New Duttons on the way

[albion]

You make a number of very fair points and deserve a proper response.

Yes, we in Britain have been incredibly fortunate to have companies like Lyrita, Chandos, Hyperion and Dutton recording previously neglected British music. The contrast with most other countries is indeed acute.

Lyrita however have now worked through their back catalogue and have not released a cd for many months now while Chandos, having, so sadly, lost Richard Hickox, are employing Sir Andrew Davis and Edward Gardner but seem to be intent-in the main-to be re-recording British repertoire rather than looking further afield(the Bowen 1st and 2nd symphonies are an exception).

I have absolutely no difficulty with Dutton expanding into music from other countries but this move is clearly at the expense of the British Epoch series.
In March 2010 Dutton released 8 discs of British music, in July 7 discs, in November 7 discs, in March 2011 7 discs. Since then however the number has more than halved, 3 this June and 3 to be released probably in November.

Such a substantial cut in output is what is causing a number of us such concern.

I yield to no one in my amazement and enormous gratitude to Dutton for the fantastic job the company has done for British composers and for British music-lovers over the past few years. I have been collecting music for around half a century and I never imagined in my wildest dreams that much of the repertopire now available would ever grace my cd shelves. Dutton fully deserve all the praise they get.....but to more than halve their production is too much to accept without expressions of concern.

Concern is being expressed for the simple reason that many of us absolutely love both the ethos and the achievement of Dutton's Epoch series - no doubt several members will have purchased virtually every release since the early days of the enterprise: as such, a close and affectionate relationship has developed between supplier and consumer.

If the product is attractive and the price is right, then you can build up a loyal following in any commercial sphere. For a decade, Dutton has actively fostered a relationship with enthusiasts for the many-faceted world of British music. It has done this in several ways - by astute choice or repertoire, by engaging performers of extremely high quality, and (most important of all) by creating an expectation amongst the company's many followers.

In Dutton's case, these standards are intimately bound up in the release-schedule - no other company has devoted itself so whole-heartedly to exploring British repertoire in exemplary performances since the days of Lyrita. To reiterate, this is a carefully calculated 'brand image'.

Yes, we are very fortunate in this country to have such enterprising record companies and it is precisely for that reason that a dialogue is important - you never fully appreciate what you have until you don't have it any more. I certainly wish Dutton every success with their wider-recording enterprise and hope the company flourishes, but I will be more than a little sad to think that the 'glory days' for their committed advocacy of British music are now over. Of course, every reaction to a recording is by definition initially selfish - we want to hear what interest us personally and then share that enthusiasm with others: companies such as Dutton do not come along very often in the modern recording industry and their individual profile could be needlessly dissipated.

[Syrelius]

Sterling has undergone the same sort of change as Dutton several years ago. Once they were exclusively concentrated on Swedish composers, today Swedish composers are rare among their new releases. Personally, I'm sorry that this means that my chances of hearing orchestral works by composers like Einar Skagerberg and Sigurd von Koch are getting smaller, but on the other hand I think quite a few members of this Forum would not want to be without their releases of music by Raff and Noskowski, just to mention two names.

[Dundonnell]

I could not agree more with what Albion has so eloquently written

[JeremyMHolmes]

Two more releases have been added to the website which I think will more than redeem Dutton for any suspected neglect of British music. I am especially excited about the Moeran!!

http://www.duttonvocalion.co.uk/proddetail.asp?prod=CDLX7282

http://www.duttonvocalion.co.uk/proddetail.asp?prod=CDLX7281

[M. Henriksen]

Brilliant! That ends our discussion for now I guess


Morten

[britishcomposer]

Gosh, Moeran's 2nd?! I didn't know! Unfortunately the site doesn't explain who prepared these sketches for performance.
And the Overture.. I thought it was lost? Has it somehow reappeared?

I just made a google search and found this fascinating document:
Fabian Huss has written about the sketches and published his own transcription as an appendix.

http://www.music.ucc.ie/jsmi/index.php/jsmi/article/viewFile/80/87

http://www.music.ucc.ie/jsmi/index.php/jsmi/article/view/81/89

[albion]

Brilliant! That ends our discussion for now I guess


Morten

Perhaps, business as usual, then (provisional sigh of relief)!



Well spotted! It looks as though there is indeed life in the old dog yet. Stanley Bate's Piano Concerto No.2 and Sinfonietta No.1!



Although, no cause for complacency!

[semloh]

Just a belated 'hear, hear' to this eloquent expression of concern, and unrestrained applause for Dutton's original decision to record British unsungs.
I think Father Christmas is bringing me a little box of Dutton Epochs, this time round!

[Alan Howe]

I'll add the Moeran to the Benjamin...

[Dundonnell]

If I was a "conspiracy theorist" (which I am not ) I might perhaps wonder if some record companies actually get one of their employees to scan the threads on forums like this for ideas on what might or might not be popular pieces for recording/release

Anyway- for the time being- sackcloth and ashes and, particularly if anybody at Dutton IS watching, jolly well done

I can't wait for the Moeran disc..or the Stanley Bate...quite apart from the Arthur Benjamin....or the Holbrooke...and shall be buying all four

(I do still think though that a letter to Dutton, couched in slightly different terms, is in order to seek clarification of their future plans.)

[Dundonnell]

Gosh, Moeran's 2nd?! I didn't know! Unfortunately the site doesn't explain who prepared these sketches for performance.
And the Overture.. I thought it was lost? Has it somehow reappeared?

I just made a google search and found this fascinating document:
Fabian Huss has written about the sketches and published his own transcription as an appendix.

http://www.music.ucc.ie/jsmi/index.php/jsmi/article/viewFile/80/87

http://www.music.ucc.ie/jsmi/index.php/jsmi/article/view/81/89

Thanks for these fascinating links

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Gosh, Moeran's 2nd?! I didn't know! Unfortunately the site doesn't explain who prepared these sketches for performance.
And the Overture.. I thought it was lost? Has it somehow reappeared?

I just made a google search and found this fascinating document:
Fabian Huss has written about the sketches and published his own transcription as an appendix.

http://www.music.ucc.ie/jsmi/index.php/jsmi/article/viewFile/80/87

http://www.music.ucc.ie/jsmi/index.php/jsmi/article/view/81/89

Thanks for these fascinating links

Seconded. I love Moeran's music, though I wonder what that Second Symphony will sound like. The First (as we from now on should call it?) is a masterpiece.

[eschiss1]

I thought from an article I'd read in the Musical Times that the Moeran 2nd existed but in very slender quantity (which the article quoted a bit of, but I didn't really get the impression there was that much more?...) I hope I am misremembering.

[Paul Barasi]

Mike Dutton, Supreme Magician of CD re-mastering, was surely heading for a knighthood but now ...? Maybe we should have a poll on this overseas issue and send him and the music press the results.

[chill319]

While the Converse works may not number amongst his very best (e.g., Job, Ormazd, Symphonies 2 and 3), I'll be most grateful to hear this CD. For those lacking easy access to information on Converse, here are a few details.

Festival of Pan, op. 9, is a response to Keats's Endymion, one of a pair, the other being Endymion's Narrative, op. 10 (available on Naxos).

The tone poem Song of the Sea, composed in the winter of 1922, is Converse's third musical response to another poet, Whitman ("On the Beach at Night Alone," from Sea-Drift). It was premiered 18 April 1924 by the Boston Symphony under Pierre Monteux.

American Sketches is the final work in Converse's trilogy of self-consciously "American" pieces, written 1926-28 -- the same period as Carpenter's Skyscrapers, Gershwin's An American in Paris, Copland's Piano Concerto, and Shepherd's Horizons symphony. Those who have heard the first piece of this trilogy, Flivver 10 Million, will know to expect an impressionist rather than a modernist idiom -- closer to Bax 4 than to VW 4.