British Light Music on Regis

Charles Williams(1893-1978) Devil’s Galop (Dick Barton, Special Agent) Robert Farnon(1917-2005) Portrait of a Flirt (In Town Tonight) Ray Martin (1918-1988) Marching Strings (Top of the Form) Arthur Wood (1875-1953) Barwick Green (The Archers) Robert Farnon (1917-2005) Sunny Side Up (BBC Light Programme) Ron Goodwin (1925-2003) Red Cloak Sidney Torch(1908-1990) London Transport Suite:-‘The Hansom Cab’, ‘Rosie The Red Omnibus’, ‘5.52 from Victorloo’...

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Ina Boyle: The Magic Harp – a contemporary review

Further to my post about Ina Boyle’s beautiful tone pome The Magic Harp, I discovered this review in The Musical Time. I have to say that I find it somewhat patronising. I have included the notice of S.H. Braithwaite’s Symphonic Scherzo, 'A Night by Dalegarth Bridge' as it is one of a number of works that I hope are rediscovered. ‘The date (December 16) of the eleventh concert of the series coinciding with the anniversary of Beethoven's birth, it was only natural and fitting that Mr Dan Godfrey should include in the programme one of the master's...

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The Joyce Book of Songs: 13 songs by (mainly) British Composers

As part of my background reading for the review of The C.W. Orr Songbook I consulted Jane Wilson’s excellent biography – C.W. Orr – The Unknown Song Composer. This book was published in 1989 by Thames Publishing.  I discovered a reference to The Joyce Book of Songs. Wilson explains that in 1929 friends of James Joyce were concerned about the writer facing poverty in Paris after the scandal resulting from the publication and subsequent banning of Ulysses.  Apparently, the composers Herbert Hughes and Arthur Bliss met in Paris whilst...

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Ralph Greaves: Overture High Halden- a lost work.

At the moment I do not known much about the composer Ralph Greaves. However, I came across this programme note of the first performance at Bournemouth on 23 October 1924. Little critical commentary seems to have been made of this work. Yet the description makes it sound interesting. Maybe the manuscript is out there somewhere.  If there is any doubt as to how good this work may have been, then consider this. One of Ralph Vaughan Williams' most...

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Ina Boyle: The Magic Harp: Rhapsody for Orchestra

I recently reviewed the new Dutton Epoch CD (CDLX 7276 ) of Dan Godfrey Encores. One of the treats on this disc was Ina Boyle’s ‘The Magic Harp’: Rhapsody for Orchestra.  The work was given its first performance on 16 December 1920 with Sir Dan Godfrey conducting.  It was played a number of times in succeeding years.Ina Boyle (1889-1967) was a pupil of Ralph Vaughan Williams and this is reflected in this stunningly beautiful work. The Rhapsody...

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The Complete Delius Songbook: Volume 2 on Stone Records

THE COMPLETE DELIUS SONGBOOK - VOLUME 2 Frederick Delius(1862-1934) Five Songs from the Danish (Set 1) (c.1897) Noch ein Mal (1898) Lieder nach gedichten von Friedrich Nietzsche (1898) Four Posthumous Songs –Danish (1895/1901) Songs to Words by Various Poets –Danish & Swedish Songs to Poems by Paul Verlaine Avant que tu ne t’en ailles (1919) Eleven Early Songs –Danish, German & French (1885-1898) Five Songs from the Danish (Set 2) Mark Stone...

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Captions (Five Glimpses of an Anonymous Theme): a couple of references

I reported the other day about this tantalising work that I discovered in the programme books of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. As I surmised, there is little 'paper trail' of this work in the ‘archives.’  However Eugene Goossens in his fascinating autobiography Overture & Beginners (Methuen, London 1951) gives a very brief account of the work’s première at the Goossens Chamber Concerts at the Aeolian Hall, London.  He writes:- 'The programme of the fourth concert was chiefly conspicuous for the first performance...

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Captions (Five Glimpses of an Anonymous Theme): A long-forgotten multi-composer work

I recently came across a programme-note for a little orchestral work that has fascinated me: in fact, I had never heard of the piece. Captions (Being Five Glimpses of an Anonymous Theme) was composed by five British composers:-‘Twone, the House of Felicity’ (Moderato) Arthur Bliss‘The Lonely Dancer of Gedar’ (Andante grazioso  Herbert Bedford‘The Strange Case of Mr. X’ (Molto ritmico) Eugene Goossens‘Lament for a Long-Cherished Illusion' (Adagio)...

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Frederick Delius: Dance Rhapsody at the Free Trade Hall, Manchester

March 7 1912 marked an interesting date in Mancunian musical history. For one thing it was the occasion of a performance of Richard Strauss’ great opera Elektra. This work had received its UK premiere at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden in 1910 with Edyth Walker in the title role and Sir Thomas Beecham conducting. However, in Manchester it was the turn of the Bavarian Mr. F. Cortolezis to conduct the work at the Theatre Royal. Beecham, for his part, was directing the Hallé Orchestra at the Free Trade Hall. The Manchester Guardian reviewer,...

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Cincinnati Musical Festival & Sir Edward Elgar: May 1906

I was recently investigating Edward Elgar’s Overture: In the South and I came across a citation in Stewart R. Craggs Edward Elgar Source book to a review in the Musical Times, June 1906. This refers to the attendance of the composer at the The Seventeenth Biennial Festival of the Cincinnati Music Festival Association. The article is worth posting – with a few footnotes.The seventeenth biennial festival of the Cincinnati Music Festival Association held in this city on the first five days of the month was made notable by the presence of Sir Edward...

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Alfred Hollins Organ Works

Alfred Hollins(1865-1942)A Concert Overture in C major (1889) Benediction Nuptiale (1898) A Trumpet Minuet (1929) Allegretto grazioso (1906) Concert Overture in C minor (1899) Evening Rest (1917) A Concert Overture in F minor (1922) Andante in D (1895)  A Song of Sunshine (1913) Maytime Gavotte (1927) Theme with Variations and Fugue (1911)  Timothy Byram-Wigfield, organDelphian  DCD34044This...

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