Stanley Bate(1911-1959)

[vandermolen]

Where has this been recorded? I have seen the Arnold a few times on disk, but never Gordon Jacob's.

Colin is right - yes, sorry I meant the version for three hands. I have been pestering my contact at EMI to issue it on CD but no luck.  I know it from the LP - it was coupled with works by Arnold and Bliss, both of which made it to CD but the Jacob was left out in the cold  .

[vandermolen]

One of the most recorded,the Britten Piano Concerto,always strikes me as a bit too derivative & nowhere near as interesting as any of the concerto's you list,Vandermolen. And I write that as one who enjoys allot of Britten;but for some curious reason,only in his own recordings,albeit with a few exceptions.

After finishing the recent Holbrooke (Aucassin & Nicolette) cd from Dutton,which I really DO ACTUALLY enjoy,I tried another Holbrooke cd from my Holbrooke pile. Unfortunately,despite some felicitious touches,the inconsistencies of Holbrooke's muse,once more,raised their problematic heads & off it went!
NB: I DO like his Violin Sonata No3 in f 'Orientale' op 83 (1926),also on the Dutton label;coupled with Sonata's by Walford Davies,Rootham & a Sonatina by Benjamin. A nice disc of suprisingly enjoyable music. Holbrooke's Sonata is short & sweet,unlike some of his music. Though,I can't see anything  Oriental about it!

Back to Bate!

Thank you. I don't have much time for Britten I'm afraid - apart from the Sinfonia da Requiem, Sea Interludes and War Requiem - but opera remains something of a blind spot for me.  Must look out for Fricker Symphony No 3 - the ending of his Symphony No 2 is very exciting. Yes, back to Bate!

[Christo]

Nice slogan. Back to Bate. 

[vandermolen]

Nice slogan. Back to Bate. 

[cilgwyn]

Stanley not Norman (Bate..s!) of course!
I don't think Stanley had a motel,anyway!
But if he did,I might just have booked in!

[Dundonnell]

Stanley not Norman (Bate..s!) of course!
I don't think Stanley had a motel,anyway!
But if he did,I might just have booked in!

Sadly....I rather think that Stanley Bate, like Malcolm Arnold, would have been the last people one would have wished to find running any sort of establishment of that sort

[cilgwyn]

The film was an overrated bore,anyway! (No offence intended to AH admirers!!! I just think Hitchcock's earlier movies were better!)
More seriously,it's sad that so many talented composers find it so difficult to make money out of their music. Malcolm Arnold of course did his bit with film scores & very good he was too!
Havergal Brian seems to have done a bit of everything (back to HB thread,maybe,for this one!)

[Dundonnell]

I have raged in the pages of this forum on previous occasions about the declining standard of the reviews published in that formerly august publication "The Gramophone" but have still never actually got to the stage of making a decision to cancel my subscription- a subscription which I have maintained for 48 years.

The new(April) edition carries a review of the Bate/Reizenstein piano concertos release from Dutton. The review is written by Peter Dickinson, himself a distinguished composer, onetime Professor of Music at Keele University and elsewhere, and author of the standard text on the music of Sir Lennox Berkeley.

Dickinson devotes half of his review to telling his readers about the careers of the two composers, essentially summarising the content of the cd booklet notes. (One might have thought that in this day and age readers could be expected to find these sorts of details as readily on the internet and that what they really need is to be told about the music )

As to the music, this is what Dickinson writes:

"Stanley Bate has already had a good innings(with the previous releases from Dutton of his music, presumably)...........The Reizenstein is relentlessly energentic in the outer movements but, as a Hindemith pupil, he knew about continuity so the pace and the virtuosity never let up, except in a pleasantly cool if unmemorable slow movement. Bate's concerto is much less disciplined. His almost comic opening presages debts to Prokofiev; there's a meandering slow movement and a fizzing finale with stock-in-trade figurations. Agreeable mainstream stuff...."

and that's it. There is a further sentence about the performance which is called "truly outstanding".

This review has, finally, made up my mind for me If this is what passes for a serious review in Britain's oldest music magazine then that is a utter disgrace and a quite appalling insult to the memory of the generations of distinguished and erudite writers on music whose reviews graced the pages of the magazine throughout its 90 year history.

[cilgwyn]

It's awful! My only complaint about this months IRR was the tiny bit of grease that came from my cheese & onion sandwich & deposited itself at the top of one of the back pages. The ones with the opera reviews. Still,that was my fault!
  Also,niggling worries that the feature on Janaceks Glagolitic Mass,interesting as it is,might one day morph into Gramophone style features,spreading slowly through the ensuing pages like Japanese knotweed.
I just  want well written,well researched reviews. A few pages of articles,letters or reissue round ups at the beginning are allright,but no more than that! As to 'one minute interviews','If you like that you might like this' lists...'and 'My musical week' by Michael Portillo,Robert Mugabe or the Governor of the Bank of England? (Spot the odd one out!) Nooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!

[Lethevich]

Agreeable mainstream stuff...."

I am curious as to his definition of mainstream, given how unpopular this style is nowadays.

[The new erato]

I have raged in the pages of this forum on previous occasions about the declining standard of the reviews published in that formerly august publication "The Gramophone" but have still never actually got to the stage of making a decision to cancel my subscription- a subscription which I have maintained for 48 years.

The new(April) edition carries a review of the Bate/Reizenstein piano concertos release from Dutton. The review is written by Peter Dickinson, himself a distinguished composer, onetime Professor of Music at Keele University and elsewhere, and author of the standard text on the music of Sir Lennox Berkeley.

Dickinson devotes half of his review to telling his readers about the careers of the two composers, essentially summarising the content of the cd booklet notes. (One might have thought that in this day and age readers could be expected to find these sorts of details as readily on the internet and that what they really need is to be told about the music )

As to the music, this is what Dickinson writes:

"Stanley Bate has already had a good innings(with the previous releases from Dutton of his music, presumably)...........The Reizenstein is relentlessly energentic in the outer movements but, as a Hindemith pupil, he knew about continuity so the pace and the virtuosity never let up, except in a pleasantly cool if unmemorable slow movement. Bate's concerto is much less disciplined. His almost comic opening presages debts to Prokofiev; there's a meandering slow movement and a fizzing finale with stock-in-trade figurations. Agreeable mainstream stuff...."

and that's it. There is a further sentence about the performance which is called "truly outstanding".

This review has, finally, made up my mind for me If this is what passes for a serious review in Britain's oldest music magazine then that is a utter disgrace and a quite appalling insult to the memory of the generations of distinguished and erudite writers on music whose reviews graced the pages of the magazine throughout its 90 year history.

It was a similar stupid and uninformative panning of this disc (the quote is from newolde.com) that made me cancel my subscription a couple of years ago:

"Pietro Antonio Cesti (1623-1669). Le Disgrazie d'Amore (Vienna 1667). Hyperion CDA 67771/2 (2 CDs, January 2010). Details / Sleeve notes & libretto (pdf). Carlo Ipata, Auser Musici. Allegria: Cristiana Arcari, soprano; Venere: Maria Grazia Schiavo, soprano; Amicizia: Elena Cecchi Fedi, soprano; Amore: Paolo Lopez, sopranist; Adulazione: Gabriella Martellacci, contralto; Avarizia: Martín Oro, countertenor; Cortigiano: Francisco Ghelardini, countertenor: Inganno: Carlos Natale, tenor; Amante: Anicio Zorzi Guistiniani, tenor; Vulcano: Furio Zanasi, baritone; Bronte: Antonio Abete, bass; Sterope: Enea Sorini, bass; Piragmo: Luigi De Donato, bass. "[T]his set is not only an artistic triumph in its own right, but also one of the most important additions to the catalogue we're likely to see this year." Brian Robins, EMR 134:25 (February 2010). I agree. Indeed, this is one of the best recordings to date of a 17th Century Italian opera."

I have never missed the magazine or regretted the decision.

[cilgwyn]

In the end,it wasn't even good enough to stack next to the toilet!

[Scion7]

He became so depressed over his lack of recognition by the public, that he made plans to kill himself by a drug overdose.   

[Karl Henning]

He became so depressed over his lack of recognition by the public, that he made plans to kill himself by a drug overdose.   

It's a challenge, no denying it.

[Scion7]

I imagine there were other pressures - some sources say he was homosexual, but perhaps "bi" was a better term - he did marry twice, when he didn't have to . . . looking online at the news stories, his suicide did not make much of a ripple at the time.

[vandermolen]

Nice to see Bate back. His mother blamed lack of sleep but maybe she couldn't accept the alternative. Others have mentioned alcoholism.

[Scion7]

He wrote a number of chamber pieces - they apparently have not been recorded, for the most part:

Sonata, Op.11, for flute & piano, 1937;                              Str Qt No.2, Op.41, 1942;
5 Pieces, Op.23, string quartet, c1937;
                                                                                      Sonatina, Op.12, for recorder & piano, 1938;
Sonata No.1, Op.47, for violin & piano, 1946;
Sonata No.2, for violin & piano, 1950                                  Sonata, Op.52, for oboe & piano, 1946;

Fantasy, Op.56, for cello & piano, 1946–7;                          Pastorale, Op.57, for viola & piano, c1947;
Recitative, Op.52a, for cello & piano, 1946–7;

(incomplete list)

[Scion7]

It's a challenge, no denying it.

Karl, whatever happens over your music, don't go down the path of Master Bate.

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[vandermolen]

Karl, whatever happens over your music, don't go down the path of Master Bate.

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+1

[cilgwyn]

Nice to see Bate back. His mother blamed lack of sleep but maybe she couldn't accept the alternative. Others have mentioned alcoholism.

Alcohol and lack of sleep? I know the feeling!!