Walter Meyer:

>I have a special affection for Haydn's 99th because my first recording
>of it was a 10-inch lp given to me by a friend no longer alive, a fine
>performance conducted by a (Sir?) Royalton Kish, whose name, as I once
>discovered in an earlier Internet exchange, seems never to have
>appeared in any other connection and may possibly have been a
>pseudonym.

The name rang a faint bell, for some reason in connection with Gluck
overtures I heard many years ago on the radio.  An ancient Gramophone
catalogue had one entry for him as conductor of the Bruch Violin Concerto
#1 with Campoli as soloist on Decca Ace of Clubs, an LP label used for
Decca's mono back catalogue.  The 1980 Grove had nothing, but the 1954
edition says that he was born in London in 1920, and spelt, incidentally,
Kisch.  I agree with Walter that it sounds like a pseudonym - I could quite
happily accept it as the name of a bibulous landowner in a Trollope novel
who's fallen on hard times - and despite the entries I've quoted, it may
well be.  As he was only about 30 when the Bruch recording was made and
appears to have recorded little since then, as far as I know, I'd suggest
that either he died at an early age, or gave up conducting for a career
with steadier prospects.

Richard Pennycuick
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