A Happy and Prosperous New Year to All Readers of The Land of Lost ContentComposer Anniversaries for 2012:-William Vincent Wallace 1812-1865 200th Anniversary of BirthFrederic Delius 1862-1934 150th Anniversary of BirthEdward German 1862-1936 150th Anniversary of BirthDaniel Jones 1912-1993 Centenary of BirthSamuel Coleridge Taylor 1875-1912 Centenary of DeathJohn Ireland 1879-1962 50th Anniversary of DeathSome important works that are celebrating significant anniversaries include:-150 years ago:-Sir Arthur Sullivan’s The Tempest...
Thursday, December 29, 2011
This is the second part of my Five Discoveries (or Rediscoveries) of 2011. The Number 2 slot is for a British Symphony that has lain dormant for nearly as long as I have been alive. It is a treasure. And the Number 1 piece is the stunning Piano Quartet No.2 by Charles Villiers Stanford. Carlo Martelli’s Symphony. Op.4 (1955-56)Apart from a few pieces of ‘light’ music such as Persiflage and the Jubilee March, I have never heard any significant work by Carlo Martelli. This present Symphony is certainly an eye-opener and is in a totally...
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
2011 has been a good year for British Music. However, as always some pieces stick in the memory more than the rest. I have picked out five pieces that particularly impressed me over the past year. Four of them were works that I had never heard before. One of them being a piece that I have not got round to listening to for many years. I have extracted the comments from my past reviews of these works and have linked to the CD listings on Arkiv or the CD company. I present them in two posts and in reverse order with my number...
Saturday, December 24, 2011
A Very Happy Christmas to all readers ofThe Land of Lost Content My offering this year is the wonderful poem by William Wordsworth, ‘Minstrels.’ The minstrels played their Christmas tuneTo-night beneath my cottage-eaves;While, smitten by a lofty moon,The encircling laurels, thick with leaves,Gave back a rich and dazzling sheen,That overpowered their natural green. Through hill and valley every breezeHad sunk to rest with folded wings:Keen...
Thursday, December 22, 2011
I am delighted that this small piece has caught the imagination of presenters and listeners at Classic FM. I must admit that when I first heard this tiny tone poem, I imagined that it was ‘set’ somewhere in Scandinavia – somehow Thredbo seemed to suggest Finland or Lapland or even a place in Tolkien’s Middle Earth. However the truth is that it is a major ski resort in New South Wales, Australia. On the other hand, the CD liner notes do point out...
Monday, December 19, 2011
Another review of this superb ‘discovery’ by the English Music Festival and their CD division. This time from the New York Times. The recording can be bought direct from EM Records. I have given a few notes at the end of the review. Canterbury, England May 28. The mystery play [1]– that medieval theatrical convention whereby the Church once tried to explain to the unlettered laity the teachings of the Bible and the ritual – was revived...
Saturday, December 17, 2011
William MATHIAS (1934-1992)Piano Concerto No.1 (1955) Piano Concerto No.2 (1961) Ralph VAUGHAN WILLIAMS (1872-1958) Fantasy for piano and orchestra (1896-1904)Mark Bebbington (piano)Ulster Orchestra/George VassSOMM CD246I first came across Ralph Vaughan Williams ‘Fantasia’ for piano and orchestra whilst carefully studying the 1996 imprint of Michael Kennedy’s invaluable ‘A Catalogue of the Works of Ralph Vaughan Williams.’ It was one of many pieces...
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
One of the highlights of British musical endeavour in 2011 has been the recording of Gustav Holst’s incidental music to John Masefield’s play ‘The Coming of Christ’. As the ‘blurb’ for the CD says:-‘The Coming of Christ, by Gustav Holst, was commissioned in 1927 by the Dean of Canterbury Cathedral, George Bell, as a setting of a text by John Masefield, words and music together forming a Mystery Play reminiscent of medieval religious dramas. Although...
Monday, December 12, 2011
Philip Lane’s charming Three Christmas Pictures is my seasonal discovery (so far) of 2011. I have had the Marco Polo CD in my collection for a wee while, but only recently got round to listening to it. This work is a little gem. There are three contrasting movements: - ‘Sleigh bell Serenade’, ‘Starlight Lullaby’ and ‘Christmas Eve Waltz’. The first movement would seem to be the most popular – in fact Naxos claim that is has been performed all...
Friday, December 9, 2011
Frederick DELIUS (1862-1934) A Delius Collection of Rare Historic Recordings Performers include Sir John Barbirolli, Sir Eugène Goossens, Constant Lambert, Isobel Baillie & Heddle Nash.Full Track List at end of ReviewRecorded: 1929-55DANACORD DACOCD717This CD presents an excellent range of rare historic recordings of Frederick Delius’ music played by a diverse range of conductors, orchestras and performers. I hold my hand up and admit that...
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Just a very short post today. I found this anecdote by Gustav Theodore Holst about Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry in an old copy of the Music Student. I think that is it entirely self-explanatory and needs no commentary save to say that Holst studied composition under Sir Charles Villiers Stanford. Parry had died on 7 October 1918.A MEMORY OF PARRY AS A LECTURER By G, T. HOLST. My first impression of Sir Hubert Parry, on meeting him in 1892, was that at last I had met a great man who did not terrify me. It was my first term...
Monday, December 5, 2011
A few days ago I published a post about Ignaz Moscheles: The Recollections of Ireland for Piano. I held my hand up and admitted that the composer was not British. However he did spend a considerable part of his composing and playing career on these shores. The subjoined review is from The Quarterly Musical Magazine and Review from Oct 1826. I make no apologies for including this discussion of the Recollections. For one thin it shows how different is the approach to musical criticism between our own day and that of 185 years ago. Nowadays the...
Friday, December 2, 2011
Dan Godfrey EncoresFerdinand Hérold (1791-1833) Overture: Zampa (1831) Byron Brooke(1898-1983) Gee Whizz! (1931) Percy Whitlock (1903-1946) Carillon for organ & orchestra (1932) Dame Ethel Smyth (1858-1944) Overture: The Boatswain’s Mate (1914) Howard FlynnClatter of the Clogs: A Novelty Fox-Trot (1930) Sir Landon Ronald(1873-1938) In an Eastern Garden (No.2 from The Garden of Allah) (1920) Cecil Armstrong Gibbs (1889-1960) The Betrothal Ballet...
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Frederick Delius (1862-1934)Seven Songs from the Norwegian RT V/9 (1889-1890) Four Old English Lyrics RT V/30 (c.1915) Eleven Early Norwegian Songs: ‘Over the mountain high’ RT V/2 (undated, Pub.1974) & ‘Mountain life’ RT V/6 (1888) ‘They are not long, the weeping and the laughter’ RT II/5 (1906) Two Songs for Children- ‘Little birdie’ RT V/29 (1913) Songs to Words by Various Poets – ‘The Nightingale has a lyre of gold’ RT V/25 (1910) & ‘I-Brasil’...
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