British Music

[chill319]

What a treasure trove! Links for folders 1-7 are laid out in Albion's initial post, but I'm unclear as to we access folders 8 and up. Could someone enlighten me, please?

[albion]

Hi, all the broadcasts and other recordings mentioned throughout this thread are available in Folders 1-7 (which are listed in the initial posting).

A couple of weeks ago I did some rearranging which meant that everything in the smaller Folders 8-16 was moved into the larger Folders 1-7.

Hope you find what you're looking for - the listing for Folders 1-5 is a bit random at the moment, but I've arranged 6 and 7 in composer-chronology order!

[chill319]

Great! Thanks, Albion.

[albion]

Another great friend of BMB, jimmattt, has sent vintage performances of the Piano Concertos by Gordon Jacob (the first written in 1927, the second in 1957).

These can now be found along with the other Jacob recordings in Folder 6.

Many thanks for these, Jim. 

[albion]

Two more substantial scores by Grace Williams are now in Folder 6 - the Sinfonia Concertante (1941) and the Violin Concerto (1950). These are from the 2006 Composer of the Week series and so are good modern performances.

In Folder 7 there is a Concertante for Piano and Strings by Pamela Harrison (1915-1990) - another very welcome addition to female representation in British music.

Many thanks to jimmattt for these great new items. 

[albion]

BMB has got a new home in this section of the forum - indeed here is where it should really have been all along -

many thanks to Mark for arranging the seamless transfer!

The entire archive is now in composer-chronology order - apologies to anybody trying to download material this evening whilst cutting, pasting and file-moving was taking place!

[albion]

I've just added the trilogy of Northern Ballads by Arnold Bax to Folder 5.

Rarely heard (even individually), Vernon Handley programmed them together as a sequence in a concert with the BBC Philharmonic which was broadcast live on 19th December 2006.

[albion]

There are now two significant and otherwise-unavailable works by Gordon Crosse (b. 1937) in Folder 8 - Elegy (1959) and Symphony No.1 (1976).

Many thanks to Dylan for providing these and further expanding the range of repertoire in BMB. 

[albion]

There is now a vintage recording of York Bowen's Symphony No.3, Op.137 in Folder 5.

It is not clear as to whether or not the score for this work is still extant. If not, then this performance represents a very valuable historical document.

Many thanks to dafrieze for providing this fascinating addition to BMB. 

[albion]

Two more broadcasts of substantial scores by Iain Hamilton are now in Folder 8 - the Piano Concertos from 1949 (revised 1967) and 1960 (revised 1987) played respectively by Margaret Kitchen under Edward Downes in 1970 and by David Horne under Jerzy Maksymiuk in 1991.

Many thanks to our friend jimmattt for these latest recordings. 

[albion]

In October 2001 the BBC celebrated the 80th birthday of Malcolm Arnold with broadcasts of all nine symphonies: Folder 8 now contains specially recorded live performances of Symphonies 1-6 performed by the BBC Philharmonic under Rumon Gamba (thus complementing the Chandos recordings of 7-9).

These are exceptional interpretations, with numbers 5 and 6 benefitting from being played in the presence of the composer. 

[eschiss1]

Re the McCabe performance of Pinto's fantasia and sonata in C minor- is this the same work as Pinto's sonata in C minor, or something different? Cadensa notes a broadcast of the latter in 1984 ("198483"- March 3?).
The Mackenzie piano quartet (op11 in the same key?) was broadcast at least once (is the "unknown" because of ambiguity?) - one I can find is in 1974, with John Tunnll(?) on violin, Charles Tunnell cello, Susan Tunnell piano, Brian Hawkins viola. Other broadcasts of CDs (at least two of those) etc. listed in Cadensa also but at least that one studio broadcast too, maybe others I can't find... also, don't know if this is the work you're talking about (I should go find out and I will.)]
they also list another rec. of Bowen sym. 3 (this has prob. already been mentioned?...sorry) with Charles Groves conducting the Bournemouth symphony in the collection of York Bowen Tapes lent by the RAM, though no date is provided there either apparently...

[albion]

Pinto's Grand Sonata in C minor (c.1803) is a different work from the posthumous Fantasia and Sonata. At least one of the sonatas (E flat minor) was broadcast on 14th December 1995 as part of a series entitled Brief Lives which looked at short-lived eighteenth-century British composers. The recording I was transcribing, however, came with a cut-out from the Radio Times which showed that the McCabe broadcasts were not part of such a series.

Mackenzie's 1873 Piano Quartet is indeed his Op.11 - this was left off in oversight, but is now corrected. The performers on the broadcast recording are definitely the Naxos Quartet as the tape came with another relevant snippet from the Radio Times.

Thanks for the reference to the Charles Groves recording of Bowen's Symphony No.3. I came across the RAM York Bowen tapes on cadensa some time ago but didn't examine every entry in detail - as most of them give no additional information as to what the tapes actually contain. 

This further recording may prove valuable if the opportunity for reconstruction ever arises! 

[albion]

Recent additions to the archive include nla recordings and broadcasts of Holst, Bliss and Malcolm Arnold. 

[albion]

Jumping on the bandwagon of commercial plugging, BMB brings you an alternative Specialist Classical Chart of transfers and downloads for the week ending round about now (or thereabouts) - aka Who's Hot and Who's Not:

1. York Bowen - Symphony No.3
2. Bernard van Dieren - Chinese Symphony
3. Alan Bush - Piano Concerto
4. Gordon Jacob - Piano Concerto No.1
5. Grace Williams - Violin Concerto
6. Gordon Jacob - Piano Concerto No.2
7. Ruth Gipps - Symphony No.4
8. Arthur Butterworth - Violin Concerto
9. Grace Williams - Sinfonia Concertante
10. Benjamin Dale - The Flowing Tide

No André Rieu here! Can anybody topple York Bowen from prime position!! Is Van Dieren's Chinese Symphony on the take-away menu!!!