I find that Sir Arthur Somervell's Piano Concerto in A minor ‘Highland’ dating from 1921 a little bit problematic. This is not to say that there are not some lovely moments in this work. Certainly, the work is well constructed with some good melodies and attractive writing for piano. However I do worry a little about the use of tunes that seem to be ‘highlan’’ folk-tunes. At times there seems to be just a little bit too much of the ‘scotch snap’ about this work: it is almost like a parody of Scottish music. Lewis Foreman assures the listener that...
Monday, October 31, 2011
Friday, October 28, 2011
If someone had suggested forty years ago that any work by Sir Frederic Hymen Cowen should be recorded as a part of a major series of piano concertos (and concerted works) they would have been laughed out of court. Cowen was even further down the list of ‘worthy but ultimately ‘boring’ English composers that included Stanford, Parry and Macfarren. In 1990, Marco Polo records broke this jinx by presenting The Butterfly Ball and the Scandinavian Symphony....
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Most people who know the music of Haydn Wood will do so because they have purchased the excellent Marco Polo recordings of his 'light' music. (Marco Polo 8.223402 & 8.223605.) A previous generation was enthralled by the melody of 'Roses of Picardy' written when the Great War was at its height. Many people remember the theme from the BBC programme Down your Way - the March: Horseguards, Whitehall.However, before the success of the ‘Rose’ Haydn...
Sunday, October 23, 2011
This short article from the Musical Standard September 1912 is well worth printing. It is one a precious few texts dealing Haydn Wood. It is also interesting for the long digression the unnamed author makes about the problems facing 'today's composers. I guess not too much has changed in the past 100 years. Mr. Haydn Wood was born in the year 1882 of musical parents, at Slaithwaite, near Huddersfield. When he was three years of age his parents moved...
Friday, October 21, 2011
Sir Granville Bantock perhaps suffers from a surfeit of composition. His ‘works list’ in an earlier edition of Groves extends to some 10 pages of close written text. As one critic says about the composer- “he suffers from post-Wagnerian elephantitis and lack of self criticism.” Whether this is a fair analysis is for others to decide. I personally feel overwhelmed by the sheer volume and intellectual reach of Bantock’s music: I know I will never find the time nor the inclination to do justice to more than a fraction. Yet there are plenty of works...
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
William ALWYN (1905-1985)Dramatic Overture: ‘The Moor of Venice’ (orch. Philip Lane) (1956; 2001) Concerto Grosso No.2 (1948) Serenade (1932) Seven Irish Tunes –Suite for Small Orchestra (1936) Concerto Grosso No.3 (1964) Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra/David Lloyd-JonesNAXOS 8.570145 I have said this before, but it bears repeating: it is hard to imagine that a quarter a century ago there was virtually no music by William Alwyn in the record...
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Of all the symphonies by Sir Charles Villiers Stanford his Irish Symphony has just managed to retain a place in the repertoire of orchestras. Understandably, this work was heard many times towards the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century. It largely disappeared from the concert lists until it was rediscovered in the 1980’s. Even before the two major cycles of his symphonies on Chandos and Naxos there was a recording of the ‘Irish’ by Norman Del Mar and the Bournemouth Sinfonietta on EMI ASD 4221 dating from 1982. This...
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
I can find nothing on the internet about Cyril Cork – not even his dates of birth and death: he may well be still alive. There is, however, a reference to a ‘Cyril Cork’ prize, but nothing about the man himself. His piano work Full Sail is a little gem. This suite of pieces was published in 1966 by the redoubtable Manchester music publishing firm of Forsyth Brothers. In fact this is where I purchased this sheet music- it was in their sale, priced...
Saturday, October 8, 2011
The Temporal Variations were written partially in response to a plea by the writer Montagu Slater. Slater, who was a left-wing dramatist, poet and editor, had originally asked Britten to write a ‘War Requiem.’ Rather naively, Slater had imagined that if the twenty year Britten had written this work somehow the slide to war would have been halted! Of course, the War Requiem did not appear until some 28 years later, but in lieu the Temporal Variations were completed on 12th December 1936.Unusually, they were given their premiere at the Wigmore...
Thursday, October 6, 2011
I recently found this review of the Royal College of Music Patron’s Fund concert which was given at the Queen’s Hall on 14 July 1908. Of the composers represented, I guess that Montague Phillips has survived best: at least a recording of the Piano Concerto is available on Dutton Epoch. Paul Corder is recalled for his piano music and Fritz Hart has songs occasionally performed in the recital room. However Emily Lucas, James Lyon and John St. A. Johnson seem to have fallen by the wayside.Out of all these pieces the ones that I would most like to...
Monday, October 3, 2011
The Golden Age of Light Music: Bright and Breezy GUILD LIGHT MUSIC GLCD5180There are some 81 volumes of Guild’s ‘Golden Age of Light Music’ currently available. If one allows an average of 28 tracks per CD, this makes a grand total of about 2268 pieces of music. Now, I imagine that some listeners will think that Guild must be scraping the bottom of the proverbial barrel to find good material for any subsequent releases. In fact, I was beginning to...
Saturday, October 1, 2011
Noson yn yr opera (A Night at the Opera) (1997); Welsh Incident (1989); Dinas Barhaus (Enduring City) (2010); Microconcerto for double bass and orchestra (2004); Cariad (2008); Conseirto i’r Utgorn (Trumpet Concerto) (2008); Gwylmabsant (1994); Llam Carw (Stag’s Leap) (2010); Cyfres Fechan i Linynnau (Little Suite for Strings)(2011) Jonathan Pryce (narrator), Philippe Schartz (trumpet), Dominic Seldis (double bass) and Jane Watts (organ) BBC National...
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