Kenneth Leighton(1929-1988)

[Dundonnell]

I see a follow-up album to the one referenced in the first post is coming soon! (November 18 in US)


I wonder if this is out there in the UK already? I'm gonna check musicweb for any possible reviews...

Listened today to the new Leighton disc. It is not easy listening! The Symphony No.2 'Sinfonia Mistica' is a sombre work. It was written soon after the death of the composer's mother and was described by him as "a requiem or meditation on the subject of death". The symphony uses texts written by metaphysical poets-John Donne, Thomas Traherne, George Herbert, Henry King-to meditate upon "images of death and human frailty". The music is at different times angry, menacing, sad, emotional. This is not a comfortable work. I suppose that the nearest comparison I could make would be with the Britten of the War Requiem. It is certainly not in any kind of 'English pastoral' tradition. I thought of trying to link to the Herbert Howells of the Hymnus Paradisi but Leighton is a much more 'modern sounding' composer.

I am not sure that Chandos has got the coupling right for this one. The Symphony is 48 minutes long and is followed by the more conservative 9 minute long Te Deum. First of all that makes pretty short measure of 57 minutes for a modern CD. Chandos could/should have found another piece for the disc. Secondly, I do feel that the Symphony should come last on the disc; playing the Te Deum after the symphony doesn't work for me.

Saying all that however, this is an important issue of a heartfelt and serious work but one which will be slow to reveal all of its important messages.

[Christo]

Listened today to the new Leighton disc. It is not easy listening!

Oops! Happy that the Oboe Concerto Op. 23 (1953) is easy listening. For me, a Little Sunday Evening Music:

               

                   

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Listened today to the new Leighton disc. It is not easy listening!

Nice write-up, Colin!

[Dundonnell]

Oops! Happy that the Oboe Concerto Op. 23 (1953) is easy listening. For me, a Little Sunday Evening Music:

               

                   

That disc is new to me, Johan! Must investigate whether it is still around

Please don't let me put you off acquiring the new Chandos! Obviously, just because a work is 'not easy listening' does not-in any way-suggest that it is not worth studying! (Yes, I know that sentence is a dreadful example of English language usage-three negatives, for goodness sake!). Quite the opposite in fact! I do need to listen to it several more times but I thought that you might like to hear my first impressions.

[Dundonnell]

Just purchased the Oboe Concerto for £4.99 through Amazon!

[Christo]

Just purchased the Oboe Concerto for £4.99 through Amazon!

"Quicker than your shadow ... "

[Dundonnell]

"Quicker than your shadow ... "

You will probably have realised by now that-in common with some other members here -I suffer from obsessive "if there is a (particularly British and tonal) symphony or concerto out there I must buy it" disorder

[Christo]

This comes as a revelation to me, quite a shocking statement indeed. Who might those other members be?     0:)

(Anyhow, finally an explanation for the tendency that prices of CDs I stored in my basket at Amazon.co.uk tended to go up that often.    )

[Dundonnell]

This comes as a revelation to me, quite a shocking statement indeed. Who might those other members be?     0:)

(Anyhow, finally an explanation for the tendency that prices of CDs I stored in my basket at Amazon.co.uk tended to go up that often.    )

Well one at least broke bread with you not so long ago

As for the CDs of which you speak...how else am I to spend my pension?

[Christo]

As for the CDs of which you speak...how else am I to spend my pension?

Well, perhaps on its counterpart, on offer for GPB 4,- at Amazon.co.uk and containing Leighton's Concerto for recorder & harpsichord, Op. 88

               

[Dundonnell]

Stop. stop....I shall be reduced to begging for my crust on the streets at this rate I am ordering far too many CDs!

I blame this site and its members entirely

[tjguitar]

I am considering a purchase of this:




Does anyone have this?  Edit: I see its on the first page of the thread! Nevermind..

[lescamil]

Sorry to bump such an old thread, but I felt I had a great reason to, especially for big Leighton fans like myself. There are many of here who have heard the second and third symphonies and the one for strings who have asked ourselves "Where is the first one at?". Now, there will finally be some closure to this. On Thursday, a performance of it with Martyn Brabbins conducting the BBC NOW will be broadcast on BBC Radio 3. I hope to have it recorded and will post an mp3 here for anyone who wishes to have it. I have most of Leighton's recorded discography and in the past years since I discovered him, he has become one of my favorite English composers, if not THE favorite. Also, I received some news from Jo Leighton of the Kenneth Leighton Trust that many CDs of Leighton's music are due to be released this year or the close future. Here is the list I received:

Symphony No. 1, 3rd Piano Concerto on Chandos with Howard Shelley, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, conducted by Martyn Brabbins
Piano music (including previously unrecorded works)  on Chandos by Margaret Fingerhut
Complete music for violin/piano by Edwin Paling/ Arabella Tenniswood-Harvey  for a Tansania recording company.
Complete music for cello and cello/piano on BMS recordings with Raphael Wallfisch
Cantata for tenor/piano, Earth, Sweet Earth on Linn Records

Happy times indeed for those of us close to Leighton's music! I plan on purchasing all of these, of course, and I highly anticipate both the first symphony and third piano concerto (all three need a recording badly).

[lescamil]

As promised, here is the following concert, with the Leighton included:

--------------------------------------------------------------

Jonathan Swain concludes this week's youthful focus, leading up to Sunday's grand final of the 2010 BBC Young Musician competition - today we hear today from the wind finalist. To begin, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, which will accompany Sunday's finalists, plays a concerto for winds by Frank Martin, and Schubert's final symphony - the "Great C major". Also today, the fruits of a recent collaboration between wind and brass players from the BBC NOW and students from the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama.

Rossini: William Tell - overture
BBC National Orchestra of Wales
Thierry Fischer (conductor)

Martin: Concerto for 7 Wind instruments
BBC National Orchestra of Wales
Thierry Fischer (conductor)

2.40pm
Schubert: Symphony no. 9 in C "Great"
BBC National Orchestra of Wales
Thierry Fischer (conductor)

Hoddinott: Welsh airs and dances
BBC National Orchestra of Wales
Students from the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama
Jonathan Mann (conductor)

3.45pm
Stravinsky: Symphonies of wind instruments
BBC National Orchestra of Wales
Jonathan Mann (conductor)

Leighton: Symphony no. 1
BBC National Orchestra of Wales
Martyn Brabbins (conductor)

4.35pm
Performances by the winner of the 2010 Young Musician wind finals.

--------------------------------------------------------------


Enjoy!

http://bit.ly/9Kc3lP

[Randy]

Leighton seems to becoming more popular in recent years with cathedral choirs. I don't know how many settings of the canticles he composed, but last year I heard at least two sets at two different Evensongs, possibly at Gloucester and Winchester cathedrals. And they seem to be turning up on recordings lately as well.  However, I have been disappointed seeing them on the program since I prefer other settings to Leighton's, ones more in a traditional vein, perhaps.

[lescamil]

I actually really like Leighton's two settings of the Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis, even though they are written in his much earlier style.

Has anyone listened to the recording of the First Symphony that I posted? I'd like to hear other people's reactions on this.

[Klaatu]

Kenneth Leighton



Patrick McGoohan

Just bought a CD of Leighton's 1st Symphony - the first of his music I've purchased - opened the jewelcase and there was the star of The Prisoner staring back at me; quite a surreal moment.................worthy of the cult TV series itself! Not had chance to hear the Symphony yet so I'll report back in due course - if I'm not eaten by one of those big blobby balloon things first!

[Elnimio]

His first symphony is very, VERY dark. I love it.

[Dundonnell]

Leighton's First Symphony was one of my discoveries of 2010! A superb piece, very dark and grim, as has been pointed out, but a work I return to with great admiration.

And, of course, the Chandos cd is conducted by Martyn Brabbins, demonstrating again what a splendid conductor he is. I can well understand that conductors do not like being pigeon-holed as, in this case, a 'British music specialist'. The reality however is that it is unlikely that Brabbins will ever have the good fortune(if that is what it is?) to be offered the principal conductorship of a major orchestra. With the sad departure of conductors like Vernon Handley and Richard Hickox there is certainly scope for a conductor of his ability to take over the mantle.

[lescamil]

Consider me a huge Leighton fan. I posted that recording of the Symphony No. 1 above some time ago, which turned out to be the same exact recording as the one that came out on Chandos about a month or so after I posted it (good thing it is a dead link now). I've listened to it many times since then, and I just keep on hearing new things in it. Listening to that piece, along with the other works on the Chandos cycle, just makes me wonder if Leighton will ever be better known. He certainly deserves to be. His Symphony No. 2, for example, is of Mahlerian proportions and would make a great second half work on something like a Proms concert (hint, hint). Of course, a lot of his works need to get a first recording, such as his first two piano concertos.