Edgar Bainton

Started by tjguitar, October 25, 2008, 10:17:09 AM

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tjguitar

October 25, 2008, 10:17:09 AM
I know we have a few fans here. :)


I have the following 2:




I know CHANDOS recorded a Vol. 2 with more Bainton & Clifford and then another Bainton disc was released earlier this year (or maybe it was late last year?)


Any recommendations? :D

Harry

#1
October 25, 2008, 11:07:44 AM
Count me in as a admirer

J.Z. Herrenberg

#2
October 25, 2008, 11:48:34 AM
Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything. -- Plato

Dundonnell

#3
October 25, 2008, 11:51:21 AM
I am sure that my good friend vandermolen would probably have replied but he is possibly already en route to visit the Netherlands :)

I think that these are the discs to which you are referring. Chandos has certainly done Bainton a great service with the discs it has issued. The 'Clifford/Bainton, Volume Two' disc contains Bainton's Rhapsody 'Epithalamion' for orchestra and 'An English Idyll' for baritone and orchestra(together with Clifford's 'A Kentish Suite'). Confusingly, the other Bainton cd is not labelled 'Volume 3' but then Chandos does rather get itself and its customers in a muddle by starting series and then allowing them to stall(cf Richard Rodney Bennett or Malcolm Williamson).

Bainton was one of those composers who emigrated in order to take up a prestigious teaching post-in his case in Australia as Director of the New South Wales State Conservatory-to the cost of his name and growing reputation back home(Fricker and Iain Hamilton are other examples sadly). His music is worth rescuing and investigating although, ultimately, I would not claim that he is touched with real genius.
The symphonies and other works, including the big-boned Concerto Fantasia (a piano concerto), are extremely attractive, old-fashioned works-a bit sub-Bax, to be harsh, but then I personally prefer slightly 'grittier' or 'deeper' music. Saying that, however, there is much to enjoy in music which clearly reflects a love of nature and a nostalgia for his native country-Bainton had also spent the years of World War One in a German prisoner of war camp, having been stranded in Germany in August 1914.

Dundonnell

#4
October 25, 2008, 11:51:58 AM
and

Dundonnell

#5
October 25, 2008, 12:00:45 PM
As I was writing Jezetha has most helpfully added the linked reviews which will give you a somewhat more enthusiastic opinion on the music :)

Don't get me wrong..I am all in favour of Bainton being recorded and I do like the music. It is romantic, appealing, sometimes quite dramatic. Its simply that I would not put him in the same class as Bax or Moeran or Dyson or Ireland... :)

Harry

#6
October 25, 2008, 12:04:04 PM
Quote from: Jezetha on October 25, 2008, 11:48:34 AM
Care to expand on this, my dear Harry?




Absolutely!
Meaning I have most of the orchestral works of Bainton that are recorded.

J.Z. Herrenberg

#7
October 25, 2008, 12:04:18 PM
Quote from: Dundonnell on October 25, 2008, 12:00:45 PM
As I was writing Jezetha has most helpfully added the linked reviews which will give you a somewhat more enthusiastic opinion on the music :)

Don't get me wrong..I am all in favour of Bainton being recorded and I do like the music. It is romantic, appealing, sometimes quite dramatic. Its simply that I would not put him in the same class as Bax or Moeran or Dyson or Ireland... :)

And thank you for your review, Colin!
Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything. -- Plato

Christo

#8
October 25, 2008, 12:22:59 PM
Quote from: Dundonnell on October 25, 2008, 11:51:21 AM
I am sure that my good friend vandermolen would probably have replied but he is possibly already en route to visit the Netherlands :)

:) Probably without a Blackberry, and in the midst of Force 7 Beaufort.  :P Hearing the wind-machine of the Antartica in his headphones.  ::)
... music is not only an 'entertainment', nor a mere luxury, but a necessity of the spiritual if not of the physical life, an opening of those magic casements through which we can catch a glimpse of that country where ultimate reality will be found.    RVW, 1948

J.Z. Herrenberg

#9
October 25, 2008, 12:38:01 PM
Quote from: Christo on October 25, 2008, 12:22:59 PM
:) Probably without a Blackberry, and in the midst of Force 7 Beaufort.  :P Hearing the wind-machine of the Antartica in his headphones.  ::)

;D [Departure from Harwich: 23.45. Arrival in Hook: 7.45...]
Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything. -- Plato

Dundonnell

#10
October 25, 2008, 12:46:20 PM
Quote from: Jezetha on October 25, 2008, 12:38:01 PM
;D [Departure from Harwich: 23.45. Arrival in Hook: 7.45...]

Ouch!! 8 hours! Jeffrey thought six :)

Plenty of time to listen to VW's Sea Symphony, Britten's Four Interludes from 'Peter Grimes', Bridge Suite 'The Sea', Ciurlionis 'The Sea' etc, etc :) :)

J.Z. Herrenberg

#11
October 25, 2008, 01:07:46 PM
Quote from: Dundonnell on October 25, 2008, 12:46:20 PM
Ouch!! 8 hours! Jeffrey thought six :)

Plenty of time to listen to VW's Sea Symphony, Britten's Four Interludes from 'Peter Grimes', Bridge Suite 'The Sea', Ciurlionis 'The Sea' etc, etc :) :)

Well - 23.45 is British time. It's 00.45 Dutch time. AND the clock goes back at 3.00 am. It seems to be 6 hours and 15 minutes...

http://www.stenaline.co.uk/ferry/routes/harwich-holland/timetables/
Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything. -- Plato

Dundonnell

#12
October 25, 2008, 01:15:57 PM
Quote from: Jezetha on October 25, 2008, 01:07:46 PM
Well - 23.45 is British time. It's 00.45 Dutch time. AND the clock goes back at 3.00 am. It seems to be 6 hours and 15 minutes...

http://www.stenaline.co.uk/ferry/routes/harwich-holland/timetables/

Och(as they say in Scotland!) that's a breeze then! (Notice the dreadful use of the word 'breeze' :))

J.Z. Herrenberg

#13
October 25, 2008, 01:18:36 PM
Quote from: Dundonnell on October 25, 2008, 01:15:57 PM
Och(as they say in Scotland!) that's a breeze then! (Notice the dreadful use of the word 'breeze' :))

Duly noted.  ;D (I like puns, so I don't mind.)

Sorry, tj. The topic WILL return!
Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything. -- Plato

tjguitar

#14
November 03, 2008, 05:22:21 PM
The new-ish Chandos CD is listed @ only $11.97 at Amazon. I'm ordering!

Dundonnell

#15
November 03, 2008, 05:38:13 PM
My apologies as well ;D

I hate it when threads I start get threadjacked('Max Reger' becomes 'Ludwig van Beethoven') and yet I took part in derailing this one :(

Sorry, again, my friend :)

J.Z. Herrenberg

#16
February 06, 2009, 12:47:48 AM
I have just listened to Bainton's Third (on Dutton, coupled with Boughton). Lovely work. As I said in the Listening thread: 'Nothing new, but masterfully so'. I think I'll develop the same sort of soft spot for this work/composer like I have for, e.g., Dyson.
Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything. -- Plato

vandermolen

#17
February 06, 2009, 06:39:23 AM
Quote from: Jezetha on February 06, 2009, 12:47:48 AM
I have just listened to Bainton's Third (on Dutton, coupled with Boughton). Lovely work. As I said in the Listening thread: 'Nothing new, but masterfully so'. I think I'll develop the same sort of soft spot for this work/composer like I have for, e.g., Dyson.

Yes, it's very beautiful and the story behind its composition is moving. I often play this work and much prefer it to the Boughton.
"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

#18
October 30, 2011, 10:30:49 AM
I'm listening to this one again, probably the first time since I bought it just under three years ago:



I think it's definitely worth exploring. There's just something about his orchestrations that I just find really appealing...

cilgwyn

#19
October 31, 2011, 04:15:47 AM Last Edit: October 31, 2011, 04:19:55 AM by cilgwyn
I've got his Second Symphony on a cassette,somewhere. I was rather impressed,actually. Not a masterpiece,but well worth hearing. Ok,it's not Bax,as some people here have pointed out,but who else is? (There's only one Bax!). Bax has a more memorable sound world no doubt,but the Bainton has some lovely,atmospheric,shimmeringly beautiful orchestral writing and since Bax didn't provide us with an eighth symphony,this one comes in handy! In fact,I think it's probably better than Bax's Seventh,in a way. To my mind,(and some others) by the time Bax wrote his Seventh,his creative juices were a little past their prime,the fires had dimmed & even if the Fourth seems episodic (actually,one of my favourites!) at least the ideas were good!!!
Not bad at all,in my humble opinion! ;D And certainly preferable to the contents of a recent Chandos cd of long neglected symphonies by a certain pianistically inclined composer! If I can find the cassette,I'll certainly put it on again!!!
As  they say in the cd Mags,'Warmly recommended!'
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