Kenneth Alwyn

Kenneth Alwyn (born Kenneth Alwyn Wetherell, 28 July 1925, London) is an English orchestral conductor. He is principally known for his performances and recordings of film and ballet music. He is a former principal conductor at The Royal Ballet, Covent Garden. Alwyn's recording career dates to 1958, when he recorded the first stereo version of Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture for Decca Records with the London Symphony Orchestra and the Band of the Grenadier Guards. The recording famously featured slowed-down gunshots instead of cannon fire. It remained a mainstay of the classical catalogue for almost forty years, although has yet to reappear on CD (except in Japan). Alwyn has elsewhere specialised in British music, giving the Japanese premiere of Gustav Holst's suite The Planets, and recording Samuel Coleridge-Taylor's Hiawatha's Wedding Feast for Decca with the Welsh National Opera. Alwyn has also appeared and recorded with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Philharmonia, the BBC Concert Orchestra, the Royal Ballet Sinfonia and the City of Prague Philharmonic. He has released three CDs of the music of Richard Addinsell, including much of Addinsell's film music previously believed lost, but reconstructed by Philip Lane amongst others. Alwyn has also composed several pieces for orchestra. His piece Fighter Command 1940 is a standard RAF Ceremonial march.