Granville Bantock (1868-1946)

[Roasted Swan]

I'm afraid I am the Bostock nay-sayer.  I will listen to the Bostock/Pagan Symphony later but have just done a comparison of the Parry between Bostock and Boult in both his EMI and Lyrita versions.  Immediately appraent is that the orchestral playing is far finer in either Boult incarnation - richer and fuller.  Likewise Bamert's LPO/Chandos version - he is a bit more indulgent but the LPO respond to the manner born.  I was always sorry that Naxos didn't get further than a Vol.1 of their Parry cycle with David Lloyd-Jones and the RSNO - this also sounds very fine.

What a tremendous piece though!  A really well conceived and executed set of Variations all packed into fourteen minutes (or 12:37 if you are Lloyd-Jones).  By this measure Bostock comes up as I so often find him - BY NO MEANS BAD - but when put against other versions simply not as good..... fingers crossed for the Bantock (tbh the Maxwell-Davies interests me barely at all....)

[Albion]

"Omar Khayyam" sags in places but is a generally lovely wallow, "Sappho" is bang on the money and mostly the rest of Bantock's scribbles are greatly to be enjoyed (apart from those bloody trumpets in the "Hebridean Symphony"). The recent CPO disc which includes "In the Far West" (1912) and "Scenes from the Scottish Highlands" (1913) is excellent. I'd like to see the two tone poems "Hudibras" (1902) and "Lalla Rookh" (1902) recorded. "Sea-Wanderers" (1907) is splendid, and should be commercially recorded along with "The Time Spirit" (1904). Other very strong choral works are "The Great God Pan" (1915) and "The Pilgrim's Progress" (1928). I don't much care for "The Song of Songs" (1912-22) where languor lapses into the comatose - Mackenzie did a much better job with his splendid "The Rose of Sharon" (1884). And then there's the lovely Celtic opera "The Seal-Woman" (1924)...

 

[Biffo]

Most interesting - just ordered the Bostock CD (with an Amazon voucher). Bostock is underrated. There is a fine 'Job' by Vaughan Williams and I admire his ClassicO CD of Bax's 6th Symphony and Tintagel more than most - also there is a fine Novak CD on Alto.

I have The British Symphonic Collection, 10 CDs various orchestras conducted by Douglas Bostock. It has some interesting works I don't otherwise have recordings of. Most of the recordings of the more familiar works are serviceable or better but I have to say Job is the only complete dud.

[Scion7]

(apart from those bloody trumpets in the "Hebridean Symphony").

He put those in there to startle the audience from complacency during this otherwise rather relaxing piece. 

[Albion]

He put those in there to startle the audience from complacency during this otherwise rather relaxing piece. 

They're just horrid: trumpeters used to plead absence with a sick headache whenever the "Hebridean" was programmed. If I could edit them out of the Handley recording that would improve matters considerably...

 

[vandermolen]

I'm afraid I am the Bostock nay-sayer.  I will listen to the Bostock/Pagan Symphony later but have just done a comparison of the Parry between Bostock and Boult in both his EMI and Lyrita versions.  Immediately appraent is that the orchestral playing is far finer in either Boult incarnation - richer and fuller.  Likewise Bamert's LPO/Chandos version - he is a bit more indulgent but the LPO respond to the manner born.  I was always sorry that Naxos didn't get further than a Vol.1 of their Parry cycle with David Lloyd-Jones and the RSNO - this also sounds very fine.

What a tremendous piece though!  A really well conceived and executed set of Variations all packed into fourteen minutes (or 12:37 if you are Lloyd-Jones).  By this measure Bostock comes up as I so often find him - BY NO MEANS BAD - but when put against other versions simply not as good..... fingers crossed for the Bantock (tbh the Maxwell-Davies interests me barely at all....)

I'm not interested in the Maxwell-Davies either but the Symphonic Variations are my favourite work by Parry and the Pagan Symphony is one of my favourites by Bantock. I read nothing but negativity about Bostock's Bax's 6th symphony but I enjoyed it (certainly more than Del Mar's boxed-in recording, which put me off the work until I heard the Bryden Thomson and Lloyd-Jones recordings).

[Roasted Swan]

I'm not interested in the Maxwell-Davies either but the Symphonic Variations are my favourite work by Parry and the Pagan Symphony is one of my favourites by Bantock. I read nothing but negativity about Bostock's Bax's 6th symphony but I enjoyed it (certainly more than Del Mar's boxed-in recording, which put me off the work until I heard the Bryden Thomson and Lloyd-Jones recordings).

Bostock is the England Football Team of conductors...... always knocked out at the Quarter-Final stage 

[W.A. Mozart]

What do you think about the Celtic Symphony?

[foxandpeng]

What do you think about the Celtic Symphony?

Thumbs up from me. I like Bantock very much!

[Lisztianwagner]

What do you think about the Celtic Symphony?

A masterpiece, it's my favourite Bantock's work.

[vandermolen]

A masterpiece, it's my favourite Bantock's work.

One of mine too and the only one I've seen live (with all those harps!)

[Albion]

One of mine too and the only one I've seen live (with all those harps!)

If that was at the 2013 Proms I was there as well. For some unknown reason they programmed Bantock that year (it wasn't an anniversary): the "Celtic Symphony", "The Witch of Atlas", "Hamabdil", the "Sapphic Poem" and "The Pierrot of the Minute". I went to all of them and subsequently recorded the broadcasts.

Douglas Bostock's recent disc for CPO including "Scenes from the Scottish Highlands" and "From the Far West" is splendid. If you appreciate Bantock's wonderful scoring for strings you'll like these works, also the incredible opening section "Amphibian" from "Fifine at the Fair"...

[W.A. Mozart]

Nice symphony, but I'd need a better recording.

[vandermolen]

If that was at the 2013 Proms I was there as well. For some unknown reason they programmed Bantock that year (it wasn't an anniversary): the "Celtic Symphony", "The Witch of Atlas", "Hamabdil", the "Sapphic Poem" and "The Pierrot of the Minute". I went to all of them and subsequently recorded the broadcasts.

Douglas Bostock's recent disc for CPO including "Scenes from the Scottish Highlands" and "From the Far West" is splendid. If you appreciate Bantock's wonderful scoring for strings you'll like these works, also the incredible opening section "Amphibian" from "Fifine at the Fair"...

Good to know - thanks.

[Maestro267]

Nice symphony, but I'd need a better recording.

Yeah the sound quality on that Youtube video is atrocious!

Hyperion's 6 volumes of the orchestral works is the absolute go-to for Bantock's music, including the Celtic Symphony. Vernon Handley conducting on what is for my money the best series of recordings I've ever heard. So wide and spacious, and while irrelevant to the strings-and-harps of the Celtic, percussion in the other works that well and truly PUNCHES!

[Albion]

Yeah the sound quality on that Youtube video is atrocious!

Hyperion's 6 volumes of the orchestral works is the absolute go-to for Bantock's music, including the Celtic Symphony. Vernon Handley conducting on what is for my money the best series of recordings I've ever heard. So wide and spacious, and while irrelevant to the strings-and-harps of the Celtic, percussion in the other works that well and truly PUNCHES!

The only performance in the Handley set that constitutes a disaster is the "Overture to a Greek Tragedy" (1911) where, for some reason, the central allegro is taken at half-speed. A far better option for the work is Nicholas Braithwaite on Lyrita (SRCD 269)...

[Mountain Goat]

I love the Celtic Symphony, I was also at that concert! That performance was played on Radio 3 on Wednesday morning, I caught it on the car radio on the way to work. It reminded me that I'd been meaning to explore Bantock properly for a while, so finally ordered this today:

[Luke]

I'm surprised that in all of discussions of 'film scores which took ideas from classical music' that you can find online there is none (that I know of) that points out the almost exact resemblance between part of the melodic line of the third movement of the Celtic Symphony and Howard Shore's Lord of the Rings Hobbiton leitmotive, They are even in the same key:

the seconds after 11.35 (and elsewhere)

Obviously it's just a pentatonic family likeness and Shore probably never heard the Bantock, but it leaps out of the music, to my ears!

[Albion]

As long ago as 2000 Dutton released a splendid disc "The Song of Songs and other historical recordings" (CDLX 7043), especially valuable for the "Four Chinese Landscapes", the score of which is lost. Long out of print, this was advertised as volume one but subsequent volumes have never appeared. I wonder what else could be recovered - I've got

Five Ghazals of Hafiz - Prelude; Ala ya! send the cup round!; Oh, glory of full-mooned fairness!;
Saki! dye the cup's rim deeper; Sufi, hither gaze!; The New Moon's silver sickle (1905)
Harold Williams, bar/ BBC SO/ Clarence Raybould (br. 15/12/1937)

Celtic Symphony (1940)
London Promenade O/ Walter Collins (from Paxton GTR 113-114, recorded 1948)


but I can't think that there would be much else...

[vandermolen]

I'm surprised that in all of discussions of 'film scores which took ideas from classical music' that you can find online there is none (that I know of) that points out the almost exact resemblance between part of the melodic line of the third movement of the Celtic Symphony and!

I'm surprised that in all of discussions of 'film scores which took ideas from classical music' that you can find online there is none (that I know of) that points out the almost exact resemblance between part of the melodic line of the third movement of the Celtic Symphony and Howard Shore's Lord of the Rings Hobbiton leitmotive, They are even in the same key:

the seconds after 11.35 (and elsewhere)

Obviously it's just a pentatonic family likeness and Shore probably never heard the Bantock, but it leaps out of the music, to my ears!

Interesting; rather like the similarity between Prokofiev's 'March' from The Love of Three Oranges and 'Parade of the Ewoks' from Star Wars 'Return of the Jedi'.