Granville Bantock (1868-1946)

[Hector]

Lesson:ALWAYS read the newpre release listings at mdt.co.uk....they are quite comprehensive, and speedily updated (som you may have to scan through them every few day until they are finalized).

That's true and they email the Newsletter to me as a frequent buyer, I suppopse.

[tjguitar]

Here's a review:

http://musicweb.uk.net/classrev/2007/Sept07/Bantock_Omar_Khayyam_CHSA5051.htm


There's also a comment by Michael Freeman:

Chandos have seen fit to issue what they call a premiere recording of Granville Bantock's Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. As one whose name appears on the list of sponsors of that venture I would like to make it clear that, having heard the Chandos discs, I can no longer support what is a castrated, malformed presentation of this beautifully proportioned score. Nine quatrains and the prelude to part two have been omitted in an unmusical act of vandalism.

Interesting.

[Montpellier]

I also read the Michael Freeman supplementary review and, yes, surprise.   Unusual for Chandos to mess around like that though they have done a couple of boo-boos in the past.   

I decided not to buy the set as I have the 1979 Del Mar recording.   

.

[sound67]

I think Michael Freeman is one big pussy. At the end of Lewis Freeman's liner notes, the booklet clearly states:

"Owing to the exceptional length of Omar Khayyam, Bantock authorized various cuts and alternative truncated passages in Parts I and II. In this recording, a small number of these have been observed, always with the concern to ensure minimum disruption to the narrative flow."

Thomas

[Montpellier]

I think you'll find that some of the cuts were not those authorised by Bantock.

Point is - why the cuts anyway?  If Chandos is going to record the 'complete' work, why not record it complete.  They have actually cut about 4 minutes from almost 3 hours.   It isn't as if they're stuffed for room on any of the CDs.   Stupid, if you ask me.   I mean, here's a monumental opportunity and...(sighing)...they blow it.   

I'm just glad that I didn't buy it and find out too late.  I've have been pissed off all right!           



Edit: typo

[sound67]

They didn't blow it, and you would never have noticed if it weren't in the liner notes.

[tjguitar]

The only thing I wonder is why cut the (supposedly orchestral?) prelude to part 2?

[m_gigena]

I have the 1979 recording of Omar Khayyam but I don't have any information about it, and I don't have the Chandos release to compare. Do you know if any cuts were done to the old one?

[Peregrine]

So I guess the stuff on Hyperion is de rigueur, but are there any Naxos goodies for a newbie(price considerations and that)...?

[vandermolen]

So I guess the stuff on Hyperion is de rigueur, but are there any Naxos goodies for a newbie(price considerations and that)...?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bantock-Hebridean-Symphony-English-RussianScenes/dp/B00005AYEO/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1196631898&sr=1-6

[Hector]

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bantock-Hebridean-Symphony-English-RussianScenes/dp/B00005AYEO/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1196631898&sr=1-6

Some prefer Leaper to Handley in the Hebridean.

[Peregrine]

Just ordered, thanks!

[Mark]

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bantock-Hebridean-Symphony-English-RussianScenes/dp/B00005AYEO/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1196631898&sr=1-6

I'll download this for pence. Thanks.

[vandermolen]

Both welcome.Hope you enjoy. I have Boult doing the Hebridean too on a, long deleted, Intaglio CD.

[vandermolen]

HMV in Bond Street (London) has the Hyperion boxed set in their sale at £25. This is very good value, as there must be 6CDs I think. Nice new cover art too 

[The new erato]

HMV in Bond Street (London) has the Hyperion boxed set in their sale at £25. This is very good value, as there must be 6CDs I think. Nice new cover art too 

It was available at mdt just before Christmas at around 20 quid at a Hyperion box set sale.

[Dundonnell]

Bantock is another composer whose music was revived through the committed advocacy of the late lamented Vernon Handley. I just adore the passionate sweep of the Hebridean and Celtic Symphonies....but I suppose that would be natural for a Scot like me

[The new erato]

I have the Hyperion box set as well as the Chandos Omar and can't say I'm quite convinced- But Bantock is in my "must listen more" pile, so we'll see.

[Lethevich]

Bump for this poor dead thread!

The Hyperion box is a perfect purchase for those inclined towards this kind of neglected Romanticism. A key point of its value is the quality of the performances. Beautifully transparent, and quite unexplectedly, the Royal Philharmonic play their butts off. I can't recall hearing them ever play this well before. Excellent recording quality and presentation - great work all round. The Celtic Symphony disc alone is a stunning achivement, as many have said, but I had ignored until this point.

Bantock's style is rather different to what I had been expecting. I find his music to be ahead of his generation - looking forward to Bax rather than content to write for the academic scene. I don't really understand the Elgar comparisons - Bantock appears to look more towards Finland/Russia for musical inspiration, Elgar to Germany. Elgar is more objective, Bantock is more heady.

I find myself startled at the depth of atmosphere in much of his music - it comes in start contrast to much else from Britain in the late 19th/early 20th century. His beautifully abstract, yet finely structured symphonies all impress me equally, despite his rather dubious distinction between symphony and tone poem (à la Liszt). I like the unabashed Romanticism in his diving into any folkloric subject he could get his hands on and writing music to fit it. Ranging between impish folksiness and pseudo-pornographic Szymanowskin/Scriabin-esque sensuousness

The sheer volume of music he wrote also intrigues me, and if it is all on the same level as contained on these six discs it confirms that there is plenty of great music left waiting to be recorded and that we're not yet scraping the barrel to find more tonal music to record. I could see Naxos doing an orchestral works series as with Bax if it were not for Bantock's lesser state of interest as far as the record buying public are concerned at the moment. It doesn't help that their first Bantock disc doesn't compare to Handley in terms of quality - they should move onto what Hyperion have yet to record IMHO.

My favourite works so far are the wonderful stormy micro tone poem The Sea Reivers culled from the Hebridean Symphony, and the meandering Sapphic Poem which gives the cello soloist a fine workout.

[Dundonnell]

Excellent post

I suppose that the main problem with what you would like to see happen next with Bantock's music is that he has lost his main champion in Vernon Handley. I cannot see any conductor of comparable stature being interested in promoting Bantock