The British Composers Thread

[karlhenning]

Mark, you had asked after opportunities to hear Ivan's work.

I am delighted to say that there are a couple of videos on youtube, sharing between them a performance of his Passione populare:

Part I

http://www.youtube.com/v/74Pdhe9YT9A

Part II

http://www.youtube.com/v/ldIHm4rPFLU&NR

[Mark]

Splendid, Karl. Thank you!

[karlhenning]

I really liked these;  and it turned out that I know the conductor who coached the singers.  Who in turn did not realize that Ivan and I know one another 

[Montpellier]

I notice a few interesting Lyrita reissues due in the near future.

The one that grabbed my interest was SRCD265:
Elisabeth Lutyens: Quincunx and "Suddenly it's Evening"
c/w
David Bedford: Music for Albion Moonlight.

I know these works well but was surprised that Lyrita took them up.  They don't seem in keeping with the rest of the Lyrita catalogue, all exploratory though I find the David Bedford somewhat beautiful if chilling. 

I'll be getting this and the Havergal Brian / Arnold Cooke (SRCD295)

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

I'll be getting this and the Havergal Brian / Arnold Cooke (SRCD295)

Sensible, very sensible.

But why do you 'find the David Bedford somewhat beautiful if chilling'? That's a very intriguing characterization!

[Dundonnell]

The release that appeals to me is SRCD335 coupling the recently deceased Alun Hoddinott's Horn Concerto, the Don Banks Horn Concerto, Humphrey Searle's Aubade for Horn and Strings(all with Barry Tuckwell as soloist) and the Nicholas Maw Sonata for Strings and Two Horns(with Alan Civil and Ian Harper as soloists). Challenging works perhaps(though probably not as much as the Lutyens!).

Lyrita are also releasing this month the recording of Moeran's Cello Concerto played by his widow Peers Coetmore. There are many who think that her recording is a 'dud' and 'unlistenable'(not everyone agrees with this damning verdict). I think that I shall stick with the Chandos version with Raphael Wallfisch.

Lyrita are fast running out of music to release from their original LP stock. I reckon that only SRCS 46-the Robert Still Symphonies Nos. 1 and 2, SRCS 52-chamber music by Parrott, Harries and Wynne, SRCS 72-the Humphrey Searle Symphonies Nos. 1 and 2 and SRCS 77-the Elgar Falstaff and Enigma Variations(Andrew Davis) still remain to be reissued.

I know that the Still symphonies are being coupled with that composer's Concerto for Strings and Elegie for baritone, chorus and small orchestra(from the Decca LP SXL 6281). Interestingly, Still-who had independent financial means-paid for the cost of all of the recordings of his own music! The performance of his 3rd symphony was the last recording made by Sir Eugene Goossens before his death.

There is an excellent website devoted to Robert Still-www.grahammusto.btinternet.co.uk/RStill.htm

I hope that Lyrita can find space on the Searle CD when it is released for the two other works on the original LP release of the 1st symphony-Matyas Seiber's Elegy for Viola and Small Orchestra and the hugely impressive and extremely chilling(yes that word again, Jezetha!) Chamber Cantata 'Three Fragments from "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" '.

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

I never knew there was so much 'chilling' (British) music around!

[Dundonnell]

I never knew there was so much 'chilling' (British) music around!

Well I can tell you that it is absolutely freezing in Scotland just now! Snow on the way, apparently!

Seriously, the Seiber Cantata is as 'chilling' as you can get, an absolutely masterly use of that passage which I can't resist quoting in full-

"..the last day had come. The doomsday was at hand. The stars of heaven were falling upon the earth like the figs cast by the fig tree which the wind has shaken. The sun, the great luminary of the universe had become as sackcloth of hair. The moon was blood red. The firmament was as a scroll rolled away. The archangel Michael, the prince of the heavenly host appeared glorious and terrible against the sky. With one foot in the sea and one foot on the land he blew from the archangelic trumpet the brazen death of time. The three blasts filled all the universe. Time is, time was, but time shall be no more".

As spoken by Peter Pears in the old LP recording that passage always froze me to the marrow!

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

It's been some time since I last read Joyce's 'Portrait', but I think the passage is part of a 'fire and brimstone' sermon a priest preaches to put the fear of God into his pupils.

And we're getting the weather you are having with only a few hours' delay...

I'm turning in. It's late.

Johan

[lukeottevanger]

...The sun, the great luminary of the universe...

Also, of course, the source of the eponymous Hoddinott piece.

[Montpellier]

It would be a shame if, while Lyrita are reissuing old Argo recordings, they can't do the Lutyens "O Saisons O Chateaux" (with the Benjamin Britten Prelude and Fugue), RPO/Del Mar.  ZRG754.   

The Lutyens seems a pleasant enough work - far from the challenge of Quincunx.  Hasn't been re-recorded since as far as I know.

[Dundonnell]

It would be a shame if, while Lyrita are reissuing old Argo recordings, they can't do the Lutyens "O Saisons O Chateaux" (with the Benjamin Britten Prelude and Fugue), RPO/Del Mar.  ZRG754.   

The Lutyens seems a pleasant enough work - far from the challenge of Quincunx.  Hasn't been re-recorded since as far as I know.

Elizabeth Lutyens was a VERY odd woman! Reference the waspish mini-biography http://www.musicweb-international.com/lutyens/index.htm
by David Wright on Musicweb.

I have always resented her dislike of 'the cowpat school of British music' by which she meant composers like Vaughan Williams. Still, I suppose that Benjamin Britten was not exactly a fan of VW either so one must not be prejudiced against her music because of that!

[Montpellier]

Elizabeth Lutyens was a VERY odd woman! Reference the waspish mini-biography http://www.musicweb-international.com/lutyens/index.htm
by David Wright on Musicweb.

Which no doubt accounts for her unusual music, oddly beautiful at times such as Elegy to the Flowers and O Saisons O Chateaux (about which I was wrong up there - it appeared on record on Red Leaves by the Brunel Ensemble).  One of few "original" voices in british 20c music. 

I have always resented her dislike of 'the cowpat school of British music' by which she meant composers like Vaughan Williams. Still, I suppose that Benjamin Britten was not exactly a fan of VW either so one must not be prejudiced against her music because of that!

I suspect like many of her ilk she disliked the establishment rather than Vaughan Williams, possibly bracketing him with the many symphonists still working with keys and diatonicism and, as far as she could see, going nowhere.  She didn't have a happy time, as the article in your link shows, and may have felt resentful of composers more at ease and comfortably off. 
I see her point of view while not agreeing with it. 

Certainly an interesting character and one almost forgotten.   However, a respectable number of years has passed since her demise so one might expect another attempt at revival soon.   

[Szykneij]

I just came across a Musical Heritage Society recording of Six Concerti for Strings, Op. 2 composed by the English cellist John Hebden (1712-1765). These are delightful pieces, worthy of more recognition than they currently possess. Unfortunately for Hebden, Italy or Germany was the place to be for composing fame and fortune during his day, so he worked long hours as an orchestral player to earn his keep. While he composed many pieces performed by professional chamber players around York, he only published two works: the string concerti and "Six Solos for German Flute". Is anyone familiar with either of these?

[Guido]

Is anyone familiar with Rebecca Clarke's music? I just heard her Viola Sonata and I am just bowled over by the brilliance of this work. Utterly fantastic - by turns lyrical, passionate, vibrant and nostalgic this must surely rank amng the best viola sonatas out there... I have just seen that there is a cello verson too. Must get onto that and also the Rhapsody for cello and piano...

Morpheus for viola and piano is a beautiful celtic/impressionistic sounding lament. I also have heard the lovely Passacaglia on a an old English Theme for cello and piano.

I cannot recommend these piece enough - I love making discoveries like this!

[vandermolen]

I'd always considered Dame Ethel Smyth (1858-1944) to be something of a joke figure in British music. However, I listened to an interesting radio programme about her the other day and hearing some extracts from her beautiful and moving Concerto for Violin, Horn and Orchesta suggests that I may have seriously misjudged her.

[Dundonnell]

Sir Adrian Boult to Dame Ethel when she turned up uninvited to a rehearsal of some of her music-

"Good morning, Dame Ethel, and what are your tempi for today?"

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Sir Adrian Boult to Dame Ethel when she turned up ininvited to a rehearsal of some of her music-

"Good morning, Dame Ethel, and what are your tempi for today?"

[I didn't know Sir Adrian could be witty. This sounds more like Sir Thomas...]

[Dundonnell]

[I didn't know Sir Adrian could be witty. This sounds more like Sir Thomas...]

Oh yes, Sir Adrian had a dry sense of humour

The EMI version of VW's 'Pilgrim's Progress' has a rehearsal session on the second disc and there are some very funny moments
The principal trumpet asks if the trumpet players can go away because they have nothing to play but Sir Adrian pretends that he doesn't understand to the orchestra's amusement. The pages of Sir Adrian's score 'crackle' as he turns the pages, the producer complains, so Sir Adrian bangs the score to 'larn' it how to behave, which of course causes the producer to ask what the noise is and Sir Adrian has to confess it was him

He was not a humorist in the Beecham class but he was a much, much nicer human being.

Incidentally, Boult detested Beecham and-for him-used some very strong language to describe how much he did so- "Somehow I used to find him absolutely repulsive both as a man and as a musician, and his treatment of people I knew...so absolutely beastly that his complete neglect of me didn't seem to matter a bit"(1987/89).

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Interesting, Colin. I wonder - was there, in Boult, perhaps a bit of jalousie de métier, too? Or perhaps even resentment (Beecham was rich)? Don't get me wrong - I admire Boult very much! (And Beecham, too, if only for his championship of Delius...) I am interested in such 'interpersonal dynamics'...