A Happy and Prosperous New Year To All Readers of The Land of Lost ContentSignificant Composer Anniversaries for 2014Thomas Attwood Walmisley (1814-1856) Bi-Centenary of BirthEugene d’Albert (1864-1932) 150 year Anniversary of BirthWilfred Mellors (1914-2008) Centenary of BirthFrank Chacksfield (1914-1995) Centenary of BirthWilliam Lloyd Webber (1914-1982) Centenary of BirthAndrej Panufnik (1914-1991) Centenary of BirthArnold Richardson (1914-1973) Centenary of BirthSome Important British Works that are Celebrating Significant Anniversaries...
Tuesday, December 31, 2013
Sunday, December 29, 2013
The second piece I want to review from the Novello Festal Voluntaries: Christmas and Epiphany album is John Cook’s Paean on ‘Divinum Mysterium’. Like Thiman’s Postlude, I understand this work was written in 1956 as a ‘commission’ for this present collection. John Cook was born in Maldon, Essex on 11 October 1918. He had an impressive musical education including being organ scholar at Christ’s College Cambridge. He studied there under Hugh Allen...
Friday, December 27, 2013
Many years ago, I bought a series of organ music albums published by Novello entitled Festal Voluntaries. These included a number of ‘modern’ and ‘original’ pieces by British and other composers specially selected to reflect the Church’s calendar. The volume covering ‘Christmas and Epiphany’ was originally published in 1956, although the reprint I have dates from the early nineteen seventies. I confess that all the pieces were beyond my limited pedal...
Tuesday, December 24, 2013
A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year To All Readers of 'The Land of Lost Content'Upon Christ's Nativity, or ChristmasFrom three dark places Christ came forth this day;From first His Father's bosom, where He lay,Concealed till now; then from the typic law,Where we His manhood but by figures saw;And lastly from His mother's womb He cameTo us, a perfect God and perfect Man. Now in a manger lies the eternal Word:The Word He...
Sunday, December 22, 2013
I know precious little music written by John Fox (b.1926) however, his A Surrey Rhapsody and Portrait of (Princess) Diana are attractive works that have been recorded and favourably reviewed. Fox was born in Sutton, Surrey and studied piano, violin and composition at the Royal College of Music. Much of his career has been devoted to the production of ‘library music’ for the use of film makers. He has regularly arranged the music of other composers...
Friday, December 20, 2013
Last year I posted about ‘four musical winter journeys': Leroy Anderson’s ‘Sleigh Ride’, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky ‘Troika’, Sergei Prokifiev ‘Troika’, from Lieutenant Kije and Fred. Delius’ uncharacteristic ‘Sleigh Ride’. To these can be added Angela Morley’s attractive ‘Snowride.’ This work is included as a part of Naxos’ collection of Christmas music entitled ‘Another Night before Christmas.’ Angela Morley’s...
Tuesday, December 17, 2013
Herbert HOWELLS (1892-1983)Flourish for a Bidding (1968) ‘St Louis comes to Clifton’ (1977) Intrata No.2 (1941) Rhapsody for Organ No.1 in D flat major, Op.17 No.1 (1915) Rhapsody for Organ No.2 in E flat minor, Op, 17 No.2 (1918] Rhapsody for Organ No.3 in C sharp minor, Op.17 No.3 (1918) Rhapsody No. 4 (1958) Organ Sonata No.2 (1932) David Newsholme (organ) REGENT: REGCD407 I own up to being confused about the genesis of Howells’s Flourish for...
Saturday, December 14, 2013
Catalogue of Revolution Records Many years ago (c.1972) I discovered a recording of Arnold Bax’s ‘The Tale the Pine Trees Knew’ in Symphony One, a small record shop in Glasgow. This was the first piece of Bax that I had consciously heard. It had been released on the short lived Revolution record label. The coupling was equally interesting in its presentation of E.J. Moeran’s rare ‘Serenade’ in G major. This was also was a ‘first’ for me. Over the next year or so I bough a handful of other Revolution LPs including the English Clarinet...
Wednesday, December 11, 2013
A few days ago I featured an interesting Ace of Clubs record which had been released in 1963. Music from three earlier long-playing records was subsumed into this ‘Festival of English Music’. The two pieces by George Butterworth had been released some 8 years previously on Decca LXT 2015. This album was an exciting ‘concert’ that featured Sir Adrian Boult and the London Philharmonic Orchestra playing four well-regarded pieces on LP. The ‘concert’...
Thursday, December 5, 2013
Many people will be listening to, and singing the music of, John Rutter over the coming few weeks. He is now traditionally regarded as ‘Mr Christmas’ in the musical world. Certainly sales of his delightful Christmas carols will have made a strong impression on his bank account. Yet there is another side to this composer which has been largely ignored not only by the general public, but the by composer himself. I hunted around on his website for any reference to the above orchestral work: I found nothing. In fact there is not even a...
Monday, December 2, 2013
James MACMILLAN (b.1959) Lassies, wad ye loe me? Alexander CAMPKIN (b.1984) A Lover and his Lass Ralph VAUGHAN WILLIAMS (1872-1958) The Dark Eyed Sailor Judith BINGHAM (b.1952) The Orphan Girl Peter WARLOCK (1894-1930) Yarmouth Fair John DUGGAN (b.1963) Over the moon Percy GRAINGER (1882-1961) Mo Nighean Dubh (My Dark Haired Maiden) Hilary CAMPBELL (b.1983) Blow the Wind Southerly Gustav HOLST (1874-1934) Awake, awake John BYRT (b.1939) Among the leaves so green, O Stuart Murray TURNBULL (b.1975) Skye Paul BURKE (b.1988) Fare thee well Kerry ANDREW...
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