As today is St David’s Day it is a treat to hear this YouTube recording of Alun Hoddinott’s fine second set of Welsh Dances. The National Youth Orchestra of Wales is here conducted by Arthur Davison on this 1969 LP issued by 'Music for Pleasure'.The second set of Welsh Dances Op.64 was written some eleven years after the first set in 1969. They were a commission by the National Youth Orchestra of Wales and were intended to be a further part of the celebrations for the Investiture. They are not based on folk tunes but rely on a distillation...
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Monday, February 27, 2012
String Quartets Nos. 1-4John RamsAy(b.1931)String Quartet No.1 in D minor (2001) String Quartet No.2 in E minor ‘Shackleton’ (2001?) String Quartet No.3 in C major (2004) String Quartet No.4 ‘Charles Darwin’ (2009)The Fitzwilliam String QuartetMETIER MSV 28528 I could find very little on the Internet about John Graham Ramsay. There are references to his alter ego as a geologist, but virtually nothing about his life as a composer...
Friday, February 24, 2012
If any piece of light music by Richard Addinsell prefigures or nods toward Malcolm Arnold it is the Miniature Overture: Encore. I was immediately reminded of the marvellously insidious (in the best possible way) theme from the first movement of Arnold’s Symphony No.4. Addinsell’s Overture was composed in 1951 for a film called Encore based on three Somerset Maugham short stores. At the beginning of each vignette, the author introduced the story form...
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Hat tip to Pamela Blevins who sent me this photo. It is totally self explanatory! For further information one could do no better than consult Mary Cahill's book Delius in Danville, which was published by the Danville Historical Society in 1986. This was a detailed account of the centenary of Delius short stay in the town. The composer spent just under a year in Danville as a music teacher, based at the Roanoke Female College. The book,...
Sunday, February 19, 2012
This excellent article is written by the composer, performer and musicologist Marion M. Scott and was sent to me by Pamela Blevins. It is posted here with grateful thanks.Flecker's drama "Hassan", with incidental music by Frederick Delius, is the most talked of production in London at the moment. Undoubtedly here is a great play by a man of genius, around which another genius has woven music that is the sensitive, sincere reaction of one poet to another. [1]Very soon after the premiere the writer had the privilege of a talk with Mr. and Mrs....
Friday, February 17, 2012
Arnold Bax(1883-1953): Sonata (1934) Roger Fiske(1910-1987): Sonata (1941) Iain Hamilton(1922-2000): Three Nocturnes, Op. 6 (1951) Hugh Wood(b.1932): Paraphrase on Bird of Paradise Op. 26 (1983:1985) Richard Rodney Bennett (b. 1936): Duo Concertante (1986) Nicholas Cox (clarinet) Ian Buckle (piano)British Music Society BMS440CD It was only the other day that I suggested to someone that it was time for a reappraisal of the music of Iain Hamilton. ...
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
I recently received a copy of Mátyás Seiber’s Yugoslav, Hungarian and Nonsense Songs for choir. This has been released on the SOMM label. It awaits review. However, I immediately noticed the Three Hungarian Folksongs (1950) on the track listing. This took me back a long way to my time as a bass in the Stepps and District Choral Society. Stepps is a village on the outskirts of Glasgow. At one concert we performed these songs. I guess that the society along with many of the members is no more. However, like all amateur ensembles it had its...
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Roberto Gerhard (1896-1970) Symphony No. 4 ‘New York’ (1967) Violin Concerto (1942-1945) Yfrah Neamann, violin. BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Colin DavisLyrita SRCD. 274 The bottom line – at the top of the review is - I am amazed by Roberto Gerhard’s Fourth Symphony ‘New York.’ It is a stunning work.Now this piece is about as far removed from my usual diet of ‘classical music,’ as I guess it was in the Lyrita...
Thursday, February 9, 2012
I found this rather witty little review in the July 1918 edition of The New Age journal. It does not deserve to be lost in the mists of time. Mr William Atheling is the pen-name of the American poet Ezra Pound. Unfortunately I am unable to tie down the date of the concert. Any suggestions?‘With an atmosphere of faded ‘Liberty and Co.’ green, an air of depressed sprightliness, the Oriana Madrigal Society [1] blossomed upon the Aeolian [2] stage and spread through the auditorium. They sang Savile’s ‘Here’s a health to his Majesty’ [3] with...
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
I recently discovered this short piece by the Australian composer and pianist, Percy Grainger. It may be a little sycophantic, but it does deserve to be recalled.'Frederick Delius’s Pianoforte Concerto in C minor is to my mind the most important, the most deeply musical and emotionally significant concerto produced for several decades. It is not merely a fine pianistic concerto, but apart from all that a glowing representative work by one of the greatest creators of all time. To many keen observers of modern compositional developments,...
Saturday, February 4, 2012
I have often mentioned the works of Ian Venables in this ‘blog’ – in my opinion he is one of the most vital composers of our time. The reason for this importance is, I guess, is the balance of his musical language. There are a number of trajectories at work in many of his compositions which include but are never limited to, English ‘pastoralism’, a largely traditional musical language that is not afraid of being dissonant and chromatic when appropriate and an innate ability to communicate his thoughts to the listener.Ian has been kind enough to...
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Harold Rutland wrote the the following anecdote for the Radio Times (1947):-‘I well remember the first performance of Dame Ethel Smyth’s Concerto for Violin & Horn and orchestra [1] in 1929 [2] which the composer directed herself. Addressing the audience from the rostrum, Dame Ethel informed us that in the course of the work the horn soloist, Aubrey Brain [3], would perform the incredible feat of playing two notes at once. The concerto then went merrily along, but just before Aubrey Brain’s great moment, Dame Ethel turned again to face us,...
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