British Music

[albion]

Just in case those who were looking forward to the release of my collection of tapes of otherwise unavailable British music are wondering what has happened to them .....

I have recovered all of the required tapes and have managed to get my old reel-to-reel machine working again(long story ). The tapes seem in good working order. So far I have not been able to connect the machine to my amplifier-although I have the required connector now-but even through the tape machine's own internal speakers the sound quality is amazing

All of the music was taped from BBC Radio between 1973 and 1981.

I have been listening to Daniel Jones Symphonies Nos. 3 and 10 and to Havergal Brian's Opera "Agamemnon"(the 1974 performance by Richard Armstrong). Arnold Cooke up next

It is a quite extraordinary experience listening again to music recorded over 30 years ago and which has lain hidden away in my attic for all these years.
And immensely pleasing to think that I can-at long last-share it with others soon

I'm soooooo envious! Great news for British music - all power to your transcribing elbow.

[Dundonnell]

I should perhaps add that....very sensibly, now in retrospect...in most cases I recorded the BBC announcer's introduction to the work so that solves the issue of identifying the performers.

I also keep on finding other works like Arthur Benjamin's Concerto quasi una fantasia for piano and orchestra and oddities from the 19th century too-Liszt's "The Bells of Strasbourg Cathedral"(??) and Webern's orchestration of Schubert's Six German Dances

[albion]

Our grateful arms will accept anything recherché from your archives!

[Dundonnell]

The Liszt appears to be a rare Cantata.

Anyone know any more?

[albion]

The Liszt appears to be a rare Cantata.

Anyone know any more?

It is Die Glocken des Strassburger Münsters (1874), based on Longfellow's The Golden Legend, the same text set twelve years later with such phenomenal success by Arthur Sullivan. There is a score over at IMSLP -

http://imslp.org/wiki/Die_Glocken_des_Strassburger_M%C3%BCnsters,_S.6_(Liszt,_Franz)

- and an interesting comparison by Richard Silverman of the two settings here -

http://www.sullivan-forschung.de/html/f1-analysen-longfellow.html

[britishcomposer]

Re William B. Wordsworth: the violin concerto in A is I think opus 60- opus 84 is the violin sonata (unless what's uploaded is an arrangement of the sonata?) Haven't found many tempo indications for his works except in Conway's article, so far.

This has always been listed as Op.60

I suppose Eric meant that the ID3-tag for the Wordsworth VC differs from the file-name: the tag says opus 84 while the file-name gives the correct opus-number.

[albion]

Very possible - the file was transferred lock-stock-and-barrel from one mediafire account to another - my intervention limited itself to bringing the file-name into line in terms of opus number, format, etc.

On a more general point These ID tags can be extremely bizarre: my recent download of the Bliss Cello Concerto disc from Naxos ascribes the second (but not the first) of the Two Studies to "Paddington Bear - Bedtime Classics".

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

On a more general point These ID tags can be extremely bizarre: my recent download of the Bliss Cello Concerto disc from Naxos ascribes the second (but not the first) of the Two Studies to "Paddington Bear - Bedtime Classics".

[albion]

Lovely - British light music is always welcome! Thanks very much for checking the Guild catalogue to avoid treading on their toes - despite their obvious intention to issue just about everything there are clearly some gaps which can still be filled.

[britishcomposer]

I have a BBC recording of York Bowen's Symphonic Fantasia Op. 16 (1905) by Vernon Handley and the BBC Concerto Orchestra but I couldn't trace a CD of that performance? Is it going to be released sometime or may I upload it?

[Alan Howe]

If it's off-air, then upload away...

[britishcomposer]

Okay, I was just wondering why it wasn't already there. It was aired in February this year I think.
Suppose any British members recorded the piece in better sound quality feel free to post and I will remove mine.

[albion]

I have a BBC recording of York Bowen's Symphonic Fantasia Op. 16 (1905) by Vernon Handley and the BBC Concerto Orchestra but I couldn't trace a CD of that performance? Is it going to be released sometime or may I upload it?

It is pretty certain that this was in fact a broadcast taken directly from the Dutton disc of Piano Concertos 2 and 3 -



http://www.duttonvocalion.co.uk/proddetail.asp?prod=CDLX7187

- so, as it is still very much available commercially I would hesitate.

[britishcomposer]

Thank you very much, Albion! Most of my Bowen recordings are off air, therefore I wasn't quite up to date about the commercial releases.

I searched amazon.de and found nothing. No wonder: look how user-friendly they made this
http://www.amazon.de/York-Bowen-Concerto-Symphonic-Fantasia/dp/B000ROAQZI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1317642982&sr=8-1
I should have double checked with jpc or amazon.co.uk.

[albion]

No problem - it's very easy to overlook releases from smaller companies, especially given the sometimes chaotic listings on amazon (in whatever country), but this is pretty spectacular -

Con Pno 2/3



This is a great disc and I would recommend it highly. It's good to make contact with another Bowenite!