I found this short note in The Musical Times. A lot could be said and written about Parry’ nautical interests, however this text gives a good indication of what the composer got up at sea! Sir Hubert Parry's favourite recreation [was] yachting. ‘I suppose I shall be drowned some day,’ he says. (On repeating this remark to Mr. Dannreuther [1], he observes: ‘Well, what is the use of a Shelley [2] unless one follows his example ? ‘) ‘I was very nearly drowned,’ continues Sir Hubert, ‘when I was twelve years old, in coming from Nice to Marseilles....
Sunday, August 28, 2011
Thursday, August 25, 2011
This is the seventh of my Proms-Watch analysis of British Music being performed during the 2011 season. Once again it is not a great week for British music...Friday 26 AugustTonight’s concert kicks off with Richard Strauss’s rarely heard Burleske for piano and orchestra. The soloist is Kirill Gerstein. After the interval there is a performance of yet another symphony by Gustav Mahler. This time is it the turn of the Symphony No.6 in A minor. The BBC Symphony Orchestra is conducted by Semyon Bychkov. Saturday 27 AugustThis is a good day for British...
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
I recently had the pleasure of reviewing Mark Bebbington’s third, and presumably final volume of ‘Piano Music by Frank Bridge’. This cycle of music has been released by SOMM over the past five years with the third volume arriving in the shops in the summer of 2011. More than twenty years ago Peter Jacobs issued the pioneering recording of Bridge’s ‘complete’ piano works on the Continuum label. Unfortunately, Jacobs’s excellent series is no longer readily available in shops, although I understand that it can be found in a downloadable format and...
Sunday, August 21, 2011
I know that Donald Harris is not a British composer – he is an American. However I include this review for two main reasons.Firstly, it shows that I do listen to music other than British! And, secondly, this DVD is a model of how a musical analysis of a work can be done in an interesting and entertaining manner, without dumbing-down and ignoring technical content. A number of years ago I wrote an ‘impressionistic’ essay [1] about Donald Harris’s (b.1931) Piano Sonata, Op. 1. In this I concentrated on the ‘sitz in leben’ of this work, which was...
Thursday, August 18, 2011
This is the sixth of my Proms-Watch analysis of British Music being performed during the 2011 season. This is a rather poor week...!Friday 19th AugustA big night for lovers of Johannes Brahms’ music. The first half of the Prom has a performance of the Third Symphony. After the interval Emanuel Ax plays the Piano Concerto No.1 in D minor. Bernard Haitink conducts the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. The late-night Prom continues the Brahms theme with Angela Hewitt playing his Three Intermezzos, Op.117 and being joined by other soloists for a performance...
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
William WOLSTENHOLME (1865-1931)Concert Overture No.2 in G major, Op.61 (1907) Serenata in A (1900) Scherzo in B flat (1912) Romanza Op.17 No.1 (1900)Allegretto Op.17 No.2 (1900) Fantasia in E major, Op.33 No.1 (1901) Allegretto scherzando (c.1908) Epilogue (1913) Cantilene in A flat major (c.1905) Die Frage (The Question) (1895) Die Antwort (The Answer) (1895) Finale in B flat major (1895) [6:41]Michael Harris, the organ of Christ Church, Port SunlightPRIORY...
Saturday, August 13, 2011
Frank Bridge's Two Poems are based on the now largely forgotten writings of Richard Jefferies. Amongst many other things, this author essayed on life in the English countryside. He was a nature mystic. Perhaps his philosophy is best summed up by the quotation 'The sun was stronger than science; the hills more than philosophy.' The first of the two poems is scored for a small orchestra and has the following written on the manuscript from The Open...
Thursday, August 11, 2011
This is the fifth of my Proms-Watch analysis of British Music being performed during the 2011 Promenade Concert season. This is a rather good week...!Friday 12th AugustFilm music at tonight’s Prom – so there are a few pieces by British composers. Certainly the Henry V Suite derived by Muir Mathieson from William Walton’s great score will be most welcome. Richard Rodney Bennett’s music to Murder on the Orient Express is well known to film music buffs as is John Barry’s (John Barry Prendergast, born in York) Out of Africa. A rare treat will be...
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Rebecca CLARKE (1886-1979) Sonata for viola and piano (1919) William WALTON (1902-1983) Two Pieces for Viola and Piano (transcribed by Matthew JONES) Canzonetta & Scherzetto (1948-1950) Frank BRIDGE (1879-1941) Four Pieces (transcribed by Veroncia Leigh JACOBS) (1901-10) Arnold BAX (1883-1953) Legend for Viola and piano (1929) Arthur BLISS (1891-1975) Intermezzo (transcribed by Watson FORBES (1909-1997)) (1914) Ralph VAUGHAN WILLIAMS (1872-1958)...
Monday, August 8, 2011
A very short post today. I am delighted to see that the new Franz Reizenstein website has gone online at:- Franz Reizenstein.comReizenstein is one of the ‘forgotten’ twentieth century composers.’ He was born in Nuremberg in 1911 and studied piano with Leonid Kreutzer and composition with Paul Hindemith. However he came to the United Kingdom in 1934 continued his career in this country under the auspices of Ralph Vaughan Williams and the pianist Solomon....
Saturday, August 6, 2011
Wild Rose Rag (1985);Blue Rose (1979);Paraphrase II (1967);Concerto Rag (1980);Quartet Rag (1976); Vitalitas Variations (1957); Three Satie Transformations (1970); Bach in Blue (2004); Hymn-Tune Rag (1985); Patriotic Rag (1986); Four Blues (1973); Five Diversions (1963)Peter Dickinson (piano)NAXOS 8.572654I cannot quite recall the first piece of music by Peter Dickinson that I heard. Something tells me that it was probably the Three Statements for...
Thursday, August 4, 2011
This is the fourth of my Proms-Watch analysis of British Music being performed during the 2011 season. This is a rather good week...!Friday 5th AugustThis week’s activities (the Proms-week begins on Friday as the First Night was on a Friday) is dedicated to a performance of Gustav Mahler’s massive Symphony No.2 in C minor ‘Resurrection’ played by the Simón Bolivar Symphony Orchestra with their conductor Gustavo Dudamel. Interestingly, this is the second symphony by Mahler performed in four weeks. Would that honour be given to a British Composer...?Saturday...
Monday, August 1, 2011
The Witch of Atlas (Tone Poem No.5) has been one of my favourite Granville Bantock tone poems – since first hearing it on Hyperion. I recently found this review of the work’s full-score in the Musical Times and feel that it is well worth quoting. It is hard to imagine how such a wonderfully beautiful work can be virtually ignored by the world of classical music.The Witch of Atlas was first performed at Worcester during the Three Choirs Festival...
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