Report of an
interview of Philip Gammon by Joan Seaman
Swedenborg Hall, London
6 July 2005
Philip Gammon started piano lessons at
the age of 7 1/2 years at his home in
Chippenham, Wiltshire. His parents were
quite poor with his father working long
hours as a fitter at a nearby factory.
His mother was a keen amateur singer and
sang Gilbert and Sullivan light opera
for the local church society. His parents
saved up to buy Philip a piano and they
asked a piano teacher who visited their
neighbour’s children if he would
take on another pupil.
He took to his lessons straight away but
he liked to have his mother with him when
he was practising. At the age of 12 his
school music teacher found that Philip
had perfect pitch. He learnt every instrument
from the recorder ensemble and there is
an early tape recording of the school
ensemble with Philip’s voice announcing
the work and composer in his childish
tones “Thomas Stolzer, died in 1526”.
He remembers practising the piano for
hours, even when his parents had retired
to bed; his mother had to make him stop
so that they could go to sleep! He carried
on learning with his original teacher
until he was fourteen years old, when
he started going up to London to have
lessons with Herbert Fryer, in Conduit
St. He decided that he would love to pursue
a professional career as a pianist and
started training with Harold Craxton in
Hampstead. Craxton prepared him for a
scholarship at the Royal Academy of Music,
only two scholarships were awarded yearly
and Philip was musical enough to receive
one.
In 1956 at the age of 16, Philip started
at the Royal Academy. He lived in Harlesden,
in lodgings arranged through his Methodist
church. His uncle also lived in Harlesden
so it was nice to have some family nearby.
He had a piano at his digs so he could
practise. At that time his ambition was
to train as a concert pianist. However,
the life of a solo artist can be very
lonely and Philip feels that his career
with the Royal Ballet has given him the
best of both worlds. Philip was at the
Royal Academy for five years under the
tutelage of Craxton. He took lessons in
harmony, accompaniment, aural training,
etc. He was awarded a diploma for piano
recital in 1960, and in 1961 he won the
MacFarren Gold medal. He was happy at
the Royal Academy and in his leisure time
attended concerts at the Festival Hall
and Wigmore Hall; he also gave concerts
at the Academy. He did not compose, preferring
to concentrate on playing and increasing
his repertoire. He particularly enjoyed
playing Chopin and Liszt.
Upon graduating, Philip hoped to further
his training by going abroad. In 1961,
he applied for a travelling scholarship
to Germany, Austria or Poland. To his
surprise he was offered all three. He
chose to travel to Germany as he had heard
of a wonderful teacher Yvonne Lauriod,
the wife of composer Messiaen. He received
a grant from the King Edward VII foundation
which covered his costs. Germany was very
different but a wonderful experience;
he was very happy there and gave lots
of concerts. He met his future wife Floretta
there too; she had come over to Germany
from her home in Greece to study singing
and won the top prize at the Munich International
competition. She came to Karlsruhe for
a concert and that is where they met!
They married in Karlsruhe in 1964 and
then came back to England.
In 1964 Philip was offered a deputy teaching
post at the Royal Academy which was a
three month long post. While there he
heard of a vacancy arising at the Royal
Ballet. He needed a permanent job and
was encouraged to apply by Craxton who
knew both Fonteyn and Ashton. He auditioned
for John Lanchberry and Anthony Twiner.
As the Opera House was in the middle of
renovations he went to Drury Lane for
the audition. He played Liszt Les Jeux
D’eau and then had to sight read
from La Fille Mal Gardee and music by
Shostakovitch. He was given the job!
Philip admits that to begin with he knew
nothing about ballet. He felt he was least
good at improvising for ballet class,
and he was surrounded by stars such as
Fonteyn, Nureyev and Beriosova, which
was daunting. At the time there were two
particularly tough Norwegian ballet teachers.
One of these teachers helped him to plan
ahead which music to play for class but
then changed it all as the class began!
He had to learn the hard way what to play,
but found as time went by that dancers
liked him and often chose his class even
when they should have been elsewhere!
His improvisatory skills were limited
but he found suitable music from opera,
etc., which Floretta helped him choose.
For the first four years he just played
for class and rehearsals. He also played
at the Royal Ballet School for 5 weeks
but found it very difficult playing for
class for seven hours a day; it was very
tiring.
In 1968, Philip was invited to join ‘Ballet
For All’, an Arts Council funded
programme which went on tour around the
UK with four dancers and two actors. They
toured around giving performances, which
was very enjoyable. Later on, a series
of TV programmes called ‘Ballet
For All’ went out on ITV for 7 weeks.
After this, Philip returned to the main
company and started to play orchestral
piano. In 1973, Philip gave his first
performance as solo pianist at the Royal
Opera House. This was Hindemith’s
The Four Temperaments, under conductor
Ashley Lawrence. Philip recalled that
Balanchine came along, sat at the piano
and rattled off one of the variations.
In 1974, Sir Kenneth MacMillan created
Elite Syncopations. For this, Philip played
on stage in costume. Philip and MacMillan
together chose which Joplin pieces to
use, some of them being adapted for twelve-piece
band by Robert Docker. There were two
pianos on stage, one regular one and a
honky-tonk type, and a twelve-piece band.
The music was quite different from the
type Philip was used to. The ballet was
a huge success and has recently been revived
at Birmingham Royal Ballet.
Next came Ashton’s A Month In The
Country in 1976, and coincidentally this
was also Philip’s last performance
on June 18th 2005 at which he officially
retired. [As an aside, Philip wondered
if, at an earlier performance of the Month
triple bill this season (June 4th matinee)
anyone in the audience noticed a crashing
noise from the orchestra pit; his angle
poise lamp had fallen down in the middle
of playing Symphonic Variations!
Further anecdotes about Month included
a memorable performance in LA in 1979
at the Shrine Auditorium, when Philip
was promised the best Baldwin piano in
town. As he played, a black key C# came
away in his hand! He somehow managed to
get through without this essential key.
Philip gave us a demonstration of this
catastrophe on the piano at the Swedenborg
Hall to everyone’s amusement! He
also explained about the famous Gammon
‘port de bras’ which is found
in Month. When Sir Fred was choreographing
this work, the characters of Beliav, Vera,
Natalia and Kolia were all on stage and
Philip was required to play one section
of Chopin over and over again. In exasperation
after many repeats Philip raised his arms
up to 5th position and then dropped them
to 2nd with a sigh. Sir Fred immediately
gave this movement to all the dancers
to finish off this sequence! Again, Philip
kindly demonstrated the event to us.
A question arose about what it was like
to work with MacMillan. Philip worked
with him on Elite, Fin de Jour’
for which MacMillan asked him for help
with the counts for the dancers. This
is often different from the musical count.
He played for Winter Dreams and Prince
of the Pagodas. He liked the Britten music
for Pagodas as he got to know it so well.
He remembered an incident at the USA premiere
of Pagodas in Washington, which he conducted,
when someone in the audience had a heart
attack, the show went on after a protracted
interval.
In 1999, Anthony Twiner retired as the
principal pianist for the Royal Ballet
and Philip took his place. Philip has
played solo piano on stage in several
pieces, including Elite, The Concert,
Mayerling, and for Five Brahms Waltzes.
Asked about recordings of his playing;
he used to have recordings of Month with
John Lanchbery and of Elite, but these
are both now discontinued.
Philip entertained us with a few other
anecdotes including one where he was accidentally
locked into a rehearsal studio near the
Opera House when he was meant to be playing
the off-stage organ in Romeo and Juliet.
He escaped and made it to his place at
the very last minute, breathing heavily
but managing to play.
When Philip retired, Sir Anthony Dowell
wrote to him saying how Philip’s
playing used to ‘lift’ the
dancers and how difficult it would be
to replace him.
Although now officially retired, Philip
hopes to return next season as a guest
artist to play in Marguerite and Armand
and Ballet Imperial. He will be giving
a concert for retired Methodist ministers
soon. He also plans a long holiday in
Greece with his wife.
© The Ballet Association 2005
Mandy Kent
Report checked and corrected by Philip
Gammon and Joan Seaman
September 2005
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