York Bowen

[Scion7]

Listening to the Violin Concerto Op.33 today at work, I was struck by how the motif's sounded like Brahms.  The development is not like that of Brahms, of course.

BOWEN-McAslan, Handley, BBC Concert Orchestra

[kyjo]

I have just been utterly blown away by Bowen's Viola Concerto! Much as I love the Walton, the Bowen has now surpassed it as my favorite viola concerto (granted, I don't know that many) and I'm baffled that it's not played much more often, considering the paucity of the viola repertoire. It's a sweeping, dramatic work with boundless energy, great tunes, and masterful writing for both soloist and orchestra. It's just such great fun! I can't imagine a more thrilling performance than that by Lawrence Power and the BBC Scottish SO under Martyn Brabbins:

[asin]B00095L8XE[/asin]

I know some fellow members with whom I generally share similar tastes (vandermolen, Mirror Image, cilgwyn, Dundonnell) aren't too enthusiastic about Bowen's music, but his Viola Concerto, along with his Piano Trio, have proven to be great discoveries. I would hardly claim that Bowen is a "great" composer, but his music is really enjoyable for me!

[vandermolen]

I have just been utterly blown away by Bowen's Viola Concerto! Much as I love the Walton, the Bowen has now surpassed it as my favorite viola concerto (granted, I don't know that many) and I'm baffled that it's not played much more often, considering the paucity of the viola repertoire. It's a sweeping, dramatic work with boundless energy, great tunes, and masterful writing for both soloist and orchestra. It's just such great fun! I can't imagine a more thrilling performance than that by Lawrence Power and the BBC Scottish SO under Martyn Brabbins:

[asin]B00095L8XE[/asin]

I know some fellow members with whom I generally share similar tastes (vandermolen, Mirror Image, cilgwyn, Dundonnell) aren't too enthusiastic about Bowen's music, but his Viola Concerto, along with his Piano Trio, have proven to be great discoveries. I would hardly claim that Bowen is a "great" composer, but his music is really enjoyable for me!

Clearly I need to listen to this work again. Thanks for the recommendation Kyle. I have the version on ASV.

[kyjo]

Clearly I need to listen to this work again. Thanks for the recommendation Kyle. I have the version on ASV.

No problem, Jeffrey. I would think that you'd like it, since I do, but we shall see!

[SymphonicAddict]

I've listened to all the concertos. The piano concertos 1-3 are good, the 4th piano concerto is so-so (more modern and rather Rachmaninovian), the violin and viola concertos are not that memorable, the Horn concerto is also good. I prefer the 2nd symphony in general regarding his works and his chamber music.

[Albion]

There ARE fans of York Bowen out there! His Symphony No.3, Op.137 (1951) was carelessly "lost" by the publisher De Wolfe. I visited their London office with a colleague many years ago and was amazed at their ignorance (they had managed to lose about half a dozen of his major late orchestral scores, along with all the performing material). Nevertheless, I have two vintage broadcasts (by Ian Whyte and Vilem Tausky) and a third (by Charles Groves) is at the British Library. I'm suggesting that this attractive work could be reconstructed (as many film scores have been from the soundtracks alone) and approached several conductors who have expressed an interest in the project. In the meantime, here are the broadcasts...

https://www.mediafire.com/folder/hjjaebl4ulyui/Bowen+-+Symphony+No.3,+Op.137+(1951)

 

[Scion7]

Yes, I am one of them.  He was quite adept at chamber music, too.

[Roasted Swan]

There ARE fans of York Bowen out there! His Symphony No.3, Op.137 (1951) was carelessly "lost" by the publisher De Wolfe. I visited their London office with a colleague many years ago and was amazed at their ignorance (they had managed to lose about half a dozen of his major late orchestral scores, along with all the performing material). Nevertheless, I have two vintage broadcasts (by Ian Whyte and Vilem Tausky) and a third (by Charles Groves) is at the British Library. I'm suggesting that this attractive work could be reconstructed (as many film scores have been from the soundtracks alone) and approached several conductors who have expressed an interest in the project. In the meantime, here are the broadcasts...

https://www.mediafire.com/folder/hjjaebl4ulyui/Bowen+-+Symphony+No.3,+Op.137+(1951)

 

In a sort of "defence" of De Wolfe - they were always a curious choice for a 'classical' composer as their background was much more in library music and/or more popular sheet-style publications.  There were so many small publishers in the UK (and elsewhere) between the Wars and immediately after that vast swathes of repertoire they published has been lost either when they stopped trading, were amalgamated into larger companies or simply stopped printing certain works.  There are nightmare stories of premises being emptied of stock with music going straight into rubbish skips.  My guess is that a set of parts and/or a score for Symphony 3 probably exists somewhere although of course it is unlikely they were published for sale so if the hire copies got junked  perhaps there are no extant performing materials......

[kyjo]

Count me in as a Bowen fan (at least of the works I've heard)! His style may be conservative but I rarely find it too "safe" or dull. His 2nd Symphony and Viola Concerto are particularly marvelous - full of great tunes, dramatic, and gloriously orchestrated. In essence, everything one would want in late-romantic orchestral music! I've also been highly impressed with some of his chamber works, particularly the Piano Trio in E minor, Phantasy Quintet for bass clarinet and strings, and Cello Sonata, which all display the same melodic generosity as the orchestral works. They can be found on these excellent CDs:



I've yet to hear any of Bowen's PCs or solo piano music, which I'm sure would prove quite enjoyable as well...

[Albion]

I've yet to hear any of Bowen's PCs or solo piano music, which I'm sure would prove quite enjoyable as well...

Get the fantastic four volume series by Joop Celis on Chandos, superbly played and beautifully recorded: these discs will give you pretty much everything that you could want and they have handily been repackaged in a single box (CHAN 10774) -



Celis is a great interpreter of Bowen and has a phenomenal technique (try the 24 Preludes, Op.102, which are definitely NOT for the faint-hearted). Nice packaging too and great booklet notes - these things are SO important!

Then add the Piano Concertos Nos. 1-3 which are on Dutton Epoch in great performances by Michael Dussek under Vernon Handley, plus you'll get a couple of other fine works namely the Violin Concerto and the Symphonic Fantasia. I personally wouldn't bother with the Hyperion RPC offering which includes No.4, not a very strong work IMHO.

[Roasted Swan]

Get the fantastic four volume series by Joop Celis on Chandos, superbly played and beautifully recorded: these discs will give you pretty much everything that you could want and they have handily been repackaged in a single box (CHAN 10774) -



Celis is a great interpreter of Bowen and has a phenomenal technique (try the 24 Preludes, Op.102, which are definitely NOT for the faint-hearted). Nice packaging too and great booklet notes - these things are SO important!

Then add the Piano Concertos Nos. 1-3 which are on Dutton Epoch in great performances by Michael Dussek under Vernon Handley, plus you'll get a couple of other fine works namely the Violin Concerto and the Symphonic Fantasia. I personally wouldn't bother with the Hyperion RPC offering which includes No.4, not a very strong work IMHO.

Absolutely agree re the Celis/Chandos survey but Hough's single disc selection on Hyperion is a good "taster" as well....

[Florestan]

There is also this:



which I enjoyed better than Celis in the Preludes. Celis is too percussive and staccato for my taste, Ortiz plays them more cantabile and legato.

[Albion]

Absolutely agree re the Celis/Chandos survey but Hough's single disc selection on Hyperion is a good "taster" as well....

Yep, is there nothing that Hough touches which doesn't turn to gold? If so, I've not heard it! As with Marc-Andre Hamelin and Steven Osborne (who I was at university in Manchester with back in the late 1980s, a lovely guy - I still have a photo of us both hanging off a mountain precipice on a tour of Spain) every release that they make is just self-recommending. They choose repertoire because they love the repertoire and really know how to sell it to the listener (if the listener hasn't keeled over with a coronary because of the sheer virtuosity)...

[Irons]

Not to be forgotten that York Bowen was a very fine pianist and interpreter of his own compositions.

[Albion]

Not to be forgotten that York Bowen was a very fine pianist and interpreter of his own compositions.

That's a very special recording on Lyrita, now thankfully reissued coupled with piano music by Franz Reizenstein on REAM2105 -



Besides the orchestral and concertante stuff Dutton did a really excellent series of discs featuring a considerable quantity of the chamber music, but almost all of their Bowen recordings have been deleted now and they're not a company which offers downloads or CDRs so grab them second-hand if you can find them.

 

This incredibly significant disc doesn't even appear on Dutton's website any more (CDLX 7263)



and another very important multi-composer disc has also been deleted (CDLX 7237) which contains the lovely score Eventide which by some miracle or other De Wolfe had not managed to "lose"



The company clearly still continues to plan ahead (as with Sullivan's "The Martyr of Antioch") but I wish that the wonderful repertoire which they have built up over the years wasn't allowed to fall into the abyss...

[Scion7]

I haven't looked, but are they available as downloads via Amazon, etc.?

[Albion]

I haven't looked, but are they available as downloads via Amazon, etc.?

Yes, several are available from Amazon but not directly from Dutton, so I don't know if you would get downloads of the booklets

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=york+bowen+dutton&rh=n%3A77197031&dc&ds=v1%3A1n%2FPgJJWbvzrWXi9S7dW5I6JAlANMe0wittahzL2Rro&qid=1671835450&rnid=1642204031&ref=sr_nr_n_8

I'm afraid that I'm a dinosaur and like an actual physical product (you can often pick them up on Amazon or ebay second-hand).

 

[Scion7]

So do I - but it is better than denying the customer totally.

[Albion]

So do I - but it is better than denying the customer totally.

Absolutely! I just wish that Dutton had a sensible policy of keeping their recordings available VIA THEIR OWN WEBSITE as do Chandos and Hyperion. I have 9 Dutton discs either devoted to Bowen or featuring him in multi-composer programmes. Now this was a serious investment on their part, so why not exploit it?

 

[Roasted Swan]

Dutton have a very curious/self-defeating policy regarding their back-catalogue I feel.  They have these occasional very good but under-publicised sales but generally they are loath to allow any of their material to ever have a mid-price release.  Hyperion were sensible accepting that older (but good) releases could reappear on their Helios label and likewise Chandos have regular "sales" of hard copy or downloads in a way that Dutton seemingly refuse to do.  Likewise while you can access some Dutton on streaming platforms such as Spotify they seem to have wholly ignored the market for good quality purchased downloads.  I think that is simply down to Mike Dutton himself not liking that format so not sanctioning the facility.  But again other hi-end labels have accepted that some folk are happy to pay decent money for downloads - why spite yourself to not provide that service. Conversely, the pursuit of re-releasing old licenced SQ recordings seems super-niche (even when the performances themselves are very fine)