the year he was working alongside John Culshaw
John Culshaw
John Royds Culshaw OBE was a pioneering English classical record producer for Decca Records. He recorded a wide range of music, but is best known for masterminding the first studio recording of Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen, begun in 1958.Largely self-educated musically, Culshaw worked for...
on Sir Adrian Boult's
Adrian Boult
Sir Adrian Cedric Boult CH was an English conductor. Brought up in a prosperous mercantile family he followed musical studies in England and at Leipzig, Germany, with early conducting work in London for the Royal Opera House and Sergei Diaghilev's ballet company. His first prominent post was...
Vaughan Williams
Ralph Vaughan Williams
Ralph Vaughan Williams OM was an English composer of symphonies, chamber music, opera, choral music, and film scores. He was also a collector of English folk music and song: this activity both influenced his editorial approach to the English Hymnal, beginning in 1904, in which he included many...
symphony cycle. These recordings have been reissued on CD, as have many other mono Decca recordings produced by Walker, including Holst's
Gustav Holst
Gustav Theodore Holst was an English composer. He is most famous for his orchestral suite The Planets....
The Planets
The Planets
The Planets, Op. 32, is a seven-movement orchestral suite by the English composer Gustav Holst, written between 1914 and 1916. Each movement of the suite is named after a planet of the Solar System and its corresponding astrological character as defined by Holst...
, conducted by Sir Malcolm Sargent
Malcolm Sargent
Sir Harold Malcolm Watts Sargent was an English conductor, organist and composer widely regarded as Britain's leading conductor of choral works...
, Alfredo Campoli
Alfredo Campoli
Alfredo Campoli was an Italian-born British violinist, often known simply as Campoli. He was noted for the beauty of the tone he produced from the violin.-Biography:...
's recording of Elgar's Violin Concerto
Edward Elgar
Sir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet OM, GCVO was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orchestral works including the Enigma Variations, the Pomp and Circumstance Marches, concertos...
, and Britten
Benjamin Britten
Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten, OM CH was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He showed talent from an early age, and first came to public attention with the a cappella choral work A Boy Was Born in 1934. With the premiere of his opera Peter Grimes in 1945, he leapt to...
's Les Illuminations, sung by Peter Pears
Peter Pears
Sir Peter Neville Luard Pears CBE was an English tenor who was knighted in 1978. His career was closely associated with the composer Edward Benjamin Britten....
. Walker was co-producer of Decca's 1954 Vienna recording of Der Rosenkavalier
Der Rosenkavalier
Der Rosenkavalier is a comic opera in three acts by Richard Strauss to an original German libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal. It is loosely adapted from the novel Les amours du chevalier de Faublas by Louvet de Couvrai and Molière’s comedy Monsieur de Pourceaugnac...
, conducted by Erich Kleiber
Erich Kleiber
Erich Kleiber was an Austrian conductor.- Biography :Born in Vienna, Kleiber studied in Prague...
, which has remained in the catalogues since its first issue.
In 1954, Walker produced Decca's first stereophonic recordings; they were of Russian works, recorded in Geneva with the Suisse Romande Orchestra conducted by Ernest Ansermet
Ernest Ansermet
Ernest Alexandre Ansermet was a Swiss conductor.- Biography :Ansermet was born in Vevey, Switzerland. Although he was a contemporary of Wilhelm Furtwängler and Otto Klemperer, Ansermet represents in most ways a very different tradition and approach from those two musicians. Originally he was a...
. Walker was Decca's principal producer in Geneva for the rest of the 1950s. He also supervised sessions in Rome of operatic recordings starring Renata Tebaldi
Renata Tebaldi
Renata Tebaldi was an Italian lirico-spinto soprano popular in the post-war period...
. Many of Walker's stereo recordings from the late 1950s have been reissued on CD, including Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream
A Midsummer Night's Dream (opera)
A Midsummer Night's Dream is an opera with music by Benjamin Britten and set to a libretto adapted by the composer and Peter Pears from William Shakespeare's play, A Midsummer Night's Dream...
conducted by the composer, Elgar's Enigma Variations
Enigma Variations
Variations on an Original Theme for orchestra , Op. 36, commonly referred to as the Enigma Variations, is a set of a theme and its fourteen variations written for orchestra by Edward Elgar in 1898–1899. It is Elgar's best-known large-scale composition, for both the music itself and the...
conducted by Pierre Monteux
Pierre Monteux
Pierre Monteux was an orchestra conductor. Born in Paris, France, Monteux later became an American citizen.-Life and career:Monteux was born in Paris in 1875. His family was descended from Sephardi Jews who came to France in the wake of the Spanish Inquisition. He studied violin from an early age,...
(1958), Sir Thomas Beecham's
Thomas Beecham
Sir Thomas Beecham, 2nd Baronet CH was an English conductor and impresario best known for his association with the London Philharmonic and the Royal Philharmonic orchestras. He was also closely associated with the Liverpool Philharmonic and Hallé orchestras...
extravagantly rescored Messiah (1959) and Boult's more scholarly recording of the same work (1961). With Culshaw, Walker produced Herbert von Karajan
Herbert von Karajan
Herbert von Karajan was an Austrian orchestra and opera conductor. To the wider world he was perhaps most famously associated with the Berlin Philharmonic, of which he was principal conductor for 35 years...
's 1959 recording of Aida
Aida
Aida sometimes spelled Aïda, is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni, based on a scenario written by French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette...
, with Tebaldi and Carlo Bergonzi
Carlo Bergonzi
Carlo Bergonzi is an Italian operatic tenor. Although he performed and recorded some bel canto and verismo roles, he is above all associated with the operas of Giuseppe Verdi, including a large number of the composer's lesser-known works that he helped revive...
.
Walker produced a series of Decca recordings of the Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan refers to the Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the librettist W. S. Gilbert and the composer Arthur Sullivan . The two men collaborated on fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which H.M.S...
operas performed by the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company
D'Oyly Carte Opera Company
The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company was a professional light opera company that staged Gilbert and Sullivan's Savoy operas. The company performed nearly year-round in the UK and sometimes toured in Europe, North America and elsewhere, from the 1870s until it closed in 1982. It was revived in 1988 and...
. These were Princess Ida
Princess Ida
Princess Ida; or, Castle Adamant is a comic opera with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It was their eighth operatic collaboration of fourteen. Princess Ida opened at the Savoy Theatre on January 5, 1884, for a run of 246 performances...
in 1954, The Pirates of Penzance
The Pirates of Penzance
The Pirates of Penzance; or, The Slave of Duty is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. The opera's official premiere was at the Fifth Avenue Theatre in New York City on 31 December 1879, where the show was well received by both audiences...
and The Mikado
The Mikado
The Mikado; or, The Town of Titipu is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert, their ninth of fourteen operatic collaborations...
in 1957, H.M.S. Pinafore
H.M.S. Pinafore
H.M.S. Pinafore; or, The Lass That Loved a Sailor is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and a libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It opened at the Opera Comique in London, England, on 25 May 1878 and ran for 571 performances, which was the second-longest run of any musical...
in 1959, Iolanthe
Iolanthe
Iolanthe; or, The Peer and the Peri is a comic opera with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It is one of the Savoy operas and is the seventh collaboration of the fourteen between Gilbert and Sullivan....
and The Gondoliers
The Gondoliers
The Gondoliers; or, The King of Barataria is a Savoy Opera, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It premiered at the Savoy Theatre on 7 December 1889 and ran for a very successful 554 performances , closing on 30 June 1891...
in 1960, and Cox and Box
Cox and Box
Cox and Box; or, The Long-Lost Brothers, is a one-act comic opera with a libretto by F. C. Burnand and music by Arthur Sullivan, based on the 1847 farce Box and Cox by John Maddison Morton. It was Sullivan's first successful comic opera. The story concerns a landlord who lets a room to two...
and Patience
Patience (opera)
Patience; or, Bunthorne's Bride, is a comic opera in two acts with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. First performed at the Opera Comique, London, on 23 April 1881, it moved to the 1,292-seat Savoy Theatre on 10 October 1881, where it was the first theatrical production in the...
in 1961. All these sets were conducted by the D'Oyly Carte company's long-serving musical director, Isidore Godfrey
Isidore Godfrey
Isidore Godfrey was musical director of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company for 39 years, from 1929 to 1968...
. In 1961, Walker accepted Bridget D'Oyly Carte
Bridget D'Oyly Carte
Dame Bridget Cicely D'Oyly Carte, DBE , was the granddaughter of impresario Richard D'Oyly Carte and the only daughter of Rupert D'Oyly Carte...
's invitation to leave Decca to become Godfrey's deputy musical director. He served in that capacity until Godfrey's retirement in 1968, when Walker took over as musical director. As one historian of the D'Oyly Carte company noted, "Godfrey left on a huge tide of affection and regret – and he was a hard act to follow". Walker nevertheless attracted good notices from the critics: "a fine degree of precision without any loss of spontaneity", although Walker was judged "less of a disciplinarian than Isidore Godfrey."
While with D'Oyly Carte, Walker continued to produce some of the company's Decca recordings. During the same period, as a conductor, he directed a series of popular classical pieces recorded by Decca crews for Reader's Digest
Reader's Digest
Reader's Digest is a general interest family magazine, published ten times annually. Formerly based in Chappaqua, New York, its headquarters is now in New York City. It was founded in 1922, by DeWitt Wallace and Lila Bell Wallace...
s record label in 1962. This was followed in 1963 by a three disc set of excerpts from the Savoy opera
Savoy opera
The Savoy Operas denote a style of comic opera that developed in Victorian England in the late 19th century, with W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan as the original and most successful practitioners. The name is derived from the Savoy Theatre, which impresario Richard D'Oyly Carte built to house...
s, also for Reader's Digest, with D'Oyly Carte principals singing, for contractual reasons, roles that they did not normally sing on stage. These recordings were produced by Charles Gerhardt
Charles Gerhardt (conductor)
Charles Allan Gerhardt was a conductor, record producer, and arranger.-Early years:Gerhardt grew up in Little Rock, Arkansas, where he studied the piano at age five and composition at age nine...
. In 1964, Walker conducted the D'Oyly Carte company and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra is a British orchestra based in London. It tours widely, and is sometimes referred to as "Britain's national orchestra"...
in a soundtrack recording for an animated film of Ruddigore
Ruddigore
Ruddigore; or, The Witch's Curse, originally called Ruddygore, is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It is one of the Savoy Operas and the tenth of fourteen comic operas written together by Gilbert and Sullivan...
by Halas and Batchelor
Halas and Batchelor
Halas and Batchelor was an animation company founded by John Halas and his wife, Joy Batchelor. The company started as a small animation unit that created commercials for theatrical distribution...
. In the same year, Walker married Angela Lang, a member of the D'Oyly Carte company's office staff.
After he became musical director of the D'Oyly Carte company, Walker conducted a disc of 21 choruses from the Savoy operas (1969), and another of excerpts from the operas (1970), both of which he also produced. In 1971 he conducted a complete H.M.S. Pinafore for Decca, but he was not the recording producer, and the close, dry sound and prominent sound effects favoured by the new producer caused the set to be called "the most detested D'Oyly Carte recording of all time" and "an artistic disaster".
Later years
In 1971, Walker resigned from the D'Oyly Carte company and returned to Decca, where for a time he concentrated on recordings of modern music, working with Pierre BoulezPierre Boulez
Pierre Boulez is a French composer of contemporary classical music, a pianist, and a conductor.-Early years:Boulez was born in Montbrison, Loire, France. As a child he began piano lessons and demonstrated aptitude in both music and mathematics...
and others. He also produced many recordings of English music made by Decca on behalf of the independent Lyrita
Lyrita
Lyrita is a classical music record label, specializing in the works of British composers.Lyrita began releasing LPs in October 1959 as Lyrita Recorded Edition for sale by mail order subscription. The founder of the company, Richard Itter of Burnham, Buckinghamshire, was a businessman and record...
label. Among his 1970s recordings for the main Decca label were a large number of solo piano recordings with Vladimir Ashkenazy
Vladimir Ashkenazy
Vladimir Davidovich Ashkenazy is a Russian-Icelandic conductor and pianist. Since 1972 he has been a citizen of Iceland, his wife Þórunn's country of birth. Since 1978, because of his many obligations in Europe, he and his family have resided in Meggen, near Lucerne in Switzerland...
, and the complete Haydn
Joseph Haydn
Franz Joseph Haydn , known as Joseph Haydn , was an Austrian composer, one of the most prolific and prominent composers of the Classical period. He is often called the "Father of the Symphony" and "Father of the String Quartet" because of his important contributions to these forms...
piano sonatas played by John McCabe
John McCabe (composer)
John McCabe CBE is an English composer and pianist.- Biography :John McCabe was born in Huyton, Liverpool, Merseyside. A prolific composer from an early age, he had written thirteen symphonies by the time he was eleven...
. When the D'Oyly Carte company under Walker's successor, Royston Nash
Royston Nash
Royston Hulbert Nash is an English-born conductor, best known as a music director of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, who is now living in the U.S.-Life and career:...
, recorded for Decca in the 1970s, Walker was not the producer, and the recorded sound was generally judged inferior to that obtained by Walker and his colleagues in the 1950s and 1960s. Walker's last recording sessions for Decca were in February 1985, with Ashkenazy, in piano music by Chopin
Frédéric Chopin
Frédéric François Chopin was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist. He is considered one of the great masters of Romantic music and has been called "the poet of the piano"....
.
Walker died in Surrey
Surrey
Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...
, aged 75.