British Music

[eschiss1]

*attempts to interpret "certainly not much unsung" American music and falls flat on his face failing* - huh? not many broadcast recordings of unsung American Romantic music? that's my best guess as to what you mean... and there's still enough, I think (not all of them made in the US, I'd think, though when conductors go abroad they tend to take Copland rather than Chadwick, I suppose.  Still, I am thinking that's a "tend to". Or even if BBC Radio 3 was specifically meant, they have, I think, broadcast some lesser-known American Romantic works as well in broadcast performances in the past... awhile back true. Apparently according to Cadensa, for instance, Arthur H. Bird's serenade for winds - a recording, not a live performance, but rather little-known stuff by someone I would not know of I think if not for IMSLP - was broadcast on Radio 3 in a program on October 1988...)

[albion]

not many broadcast recordings of unsung American Romantic music

That's how I interpreted it - I'd love the opportunity to hear more Horatio Parker or John Knowles Paine!

[jerfilm]

Sorry I wasn't clear enough.  Certainly there's a ton ofunsung American music- I have a large list of "want".  And occasionally some of it may be played and even broadcast.  But it's a big place and unless it's broadcast nationally (and that would mostly be National Public Radio - which our culturally friendly Republican House of Representatives is going to cut federal funding for), most of us would not have the opportunity to hear or record itl 

Sorry for the political reference but it's a sad fact that a high percentage of politicians here of ALL persuasions do not heartily support public funding of any of the arts.  It's a minor miracle that NPR and CPB (the television equivalent) have been funded as well as they have for so many years.

Jerry

[eschiss1]

... ... only if our Senate and President quite fold... but anyway. right. Erm. Away, these thoughts, to seriously paraphrase Beethoven in the finale of the 9th...  actually re Parker, apparently at one point BBC Radio3 broadcast a 78 containing an excerpt from one of his operas, "Fairyland". (that would make a good start for the American Music Broadcasts folders ... if anyone has it!) Ah, public radio stations- radio stations!- were more often like that in the US once too, I know from
perusing old radio listings.  Both have worsened... apologies. Getting way offtopic, and I am very sorry.

[albion]

Botstein and his American Symphony Orchestra appear to be a little 'oasis in the desert' - how secure are they? 

[eschiss1]

hrm. actually, John Denman included a clarinet sonata by Daniel Gregory Mason together with one by York Bowen in a BBC broadcast some years ago, it seems -not- consisting of pre-recorded CDs/LPs/78s I think anyway?...( February 25 1987 broadcast, according to iLink-Cadensa .) Haven't I think heard Mason, but have heard about, including his use of a theme by John Powell (that John Powell) in a string quartet.
Eric

[thalbergmad]

Yet another late night thanks to this wonderful thread. Never thought Pinto would be posted, but I am rather glad it was.

If there are any other 3rd rate hack pianists on here apart from me, there is a modern Typerset score of the sonata posted today on the Werner Site:

    http://icking-music-archive.org/ByComposer/Pinto.php                                                                                                     

Pleasant music within reach of the amateur.

Thal

[albion]

In concluding the broadcasts from Martin Eastick's tape collection, the following recordings are now available: Mackenzie's 1888 Saltarello for violin and piano, Parry's The Lotos-Eaters (1892) conducted by David Willcocks in 1986 and the gorgeous symphonic poem The Passing of Beatrice (also 1892) by William Wallace (in a different recording to the one released shortly afterwards on Hyperion). Many thanks to Martin for allowing us to access the results of his diligence (well over 30 items)!

Additionally, I've taken the opportunity to upgrade a couple of recordings - for the files of Benedict's Symphony No.2 and the extracts from Mackenzie's The Rose of Sharon I've replaced my recordings with those from Martin's cassettes, with a noticeable improvement in sound quality.

Also today, Dylan has sent files of the six-movement suite from Parry's 1883 incidental music to The Birds - many will be familiar with the Bridal March, but the other items are just as attractive!   All of the above can be found in Folder 4 

[Lionel Harrsion]

A mixed, but fascinating, selection for today - early British piano sonatas by Pinto, Donaldson and Potter, Henry Pierson's brooding and eccentric Symphonic Poem Macbeth (1859), Ethel Smyth's 1887 Cello Sonata, three works by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Haydn Wood's Apollo Overture and a suite of dances by Ernest Tomlinson.

Two of the Coleridge-Taylor items have slightly problematic sound: Meg Blane was recorded at a live amateur performance and suffers from some distortion in louder passages, whilst in the Five Choral Ballads the sound is very recessed (I remember that this was an inherent problem with the recording as originally broadcast) and noise-reduction is highly counterproductive. Originally heard in orchestral guise in 1905, the full score is unfortunately lost but it is well worth getting to know these very attractive and often moving settings of Longfellow's poems about slavery. A vocal score of Meg Blane can be downloaded from IMSLP (http://imslp.org/wiki/Meg_Blane,_Op.48_%28Coleridge-Taylor,_Samuel%29) - the orchestral parts of this stormy seascape were quite literally rescued by an enthusiast when Novello's were junking their archives prior to a move of premises and leaving such material on the road-side for waste-paper collection! 

It is great to have these rare works in BMB and many thanks again to Martin Eastick for providing the original cassette tapes. 

Latest addition:

Dylan has very kindly sent Vernon Handley's recording of A Berkshire Idyll (1913) by Balfour Gardiner - this has been added to Folder 5. 

I wasn't aware of the wonderful rescue of the band parts of Meg Blane.  Seemingly not content with treating Coleridge-Tayor shamefully in his lifetime, Novellos continued to disrespect him after his death.  And what of the orchestral score of the Choral Ballads -- has anyone a clue as to where the manuscript or the band parts might be tucked away?  Patrick Meadows and I are always on the lookout for worthwhile projects and, after the ten months of our lives we devoted to producing our edition of Thelma, the Choral Ballads would be a 'stroll in the park'!

Thank you for all the other wonderful things you have been uploading (and to those who have supplied the tapes, of course).  As a result, I have been mightily distracted from editing Bomtempo's 4th Piano Concerto, which is what I'm supposed to be doing!  Parry's String Quintet fair knocked my socks off - it's a masterpiece.

[albion]

The vocal scores of the Choral Ballads, Op.54 were published by Breitkopf & Hartel initially as two volumes (1-3 and 4-5), but the orchestral parts were always in manuscript. Unfortunately, like so many works issued like this, perhaps two or three sets were copied at the most - two world wars, careless publishers and general indifference have wreaked their havoc!

I think that (even in the muted piano version) these constitute one of Coleridge-Taylor's most attractive creations (alongside A Tale of Old Japan, the Symphonic Variations on an African Air, the Incidental music to Nero and Scenes from an Everyday Romance).

PS. The Parry Quintet is quite a stunner! The A flat Piano Quartet (on Meridian, perhaps deleted now) is certainly at the same level of excellence. 

[eschiss1]

erf, I need to find that tape I believe I have of Parry's 3rd string quartet (also a BBC broadcast, I think- though cadensa.bl.uk doesn't list this, which surprises me a little though not completely; they list Raff's quartet op.192 as having been broadcast but I know the BBC broadcast other Raff quartets too from having read microfilms - yes, I am a dork+ - of back issues of the Times , if memory serves - in which broadcasts of Raff's quartet no.1 , and other works were also mentioned, that don't seem to show up in cadensa/iLink, etc. .... So, unsurprisingly, hardly complete or, also likely, they've lost the tape and it's just a catalog of what they still own - in which case- kind of depressing, too.)

(Edit: I was searching for 'quartet' when I should have searched for 'quartets' or just looked under Raff. They do list the Alberni recording of the first Raff quartet on 15 July 1982. My mistake there!)

Also seems that the Parry trio could have been any time since it's from the Meridian recording and apparently they don't keep track of when pieces from CDs in their collection were broadcast- reasonable... more than unfortunate if that CD is no longer available though!!)

[albion]

Also seems that the Parry trio could have been any time since it's from the Meridian recording and apparently they don't keep track of when pieces from CDs in their collection were broadcast- reasonable... more than unfortunate if that CD is no longer available though!!)

The broadcast definitely predated the Meridian recording and it is not the same performance!

[eschiss1]

ah, sorry! cadensa only seems to list the 1993 Meridian one -  but as noted in my last comment as edited I may not be casting my search range wide enough, too. hrm

[albion]

The British Library Sound Archive is an absolute and ongoing nightmare - inconsistent, badly catalogued and just plain inadequate. I'm sure that once they have a commercial recording safely in their hands, they junk any clapped-out old broadcasts of the same work! 

[eschiss1]

it seems Cadensa has three recordings, one of them commercial, of Raff's first violin sonata in their archive- maybe they don't consider Turban's recording to be a good one then? erm- anyway- back to topic. apologies.