The second part of the listings of British piano music on the back of a piece of piano music published by Augener’s. It is clear that many of these long forgotten pieces are for teaching purposes. However, one or two works that I do know (or have a copy of in my library) are anything but easy. For example, Alec Rowley is often seen as a ‘grades’ composer, however his Toccatasare no cinch. Even Eric Thiman's New Nursery Rhymes are full of places that can trip up the over confident tyro. Robin MilfordWaltzThomas Baron PitfieldFive Short...
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Sunday, May 27, 2012
Any reader of my blog will know that I am fascinated by obscure British piano music. Do not get me wrong I love the standard (at least from the British music enthusiast’s perspective) repertoire. The piano works of John Ireland, Arnold Bax, Cyril Scott and Frank Bridge are all safely uploaded to my iPod ready for instant access. However, from a personal point of view most of the pieces by the four above named composers are beyond my Grade 6½ standard. So I tend to look to simpler pieces. To this end, I love Alec Rowley, Thomas Dunhill, Felix...
Thursday, May 24, 2012
Arnold Bax(1883-1953) Elegiac Trio (1916-17) Claude Debussy(1862-1918) Sonate en trio (1916) Maurice Ravel(1875-1937) Sonatine en trio, arranged by Carlos Salzedo(1885-1961) (1905/c.1915) William Mathias(1934-1992) Zodiac Trio (1975) Theodore Dubois(1837-1924) Terzettino (1904) The Debussy Ensemble Susan Milan (flute) Matthew Jones (viola) Ieuan Jones (harp)Divine Art dda25099 [63:20]Most folk would regard the combination of flute, viola...
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Dr. Arne was once placed in a somewhat similar situation to that of Solomon when the two women each claimed the child. His disposition of the case was as fair as that of the king, only the distribution was more even, as even as Solomon threatened to make the division of the child in question.Dr. Arne was a very prominent English composer who lived in the first half of the last century. He had been called upon to decide on the merits of two singers....
Saturday, May 19, 2012
Richard Harvey (b.1953) Concerto Incantato (2009) Malcolm Arnold (1921-2006) Concerto for Recorder and Strings, Op.133 (1988) Gordon Jacob (1895-1984) Suite for Recorder and Strings (1957) Michala Petri (recorder) City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong/Jean ThorelOUR Recordings 6.220606 Let’s deal with top and bottom lines first. This is one of the best CDs of recorder music that I have ever heard. Full stop. However, four things need to be said. Firstly,...
Thursday, May 17, 2012
I posted the other day a frank critique of Edward Elgar’s music by the critic and composer Ernest Walker – it was not exactly disparaging, but neither was it sycophantic. Just to even up the balance a little bit I post the previous section of Walker’s comments on the composer. No commentary is needed; however, I have taken the liberty of breaking up one or two of his tediously long sentences, including one of over 140 words!Few things in the history of modern music are more remarkable than Elgar's sudden leap into something like worldwide...
Monday, May 14, 2012
Many are the musical prodigies who come before the public, though but few of them reach the great heights of musicianship of which they, in their youth, give promise. Handel, Mozart, and Liszt fulfilled the expectations aroused by their youthful feats.Among those whose fame was not so great was Walter Parratt, who was knighted by Queen Victoria. He played the organ in a Yorkshire church when only seven years old. At ten he performed all of Bach's forty-eight preludes and fugues without the music before him, and in later life he accomplished the...
Saturday, May 12, 2012
I recently had the pleasure of reviewing one of the latest editions to the Guild’s Golden Age of Light Music series – Stereo into the Sixties. The full review will appear on this ‘blog’ and on MusicWeb International in due course. However, whilst listening to the various excellent arrangements of Gershwin, Kern and Porter I came across two excellent ‘original’ compositions. These were Ron Goodwin’s London Serenade and Don Banks’ Coney Island. Donald...
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
It is sometimes useful to read a less than positive review of one of the ‘great’ composers. I am a fan of Elgar’ and have been since first hearing Sospiri and the Introduction and Allegro on some old 78rpm discs which I found in the school music room cupboard. I still have a re-recording of these two works made on what was then the new technology of cassette tape!However, I have never become an Elgar groupie. There are elements of his music that I just do not appreciate. Even the symphonies I can sometimes find to be a little long winded in places....
Monday, May 7, 2012
A very, very short post today. I was delighted to find this lovely song from the pen of the English composer Ian Venables on YouTube.Theodore Roethke’s charming and wistful poem ‘The Hippo’ is given an appropriate setting that matches the tongue in cheek sentiment of the author. Roethke (1908-1963) was an American poet who wrote “an extraordinarily diverse and lyrical body of poetry. He could be sombre or playful, surrealistic or erotic or romantic, or many of these things at once.”Graham Lloyd notes the pause on the word ‘yawn’ in ‘...he starts...
Charles Wilfred Orr (1893-1976)Seven Songs from ‘A Shropshire Lad: Along the field, When I watch the living meet, The Lent lily, Farewell to barn and stack and tree, Oh fair enough are sky and plain, Hughley Steeple, When smoke stood up from Ludlow (1927-1931) Silent Noon (1921) Tryste Noel (1927) The Brewer’s Man (1927) Two Seventeenth Century Poems: The Earl of Bristol’s farewell, Whenas I wake (1927-28) Slumber Song (published 1937) Fain...
Friday, May 4, 2012
Born in Sheffield, April 13, 1810, where his father, Robert Bennett, was organist. He is conspicuous in the musical history of the present period, as having, by his unswerving fidelity to the loftiest principles of his art, and still more by his natural and highly refined ability to embody these in his works, been effectively instrumental in raising the standard of music in this country, and in gaining consideration for the earnest pretensions of...
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
Arthur BENJAMIN (1893-1960)Suite from The Conquest of Everest (1953) The Storm Clouds Cantatafrom The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934) Waltz and Hyde Park Galopfrom An Ideal Husband (1947) Leighton LUCAS (1903-1982)Portrait of the Amethyst from Yangtse Incident (1957) Dedicationfrom Portrait of Clare (1950) Prelude and Dam Blast from The Dam Busters (1954) Stage Fright Rhapsody from Stage Fright(1950) Suite from Ice Cold in Alex (1958) This Is York (1953)...
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