British Classical Music: The Land of Lost Content: John Fox ...

  • Subscribe to our RSS feed.
  • Twitter
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • Facebook
  • Digg

Monday, September 19, 2011

The Festival of Britain 1951: Some commissioned works

Posted on 10:00 PM by humpty
British Music was deemed to be an important part of the 1951 Festival of Britain. There were a series of eight concerts devoted to the music of Henry Purcell alongside recitals of English Song, ranging from the lutenists to contemporary composers. Alongside this British music a vast range of works were played from the standard international repertoire.
However, a special feature of the Festival of Britain was the Arts Council decision to commission a number of new works. In many ways this brave attempt did not go entirely to plan. Arthur Bliss was approached to write a major choral work, however it did not materialise. Nothing came of Arnold Bax’s attempt at writing a 'Festival Overture'. John Ireland was also approached, but nothing appeared.
However a number of important works were presented in the concert hall. These included William Alwyn’s Festival March, the Festival Te Deum by Edmund Rubbra, Gordon Jacob’s Festival Suite for Military Band and Alan Rawsthorne’s Second Piano Concerto. Other works included were a unison ‘Song for a Festival’ by Sir George Dyson, and Thomas Wood’s large scale The Rainbow: A Tale of Dunkirk for tenor, baritone, male chorus and brass band.
A competition was held for a work from young composers. This was won by Peter Racine Fricker with his Concerto for Violin and small orchestra Op.11. He also composed the score Canterbury Tales for the Ballet Rambert. Richard Arnell produced the score for Harlequin in April which was choreographed by John Cranko and Constant Lambert wrote the music for Tiresias for the Sadler’s Wells Ballet.
Other works were commissioned by organisations supported by the Arts Council. They included the new Ralph Vaughan Williams work The Sons of Light for the Schools Music Association. The Riddick String Orchestra produced Gordon Jacob’s Horn Concerto, Elisabeth Lutyens’ Nativity and Cyril Scott’s Irish Serenade.

Reflecting on these commissions some sixty years after they were first performed is a sad business. Virtually none of these works found a place in the concert hall repertoire in succeeding decades. Fortunately, a few are available on CD or MP3, however these tend to be single performances. In the case of Thomas Wood, Cyril Scott, Elisabeth Lutyens, Edmund Rubbra and George Dyson we still await a recorded performance.

Finally the stories of how Benjamin Britten’s Billy Budd did not receive a performance at the Festival of Britain, of the endeavours of the composers 'Squirrel', 'Dudley Underwood', 'Stagestruck' and 'Charles Francis' to win a prize for an opera, and George Lloyd’s John Socman are perhaps material for a future post.
Email ThisBlogThis!Share to XShare to Facebook
Posted in Festival of Britain | No comments
Newer Post Older Post Home

0 comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

Popular Posts

  • Ernest Tomlinson: Little Serenade
    Ernest Tomlinson (b.1924) is one of the most prolific of all light music composers. He has been compositionally active since before the Seco...
  • York Bowen: Symphony No.2 in E minor, Op.31
    Until a few years ago York Bowen would have been a name known to precious few listeners, even those committed to British music. A number of ...
  • Frank Bridge & Cyril Scott Piano Quintets on BMS Label
    Frank BRIDGE (1879-1941) Piano Quintet in D minor, H49a (1904-5: rev.1912)   Cyril SCOTT (1879-1970) Piano Quintet No.1 (1924) Raphael Terr...
  • The Golden Age of Light Music: Bright & Breezy on Guild
    The Golden Age of Light Music: Bright and Breezy GUILD LIGHT MUSIC GLCD5180 There are some 81 volumes of Guild’s ‘Golden Age of Light Music’...
  • Alec Rowley: ‘Down Channel’ Overture
    This is one of the works that I have been waiting for. I first heard of this piece in Philip Scowcroft’s essay on ‘ English Composer’s for A...
  • David Dubery: Songs and Chamber Works
    David DUBERY (b.1948) Songs and Chamber music Sonatina for oboe and piano (Threesome for 2 players) (1986); Three Songs to Poems by Robert G...
  • (no title)
    Arthur Benjamin (1893-1960) Violin Concerto (1931) Romantic Fantasy for Violin, Viola and Orchestra (1936) Elegy, Waltz and Toccata [Viola ...
  • Arnold Bax: review of first recording of Tintagel.
    In 1929 Eugene Goossens and the New Symphony Orchestra made the first recording of Arnold Bax’s great tone-poem Tintagel . The critic W.R. A...
  • John Rutter: Shepherd’s Pipe Carol
    My earliest introduction to the music of John Rutter was the second volume of Carols for Choirs . It was in use by Coatbridge High School ‘s...
  • Deems Taylor: Suite, Through the Looking Glass
    I know that Deems Taylor is not British, but I feel that the new release of his Suite, ‘Through the Looking Glass’ on the Naxos CD label is ...

Categories

  • Adam Pounds
  • Adam Saunders
  • Adrian Boult
  • Alan Rawsthorne
  • Alec Rowley
  • Alfred Hollins
  • Algernon Ashton
  • Alun Hoddinott
  • Angela Morley
  • Anthony Burgess
  • Antony Hopkins
  • Arnold Bax
  • Arthur Benjamin
  • Arthur Bliss
  • Arthur Butterworth
  • Arthur Somervell
  • Arthur Sullivan
  • Benjamin Britten
  • Bernard Stevens
  • Bill Worland
  • Book Reviews
  • Brian Easdale
  • British Film Music
  • British Light Music
  • C.W. Orr
  • Carlo Martelli
  • Charles Halle
  • Charles Hubert Hasting Parry
  • Charles Shadwell
  • Charles Villiers Stanford
  • Charles Williams
  • Cheltenham Festival
  • Christopher Wright
  • Claude Debussy
  • Clive Richardson
  • Concert Series
  • Cyril Cork
  • Cyril Scott
  • Cyril Watters
  • David Bedford
  • David Dubery
  • David Ellis
  • David Jennings
  • Deems Taylor
  • Don Banks
  • Donald Harris
  • E.J. Moeran
  • Edward Elgar
  • Edward German
  • Eileen Joyce
  • Elisabeth Lutyens
  • Eric Coates
  • Eric Craven
  • Eric H. Thiman
  • Erik Chisholm
  • Ernest Tomlinson
  • Ethel Smyth
  • Eugene Goossens
  • Felix Mendelssohn
  • Felix White
  • Festival of Britain
  • Francis Edward Bache
  • Frank Bridge
  • Frank Merrick
  • Frank Tapp
  • Franz Reizenstein
  • Frederic Curzon
  • Frederic Hymen Cowen
  • Frederick Delius
  • G.W.L. Marshall-Hall
  • Gareth Glyn
  • George Frederic Handel
  • George French
  • George Lloyd
  • George Macfarren
  • George Melachrino
  • Gerald Finzi
  • Gilbert and Sullivan
  • Gordon Crosse
  • Granville Bantock
  • Greville Cooke
  • Gustav Holst
  • Gustav Mahler
  • Hamilton Harty
  • Hamish MacCunn
  • Harriet Cohen
  • Harry Farjeon
  • Havergal Brian
  • Haydn Wood
  • Hector Berlioz
  • Henry Walford Davies
  • Henry Wood Promenade Concerts
  • Herbert Brewer
  • Herbert Howells
  • Herbert Sumsion
  • Herman Finck
  • Humphrey Searle
  • Ian Venables
  • Ignaz Moscheles
  • Ina Boyle
  • Irene Scharrer
  • J.S. Bach
  • James Friskin
  • Johann Baptist Cramer
  • John Addison
  • John Ansell
  • John Anthill
  • John Blackwood McEwen
  • John Carmichael
  • John Cook
  • John Fox
  • John Holliday
  • John Ireland
  • John Joubert
  • John McCabe
  • John Purser
  • John Rutter
  • Jonathan Harvey
  • Josef Holbrooke
  • Judith Bailey
  • Julius Harrison
  • Kathleen Ferrier
  • Kenneth Leighton
  • Len Stevens
  • Lennox Berkeley
  • Lionel Monckton
  • Lost Music
  • Malcolm Arnold
  • Malcolm Sargent
  • Malcolm Williamson
  • Marcus Dods
  • Matyas Seiber
  • Maurice Greene
  • Montague Phillips
  • Moura Lympany
  • Myra Hess
  • Paul Lewis
  • Percy Fletcher
  • Percy Scholes
  • Percy Whitlock
  • Peter Dickinson
  • Peter Hope
  • Peter Maxwell Davies
  • Peter Racine Fricker
  • Peter Yorke
  • Philip Lane
  • Philip Sawyers
  • Promenade Concerts
  • Ralph Greaves
  • Ralph Vaughan Williams
  • Richard Addinsell
  • Robert Farnon
  • Robert Still
  • Roberto Gerhard
  • Robin Holloway
  • Roger Quilter
  • Ronald Binge
  • Ronald Stevenson
  • Sergei Rachmaninoff
  • Spike Huges
  • Stanley Wilson
  • Theodore Holland
  • Thomas Dunhill
  • Tobias Matthay
  • Trevor Duncan
  • Vivian Ellis
  • Walter Carroll
  • William Alwyn
  • William Blezard
  • William Lloyd Webber
  • William Mathias
  • William Sterndale Bennett
  • William Walton
  • William Wolstenholme
  • York Bowen

Blog Archive

  • ►  2015 (4)
    • ►  January (4)
  • ►  2014 (123)
    • ►  December (10)
    • ►  November (10)
    • ►  October (11)
    • ►  September (10)
    • ►  August (10)
    • ►  July (11)
    • ►  June (10)
    • ►  May (10)
    • ►  April (10)
    • ►  March (10)
    • ►  February (10)
    • ►  January (11)
  • ►  2013 (122)
    • ►  December (11)
    • ►  November (10)
    • ►  October (10)
    • ►  September (10)
    • ►  August (11)
    • ►  July (10)
    • ►  June (10)
    • ►  May (11)
    • ►  April (9)
    • ►  March (11)
    • ►  February (9)
    • ►  January (10)
  • ►  2012 (137)
    • ►  December (11)
    • ►  November (10)
    • ►  October (10)
    • ►  September (11)
    • ►  August (12)
    • ►  July (13)
    • ►  June (11)
    • ►  May (13)
    • ►  April (12)
    • ►  March (11)
    • ►  February (12)
    • ►  January (11)
  • ▼  2011 (114)
    • ►  December (13)
    • ►  November (12)
    • ►  October (12)
    • ▼  September (12)
      • Erik Chisholm
      • Edward Elgar: Rare Movie film
      • David Dubery: Songs and Chamber Works
      • Frank Bridge: Piano music on SOMM Volume 3
      • The Festival of Britain 1951: Some commissioned works
      • Haydn Wood: Frescoes for orchestra.
      • Joseph Holbrooke: Chamber Music on Naxos
      • William Walton: Constant Lambert writing on ‘Facade’
      • It's the The Last Night of the Proms - 2011
      • William Blezard: Two Celtic Pieces
      • Edward Elgar: Chamber Music on Hyperion
      • Prom Watch 2001 Week 8
    • ►  August (13)
    • ►  July (14)
    • ►  June (14)
    • ►  May (14)
    • ►  April (10)
Powered by Blogger.

About Me

humpty
View my complete profile