British Music

[eschiss1]

Speaking of Fricker, Cadensa also lists a German? broadcast of his toccata opus 33 conducted by Erich Schmid and the Beromünster orchestra. I don't think this was a commercial recording... anyone know about this work, have the recording? (I need to cut down on the request, my iPod is accusing me of -- "don't finish that sentence.")

[albion]

At present I am working on the basic assumption that people would rather hear this music-which has never made it to disc [...] than not hear it at all.

Your assumption is most sagacious.

[Dundonnell]

Speaking of Fricker, Cadensa also lists a German? broadcast of his toccata opus 33 conducted by Erich Schmid and the Beromünster orchestra. I don't think this was a commercial recording... anyone know about this work, have the recording? (I need to cut down on the request, my iPod is accusing me of -- "don't finish that sentence.")

The Toccata is coming shortly.....although in a different performance

[dafrieze]

I want to add my thanks to Dundonnell for his ongoing uploads - the Daniel Jones works, especially, are a great boon, since I've been looking in vain for so many of them.  At the risk of biting the hand that feeds me - is it possible, when transferring your tapes to digital format, to transfer them at a slightly higher volume?  I've been boosting the sound a bit via Audacity, which helps; and if it's not possible for you to do so, then please forget I ever said anything.  But thank you again for the additions to the Unsung collection! 

[eschiss1]

Dundonnell- not attached to the performance, just was noticing the possibility in their archives of a performance (as I like doing at times). And adding to the general thanks!

[Dundonnell]

I want to add my thanks to Dundonnell for his ongoing uploads - the Daniel Jones works, especially, are a great boon, since I've been looking in vain for so many of them.  At the risk of biting the hand that feeds me - is it possible, when transferring your tapes to digital format, to transfer them at a slightly higher volume?  I've been boosting the sound a bit via Audacity, which helps; and if it's not possible for you to do so, then please forget I ever said anything.  But thank you again for the additions to the Unsung collection!

Your point about the volume is very helpful........thanks   I shall see what I can do

[albion]

Cyril Rootham: Sonata in G for Violin & Piano [1925]: Barry Wilde [pfte]/Alan Fearon [pfte]

Cyril Rootham: Septet [1930]: Catherine Lucas [flt]/Roger Winfield [ob]/George MacDonald [cln]/Steven Ray [bsn]/Hugh Potts [hn]/Andrew Williams [vla]/Jillian Tingay [hp]

Joseph Holbrooke: Quintet for Bassoon & Strings "Eleanore" op.124 [1941]: Aeolian Qt/Gwydion Brooke [bsn]

Please forgive my not responding to these generous contributions until now. Many thanks - the files have been incorporated into the main listing/ archive. Rootham and Holbrooke are always welcome at BMB!

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Many thanks to Colin for his sterling efforts! This place is fast becoming the biggest repository of British music in the galaxy.

[Dundonnell]

Many thanks to Colin for his sterling efforts! This place is fast becoming the biggest repository of British music in the galaxy.

I suspect the BBC Music Library could be bigger, you know

IF..and it may indeed be a big if...the tapes of all that they broadcast are still in existence just imagine what a store of music lies gathering dust somewhere and how happy the beeb could make people if they were able to release it

(I know there are all manner of legal issues involved )

[Dundonnell]

I know that I am "flooding the market" at the present time with uploads of taped British music

I also fully appreciate that personal recommendations may have little value considering the diverse tastes of listeners. My own tastes may perhaps lie rather too much towards the grim, the stern, the downright gloomy

I shall forego making any recommendations of individual works by either Peter Racine Fricker or Alun Hoddinott. The music of these two composers lie at the outer edges of (but within ) the limits of what I can myself enjoy in more modern music. I understand that some will find these composers too hard-going

I would however like to recommend from amongst my uploads of music which has not yet made it to cd-

Havergal Brian's marvellous Opera "Agamemnon" with its very illuminating introductory talk by Malcolm MacDonald

Arnold Cooke's two clean, sparkling, lean symphonies-Nos. 4 and 5

Daniel Jones's Symphonies Nos. 3 and 10

Wilfred Joseph's Symphonies Nos. 5 "Pastoral" and 7 "Winter

and two symphonies which are about to be added-

Francis Chagrin's 1st and David Morgan's Sinfonia da Requiem.

Chagrin was a Rumanian who studied in Zurich and then Paris(with Dukas and Nadia Boulanger) and lived in Great Britain from 1936 until his death in 1972 at the age of 67. He wrote music for film and for tv but also a body of more serious compositions, including two symphonies.

http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2009/Jan09/Chagrin_Scowcroft.htm

David Morgan is a somewhat mysterious character about whom little seems to be known. He composed comparatively little. There is a Violin Concerto which Lyrita recorded many years ago and which elicited very favourable comment. Morgan spent time studying in Prague and his Sinfonia da Requiem is a reaction to the Soviet invasion in 1968. It is a work which quite a few people on the net have expressed a desire to hear. I think that it is quite a powerful and impressive piece with its sarcastic quotation of Shostakovich's Leningrad Symphony.

Morgan later emigrated to Canada and died there in 1988.

http://landofllostcontent.blogspot.com/2010/03/david-morgan-violin-concerto.html

http://www.musiccentre.ca/apps/index.cfm?fuseaction=composer.FA_dsp_biography&authpeopleid=176&by=M

Perhaps these comments may be of some help?

[dafrieze]

Dundonnell - as far as I'm concerned, there can't be too much Fricker and Hoddinott (or Jones or Josephs, for that matter).  That whole group of neglected composers of the mid-twentieth century, whose music isn't as tonal as some might like it but isn't as dodecaphonic as some might fear it, needs to be brought into the light of day.  I believe music gets rusty when it's not performed.

[Dundonnell]

Dundonnell - as far as I'm concerned, there can't be too much Fricker and Hoddinott (or Jones or Josephs, for that matter).  That whole group of neglected composers of the mid-twentieth century, whose music isn't as tonal as some might like it but isn't as dodecaphonic as some might fear it, needs to be brought into the light of day.  I believe music gets rusty when it's not performed.

Oh...I do agree with you

But having largely migrated from a music forum on which I had a reputation as a champion of "old-fashioned, tonal composers" and got some stick from time to time from the fans of Xenakis, Ligeti and Stockhausen to a forum with a different ethos I want to be 'judicious' in my recommendations

[Dundonnell]

At least though, with the Fricker Symphony No.2 on cd and Symphonies Nos. 1 and 3 already available in the Downloads section, the addition of Nos. 4 and 5 means that all five of Fricker's symphonies can now be heard

[eschiss1]

And while the LP (now CD) of Fricker 2 (I have the Fricker 2/Simpson 1 LP that that part of that CD came from) are really good performances as far as I know , it's good to have Handley's recording of Simpson 1 too and one can hope for another recording of Fricker 2 too (well, not expect, but hope.)

[Dundonnell]

And while the LP (now CD) of Fricker 2 (I have the Fricker 2/Simpson 1 LP that that part of that CD came from) are really good performances as far as I know , it's good to have Handley's recording of Simpson 1 too and one can hope for another recording of Fricker 2 too (well, not expect, but hope.)

We live in hope....but I doubt, sadly, not in expectation