When Peter Racine Fricker wrote his Violin Concerto for small orchestra he was regarded being something of an énfant terrible – writing music that owed more to Schoenberg and Webern rather than Vaughan Williams and Walton. Yet he was deemed to be one of the most important composers writing at the time (along with Humphrey Searle and Iain Hamilton). Until hearing this Concerto on Lyrita (SRCD 276) the only work I had heard by Fricker was the Prelude Fugue and Elegy for Strings. This had been released on an old Pye Golden Guinea record (GGC...
Wednesday, April 30, 2014
Sunday, April 27, 2014
My first consideration when reviewing this CD was the title –‘Mendelssohn in Birmingham’. Clearly the CBSO is a locally-based orchestra, so that much is understood. As far as I was aware, none of these present works were written for, or first performed in, that great city. The composer first visited Birmingham in 1837 shortly after his marriage to Cécile. Missing the company of his new wife, he is famously noted for having suggested that he ‘let...
Wednesday, April 23, 2014
I have not heard a great deal of music by Robin Holloway during the past forty-five years or so: this is a matter that I will remedy as the opportunity arises. I first came across Holloway in Glasgow, when his ‘Concerto for Orchestra No. 2’ was performed by the Scottish National Orchestra under the baton of Sir Alexander Gibson, on the 22 September 1979. I enjoyed this work and noted that it received a number of positive reviews. Recently, I came...
Sunday, April 20, 2014
This is the second tranche of contemporary reviews generated by the first performance of Charles Villiers Stanford’s Violin Sonata No. 2 in A major. I have replicated the foot notes where appropriate to assist the reader. The work (alongwith the remainder of Stanford’s works for violin and piano) can be heard on SHEVA SH100 played by Alberto Bologni and Christopher Howell. The post arose because it was believed that the work had not been performed...
Thursday, April 17, 2014
In 2010 Dutton Epoch (CDLX 7248) released the first volume of what promised to be the ‘complete piano sonatas’ of Algernon Ashton performed by Leslie De’ath. From the track listing of this double-CD it was apparent that much of Ashton’s other piano music was also to be included. It was an exciting project, however after four years there has been no further instalments of the series. I recently emailed Dutton to ask what had happened: I am still awaiting...
Monday, April 14, 2014
I recently reviewed the three-CD set of Alberto Bologni and Christopher Howell playing the collected works for violin and piano by Charles Villiers Stanford (SHEVA SH100). In the liner notes Howell suggested that the Violin Sonata No. 2 in A major was unpublished and ‘so far as known, unperformed until recently’. I noted in my review that it was actually first heard on Wednesday 7th December 1898 at the Curtius Club, meeting at the Prince’s Galleries in Piccadilly, London. The soloists were Johan Kruse and Mmm. Fischer-Sobell. I promised...
Friday, April 11, 2014
A good place to begin an exploration of Sir Herbert Brewer’ organ music is with the totally unpretentious, but thoroughly delightful, miniature Auf Wiedersehen. For listeners who know Brewer’s important and deeply moving Gerontius transcription this slight piece will be a complete contrast. Lasting just under three minutes, this number is more suited to the theatre organ than that of a great cathedral. Brewer was transcribing ‘himself’ in this piece:...
Tuesday, April 8, 2014
Arthur Butterworth: Symphony No 2 (First Performance 1965) No recording availableBenjamin Frankel: Symphony No 3, Op 40 CPO 9994212Alan Rawsthorne: Symphony No 3 Two versions availableHumphrey Searle: Symphony No 5, Op 43Daniel Jones: Symphony No 5 No recording availableDaniel Jones: Symphony No 6Wilfred Josephs: Symphony No 2, Op 42 1963-4 (First Performance Cheltenham, 5 July 1965) No recording availableKenneth Leighton: Symphony No 1, Op 42Bernard Stevens: Symphony No 2, Op 35Malcolm Williamson: The Display, Dance Symphony No recording...
Saturday, April 5, 2014
I was reading Brian Reinhart’s (MusicWeb International) review of this CD the other day, and was interested by his ‘take’ on these pieces. Fundamentally, he recognised that three of these ‘attractive enough’ works are early and ‘are not about to spur a Moeran revival’. I disagree with him- in part. Since hearing these works more that quarter of a century ago, I have come to enjoy their impressive blend of ‘English Musical Renaissance’ and ‘Celtic...
Wednesday, April 2, 2014
I was delighted to hear Marcus Dods' delightfully evocative Highland Fancy on Classic FM the other day. It is rare to hear music that muses on the landscape of Scotland unless it is Hamish MacCunn’s ubiquitous Land of the Mountain Flood Overture, Mendelssohn’s great ‘Scottish’ Symphony or the Northampton composer Malcolm Arnold’s ‘Scottish Dances’ or ‘Tam O’ Shanter Overture’. Marcus Dods was born in Edinburgh in 1918, but like many Scots he moved...
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