The British Composers Thread

[vandermolen]

Have listened to Ruth Gipps' Third Symphony (1965) with some regularity over the past year. With my hand on my heart, I can now declare that it is my favourite 'third' of all time.
The competition, for me, includes third symphonies by a.o.: Ralph Vaughan Williams, John Kinsella, Carl Nielsen, Stanley Bate, Eduard Tubin, Herman Koppel, David Diamond, Ludwig van Beethoven, Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy. Recommended!

I know her 4th Symphony (which I rate very highly) better than No.3 which I must listen to again. My other great 3rds would include Armstrong Gibbs, Tubin, Harris, Diamond, Copland, Magnard, VW, Gliere,  Tournemire, Alwyn, Bate, Arnell, Miaskovsky, Bax, Madetoja, Rosenberg, W. Schuman, Bruckner, Mahler, Saint-Saens, Ives, Creston etcetc.

[Irons]

I know her 4th Symphony (which I rate very highly) better than No.3 which I must listen to again. My other great 3rds would include Armstrong Gibbs, Tubin, Harris, Diamond, Copland, Magnard, VW, Gliere,  Tournemire, Alwyn, Bate, Arnell, Miaskovsky, Bax, Madetoja, Rosenberg, W. Schuman, Bruckner, Mahler, Saint-Saens, Ives, Creston etcetc.

Excellent list, Jeffrey. My etcetc would include Nielsen.

[Luke]

The wonderful, eccentric John White has died. Very sad.

[Cato]

The wonderful, eccentric John White has died. Very sad.

Hello Luke!

Thanks for the link!  I will look into Mr. John White!

[Christo]

Excellent list, Jeffrey. My etcetc would include Nielsen.

My favourite thirds would include: Aaron Copland, Alan Rawsthorne, Arnold Cooke, Arthur Honegger, Camargo Guarnieri, Carel Anton Fodor, Carl Nielsen, Cecil Armstrong Gibbs, Charles Tournemire, David Diamond, Douglas Lilburn, Eduard Tubin, Erland von Koch, Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, Gösta Nystroem, Hendrik Andriessen, Henryk Mikołaj Górecki, Herman Koppel, Hilding Rosenberg, Igor Stravinsky, John Kinsella, Joly Braga Santos, Leevi Madetoja, Lennox Berkeley, Léon Orthel, Leonard Bernstein, Ludwig van Beethoven, Pēteris Vasks, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Reinhold Gliere, Richard Arnell, Roy Harris, Sergei Rachmaninov, Stanley Bate, Willem Pijper, William Alwyn, William Schuman, William Wordsworth. And possibly a handful more.

But No. 1 to me is Ruth Gipps (1965). Strongly recommended! 

[Roasted Swan]

a £1 Charity Shop buy at the weekend.  What a tremendous disc!;



The music is genuinely excellent but also it struck me how fine as a production this was.  All the more reason to lament that conductor David Willcocks, Producer Christopher Palmer (the big Dyson expert) and engineer Bob Auger are no longer with us.  A fitting tribute to their individual and collective talents......

[Irons]

a £1 Charity Shop buy at the weekend.  What a tremendous disc!;



The music is genuinely excellent but also it struck me how fine as a production this was.  All the more reason to lament that conductor David Willcocks, Producer Christopher Palmer (the big Dyson expert) and engineer Bob Auger are no longer with us.  A fitting tribute to their individual and collective talents......

Sad to learn Bob Auger is no longer with us. I have countless LP's with inscription "Sound engineer Bob Auger" which is a pass to excellence.

[vandermolen]

My favourite thirds would include: Aaron Copland, Alan Rawsthorne, Arnold Cooke, Arthur Honegger, Camargo Guarnieri, Carel Anton Fodor, Carl Nielsen, Cecil Armstrong Gibbs, Charles Tournemire, David Diamond, Douglas Lilburn, Eduard Tubin, Erland von Koch, Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, Gösta Nystroem, Hendrik Andriessen, Henryk Mikołaj Górecki, Herman Koppel, Hilding Rosenberg, Igor Stravinsky, John Kinsella, Joly Braga Santos, Leevi Madetoja, Lennox Berkeley, Léon Orthel, Leonard Bernstein, Ludwig van Beethoven, Pēteris Vasks, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Reinhold Gliere, Richard Arnell, Roy Harris, Sergei Rachmaninov, Stanley Bate, Willem Pijper, William Alwyn, William Schuman, William Wordsworth. And possibly a handful more.

But No. 1 to me is Ruth Gipps (1965). Strongly recommended! 

Great list Johan. I should, of course, have included Honegger, Vasks, Orthel and Gliere on my own list 

[Roasted Swan]

Sad to learn Bob Auger is no longer with us. I have countless LP's with inscription "Sound engineer Bob Auger" which is a pass to excellence.

Bob Auger died aged just 70 nearly 25 years ago....

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/obituary-bob-auger-1068562.html

Like you I associate his name with top-notch engineering - I'm thinking the excellent Ole Schmidt/LSO Nielsen cycle or the famous Horenstein/LSO Mahler 3 as just a couple of examples.  Along with the likes of Kenneth Wilkinson for Decca (plus many other great Decca engineers or "The Two Christophers" (Bishop and Parker) for EMI or "Mr Bear" (Barry McCann?) for CFP you realise just what extraordinary technical recordings these people achieved in the analogue age.  50+ years laters they still sound superb on the best equipment.  For sure there are fine technical recordings today - but I don't think they are substanitvley "better" than the best of those analogue ones.....

[Roasted Swan]

I've been listening to a couple of purchases c/o the Chandos Winter Sale;



The Tone Poems are genuine gems - plenty of locations for Luke to get his teeth into as well!  I'm not always that convinced by Gamba's work but this is very good.  The RVW "The Solent" is familiar from the Albion recording but this one is possibly finer - underlining the fascinating fusion of a kind of Wagnerian Pastoralism.  The Gurney Gloucestershire Rhapsody gets a very convincing performance as well.  To be fair everything on the disc is very good indeed.  In the sale for £3.85.  An even bigger bargain is the RVW Hymns and Choral works disc at just £1.  At first glance a disc of hymns might seem of limited appeal but this includes the two (rare) Te Deum settings plus the big Three Choral Hymns and the moving Valiant-for-Truth.  At the price a no-brainer (sorry to our overseas members frustrated by high shipping costs!)

[relm1]

A local orchestra is playing Ruth Gipps' Seascape in a week or two.  Thinking of checking it out as this will be her first piece I've heard live.

[relm1]

Based on the works on this release, I really want to hear it but can't seem to find it.  It's not even on the London Philharmonic album list.  Have any of you heard it?  Is it worth tracking down and if so, how can I get it?



https://www.discogs.com/release/15592263-London-Philharmonic-Orchestra-John-McCabe-2-Malcolm-Arnold-Sir-Georg-Solti-Bernard-Haitink-Concerto-

[Albion]

More wonderful enterprise from EM Records:  baritone Roderick Williams is joined by the BBC Concert Orchestra and John Andrews in vocal music and orchestral music by Quilter, Delius, Holst, O'Neill, Scott, Brian and Mackenzie, all premiere recordings -



https://www.em-records.com/discs/emr-cd085-details.html

[Roasted Swan]

Based on the works on this release, I really want to hear it but can't seem to find it.  It's not even on the London Philharmonic album list.  Have any of you heard it?  Is it worth tracking down and if so, how can I get it?



https://www.discogs.com/release/15592263-London-Philharmonic-Orchestra-John-McCabe-2-Malcolm-Arnold-Sir-Georg-Solti-Bernard-Haitink-Concerto-

Would you like a link to a folder to download this? (only ripped at 256 kps I'm afraid)  I have the CD - to be honest not listened to it in a good few years but my lingering memory is that the performances were not as good as I would have hoped for from these artists in this repertoire.  McCabe's Chagall Windows is a genuinely excellent work - and one that deserves to be far better known.  My feeling is that the only other recording on EMI from James Loughran and the Halle (there was a TV programme made about the work's creation at the time of its 1st perforamnce by these artists) is "better".

[relm1]

Would you like a link to a folder to download this? (only ripped at 256 kps I'm afraid)  I have the CD - to be honest not listened to it in a good few years but my lingering memory is that the performances were not as good as I would have hoped for from these artists in this repertoire.  McCabe's Chagall Windows is a genuinely excellent work - and one that deserves to be far better known.  My feeling is that the only other recording on EMI from James Loughran and the Halle (there was a TV programme made about the work's creation at the time of its 1st perforamnce by these artists) is "better".

Sure, thanks!!

[Roasted Swan]

Sure, thanks!!

Fingers crossed this link works..... Let me know if not!

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1H_1Hjk47UXOUNPh5x8VA9C3TYCTcOgWZ?usp=sharing

[relm1]

Fingers crossed this link works..... Let me know if not!

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1H_1Hjk47UXOUNPh5x8VA9C3TYCTcOgWZ?usp=sharing

Thank you!!

[calyptorhynchus]

Re John McCabe, here's a sad story.

When I was in the my early 20s I'd just been reading Robert Simpson on Carl Nielsen and on the 'current' that Nielsen said needed to be present in any musical work. That made sense to me as a way of discerning quality pieces of music so I started listening for it. Shortly afterwards I turned on Radio 3 and there was a piece of symphonic music going that seemed to be unfolding with exactly this current. I was excited. When it ended the announcer said it was one of the symphonies of John McCabe. I filed this information away.

Thereafter I have always listened to music looking for this current and found it in various composers (people will know my favourites!). But when I came to listen to John McCabe's symphonies I could never find the passage that excited my interest before, and I could never find any evidence of this 'current' in his works 

[springrite]

Re John McCabe, here's a sad story.

When I was in the my early 20s I'd just been reading Robert Simpson on Carl Nielsen and on the 'current' that Nielsen said needed to be present in any musical work. That made sense to me as a way of discerning quality pieces of music so I started listening for it. Shortly afterwards I turned on Radio 3 and there was a piece of symphonic music going that seemed to be unfolding with exactly this current. I was excited. When it ended the announcer said it was one of the symphonies of John McCabe. I filed this information away.

Thereafter I have always listened to music looking for this current and found it in various composers (people will know my favourites!). But when I came to listen to John McCabe's symphonies I could never find the passage that excited my interest before, and I could never find any evidence of this 'current' in his works 

It is not "Of Time and the River" (Symphony #4)?
The subtitle does suggest some kind of current...

[Roasted Swan]

Re John McCabe, here's a sad story.

When I was in the my early 20s I'd just been reading Robert Simpson on Carl Nielsen and on the 'current' that Nielsen said needed to be present in any musical work. That made sense to me as a way of discerning quality pieces of music so I started listening for it. Shortly afterwards I turned on Radio 3 and there was a piece of symphonic music going that seemed to be unfolding with exactly this current. I was excited. When it ended the announcer said it was one of the symphonies of John McCabe. I filed this information away.

Thereafter I have always listened to music looking for this current and found it in various composers (people will know my favourites!). But when I came to listen to John McCabe's symphonies I could never find the passage that excited my interest before, and I could never find any evidence of this 'current' in his works 

I must admit McCabe is not a composer whose music I respond to in a uniformly positive way.  Quite often, I don't dislike it, it simply fails to engage me - I am left indifferent - a cardinal sin for any Art really I guess.  But the Chagall Windows do engage me very much so even if for only that one work I 'like' McCabe as a composer.