British Music

[Dundonnell]

Havergal Brian fans cannot complain that they are not getting something much more than a trickle, if not quite a flood, of recordings of that composer's music

I hope that they share with me the concern that we shall also manage to obtain recordings of the symphonic music of a number of other distinguished British composers' music

[Jimfin]

As a firm Brian fan since me teens, I am highly appreciative! But I am also a great lover of many other composers on here, and also not so selfish as not to wish such a flood of recordings of many other composers' music on my fellow UC members. Sullivan being one of my other great loves, I have done very well on here of late!

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

I am glad UC is caring for many other composers than HB. The luxury of being able to listen to all of Léon Orthel's symphonies (just one example among many)!

[albion]

Arthur Oldham - Psalms in Time of War

Thanks for sharing your recording of this splendid piece, PJ.

The mezzo-soprano soloist in this performance was Janet Baker and two parts for soprano soloists were taken by Morag Cross and Elizabeth MacLean.

Thank you - I've added the info to the download information. You'd think I'd recognise Dame Janet.....

PJ, no need for embarassment - the error is mine, led astray by The National Sound Archive giving Allen and Baker as vocal soloists in the performance. However, on closer listening, there are clearly only two female soloists in Psalm 137 (across the fourth and fifth of your files), neither of which is Janet Baker.



The review of the concert in The Glasgow Herald (22nd August 1977) refers to

delicate sonorities, that in one section involve a pair of solo sopranos; their parts were beautifully sung by Morag Cross and Elizabeth MacLean.

Janet Baker's participation in the work would definitely have been noticed in the review, and the evidence of the recording (which I ought to have trusted above the NSA catalogue) indicates that, after giving Phaedra an outing, she probably cleared off to the pub at half-time.



I've amended the relevant post and catalogue entry.

[albion]

I have uploaded the final Rubbra broadcast from this week's series, the Te Deum, Op.115 (1962) for double choir.

[nungulba]

  English Music Festival 1 June 2012

  http://www.mediafire.com/?3ssicc9xc4bxf85

  PARRY: Jerusalem
  CURTIS: Festival Overture
  IRELAND: Legend for Piano and Orchestra

  VAUGHAN WILLIAMS: Fantasia for Piano and Orchestra (World Premiere performance)
  MOERAN / YATES: Symphony no.2 (World Premiere performance)

  Mark Bebbington (piano) / BBC Concert Orchestra / Martin Yates (conductor)

  From BBC Radio

Sorry but I'm having problems with this download (even after paying for a premium download membership!)

Perhaps it needs re-uploading.

Alternatively, would it be possible to send it to Rapidshare where I have a long-term subscription??

[eschiss1]

As to Havergal Brian, though, I'm surprised I never started listening (and I've only started- I'd better go back to...) his opera The Tigers before now (admittedly, there's only the broadcast recording , but...) -
not sure what I expected, but it seems this wasn't it (I actually mean that as a compliment in this case). (I already appreciate and often love his music and have for a couple of decades of so.) To be (somewhat?) clearer- on the basis of the 20 or so minutes so far I think (not a good sample admittedly)- much more powerful and striking than any other early work of his I recall hearing (in admittedly probably fairly underpowered performances - Leaper is sometimes good or very good depending on - but - anyway... ) - surprising pre-echoes here and there of the Gothic (it seems... just ostinatoes and the like, but even up to orchestration- but ... ?) - in a word though - compelling and wonderful. Thank you. I shouldn't have been the least bit surprised, don't know why I was, but ! Looking forward to the rest...

[albion]

  English Music Festival 1 June 2012

   PARRY: Jerusalem
  CURTIS: Festival Overture
  IRELAND: Legend for Piano and Orchestra

  VAUGHAN WILLIAMS: Fantasia for Piano and Orchestra (World Premiere performance)
  MOERAN / YATES: Symphony no.2 (World Premiere performance)

  Mark Bebbington (piano) / BBC Concert Orchestra / Martin Yates (conductor)

  From BBC Radio

Sorry but I'm having problems with this download (even after paying for a premium download membership!)

Perhaps it needs re-uploading.

Alternatively, would it be possible to send it to Rapidshare where I have a long-term subscription??

I have uploaded the following items from the EMF concert (1/6/2012) separately into the archive -

Matthew Curtis - Festival Overture (2008)
Frederick Delius - Over the Hills and Far Away, Fantasy Overture (1895-97)
John Ireland - Legend, for piano and orchestra (1933)
Ernest John Moeran - Symphony No.2 in E flat (1939-50, realised and completed by Martin Yates, 2011)
Ralph Vaughan Williams - Fantasia for piano and orchestra (1896-1902, rev. 1904)

Many thanks to A.S. for the original zip file of this broadcast.

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Havergal Brian's The Tigers is

much more powerful and striking than any other early work of his I recall hearing

as it's Brian's first fully mature work. And it shows.

[albion]

Important additions to the archive - three major choral works by Arthur Bliss (1891-1975) -

The Beatitudes (1961), Mary of Magdala (1962) and The Golden Cantata (1963)

all conducted by the composer.

I have transferred these from discs very kindly sent to me by secondfiddle. Full details are given in the catalogue.

Many thanks.

[Dundonnell]

Wonderful

These are three of the most significant large-scale choral compositions by a major British composer of the 20th century to have remained unrecorded.

Many thanks indeed to secondfiddle

[John Whitmore]

Important additions to the archive - three major choral works by Arthur Bliss (1891-1975) -

The Beatitudes (1961), Mary of Magdala (1962) and The Golden Cantata (1963)

all conducted by the composer.

I have transferred these from discs very kindly sent to me by secondfiddle. Full details are given in the catalogue.

Many thanks.

I don't know any of these works but will search them out. Secondfiddle - you don't have the 1970 live concert of Bliss conducting his Piano Concerto with Frank Wibaut as soloist do you?   

[secondfiddle]

Sadly not. I have Bliss conducting with Shulamith Safir and Trevor Barnard but not Wibaut.

Incidentally, I should mention - or confess - that the first two bars of The Golden Cantata are missing through a stupid error of mine years ago with the original reel-to-reel tape. The work begins very quietly so fortunately nothing dramatic has been cut.

[albion]

I have uploaded today's broadcast of

Hamilton Harty (1879-1941) - Ode to a Nightingale, Op.16 (1907)

This is perhaps the most beautifully lyrical and formally perfect of all his major works. Although (IMHO) this broadcast can't hold a candle to the magisterial Heather Harper/ Bryden Thomson recording (Chandos), in which Harper gives the most appropriately affecting world-weary performance, it is interesting to have an alternative, especially since Ailish Tynan takes a number of ossia lines indicated in the Breitkopf & Härtel vocal score.

[eschiss1]

Thanks!