Sir Granville Bantock And The Exotic

[Superhorn]

  I've been getting a most welcome exposure to the colorful,exotic and fanciful music of the little-known but fascinating Scottish composer Sir Granville Bantock (1868-1946), who might be described as the English Richard Strauss, his close contemporary.
  My local library recent aquired the superb 6 CD Hyperion set of Batock's orchestral music, as well as the massive 3-hour oratorio Omar Khayyam on Chandos, both conducted by the late,lamented Vernon Handley,that tireless champion of neglected British music.
   It's only in the past 20 years or so that Bantock's music has been revived on recordings after a long period of almost total neglect,  Unfortunately,live performances are still non-eixstent.
  In his lifetime,Bantock was a prominent and greatly admired figure in English music,and his music was championed by Sir Thomas Beecham and other leading English composers. But after his death, it fell into oblivion.
  Apparently, Bantock's reputation was limited entirely to England.  Elgar,Vaughan Williams and other leading English composers admired him greatly.
   Bantock was drawn to the exotic ,and much of his music was inspired by Celtic folklore and legend , as well as middle eastern folklore .  He was a superb orchestrator, and his music has something of the sumptuousness and vivid colors of Strauss, as well as often calling for massive orchestras. 
   His works have such fanciful titles as "A Hebridean Symphony",Celtic Symphony", "Thalaba The Destroyer",
  "Omar Khayyam", "Fifine At The Fair, ", "Sapphic Poem" etc.  Bantock certainly had a vivid imagination.
   Among his eccentricities was to wear authentic Arab dress at times ! 
     So all praise to the late Vernon Handley for his championship of this unjustly neglected composer.  Unfortunately, he never recieved the Knighthood he richly deserved,  Do try these two sets.
   
   

[Lethevich]

He's an excellent composer, and was a great musical figure of his time (a selfless conductor in promoting others rather than his own music, for example). I imagine him as standing somewhere between Stanford and Rimsky Korsakov in style and interests. I cannot praise certain pieces enough (the Celtic Symphony, Hebridean Symphony, Sapphic Poem, Witch of Atlas, Fifine at the Fair - even smaller works like the Heroic Ballads and Sea Rievers pack a huge punch). While I am not one for the style of music but tend to find myself startled at the quality and consistency of Omar Khayyám. He also wrote very fine songs and worthy chamber music recorded on Dutton.

My main gripe with him is that he has those hits, but other works of equal substance (time-wise, effort-wise) don't seem to catch fire as much as the major discoveries - these works include some of the "tail end" recordings in the Hyperion series.

But at his best Bantock writes magnificent orchestral showpieces, full of atmosphere, colour and with an exceptional craft. I don't want to drag other composers in here to draw attention away from him, but I'm a somewhat immature listener and so much of my musical description relies on comparisons with others: those frustrated by Bax's extended symphonic structures and rich scoring could find much to love in Bantock's music - it is warmly Romantic but never becomes structurally vague. It's never quite as conservative as one might imagine - I initially saw him as a Stanford/Parry-like figure until I actually listened to the music. I can see why Sibelius liked it.

[Grazioso]

That's funny: I was going to recommend the roughly contemporary Bax because of his fondness for mythic and Celtic subjects. That sort of thing was widespread in Victorian and Edwardian art, and for some, it died hard.

[vandermolen]

Bantock was the dedicatee of Sibelius's Third Symphony - an indication of the high esteem in which he was held.

Nice painting of The Lady of Shalott (the subject of a ballet by Bliss) - although she does look like a 1960s hippie girl 

[cilgwyn]

I remember those paintings from my childhood copies of Arthur Mee's c 1920's & once famous 'Childrens Encyclopedia'. I began to  think people in olden times actually looked like that!

[Scarpia]

I remember those paintings from my childhood copies of Arthur Mee's c 1920's & once famous 'Childrens Encyclopedia'. I began to  think people in olden times actually looked like that!

C'mon, those Waterhouse paintings were just an excuse to paint the char woman's daughter with no clothes on.