Even more Light music from Guild - Melody Mixture

The Golden Age of Light Music: Melody MixtureGuild Light Music GLCD5197 The liner notes immediately make clear the terms of reference for this latest CD from the Guild Golden Age of Light Music series: it states that ‘this collection does not have a special theme or concept.’  It is quite simply an attempt to collect a ‘varied mixture’ of pieces featuring a diverse range of light music composers.  Interestingly, David Ades states that...

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Sir Charles Halle: A Short Anecdote

I have recently been exploring the life, work and times of that great honorary Englishman, Sir Charles Hallé. There are so many books, articles and news report that refer to him, it is hard to know where to begin. However, in an old book entitled Manchester Old & New I found this delicious anecdote. It is worth sharing.  This anecdote does not appear to come from the Autobiography of Charles Hallé with correspondence and diaries.“When first he came to England [Hallé] had letters of introduction to various people of  standing....

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Richard Addinsell: The Black Rose

I guess that everyone knows the beautifully romantic (if over the top) score to the film Dangerous Moonlight.  This music is better known as the Warsaw Concerto. Richard Addinsell wrote this great piece ‘surrounded by the scores of Rachmaninov’s Second and Third Concertos and the ‘Paganini’ Variations.’ However I imagine fewer people will have come across the music to the film The Black Rose.  This 1950 film directed by Henry Hathaway and...

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Shine and Shade: English 20th Century Recorder Music

Norman Fulton (1909-1980) Scottish Suite (1954) Edmund Rubbra(1901-1986) Meditation sopra Coeur’s Desoles York Bowen(1884-1961) Sonata Op.121 Lennox Berkeley(1903-1989) Sonatina Edward Gregson(b.1945) Three Matisse Impressions Stephen Dodgson(b.1924) Shine and Shade Donald Swann(1923-1994) Rhapsody from WithinPiers Adams (recorder) Julian Rhodes (piano)RED PRIEST CDs RP010 [69:47]I will hold my hand up straight away. The recorder is not one of my...

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Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry writing on Johannes Brahms

Hubert Parry (1848-1918) was not only a great composer; he was also an excellent musicologist. For example, his masterly book on Johann Sebastian Bach: the Story of the Development of a Great Personality (1909); still demands attention, in spite of its age. I was introduced to many composers in his once popular Studies of Great Composers (London, 1886/R) which I found for about 20p in a second hand bookshop. One of his smaller volumes was the Summary of the History and Development of Mediaeval and Modern European Music (London, Novello 1893, 2/1904). ...

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More Light Music from Guild - music While You Work IV

The Golden Age of Light Music : Light Music While You Work- Volume 4Guild Light Music GLCD5198I seem to have missed the first three volumes of this collection of ‘Music While you Work’ (MWYW). However, I get the general idea. I used to sit and listen to the eponymous radio show on the Light Programme with my grandmother.  This was 1966 and I guess this style of this music acted as a good counterweight to my usual diet of ‘pirate’ radio...

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Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry (1848-1918)Te Deum (1911) England’ (1918) The Birds of Aristophanes Suite from the incidental music for the Cambridge Greek Play (1883) ‘Jerusalem’ (1916) The Glories of Our Blood and State: Funeral Ode by James Shirley (1883) Magnificat (1897) Amanda Roocroft (soprano) BBC National Chorus of Wales, BBC National Orchestra of Wales/Neeme JärviCHANDOS CHAN10740When I showed this CD to a friend they responded by suggesting...

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Deems Taylor: Suite Through the Looking Glass Two British Reviews

I thought it would be a good idea to quote two short of British reviews of this work.  The first two refer to a performance of the Suite, which had been given at that year’s Leeds Music Festival. S.L. writes in The Guardian: - Of an entirely different nature was the orchestral suite ‘Through the Looking Glass’, by Deems Taylor, music critic of the New York World.  Mr. Taylor seems to have as pleasant a fancy as our own Roger Quilter. He...

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Lennox Berkeley(1903-1989)Chamber Works for Wind, Strings & PianoTrio for flute/piccolo, oboe/cor anglais and piano (1935) String Trio Op.19 (1943) Sonatina for oboe and piano Op.61 (1962) Oboe Quartet Op.70 (1967) Suite for flute, oboe and string trio (1930) Tagore String Trio: Frances Mason (violin) Brian Schiele (viola) James Halsey (cello) Sarah Francis (oboe/cor anglais) Judith Fitton (flute/piccolo) Michael Dussek (piano)RRC1380 Any new...

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Deems Taylor: Suite –‘Through the Looking Glass’. Contemporary Review in the New York Times.

The New York Times review began by noting the absence of a symphony in the New York Symphony Society’s concert at the Aeolian Hall on 11 March 1923.  However it pointed out that there was the first performance of Deems Taylor’s new orchestral suite ‘Through the Looking Glass.’  Taylor’s skill as an orchestral player has been previously witnessed at a Philharmonic Society performance of his tone poem ‘The Sirens.’ The reviewer is concerned...

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