sir Malcolm Arnold

Started by Thom, April 12, 2007, 10:28:13 AM

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Roasted Swan

Quote from: Papy Oli on December 05, 2022, 04:56:57 AMThank you for the heads-up, @Carshot  I'll have to stream that one, given how much I love the first Gamba volume posted by @Roasted Swan . I remember liking the Padstow Lifeboat in the Conifer set already.

The Confier/Padstow Lifeboat is the original Brass Band version and is - as you say - great fun.  Gavin Sutherland recorded the orchestral arrangement by Phillip Lane on the ASV/British Light Music Classics series Vol.4



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59gdlfJ4nLs

Papy Oli

Quote from: Roasted Swan on December 05, 2022, 07:09:53 AMThe Confier/Padstow Lifeboat is the original Brass Band version and is - as you say - great fun.  Gavin Sutherland recorded the orchestral arrangement by Phillip Lane on the ASV/British Light Music Classics series Vol.4



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59gdlfJ4nLs


Thank you RS, I'll check that version.  :)
Olivier

Papy Oli

Quote from: Roasted Swan on December 05, 2022, 07:09:53 AMGavin Sutherland recorded the orchestral arrangement by Phillip Lane on the ASV/British Light Music Classics series Vol.4



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59gdlfJ4nLs


What's not to love, Malcolm at his bonkers-est! You can't tell me that's not fun for an orchestra to play this, that would almost make Rick Stein less grumpy !!

I might have just decided chosen my final music to be played at my funeral , carried out by wobbly pallbearers...  ;D
Olivier

Roasted Swan

Quote from: Papy Oli on December 05, 2022, 07:37:54 AMWhat's not to love, Malcolm at his bonkers-est! You can't tell me that's not fun for an orchestra to play this, that would almost make Rick Stein less grumpy !!

I might have just decided chosen my final music to be played at my funeral , carried out by wobbly pallbearers...  ;D

If they drop you is that "man overboard...."

Papy Oli

Quote from: Roasted Swan on December 05, 2022, 12:42:43 PMIf they drop you is that "man overboard...."

Oh buoy...

It's a classical work that can allow some loud coffin, I guess...;D  >:(
Olivier

relm1

I very much enjoyed this new release from Chandos.  Great sound and performances plus I think some rarities such as Arnold's earliest symphonic poem, The Larch Trees, op. 3.  Philharmonic Concerto, Op.120, is exciting and dramatic work, a concerto for orchestra.


Albion

Quote from: relm1 on January 12, 2023, 05:47:32 AMI very much enjoyed this new release from Chandos.  Great sound and performances plus I think some rarities such as Arnold's earliest symphonic poem, The Larch Trees, op. 3.  Philharmonic Concerto, Op.120, is exciting and dramatic work, a concerto for orchestra.



Rumon Gamba has generally proved to be an excellent Arnold conductor, especially in the overtures and ballets for Chandos, so it's great to see him doing more. His 2001 broadcasts of the first six symphonies are great, but he was less convincing in the commercial recordings of 7-9: the 7th in particular is just frantically fast to the point where the first movement has no coherence. It's such a pity that Richard Hickox gave up after the 6th, as I suspect that he could have really got into the 7th, but he apparently had no empathy for the later scores...

 ::)
A piece is worth your attention, and is itself for you praiseworthy, if it makes you feel you have not wasted your time over it. (SG, 1922)

vandermolen

I'm currently enjoying this excellent CD (recently reissued on Alto)
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

Albion

Quote from: vandermolen on January 12, 2023, 06:43:58 AMI'm currently enjoying this excellent CD (recently reissued on Alto)


Douglas Bostock is SERIOUSLY underrated. The repertoire he recorded for ClassicO has now vanished into the mist. He gave a fabulous performance of Bantock's "Pagan Symphony" (search Youtube) and now seems to have aligned himself with CPO to very good effect. As with Howard Griffiths, Bostock gets zero respect and recognition in the UK because his career is abroad...

 ::)
A piece is worth your attention, and is itself for you praiseworthy, if it makes you feel you have not wasted your time over it. (SG, 1922)

Roasted Swan

Quote from: Albion on January 12, 2023, 08:41:02 AMDouglas Bostock is SERIOUSLY underrated. The repertoire he recorded for ClassicO has now vanished into the mist. He gave a fabulous performance of Bantock's "Pagan Symphony" (search Youtube) and now seems to have aligned himself with CPO to very good effect. As with Howard Griffiths, Bostock gets zero respect and recognition in the UK because his career is abroad...

 ::)

We'll have to agree to disagree about Bostock!  Clearly a passionate and dedicated musician who cares deeply about the music he performs but I cannot think of a single example (I don't know his Pagan Symphony) where his versions are not trumped by other performances.  The new Arnold Divertimento is a case in point - his Classico version is perfectly good - perhaps even very good.  But then you hear the new Gamba and bluntly put that is better.  Bostock is a perfect example of the great being the enemy of the good.  His Novak disc is lovely.... but I've never heard a different version.........

Not strictly true about his British music ClassicO discs - 10 are included in the Membran set still available......

Albion

#730
Quote from: Roasted Swan on January 12, 2023, 10:13:14 AMWe'll have to agree to disagree about Bostock!  Clearly a passionate and dedicated musician who cares deeply about the music he performs but I cannot think of a single example (I don't know his Pagan Symphony) where his versions are not trumped by other performances.  The new Arnold Divertimento is a case in point - his Classico version is perfectly good - perhaps even very good.  But then you hear the new Gamba and bluntly put that is better.  Bostock is a perfect example of the great being the enemy of the good.  His Novak disc is lovely.... but I've never heard a different version.........

Not strictly true about his British music ClassicO discs - 10 are included in the Membran set still available......

Membran dropped several key recordings including the Potter/ Bennett, Bowen and the choral disc which included Dyson, Brian and Bridge. Plus it was a bargain-bin issue with not a booklet note in sight. Bloody shoddy! Here is Bostock's "Pagan Symphony"...

https://www.mediafire.com/file/mguxupua9u7uxe2/Bantock_-_Pagan_Symphony_%25281923-28%2529_-_Bostock.mp3/file

 :)

His new (so far three volume) string orchestra discs for CPO are glorious, especially in Bantock's "In the Far West" and "Scenes from the Scottish Highlands".
A piece is worth your attention, and is itself for you praiseworthy, if it makes you feel you have not wasted your time over it. (SG, 1922)

Roasted Swan

Quote from: Albion on January 12, 2023, 01:18:43 PMMembran dropped several key recordings including the Potter/ Bennett, Bowen and the choral disc which included Dyson, Brian and Bridge. Plus it was a bargain-bin issue with not a booklet note in sight. Bloody shoddy! Here is Bostock's "Pagan Symphony"...

https://www.mediafire.com/file/mguxupua9u7uxe2/Bantock_-_Pagan_Symphony_%25281923-28%2529_-_Bostock.mp3/file

 :)

His new (so far three volume) string orchestra discs for CPO are glorious, especially in Bantock's "In the Far West" and "Scenes from the Scottish Highlands".

I enjoyed Vol.1 of the CPO series - well played by the small (14 strong) orchestra but I thought the transcription of the Elgar Organ Sonata pretty much a failure in every respect musically.  Well played but a pointless transcription that added nothing to our knowledge or appreciation of the work (no fault of Bostock or his band mind).  I haven't heard the Bantock disc.  Vol.3 interests me more although Ethel Smyth does little for me and the COnstance Warren is charming but minor.

Albion

#732
Quote from: Roasted Swan on January 12, 2023, 01:53:30 PMI enjoyed Vol.1 of the CPO series - well played by the small (14 strong) orchestra but I thought the transcription of the Elgar Organ Sonata pretty much a failure in every respect musically.  Well played but a pointless transcription that added nothing to our knowledge or appreciation of the work (no fault of Bostock or his band mind).  I haven't heard the Bantock disc.  Vol.3 interests me more although Ethel Smyth does little for me and the COnstance Warren is charming but minor.

Neither the Mass nor "The Wreckers"?

https://www.mediafire.com/file/bh7iq7bj2jdsppd/Smyth_-_Mass_in_D_%25281891%2529_-_Oramo_2022.mp3/file

https://www.mediafire.com/file/tcs77jckj6jrs0e/Smyth_-_The_Wreckers_%25281906%2529_-_Botstein_2015.mp3/file
???

Yes, Gordon Jacob's wonderful orchestration of the Elgar Organ Sonata was and remains more than sufficient...
A piece is worth your attention, and is itself for you praiseworthy, if it makes you feel you have not wasted your time over it. (SG, 1922)

Roasted Swan

Quote from: Albion on January 12, 2023, 03:36:26 PMNeither the Mass nor "The Wreckers"?

https://www.mediafire.com/file/bh7iq7bj2jdsppd/Smyth_-_Mass_in_D_%25281891%2529_-_Oramo_2022.mp3/file

https://www.mediafire.com/file/tcs77jckj6jrs0e/Smyth_-_The_Wreckers_%25281906%2529_-_Botstein_2015.mp3/file
???

Yes, Gordon Jacob's wonderful orchestration of the Elgar Organ Sonata was and remains more than sufficient...

By no means do I think either work is "bad" and neither do I think it a pre-requisite that musicmust be original/mould-breaking.  BUT I find Ethel Smyth to be a musical conservative who - at the time of any given composition - is distinctly 2nd tier.  There is something I find intriguing in someone who in so much of their life tested boundaries and challenged convention but in the thing they cared about most - music - they were essentially conservative.  Now there are a lot of very fine second tier composers so no issue with that, but just to take the two famous British composers born either side of Smyth - Elgar in 1857 and Delius in 1862; I would take a bar of hard-won genius in early Elgar over the solid Leipzig-certainties of the Mass or the flawed magic of A Village Romeo and Juliet over the earth-bound Wreckers.

Irons

Quote from: Albion on January 12, 2023, 08:41:02 AMDouglas Bostock is SERIOUSLY underrated. The repertoire he recorded for ClassicO has now vanished into the mist. He gave a fabulous performance of Bantock's "Pagan Symphony" (search Youtube) and now seems to have aligned himself with CPO to very good effect. As with Howard Griffiths, Bostock gets zero respect and recognition in the UK because his career is abroad...

 ::)

Have you listened to this Bostock issue? I'm tempted.
You must have a very good opinion of yourself to write a symphony - John Ireland.

I opened the door people rushed through and I was left holding the knob - Bo Diddley.

Albion

Quote from: Irons on January 13, 2023, 12:48:25 AMHave you listened to this Bostock issue? I'm tempted.

It's a very good alternative to the Chandos recording of Gipps' symphony No.2 and anything by Arthur Butterworth is always a bonus. This was one of the discs that made it into the Membran reissue, but if you can get the original release you get booklet notes!
A piece is worth your attention, and is itself for you praiseworthy, if it makes you feel you have not wasted your time over it. (SG, 1922)

Albion

Quote from: Roasted Swan on January 12, 2023, 11:10:59 PMBy no means do I think either work is "bad" and neither do I think it a pre-requisite that musicmust be original/mould-breaking.  BUT I find Ethel Smyth to be a musical conservative who - at the time of any given composition - is distinctly 2nd tier.  There is something I find intriguing in someone who in so much of their life tested boundaries and challenged convention but in the thing they cared about most - music - they were essentially conservative.  Now there are a lot of very fine second tier composers so no issue with that, but just to take the two famous British composers born either side of Smyth - Elgar in 1857 and Delius in 1862; I would take a bar of hard-won genius in early Elgar over the solid Leipzig-certainties of the Mass or the flawed magic of A Village Romeo and Juliet over the earth-bound Wreckers.

Fair points. When it comes to late 19th and early 20th century British music there was such a wealth and variety on offer: Sullivan, Mackenzie, Parry, Goring Thomas, Cowen, Stanford, Elgar, Smyth, Delius, German, Bantock, Vaughan Williams, Holst, Coleridge-Taylor, Hurlstone, Boughton, Holbrooke, Scott, Foulds, Berners, Bax, etc. Smyth was essentially conservative and remained so, as in her late Double Concerto and The Prison, but I find her music always interesting, melodic and beautifully scored. Although she was not the "big player" that some have claimed she was certainly not insignificant: anybody who could whip the parts from the orchestra's music stands after The Wreckers had been savagely cut in Leipzig and simply clear off with them, terrify Thomas Beecham and sing her Mass to Queen Victoria at the piano deserves some kudos...

 ;)
A piece is worth your attention, and is itself for you praiseworthy, if it makes you feel you have not wasted your time over it. (SG, 1922)

Roasted Swan

Quote from: Albion on January 13, 2023, 02:18:02 AMFair points. When it comes to late 19th and early 20th century British music there was such a wealth and variety on offer: Sullivan, Mackenzie, Parry, Goring Thomas, Cowen, Stanford, Elgar, Smyth, Delius, German, Bantock, Vaughan Williams, Holst, Coleridge-Taylor, Hurlstone, Boughton, Holbrooke, Scott, Foulds, Berners, Bax, etc. Smyth was essentially conservative and remained so, as in her late Double Concerto and The Prison, but I find her music always interesting, melodic and beautifully scored. Although she was not the "big player" that some have claimed she was certainly not insignificant: anybody who could whip the parts from the orchestra's music stands after The Wreckers had been savagely cut in Leipzig and simply clear off with them, terrify Thomas Beecham and sing her Mass to Queen Victoria at the piano deserves some kudos...

 ;)

To the bold text - exactly so and well put!

vandermolen

Quote from: Irons on January 13, 2023, 12:48:25 AMHave you listened to this Bostock issue? I'm tempted.
Yes, it's a fine disc.
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

Maestro267

I have it as part of the 10-disc British Symphonic Collection (which includes a disc of Arnold, to keep it on topic for the thread) and the Bostock is my definitive Butterworth 1.