I have never heard any symphonic or orchestral works by John Joubert prior to listening to this present CD. Typically (I am ashamed to say this) I have tended to associate this composer with Christmas Carols: ‘Torches’ was one of the works that the Senior Ensemble struggled with at Coatbridge High School. Yet a glance at the composer’s web pages reveals a large number of works in a wide variety of genres and styles. For example, beside the two symphonies, there are concertos for bassoon, violin, piano and oboe. There are also important essays for...
Saturday, July 30, 2011
Thursday, July 28, 2011
This is the third of my Proms-Watch analysis of British Music being performed during the 2011 season. Things are definitely improving...Friday 29th JulyA rare chance to hear Frank Bridge’s tone poem There is a Willow Grows Aslant a Brook which has been described by Rob Barnett on MusicWeb International as being ‘the depressive mildewed poetry ... continues the theme of darkness in music and hovers close to the instrumentals in Warlock's Curlew.’ This is part of a concert that includes Arthur Honegger’ Pacific 231 & his Pastorale d’été. Other...
Monday, July 25, 2011
Franz Reizenstein is an honorary English composer –and perhaps one of that large band of unjustly neglected masters. I did a little straw poll amongst a few of my musical friends. None of them hard heard his name – never mind any of his music. Yet I am prepared to stick my head above the parapet and state that the Piano Sonata in B is one of the finest essays of this form in the literature. The work was composed in 1944 and was dedicated to William Walton. It is a considerable piece that lasts for nearly half an hour and explores a wide range...
Saturday, July 23, 2011
In 1985 I acquired a copy of the Stewart Craggs’ and Alan Poulton’s catalogue of William Alwyn’s music. This was before the days of the Chandos and Naxos cycles of the composer’s works. At that time there were only a handful of Lyrita LPs of the symphonies, a song cycle or two and the Derby Day Overture. On turning to the ‘orchestral’ section of that book I was overwhelmed by the number of works that had not been recorded: I believed then that most never would be. Furthermore, a generally accepted axiom at that time stated that Alwyn had destroyed...
Thursday, July 21, 2011
This is the second of my Proms-Watch analysis of British Music performed during the 2011 season. I am disappointed that the situation is considerably worse than it was last week.Friday 22nd JulyThe BBC Philharmonic’s new Chief Conductor Designate Juanjo Mena gives a great concert of music by Ravel, de Falla and Debussy. I love all these works, especially Claude Debussy’s Images which is spread out in three sections over the evening – with de Falla’s Nights in the Gardens of Spain with Stephen Osborne as soloist being a major highlight. Naturally,...
Monday, July 18, 2011
Apart from a few pieces of ‘light’ music such as Persiflage and the Jubilee March, I have never heard any significant work by the London born composer Carlo Martelli. This present Symphony is certainly an eye-opener and is in a totally different league to these more ephemeral pieces – at least from the point of view emotional power, concentration and architecture. There are four things that need to be said about this excellent Symphony. Firstly, although it may not be the greatest example of the genre from its era, it is a fine, important work...
Saturday, July 16, 2011
On Saturday 7 October 1922, Arnold Bax’s tone poem Tintagel was performed at the Leeds Festival. Neville Cardus was there to record his impressions of the piece for the Manchester Guardian. At the morning concert a tone poem called Tintagel, of Arnold Bax, was played, and very beautifully played, by the London Symphony Orchestra.[1] The music made one think furiously of the pace of some of our English composers are moving at nowadays. Only a decade ago Mr. Bax was in the forefront of them, but now, though Tintagel shows his style to have developed...
Friday, July 15, 2011
A brief post to notice British works given during the 2011 season of Promenade Concerts. I have long felt that the BBC lets down both contemporary and historical British composers. I love many different traditions of Classical music- from Ravel to Reich and from Weber to Webern, so I do appreciate much in the Proms season that does not come from these native shores. However, it is important that the BBC does further the cause of British music and I wish to keep a check on this over the coming weeks. Lastly these Prom-Watches will act as an aide-memoire...
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
I have always loved Bliss’s Oboe Quintet– it seems to me to evoke an age long passed- perhaps from a time before the horrors of the trenches with which the he was so well acquainted?The work came as a result of the composer’s relationship with Mrs. Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge. She was an American lady with great enthusiasm for modern music who was prepared to put her money where here heart was. Bliss was impressed with her patronage and intellectual...
Monday, July 11, 2011
In the early seventies I remember looking at the list of Arnold Bax’s compositions in Grove in the Mitchell Library in Glasgow: there seemed so many of them. I guess that I had heard a couple of pieces that had been released on the old Revolution label - I think they were The Tale the Pine-Trees Knew and the Viola Sonata. There were others available, but in those days I could not afford to buy everything I wanted. Besides, there were also albums of music by Led Zeppelin and Yes to buy! Yet, I had been hooked on Bax’s music: the sound-world...
Saturday, July 9, 2011
The Manchester Guardian reviewer gave an excellent précis of Winter Legends, which may be derived from the programme notes: it is worth quoting. ‘There are three movements: The first is a gradual assembling and forging of various elements into a triumphant climax, the second, on the whole darker in tone, reaches a serene close, and the third, beginning starkly, comes to an end with the return of the sun after a long Northern Winter.’ It is not necessary...
Thursday, July 7, 2011
When I set out for Lyonnesse,A hundred miles away,The rime was on the spray,And starlight lit my lonesomenessWhen I set out for LyonnesseA hundred miles away.What would bechance at LyonnesseWhile I should sojourn thereNo prophet durst declare,Nor did the wisest wizard guessWhat would bechance at LyonnesseWhile I should sojourn there.When I came back from LyonnesseWith magic in my eyes,[None managed to surmiseWhat meant my godlike gloriousness],When I came back from LyonnesseWith magic in my eyes!Ever since reading this poem at school, it has been...
Monday, July 4, 2011
This excellent article is written by the composer, performer and musicologist Marion M. Scott and is an excerpt from a book of her selected writings being edited by Pamela Blevins. It is posted here with grateful thanks.LONDON, Dec 23 – The Bach Choir rarely gives a concert without impressing on it a certain dignity of matter or manner, an outcome of fine feeling and long years of intellectual culture. But seldom can it have done anything more impressive than the invitation concert which it gave under R. Vaughan Williams in memory of Sir Charles...
Saturday, July 2, 2011
The International Series is little better for British Music than the Manchester Proms and the Summer Season. The first concert in October is a fine recital by Wayne Marshall, with works by Bach, Liszt, Vierne and the ubiquitous Toccata from Widor 5. Yuri Simonov conducts the Moscow Philharmonic with works by Rachmaninov and Mussorgsky. However this is an interesting programme. Rach. 2 in NOT performed but the lesser known 1st Concerto and the even less well known 1st Symphony. Craig Ogden does include a couple of short pieces by Kent-born Gary...
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