Dutton Sale

[albion]

As usual, Dutton have many discs on special offer at the moment, and it is well worth having a look at the current listing -

http://www.duttonvocalion.co.uk/products.asp?cat=368

I've just picked up several discs that I'd missed for £2.99 - £4.99, including the Algernon Ashton 2-CD piano sonata set, Erik Chisholm's Ossian Symphony and excerpts from Tovey's The Bride of Dionysus.

[chill319]

Thanks for that!

For those who like Bloch and have not heard the Griller's performance of his Quartet 2, it is a superlative performance, with exceptional sonics for the pre-stereo 1950s.

[albion]

   

These three 'sale' items have arrived and I'm starting to work through them. Tovey's The Bride of Dionysus is a splendid recording which I'm thoroughly enjoying - written between 1907 and 1918 the opera is conservative in idiom, but expertly written for voices and orchestra (as you'd expect) and quite thrilling in its ambitious sweep. Has anybody else got this disc?

[Dundonnell]

No.....but I've got the Chisholm

(You know my Tovey story, I presume, Albion??)

[albion]

No, pray tell!

[Dundonnell]

I fear that some others may have heard it but.....

Tovey was Reid Professor of Music and Dean of the Faculty of Music at Edinburgh University. My great-uncle Tom was Professor of Bacteriology and Dean of the Faculty of Medicine. He and Tovey were good friends. My great-uncle fell ill with some serious viral infection and was gravely ill for some time. When he recovered Tovey wrote a piano composition to celebrate the recovery. The piece is intended-apparently-to depict the struggle of a sick men with the infection.

The name and location of the work is unknown to me. Presumably it is in manuscript and would have been presented to my great-uncle (who died in 1955).

I don't know....wouldn't an Oratorio or at least a Symphony have been more appropriate......

[albion]

A lovely story, Colin - what a pity that you can't now trace the composition which clearly would have meant so much to your great-uncle. As you say, it was presumably given as a present by Tovey and so is unlikely to be found in whatever archives there are.

[britishcomposer]

Thanks to Albion I have done a big 'Sales' order myself. Too big for my purse I think but, well, better now than too late. (I missed the Walford Davies Everyman!  )
I bought the Chisholm, too, but my main interest was the Fogg and the Hold songs. 

However, I am glad to hear that you like the Tovey opera, Albion!
I listened ONCE to the Piano Trios and Symphony from Toccata and was terribly bored. Yes, I should give them another try but I can't bring myself to do it again. There's so much more stuff...

[albion]

(I missed the Walford Davies Everyman!  )

Get it anyway - you won't regret it! It was very positively reviewed on Amazon ....



I would love to hear more of Walford Davies - http://www.unsungcomposers.com/forum/index.php/topic,1306.msg15963.html#msg15963

[albion]

On to Algernon Ashton now. Although the composer was prone to eccentric self-aggrandisement a la Holbrooke, there is much to both enjoy and admire - solid craftsmanship and a real sense of musical architecture: listening to this set makes me even more disappointed that none of Ashton's large-scale orchestral works survive.

[Alan Howe]

My goodness, there's some pretty boring music mentioned here. Walford Davies' Everyman - poorly sung, by the way - is no great shakes and, frankly, I've yet to hear much by Tovey that engenders anything other than a stifled yawn. A case of 'I am glad it's been recorded, but don't ask me to listen to it all again', as far as I'm concerned. And, while appreciating Ashton somewhat more, I'm sorry to say that I have revised down my estimate of his piano music because of the sheer boredom factor. Oh dear...

[Dundonnell]

I certainly cannot recall being bowled over by the Walford Davies

Does anyone know why exactly he was appointed Master of the King's Music in 1934 in succession to a figure like Elgar

I suppose that the obvious question would be..if not Walford Davies then whom? So many possibilities were either too young in 1934 or too unwell or too eccentric

I presume that Vaughan Williams was offered the post but refused?

John Ireland? Herbert Howells?

[eschiss1]

I shudder to think given the politics how the three branches of central Federal government here, or the states, would choose such a position. Though my opinion of Maxwell Davies is mixed (not a euphemism for poor- I mean mixed- but more importantly I respect his aims and works) I have difficulty imagining a composer with his output (even with some popular and popular-aimed works within it as his does) attaining any position [here], even one of such reduced authority and responsibility (but not prestige) since its inception.

Though our Poets Laureate have sometimes been fairly (to extremely!) good.

[Dundonnell]

I shudder to think given the politics how the three branches of central Federal government here, or the states, would choose such a position. Though my opinion of Maxwell Davies is mixed (not a euphemism for poor- I mean mixed- but more importantly I respect his aims and works) I have difficulty imagining a composer with his output (even with some popular and popular-aimed works within it as his does) attaining any position [here], even one of such reduced authority and responsibility (but not prestige) since its inception.

Though our Poets Laureate have sometimes been fairly (to extremely!) good.

You would probably end up with.........John Corigliano or John Adams   Copland would have been the obvious choice, wouldn't he?

[albion]

My goodness, there's some pretty boring music mentioned here. Walford Davies' Everyman - poorly sung, by the way - is no great shakes and, frankly, I've yet to hear much by Tovey that engenders anything other than a stifled yawn. A case of 'I am glad it's been recorded, but don't ask me to listen to it all again', as far as I'm concerned. And, while appreciating Ashton somewhat more, I'm sorry to say that I have revised down my estimate of his piano music because of the sheer boredom factor. Oh dear...

Yep! Welcome to the brand new boring music thread.

Bringing you .... Algernon Ashton (crazy name, crazy guy - quite literally) .......




....... house-wives' choice Henry Walford Davies.....




........ and not forgetting the scintillating sounds of Donald Francis Tovey .....