Granville Bantock (1868-1946)

Started by vandermolen, April 19, 2007, 04:30:33 AM

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vandermolen

I thought that Sir Granville Bantock (1868-1946) deserved a thread of his own.  I was just listening to Langgaard's Fourth Symphony (his best in my view) and a section reminded me of another composer and I realised it was Bantock's Hebridean Symphony (not that Langgaard could have heard it).

Bantock's Celtic, Hebridean and Pagan symphonies are all fine works.  I believe that he is a genuinely undeservedly neglected composer (like Langgaard), although both composers are now well represented on CD.

Any views on Bantock?
"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).

Catison

I love Bantock, but what the hell is a bouncy-room?  Maybe bath house, bar room, brothel, boat house, band hall, or break room.  Bantock's music is never bouncy.  It is always very sweet and thick.
-Brett

vandermolen

Quote from: Catison on April 19, 2007, 06:28:49 AM
I love Bantock, but what the hell is a bouncy-room?  Maybe bath house, bar room, brothel, boat house, band hall, or break room.  Bantock's music is never bouncy.  It is always very sweet and thick.

An excellent point! I've changed the title. Don't think Sir Granville would have liked "brothel" ;D
"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).

Harry

I have almost all the Hyperion recordings, and with reason, for his music is not only very accessible, but also highly melodic and mysterious. Bantock's thick scoring can be a problem with bad recordings, but in the case of the Hyperion recordings that is no problem.
He is much underrated.

vandermolen

Quote from: Harry on April 19, 2007, 07:05:02 AM
I have almost all the Hyperion recordings, and with reason, for his music is not only very accessible, but also highly melodic and mysterious. Bantock's thick scoring can be a problem with bad recordings, but in the case of the Hyperion recordings that is no problem.
He is much underrated.

Totally agree. I have all the Hyperions+an interesting BBC Radio Classics CD of Edward Downes doing the Pagan Symphony and an even more obscure CD with Boult performing the Hebridean Symphony with the BBC Scottish SO (Intaglio CD)
"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).

Hector

Great stuff heavily influenced by Tchaikovsky, sometimes more obvious than not.

We are promised a complete recording of 'Song of Songs' are we not?

The Pagan symphony for newbies and I always recommend that it is played loudly so that others can appreciate the composer's qualities!

He fell out of favour because he was considered out of date. Nowadays he sounds just fine.

A great find and thoroughly enjoyable.

vandermolen

He will be BBC Radio 3 Composer of the Week soon. One of my work colleagues conducted some of his choral music for the programme.
"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).

tjguitar

Just a heads-up for everyone, I just saw a bunch of the Hyperion Bantock CDs at broinc.com for only $6.99 (list price at amazon is $21.98.  I ordered Pagan Symphony from there months ago but they didn't have any of the other ones.  Finally get to here the Celtic Symphony that everyone raves about.

tjguitar

I heard Chandos is releasing the complete Omar Khayyam w/ Handley and the BBC Symphony on 3 discs this fall.....Nice to see Handley is continuing to record Bantock, even though the Hyperion series seems to have ended....

vandermolen

Quote from: tjguitar on May 17, 2007, 05:10:28 PM
I heard Chandos is releasing the complete Omar Khayyam w/ Handley and the BBC Symphony on 3 discs this fall.....Nice to see Handley is continuing to record Bantock, even though the Hyperion series seems to have ended....

That's v exciting news. Bantock is a significant figure, undesrevedly neglected. The Pagan, Hebriddean and celtic symphonies are great works, as is Symphony 3 "The Cyprian Goddess"
"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).

Montpellier

My introduction to this composer was Beecham's Fifine - very nice and somehow I've grown attached to this version against a more modern one I'm almost sure is on one of the Hyperion discs. 

Hector

Quote from: Anancho on July 01, 2007, 01:39:49 AM
My introduction to this composer was Beecham's Fifine - very nice and somehow I've grown attached to this version against a more modern one I'm almost sure is on one of the Hyperion discs. 

It is. Handley conducts and restores the cuts that Beecham made.

Thom

Marvellous music!



This one is a nice introduction, i think.

Mark

Quote from: XXXPawn on July 06, 2007, 02:10:47 AM
Marvellous music!



This one is a nice introduction, i think.

Heartily seconded. The Celtic Symphony in particular is a stunner.

vandermolen

Quote from: Mark on July 06, 2007, 02:52:44 AM
Heartily seconded. The Celtic Symphony in particular is a stunner.

best ever Bantock CD
"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).

tjguitar

New Bantock CD.  Anyone have it?





   Omar Khayyam    171:31
               The Ruba'iyat according to Edward Fitzgerald set to Music    
               for Three Solo Voices, Chorus, and Orchestra in Three Parts    
                  
               Principals:    
               The Beloved - Contralto    
               The Poet - Tenor    
               The Philosopher - Baritone    
               Chorus    
                  
               COMPACT DISC ONE    
               Part I (beginning)    
1       [Prelude -]    5:54
2       Chorus: 'Wake! For the Sun, who scattered into flight' -    2:08
3       Chorus: 'Before the phantom of false morning died' -    2:28
4       The Poet: 'And as the cock crew, those who stood before' -    2:20
5       The Poet: 'Now the new year reviving old desires' -    1:45
6       The Poet: 'Iram indeed is gone with all his rose' -    2:25
7       Chorus: 'Whether at Naishápúr or Babylon' -    2:14
8       The Beloved: 'Each morn a thousand roses brings, you say' -    1:34
9       The Poet: 'With me along the strip of herbage strown' -    6:49
10       Chorus: 'Some for the glories of this world; and some' -    2:06
11       The Beloved: 'Look to the blowing Rose about us - 'Lo''' -    1:32
12       Chorus: 'Think, in this battered caravanserai' -    2:09
13       The Poet: 'I sometimes think that never blows so red' -    1:59
14       The Poet: 'Ah, my Beloved, fill the cup that clears' -    1:55
15       Chorus: 'Ah, make the most of what we yet may spend' -    2:57
16       The Beloved: 'Alike for those who for To-day prepare' -    2:46
17       The Philosopher: 'Myself when young did eagerly frequent' -    2:33
18       Chorus: 'What, without asking, hither hurried Whence?' -    1:21
19       The Poet: 'Up from earth's centre through the seventh gate' -    2:51
20       Chorus: 'Earth could not answer; nor the seas that mourn' -    2:25
21       The Poet: 'Then of THEE IN ME who works behind' -    0:52
22       The Poet: 'Then to the lip of this poor earthen urn' -    2:34
23       The Philosopher: 'I think the vessel, that with fugitive'    2:23
                  58:14
               COMPACT DISC TWO    
               Part I (conclusion)    
1       The Beloved: 'As then the tulip for her morning sup' -    3:39
2       The Beloved: 'So when that Angel of the darker drink' -    2:18
3       Chorus: ''Tis but a tent where takes his one day's rest' -    2:32
4       The Beloved and the Poet: 'When you and I behind the veil are past' -    4:01
5       [Interlude:] The Desert -    1:35
6       The Caravan -    2:58
7       Chorus: 'A moment's halt - a momentary taste' -    3:35
8       The Philosopher: 'Would you that spangle of Existence spend' -    2:37
9       The Philosopher: 'A moment guessed - then back behind the fold' -    2:34
10       Chorus: 'Waste not your hour, nor in the vain pursuit' -    4:09
11       Chorus: 'Better be jocund with the fruitful grape'    2:59
                  
               Part II    
12       The Philosopher: 'You know, my Friends, with what a brave carouse' -    2:11
13       The Philosopher: 'Ah, but my computations, people say' -    1:40
14       The Philosopher and Chorus: 'and 'twas - the Grape!' -    2:42
               Chorus: 'The Grape that can with logic absolute' -    
15       Chorus: 'The mighty Mahmúd, Allah-breathing Lord' -    3:38
16       The Philosopher: 'Why, be this Juice the growth of God, who dare' -    1:29
17       The Philosopher: 'I must abjure the Balm of Life, I must' -    1:42
18       Chorus: 'Oh threats of Hell and hopes of Paradise!' -    3:17
19       Chorus: 'The Revelation of devout and learn'd' -    1:47
20       Chorus: 'We are no other than a moving row' -    3:19
21       The Beloved: 'The Moving finger writes; and, having writ' -    1:41
22       The Beloved and the Poet: 'And that inverted bowl we call the sky' -    1:36
23       The Poet: 'With Earth's first clay they did the last man knead' -    2:10
24       The Philosopher: 'I tell you this - when, started from the goal' -    3:30
25       The Beloved, the Poet and the Philosopher: 'What! out of senseless Nothing to provoke' -    4:41
26       Chorus, the Beloved, the Poet and the Philosopher: 'Oh Thou, who didst with pitfall and with gin' -    1:46
27       Chorus, the Beloved, the Poet and the Philospher: 'Oh Thou, who Man of baser earth didst make'    2:36
                  73:08
               COMPACT DISC THREE    
               Part III    
1       Introduction 'The Fast of Ramazán' -    2:47
2       Worshippers in the Mosque -    4:10
3       The Philosopher: 'As under cover of departing day' -    1:00
4       Chorus: 'Shapes of all sorts and sizes, great and small' -    2:07
5       First Pot: 'Said one among them - 'Surely not in vain'' -    6:36
6       Chorus: 'So while the vessels one by one were speaking' -    1:55
7       The Philosopher: 'Ah, with the grape my fading life provide' -    2:26
8       The Philosopher: 'Indeed the idol I have loved so long' -    1:48
9       The Philosopher: 'And much as wine has play'd the infidel' -    2:14
10       The Poet: 'Yet ah, that Spring should vanish with the rose!' -    2:35
11       The Poet: 'Would but the desert of the fountain yield' -    6:34
12       Chorus, the Beloved, the Poet and the Philosopher: 'Yon rising moon that looks for us again' -    1:33
13       Chorus, the Beloved, the Poet and the Philosopher: 'And when like her, oh Sáki, you shall pass'    4:15
                  40:09
   Catherine Wyn-Rogers mezzo-soprano
   Toby Spence tenor
   Roderick Williams baritone
               with    
   Olivia Robinson soprano (First Pot)
   Siân Menna mezzo-soprano (Second Pot)
   Edward Price bass (Sixth Pot)
   BBC Symphony Chorus
   BBC Symphony Orchestra
   Vernon Handley
   Recorded in:
   Watford Colosseum
               1 and 2 October 2005 & 17 and 18 February 2007    
   Producer(s)
   Brian Couzens
   Sound Engineer(s)
   Ralph Couzens
   Michael Common (Assistant: October 2005)
   Jonathan Cooper (Assistant: February 2007)
   Format: DDD
Bit Rate: DSD

Dundonnell

Have just had "Omar Khayyam" delivered to me! Have yet to listen to it though-3 discs will need a lengthy bit of free time!
Will post again once I have done so

sound67

Quote from: XXXPawn on July 06, 2007, 02:10:47 AM
Marvellous music!



This one is a nice introduction, i think.

I agree it's the perfect start. It was for me fifteen years ago.
"Vivaldi didn't compose 500 concertos. He composed the same concerto 500 times" - Igor Stravinsky

"Mozart is a menace to musical progress, a relic of rituals that were losing relevance in his own time and are meaningless to ours." - Norman Lebrecht

vandermolen

Have just listened to first part of Omar Khayyam; wonderful epic stuff for those, like myself, who like to wallow in late-romanticism. I thought that it might be heavy going but, so far, I have regarded it as compulsive listening, although it will take a while to take all 3 hours of it in. The booklet presentation (excellent notes by Lewis Foreman and many old photos of Bantock) is excellent as is the atmospheric camel image on the front.
"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).

tjguitar

Quote from: vandermolen on September 01, 2007, 05:41:25 AM
Have just listened to first part of Omar Khayyam; wonderful epic stuff for those, like myself, who like to wallow in late-romanticism. I thought that it might be heavy going but, so far, I have regarded it as compulsive listening, although it will take a while to take all 3 hours of it in. The booklet presentation (excellent notes by Lewis Foreman and many old photos of Bantock) is excellent as is the atmospheric camel image on the front.


I think there's still another 6 weeks or so before it gets distributed to the US. I wonder what the MSRP will be. I suspect it will not be very cheap.

How much of it utilizes the chorus?