Some Important British Works that are Celebrating Half-Centenaries (Composed, First Performed or Published) Part 2

Part 2
Wilfred Josephs: Piano Concerto No 1 op.46; Canzonas on a Theme of Rameau, for strings; Sonata for violin and piano; So She Went into the Garden, for chorus and piano; Four Japanese Lyrics, for voice, clarinet and piano
Kenneth Leighton: Communion Service in D, for chorus and organ
Elisabeth Lutyens: The Valley of Hatsu-Se, for solo voice and instruments; Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis, for unaccompanied chorus;

John McCabe: Chamber Concerto for viola, cello and orchestra; Concertante for harpsichord and chamber ensemble; Symphony No 1; Elegy; String Trio; Fantasy for brass quartet; Bagatelles for two clarinets;  Elegy for organ
Elizabeth Maconchy: Variazione Concertante for orchestra

William Mathias: Festival Te Deum, for mixed voices and organ

Nicolas Maw: String Quartet No.1
Thea Musgrave: Festival Overture, for orchestra; Excursions, for piano (four hands)
Alan Rawsthorne: Tankas of the Four Seasons, for tenor and chamber ensemble; Cello Concerto
Edmund Rubbra: Inscape, suite for chorus, strings and harp
John Tavener: Cain and Abel, cantata
Michael Tippett: Vision of St Augustine, for baritone, chorus and orchestra;

William Walton: The Twelve, for chorus and orchestra
Egon Wellesz: Symphony No 6
Malcolm Williamson: The Happy Prince, opera; Violin Concerto; Concerto Grosso for orchestra; Sinfonietta; Symphonic Variations, for orchestra; Four North Country Songs, for voice and orchestra
Hugh Wood: Scenes from Comus, for soli and orchestra (completed)

Much of this tranche of ‘half-centenary’ music seems to have died over succeeding years. However, there are a number of positives. I may have missed some recordings of the listed pieces: I would be interested to hear of them.

So little of Wilfred Joseph’s music has made it onto vinyl or CD with only a couple of discs devoted to his chamber music, the Double Bass Concerto and a few bits and pieces. However, none of the 1965 works (with the honourable exception of the Violin Sonata) seem to have been recorded for posterity. The Piano Concerto is surely a tantalising prospect?

I cannot find a recording of Kenneth Leighton’s Communion Service in D, for chorus and organ, however I assume that it is sometimes heard in ‘choirs and places where they sing.’

Listeners are fortunate to have a single recording of Elisabeth Lutyens’ The Valley of Hatsu-Se, for solo voice and instruments on the sterling NMC label.

John McCabe is well served. I looked at the discography on his webpage and it seems that most of his works from this year have survived – at least in the recording studio. The Symphony has been re-released (2104) on Naxos from the original Pye recording made in 1967. The Elegy for organ was available on an old Decca Eclipse LP. The Bagatelles for two clarinets were issued on the Albany label. The String Trio appears on a Campion Cameo CD coupled with music by the Manchester composer David Ellis.

I have not come to terms with Edmund Rubbra’s music: I accept that I have never given him a chance. I have listened to his symphonies over the years, but they have never really moved me. The 1965 Inscape, suite for chorus, strings and harp was release by Chandos in 2000. I understand that there is also a Decca vinyl version dating back to 1967 with John Carol Case, the Ambrosian Singers and the Jacques Orchestra conducted by Myer Fredman.

Alan Rawsthorne’s Tankas of the Four Seasons, for tenor and chamber ensemble has avoided being recorded: however his interesting Cello Concerto has received a single release on the Naxos label. It received mixed reviews.

John Tavener is well represented in the CD listings, however I am unable to locate a recording of his cantata Cain and Abel. I guess that most of currently available CD tracks will represent music written after his change of style to more ‘approachable’ and tonal music nodding towards Arvo Part.

I am not a fan of Michael Tippett’s choral work The Vision of St. Augustine, yet I recognise that it is one of his most important compositions. I am amazed that the only currently available recording is the old 1971 version with John Shirley Quirk and the LSO conducted by the composer. It was re-released most recently on a RCA Victor special CD (51304). As the reviewer in The Gramophone stated ‘…it is a masterpiece that reveals its secrets slowly…’ Surely it deserves a more modern recording?

The most ‘popular’ work dating from 1965 is William Walton’s choral piece The Twelve. There are currently 10 editions of this piece in the Arkiv catalogue, although I believe that the Naxos version appears on two different albums.

Hugh Wood’s Scenes from Comus, was issued along with his Symphony on the NMC label in 2002. Neither work appears to have caught the listening public’s imagination.  

Egon Wellesz is most fortunate in having his complete cycle of Symphonies released on the CPO label. Wellesz is reasonably well served by recording companies, though his music deserves greater exposure.

I do not believe that Nicolas Maw’s String Quartet No.1, Thea Musgrave’s Festival Overture or Elizabeth Maconchy’s Variazione Concertante for orchestra have been heard in recent years. They are certainly not in the current CD catalogues. I did find a reference to the Maw Quartet on an old Argo LP. Musgrave’s Excursions, for piano (four hands) has been released on Campion Cameo with works by Berkeley, Bowen, Walton and Lane. William Mathias’ Festival Te Deumhas been appeared on Hyperion.

My biggest surprise is that I can only find two of Malcolm Williamson’s offerings for 1965 on CD – the Concerto Grosso and the Sinfonietta. Both were published on the first volume of Chandos slowly-appearing retrospective of his orchestral music. The Symphonic Variations are currently available on YouTube. However, there is no sign of the opera The Happy Prince, or the Violin Concerto. This latter work was released on LP by HMV coupled with Lennox Berkeley’s Violin Concerto. The Happy Prince was issued on vinyl by Argo in 1966. 

If I had to call for one or two works to be included in the record companies’ ‘bucket list’ it would have to include Wilfred Joseph’s Piano Concerto, Elizabeth Maconchy’s Variazione Concertante for orchestra and a new edition of Malcolm Williamson’s Concerto for Violin. 

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Some Important British Works that are Celebrating Half-Centenaries (Composed, First Performed or Published) Part 1

A selection of works that were composed, published or premiered in 1965. I acknowledge Eric Gilder’s The Dictionary of Composers and their Musicas being an invaluable source for musical history. I present these listings in two parts.

Part 1:

Malcolm Arnold: Five Fantasies, for bassoon, clarinet, flute, horn and oboe
Don Banks: Horn Concerto
David Bedford: This One for You, for orchestra; Music for Albion Moonlight, for soprano and instruments ; 'O Now the Drenched Land Awakes', for baritone and piano duet
Richard Rodney Bennett: Symphony No 1; The Mines of Sulphur: opera fp. Trio(for(flute,(oboe(and(clarinet
Lennox Berkeley: Partita for chamber orchestra
Harrison Birtwistle: Tragoedia, for instrumental ensemble; ‘Ring a Dumb Carillon’, for soprano, clarinet and percussion; Carmen Paschale, motet for mixed chorus and organ
Havergal Brian: Symphonies Nos 22, 23 & 24
Benjamin Britten: Gemini Variations, for flute, violin and piano (four hands); Songs and Proverbs of William Blake, for voice and piano; The Poet's Echo, for voice and piano; Voices for Today, anthem for chorus
Alun Bush: Partita Concertante; Two Dances for cimbalon
Peter Maxwell Davies The Shepherd's Calendar, for singer and instruments; Shall I die for mannes sake, carol for soprano alto and piano; Seven in nomine.
Peter Dickinson: The Judas Tree, for actors, singers and ensemble
Benjamin Frankel : String Quartet No 5; The Battle of the Bulge (film music)

Peter Racine Fricker: Ricercare for organ

Robert Gerhard: Concerto for orchestra
Alexander Goehr: Pastorals, for orchestra
Iain Hamilton: String Quartet No 2; Aubade, for solo organ
Alun Hoddinott: Concerto Grosso No 1 fp; Aubade and Scherzo, for horn and string; Dives and Lazarus, cantata fp.
Robin Holloway: Music for Eliot's Sweeney Agonistes;

Daniel Jones: Capriccio for flute, harp and strings

Glancing at the above list discloses a number of surprises. Most importantly none of Benjamin Britten’s works from this year have really ‘caught on.’ Naturally, they have all been recorded at one stage or another, but they are definitely not overrepresented. There are three versions of the ‘Gemini Variations’ in the Arkiv catalogue, the most recent being from 2006. This compares to 11 recordings of the ‘Temporal Variations’ and 8 for the ‘Insect Pieces’. Similarly there are three current versions of the Songs and Proverbs of William Blake for voice and piano compared to 13 for the great song-cycle Winter Words. The Poets Echo is better represented.  I can only find one CD including the anthem Voices for Today.

A variety of discs have been issued of Malcolm Arnold’s interesting Fantasies for solo instruments. However, these are definitely not amongst his most popular music. They all deserve an occasional airing at recitals.

Iain Hamilton is ill-served on CD with none of his Symphonies currently available. Certainly there is no recording of his String Quartet or Aubade for organ.

Robin Holloway’s ‘Music for Eliot's Sweeney ‘ does not appear to have made it into the recording studio, neither has Daniel Jones’ Capriccio for flute, harp and strings, Peter Racine Fricker’s ‘Ricercare’ for organ or the two pieces by Alan Bush. Fortunately, Don Banks Horn Concerto is available in a single recording on Lyrita.

David Bedford is a composer whom I have come to rate highly in recent years. Once again Lyrita has come to the rescue with a fine recording of Music for Albion Moonlight, for soprano and instruments. However the other two works seem to have disappeared from view. I do understand that 'O Now the Drenched Land Awakes', for baritone and piano duet was released on Deutsche Grammophon in 2002.

Lennox Berkeley’s ‘Partita’ is offered on a single recording from Lyrita. Havergal Brian’s three symphonies from 1965 all appear on a single Naxos CD. However like so many of these pieces they have not made a major incursion into the concert hall.

Two out of three of Harrison Birtwistle’s 1965 works have been recorded with four versions of Tragoedia and a single edition of Carmen Paschale, motet for mixed chorus and organ currently in the catalogue. ‘Ring a Dumb Carillon’, for soprano, clarinet and percussion does not appear to have made it yet.

The current Master of the Queen’s Music has only one work from fifty years ago in the CD listings – ‘Seven in nomine’. There are other ‘deleted’ CDs of this music in existence. I was astonished that The Shepherd’s Calendar has been ignored.

Alun Hoddinott’s Dives and Lazarus is available on Lyrita, the Concerto Grosso No.1 has been issued on the Metronome label. In spite of the Horn Concerto being released on Lyrita, the Aubade and Scherzo for horn and orchestra does not appear in the listings.

I was delighted to find that Alexander Goehr’s Pastorals, for orchestra has been issued on Naxos. It is a work that I have yet to hear.
Another surprise is that none of the three 1965 works by Richard Rodney Bennett are on CD. There are live recordings of the Symphony No. 1 available from Internet ‘groups’ for collectors. 

Peter Dickinson’s huge, eclectic The Judas Tree was issued on the Heritage label last year.

Both the String Quartet No.5 and the film music for The Battle of the Bulge by Benjamin Frankel has been published by CPO Records. This company have done a sterling job in promoting a huge quantity of Frankel’s music, including most of the orchestral works and chamber music. Unfortunately (with a few exceptions) no other record label has given him due attention.

Perhaps my biggest surprise was that a major work such as Roberto Gerhard’s ‘Concerto for Orchestra’ has only a single recording (on Chandos). This is an acknowledged 20^th century masterpiece that should be widely known and appreciated.

So it is a mixed bag of musical survival in the first part of these half-century listings. Out of the unrepresented works I would make a top priority for a new commercial recording of Richard Rodney Bennett’s Symphony No. 1. I have heard this work and consider that it is worthy of release on CD (along with much else of RRB’s music).  It is available on a YouTube recording with Colin Davis conducting the Boston Symphony Orchestra. A vinyl record was released in 1968 coupled with Arnold Bax’s First Symphony. RCA Victor (Igor Buketoff). 

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Some Important British Works that are Celebrating Significant Anniversaries (Composed, First Performed or Published) include:-

150 years ago:-

1865
John Stainer: Gideon, oratorio

This was John Stainer’s doctoral exercise. It was performed in part on 8 November 1865. The work was never published.

75 years ago

1940
William Alwyn: Masquerade, overture [latterly, Overture to a Masque];

Richard Arnell: Violin Concerto
Arthur Benjamin: Sonatina for chamber orchestra
Lennox Berkeley: Sonatina for recorder (flute) and piano (1939-40); Five Housman Songs for tenor and piano, Four Concert Studies, set 1
Arthur Bliss: Seven American Poems, for low voice and piano
Benjamin Britten: Paul Bunyan, operetta (c1940-1, revised 1974); Sinfonia da requiem, for orchestra; Diversions on a Theme, for piano (left hand) and orchestra; Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo, for tenor and piano
Frank Bridge: Rebus, for orchestra; Divertimento for flute, oboe, clarinet and bassoon
Alan Bush: Symphony No 1
Geoffrey Bush: Rhapsody for clarinet and string quartet
Gerald Finzi: Dies natalis, cantata (premiere)
Roberto Gerhard: Don Quixote, ballet (1940-1)
Constant Lambert: Dirge from Cymbeline, for voices and strings
Elisabeth Lutyens: Midas, ballet for string quartet and piano; Chamber Concertos Nos 1 and 2 (1940-1)
Andrzej Panufnik: Five Polish Peasant Songs (reconstructed 1945)
Matyas Seiber: Besardo Suite No 1
Ralph Vaughan Williams: Six Choral Songs - to be sung in time of war; Valiant for Truth, motet
William Walton: The Wise Virgins, ballet

From the above list it will be seen that a few works have been become part of the standard repertoire either in the concert hall or the recording studios.  This includes Finzi’s moving Dies Natalis, all the Britten pieces and William Walton’s The Wise Virgins ballet score.  All these are represented by more than one recording. Possibly only the Finzi is heard with any frequency in the concert hall.

A number of other names listed above have retained their important place in the hierarchy of British music, but the ‘1940’ works have either fallen out of favour or are considered marginal to the composer’s current standing. This includes RVWs ‘Six Choral Songs – to be sung in time of war’ and ‘Valiant for Truth’, Roberto Gerhard’s ballet Don Quixote, and Arthur Bliss’s ‘Seven American Poems, for low voice and piano’.  The two Frank Bridge works are not amongst those generally heard although they are currently available on CD.

The revival of British music in the last third of a century, at least as far as the recording studio is concerned, has seen a few of the lesser-known works listed above featuring in the catalogues.  This includes those composed by Matyas Seiber, William Alwyn, and (some of) Elisabeth Lutyens.

Lambert’s ‘Dirge’, Lutyens’ ballet score Midas, Arthur Benjamin’s Sonatina for chamber orchestra and Andrzej Panufnik’s ‘Five Polish Peasant Songs’ all seem to have been omitted from the recording schedules.
I was delighted to find that Geoffrey Bush’s Rhapsody for Clarinet and strings is available on YouTube, however, I do not believe that there is CD available.

There are still plenty of opportunities for courageous performers and recording companies to take on some of these works.  I guess the most pressing scores must be Lutyens’s Midas and a re-issue of Bush’s First Symphony, although Geoffrey Bush’s pastoral Rhapsody is an ideal work to be taken up by Classic FM and given an up-to-date recording. 

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British Music reaching its Centenary...

Some Important British Works that are Celebrating Significant Anniversaries (Composed, First Performed or Published) include:-

Granville Bantock: Hebridean Symphony (completed)
Arnold Bax: Violin Sonata No 1 (revised); Violin Sonata No2;  Legend, for violin and piano; The Maiden with the Daffodil, Winter Waters, The Princess’s Rose Garden, In a Vodka Shop, Apple-Blossom Time, Sleepy Head, Mountain Mood for piano;  Quintet in G minor, Red Owen (opera unfinished) Nympholet (orchestrated)
Arthur Bliss: Piano Quartet; String Quartet (c.1915)
Havergal Brian: English Suite No 2 (lost); Legend, for orchestra (lost)
Frank Bridge: Two Poems (after Richard Jefferies) orchestra; Lament, for strings; String Quartet No.2 in G minor
Eric Coates: From the Countryside, suite for orchestra 

Edward Elgar: Polonia, symphonic prelude; Une voix dans le désert, recitation with orchestra

Josef Holbrooke: The Enchanter, opera
Gustav Holst: Japanese Suite, for orchestra

Herbert Howells: Three Dances for violin and orchestra

John Ireland: Preludes for piano (1913-1915)
Cyril Scott: Piano Concerto No. 1 (premiere) 

These works from a century ago have survived remarkably well.  For British music enthusiasts most will be included in their CD and LP collections with one of more recordings. 

Bantock’s fine Hebridean Symphony has been issued on Naxos and Hyperion as well as on Intaglio and an old Gough and Davy LP dating from 1978. It may be an unwarranted personal opinion that could be challenged, but I think this is one of the best symphonies of that period. I accept that it could be described as being a little uneven in places, but in the round it is totally inspiring and satisfying.  

Arnold Bax has gained considerable status in the world of English music, especially through the labours of Lewis Foreman, Graham Parlett and Colin Scott-Sutherland. Without being complacent, I guess that virtually everything that is worthy from Bax’s pen (a few exceptions remain) have been recorded. It is a tribute to all concerned. Yet how often is Bax heard in the concert hall?

It is unfortunate that Havergal Brian’s two contributions from 1915 have been lost.  The Brian Society notes that the English Suite No.2 was subtitled ‘Night Portraits’ and contained six movements, including ‘Carnival’, ‘Witch’s Dance’ and ‘Recessional.’ The ‘Legend for orchestra’ was possibly dedicated to Nurse Edith Cavell and was completed by 14 November 1915.

In recent months the the war-works of Elgar have been issued on the SOMM record label.  I admit that they have never been amongst my favourites by that composer but they deserve attention and are valuable additions to our understanding of his ‘late’ works.

Like all of Josef Holbrooke’s operas, The Enchanter has sunk into total oblivion.  It was first heard in Chicago in the spring of 1915. The work’s English title was The Wizard. Maybe one day someone will revive it? There is a track lasting some three minutes on the Symposium record label, which would appear to be an extract from this opera.

Gustav Holst suffers for being remembered by music lovers for one work – The Planets. In many ways this monumental work is relatively untypical of his output. The Japanese Suite is is one of the ‘forgotten gems’ of his opus. It is a great piece that can justifiably take its place beside the better-known work.

The three works by Frank Bridge listed above have all secured a tentative place in the recorded repertoire. It surprises me that the haunting and moving Lament has not gained more popularity, especially on Classic FM. It was written to commemorate the loss of a child’s life, ‘Catharine aged nine’ on the Lusitania which was sunk in 1915.

Eric Coates is well-represented on CD in 2015 however, his From the Countryside Suite has only two recordings currently available (Dutton and Nimbus) and one that appears to have been deleted (ASV White Line). This idyllic work seems to ignore the wartime situation, though perhaps it represented the sort of England that ‘we were fighting for.’ Nevertheless this music is just that little bit more serious and thoughtful than much of Coates output. In some ways it is almost a short symphony, although studiously avoiding sonata form!  

Two versions have been made of Cyril Scott’s excellent but largely-forgotten Piano Concerto No.1: Lyrita and Chandos.

The works listed by Bliss, Howells and John Ireland are all currently available, with many versions of the latter’s Preludes for piano which includes the ubiquitous ‘Holy Boy’. 

Altogether the ‘score’ for works surviving their centenary in 2015 is remarkable. It is certainly infinitely more impressive than what history has dealt to music composed fifty years ago in 1965. More about that later… 

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