GMG Classical Music Forum

The Music Room => Composer Discussion => Topic started by: Guido on May 21, 2008, 05:49:26 AM

Title: Imogen Holst
Post by: Guido on May 21, 2008, 05:49:26 AM
She is most famous for conducting and catalguing her father's music, and working as Britten's assistant of course, but she was quite an accomplished composer in her own right by all accounts. I can't find anything by her on CD apart from two early trifles on a CD of English cello music by women composers (I don't recommend the CD - it just reindorces any stereotypes you may have about English female composers of the early part of the last century... made me angry!) - I would really like to hear her string quintet (and quartets). I have plyed her lovely little solo cello piece called the Fall of The Leaf, but I don't think that it has been recorded. Is anything of hers available, and if so what are your thoughts?
Title: Re: Imogen Holst
Post by: Dundonnell on May 21, 2008, 06:08:44 AM

A link to a new recording of Imogen Holst's Chamber Music. You will find the website devoted to her through the link.

http://www.courtlanemusic.com/imogenholst/imogen-holst-recording.html

Hope this helps!

Title: Re: Imogen Holst
Post by: Guido on May 21, 2008, 11:13:22 AM
Brilliant - these are all the pieces I most wanted to hear! Cheers!
Title: Re: Imogen Holst
Post by: Guido on September 10, 2008, 10:32:45 AM
Having just listened to this CD twice through I must urgently recommend it to anyone who has even the remotest interest in English music. Some truly wonderful music here - the CD spans her career from the 20s to the 80s so a diverse range of styles is present here - from the gorgeous Vaughan Williams/Father Holst/Finzi-esque Phantasy quartet to the wonderfully resourceful and inventive sonata for violin and cello (making references to Kodaly's and Ravel's contributions to this genre), to the spare and masterly late string quintet. Her late music is a little tougher than the early quartet - more in the vein of Rawsthorne, Britten and Berkeley perhaps. I instantly took to all six works on the CD - each one is beautifully written.

Buy it!