EJ Moeran

[cilgwyn]

I'm currently enjoying this cd. Another great cover photo,too!


It's interesting to be reminded that I was enjoying listening to a cd of a mewing kitten!

[Mirror Image]

Be aware John that the soloist on this Lyrita release is Moeran's widow. By the time she made the recording she was no longer performing regularly in concert and therefore her playing is not as polished as the recordings on Chandos and Naxos. Having said that there is a humanity about this performance which, in my eyes, elevates it above all those version. You might be interested in my review of the CD on Amazon UK and the comment by Peter Gage below it. This is, along with the symphony, Moeran's greatest work:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/E-Moeran-Cello-Concerto-Sonata-x/dp/B00165QOSK/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1485246164&sr=1-1&keywords=Moeran+coetmore

[asin]B00165QOSK[/asin]

I've added the cover image to the Lyrita CD (above).
I find the picture very poignant. Moeran was a troubled man probably due to having shrapnel in his head from the First World War. His friendship with  the composer Peter Warlock didn't do him any good either. He married late in life to the cellist Piers Coetmore, the soloist on the Lyrita recording. The relationship was also troubled and the marriage was not especially happy - they spent long periods apart as she was touring frequently. I find the photo moving because although they are holding hands you get a sense, I think, that all is not well from the body language and facial expressions - like they are close but not close. The fact that it is a black and white photo in a bleak moorland landscape ( where I suspect Moeran felt most at home) only adds to it. Maybe I'm retrospectively reading things into it which were not there. Anyway, I love the CD - greatest, though least polished performance of the Cello Concerto and find the climax of the last movement to be overwhelming. Boult's accompaniment is also wonderful - a truly great disc.

Thanks for the information and feedback, Jeffrey. I'm not too worried about a performance being that polished whenever the emotional commitment from the soloist is much more attention-grabbing. I didn't know Coetmore was his wife. Interesting.

[vandermolen]

Thanks for the information and feedback, Jeffrey. I'm not too worried about a performance being that polished whenever the emotional commitment from the soloist is much more attention-grabbing. I didn't know Coetmore was his wife. Interesting.

Both the other works on the CD are very good too John. Moeran regarded the Cello Sonata as the final statement of his musical beliefs

[vandermolen]

I'm currently enjoying this cd. Another great cover photo,too!

A great CD in all respects. I especially like 'In the Mountain Country'.

[vandermolen]

Enjoying Moeran's life-affirming 'Sinfonietta' from this splendid collection. Really, he should have called it Symphony 2:
[asin]B01H5GE0R0[/asin]

[SymphonicAddict]

Enjoying Moeran's life-affirming 'Sinfonietta' from this splendid collection. Really, he should have called it Symphony 2:
[asin]B01H5GE0R0[/asin]

Count me as another fan of that sparkling work. The only recording I have is this one:



My favorite movement is the 2nd (the variations). There is an unforgettable melody which delights me over and over again.

[vandermolen]

Count me as another fan of that sparkling work. The only recording I have is this one:



My favorite movement is the 2nd (the variations). There is an unforgettable melody which delights me over and over again.

I love the whole work Cesar and have every recording I think 

Let me see:

Boult Lyrita (the best I think)
BBC Radio Classics (Boult)
Naxos (Lloyd Jones)
Somm (Beecham)
Del Mar (Chandos)
Hickox (EMI)

They are all good in different ways.

[SymphonicAddict]

I love the whole work Cesar and have every recording I think 

Let me see:

Boult Lyrita (the best I think)
BBC Radio Classics (Boult)
Naxos (Lloyd Jones)
Somm (Beecham)
Del Mar (Chandos)
Hickox (EMI)

They are all good in different ways.

Please, don't get me wrong. I do also love the whole work. It's just that melody is really special to me 

In fact, I'm thinking in getting the Boult one. It is paired with the Symphony, isn't it?

[Baron Scarpia]

I think I have the Sinfonietta by Hickox and the Symphony by Handley. Don't recall having listened.

[SymphonicAddict]

I think I have the Sinfonietta by Hickox and the Symphony by Handley. Don't recall having listened.

It would be good you give them a spin. Those works are wonderful.

[vandermolen]

Please, don't get me wrong. I do also love the whole work. It's just that melody is really special to me 

In fact, I'm thinking in getting the Boult one. It is paired with the Symphony, isn't it?

I realised that you liked it all Cesar. My post didn't come out as I intended. Yes, on Lyrita - a wonderful CD.

[Oates]

I realised that you liked it all Cesar. My post didn't come out as I intended. Yes, on Lyrita - a wonderful CD.

Much as I value Boult's brilliant version of the symphony, I don't think the Lyrita releases capture the 3 rhapsodies as well as Vernon Handley does on Chandos.

[vandermolen]

Much as I value Boult's brilliant version of the symphony, I don't think the Lyrita releases capture the 3 rhapsodies as well as Vernon Handley does on Chandos.

Interesting point although I much prefer Boult's version of the symphony to Handley's, strong as that is. Actually the version by Neville Dilkes is my favourite recording of the symphony (also Heward).

[kyjo]

Moeran has become a real favorite of mine recently. Particularly the epic Symphony in G minor and the hauntingly lyrical Cello Concerto, but also the invogorating Sinfonietta, colorful Rhapsodies, and folksy String Quartet no. 1. Not unlike RVW, Moeran's music has an immensely appealing combination of Sibelian power and atmosphere, English folk influences, and emotional pathos.

[vandermolen]

Moeran has become a real favorite of mine recently. Particularly the epic Symphony in G minor and the hauntingly lyrical Cello Concerto, but also the invogorating Sinfonietta, colorful Rhapsodies, and folksy String Quartet no. 1. Not unlike RVW, Moeran's music has an immensely appealing combination of Sibelian power and atmosphere, English folk influences, and emotional pathos.

There's a really nice Cello Sonata as well Kyle.

[SymphonicAddict]

I realised that you liked it all Cesar. My post didn't come out as I intended. Yes, on Lyrita - a wonderful CD.

No problem 

Thank you Jeffrey. I'm gonna acquire it, perhaps next month.

[SymphonicAddict]

I share your tastes about those works. Additionally, I like the Violin sonata, the Violin concerto, the 2 string quartets, the piano trio, the string trio, Nocturne for baritone, chorus and orchestra and the completed 2nd Symphony in E flat major. There definitely are more works to discover yet. Regarding the Cello sonata, I find it a bit dry. I suppose I need to appreciate it better.

[vandermolen]

No problem 

Thank you Jeffrey. I'm gonna acquire it, perhaps next month.

I'm sure that you wont regret it Cesar.

[calyptorhynchus]

I only just found out that Moeran's solo songs had been recorded (on Chandos). Have ordered them. Has anyone else had a listen?

[calyptorhynchus]

Ok, so the solo songs arrived a few days ago and I have been listening to them.

A great disappointment  (perhaps why I hadn't heard about the disks, no one was raving about them!)

Anyway, they are not very good, definitely not up to the level of the orchestral and chamber works, or even the folk-song settings. Moeran doesn't seem to have had much literary discernment as the poems he chose were mostly quite poor, and those that weren't (Shakespeare songs &c) challenge comparison with better settings and come off worse. And his vocal lines are very unmemorable and non-inevitable... you know how a really great song-setting convinces you that it couldn't have been set any other way and has you singing it to yourself afterwards? Well, there aren't any like that.

again