10 favourite British Composers

Started by ComposerOfAvantGarde, July 19, 2016, 08:06:15 PM

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Mirror Image

Here's my list and I'm not sure if I can do 10, but we'll see...(in no particular order):

Vaughan Williams
Elgar
Walton
Britten
Arnold
Tippett
Holst
Alwyn

Okay, that's about it.

foxandpeng

This is really quite difficult. I understand that I have glaring omissions, but I can only speak to what I know and like. Other composers dip in and out here, but these tend to be those moat played and appreciated in the last months. No order, really.

Arnell
Lloyd (George)
Tippett
Bax
RVW
Arnold
Rubbra
Gál
Sawyers
David Matthews

Bantock
Parry
Stanford
"A quiet secluded life in the country, with the possibility of being useful to people ... then work which one hopes may be of some use; then rest, nature, books, music, love for one's neighbour — such is my idea of happiness"

Tolstoy

relm1

I was going to add my thoughts in this thread, but then I realized, I already have a few years ago.  So here is my response pasted from then.  ;D

Ralph Vaughan Williams
Benjamin Britten
Edward Elgar
Arnold Bax
Derek Bourgeois
John Pickard
Gustav Holst
Michael Tippett
Havergal Brian
William Walton

Honorable Mention:
Grace Williams
George Butterworth
Arthur Butterworth
Edgar Bainton
George Lloyd
Thomas Ades
William Alwyn

vers la flamme

Let me give it a shot...

John Dowland (number one, with a bullet)
Ralph Vaughan Williams
Malcolm Arnold
Frederick Delius
Benjamin Britten
Gustav Holst
William Byrd
Henry Purcell
Walter Frye
William Alwyn
Thomas Tallis

Roughly, not strictly, preferential order. There's still much I have yet to hear too so, subject to change.

krummholz

I'm not sure that I know 10 British composers! But here is my list, in (roughly) descending preference order...

Havergal Brian
Ralph Vaughan Williams (though I rarely listen to him anymore)
Robert Simpson
Sir Michael Tippett
Elizabeth Maconchy

Does George Frederick Handel count? He was originally German, though he lived and wrote most of his works in England. He's be in there near the top. But off hand, I can't think of any others that I know well enough to "rate" in my pantheon.

DavidW


kyjo

#126
In some sort of order:

Vaughan Williams
Lloyd
Bax
Arnold
Finzi
Walton
Elgar
Britten (I like his music more than I used to!)
Holst
Moeran
(11. Bliss)

.....and there are scores of lesser-known Brits whose music I enjoy very much!
"Music is enough for a lifetime, but a lifetime is not enough for music" - Sergei Rachmaninoff

kyjo

"Music is enough for a lifetime, but a lifetime is not enough for music" - Sergei Rachmaninoff

Mirror Image

Quote from: kyjo on September 07, 2021, 06:54:54 AMBritten (I like his music more than I used to!)

Great! What work(s) have changed your perception of his music?

kyjo

Quote from: Mirror Image on September 07, 2021, 07:28:16 AM
Great! What work(s) have changed your perception of his music?

There are many! Specifically his String Quartet no. 2, Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge, Piano Concerto, Cello Sonata, Cello Suite no. 1, and Les Illuminations are all works of dizzyingly imaginative invention that I find really stimulating. I have yet to listen to any of his operas, which may be a bit of tougher nut to crack! ;)
"Music is enough for a lifetime, but a lifetime is not enough for music" - Sergei Rachmaninoff

Mirror Image

Quote from: kyjo on September 07, 2021, 07:52:35 AM
There are many! Specifically his String Quartet no. 2, Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge, Piano Concerto, Cello Sonata, Cello Suite no. 1, and Les Illuminations are all works of dizzyingly imaginative invention that I find really stimulating. I have yet to listen to any of his operas, which may be a bit of tougher nut to crack! ;)

Excellent. Of the song cycles, Nocturne remains my favorite. Do you know it? How about Phaedra? Have you heard Diversions for piano left-hand and orchestra? No one talks about early Britten too often (for whatever reason), but I absolutely adore Sinfonietta and the Double Concerto. Of the operas, Death in Venice and The Turn of the Screw remain my favorites. I do like Peter Grimes, but I'm probably in the minority when I say it's not a work I listen to that often.

kyjo

Quote from: Mirror Image on September 07, 2021, 09:28:19 AM
Excellent. Of the song cycles, Nocturne remains my favorite. Do you know it? How about Phaedra? Have you heard Diversions for piano left-hand and orchestra? No one talks about early Britten too often (for whatever reason), but I absolutely adore Sinfonietta and the Double Concerto. Of the operas, Death in Venice and The Turn of the Screw remain my favorites. I do like Peter Grimes, but I'm probably in the minority when I say it's not a work I listen to that often.

It's been ages since I've heard Nocturne or the Diversions, and I don't believe I've ever heard Phaedra. Count me in as another who loves his early works - the Double Concerto and Sinfonietta are firm favorites of mine, as is Young Apollo. There's such spark and wit in these works! I've certainly heard great things about Death in Venice and The Turn of the Screw.
"Music is enough for a lifetime, but a lifetime is not enough for music" - Sergei Rachmaninoff

Mirror Image

Quote from: kyjo on September 07, 2021, 09:47:52 AM
It's been ages since I've heard Nocturne or the Diversions, and I don't believe I've ever heard Phaedra. Count me in as another who loves his early works - the Double Concerto and Sinfonietta are firm favorites of mine, as is Young Apollo. There's such spark and wit in these works! I've certainly heard great things about Death in Venice and The Turn of the Screw.

I think you'll enjoy Phaedra. It's one of his last works and was written for Janet Baker. Her performance with Britten at the helm is legendary. Of the concerti, the Violin Concerto is really the only one I haven't had a 'lightbulb' moment with yet. Maybe one day. The two afore mentioned operas are darkly psychological and twisted, but the music is glorious. The orchestration alone in Death in Venice is incredible.

kyjo

Quote from: Mirror Image on September 07, 2021, 09:51:43 AM
I think you'll enjoy Phaedra. It's one of his last works and was written for Janet Baker. Her performance with Britten at the helm is legendary. Of the concerti, the Violin Concerto is really the only one I haven't had a 'lightbulb' moment with yet. Maybe one day. The two afore mentioned operas are darkly psychological and twisted, but the music is glorious. The orchestration alone in Death in Venice is incredible.

Interesting, I would think the VC would be right up your alley! ;) It's such a haunting and ultimately devastating work - the deeply ambiguous ending never fails to give me chills. I would recommend other recordings besides the Lubotsky/Britten one on Decca, btw.
"Music is enough for a lifetime, but a lifetime is not enough for music" - Sergei Rachmaninoff

Mirror Image

Quote from: kyjo on September 08, 2021, 07:25:35 AM
Interesting, I would think the VC would be right up your alley! ;) It's such a haunting and ultimately devastating work - the deeply ambiguous ending never fails to give me chills. I would recommend other recordings besides the Lubotsky/Britten one on Decca, btw.

Yeah, I didn't think much of the Lubotsky/Britten performance. I do like the Marwood/Volkov on Hyperion and Jansen/Järvi on Decca. I'm not sure what it is about this VC, but I need to give it a fresh listen.

Pohjolas Daughter

Quote from: kyjo on September 08, 2021, 07:25:35 AM
Interesting, I would think the VC would be right up your alley! ;) It's such a haunting and ultimately devastating work - the deeply ambiguous ending never fails to give me chills. I would recommend other recordings besides the Lubotsky/Britten one on Decca, btw.

Quote from: Mirror Image on September 08, 2021, 07:29:56 AM
Yeah, I didn't think much of the Lubotsky/Britten performance. I do like the Marwood/Volkov on Hyperion and Jansen/Järvi on Decca. I'm not sure what it is about this VC, but I need to give it a fresh listen.

Interesting, I just clicked on the first link that came up (or recognized the name Janine Jansen) and there's a wonderful video performance of her from the 2013 Proms with P. Jarvi and the Orchestre de Paris.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDTIae06t6Y  I suspect that it would be fiendishly difficult to play?

PD
Pohjolas Daughter

Roasted Swan

Quote from: kyjo on September 08, 2021, 07:25:35 AM
Interesting, I would think the VC would be right up your alley! ;) It's such a haunting and ultimately devastating work - the deeply ambiguous ending never fails to give me chills. I would recommend other recordings besides the Lubotsky/Britten one on Decca, btw.

+1 for the Violin Concerto - easily my favourite Britten concerted work.  The old Haendel/Berglund/BSO is great.

Pohjolas Daughter

Quote from: Roasted Swan on September 08, 2021, 08:10:06 AM
+1 for the Violin Concerto - easily my favourite Britten concerted work.  The old Haendel/Berglund/BSO is great.
I'll have to give that a listen.  I was enjoying the Janine Jansen youtube video and down to the last 10 minutes, when a friend that I hadn't spoken to in ages called me, so I think that I'll start again from the beginning.

May I ask whether or not you have either watched the video (link on previous posting) or heard her recording of it RS?  If so, how do you think that it compares?

PD
Pohjolas Daughter

vandermolen

Today's List:

VW
Alwyn
Arnold
Arnell
Bax
Bliss
Walton
Bridge
Rootham
Holst
"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).

VonStupp

#139
Benjamin Britten
George Dyson
Gustav Holst
Edward Elgar
Ralph Vaughan Williams
William Walton
Herbert Howells
John Foulds
William Mathias
Cornelius Cardew

I was an early-music-o-phile as a young man, but I don't get to the Renaissance and Baroque Eras much anymore. I do, however, have preferences from these fellows after eons of singing and playing their music, so PLEASE excuse my cheat:
Henry Purcell
Thomas Tallis
William Byrd
John Dowland
Thomas Weelkes
Orlando Gibbons
Thomas Morley
John Tave(r)ner (I forget which is which, but the older one)
Christopher Tye
John Farmer
"All the good music has already been written by people with wigs and stuff."