Symphonies by Cowen and Coleridge Taylor

[Syrelius]

A few years ago Danish label Classico released a CD with Frederíc Cowens 6th symphony and Samuel Coleridge-Taylors A-minor symphony. A few weeks ago, I finaly managed to get hold on a copy of it.

Both works on the CD are truly interesting, though maybe not in the major league. Cowen is not a composer of the same stature as his three famous contemporaries, Elgar, Stanford and Parry, but his present neglect certainly doesn't seem fair. Coleridge-Taylors symphony is a student work (which is most apparent in the last movement). However, it is full of original ideas and memorable tunes, and all in all it is good enough to make you wish that the composer would have followed it up with more works of the same sort.

Has anyone else bought this CD, and what are your reactions?

[wunderkind]

I bought it - out of curiosity - listened to it - was unimpressed (bored, could be a better word) and gave it away.  There is too much good music to explore and too little time to waste on blandness like these two symphonies.  It was enterprising of Classico to unearth these long-buried pieces, but I think there is a reason they were interred.

[Alan Howe]

I agree: I found the C-T's symphony particularly inept. Cowen's was worth disinterring for recording purposes, but he's not a major voice at all. Better than Prout, though.

[Syrelius]

Well, I seem to be the only one to see any charm in those works.
What about other orchestral works by C-T, such as the violin concerto and the Variations on an African Air?

[TerraEpon]

The violin concerto by C-T is a nice piece, There's two recordings (I believe), one of the Hyperion series, and another coupled with the Dvorak (I own the later).

Of course, C-T's Hiawatha is a great piece and quite worth tracking down.

[Alan Howe]

The VC is a gorgeous piece indeed! I have both recordings of it (though I bought the Hyperion for the Somervell VC which I'd known about for many years from Tovey's writings).

[edurban]

This record didn't impress me much when I got it...For the record, I dearly love Cowen's wacky Indian Rhapsody, but his Scandinavian Symphony leaves me cold: there's some spirit & interest in the opening movement, but the rest strikes me as a barren, tuneless wasteland. 

Then, a year or two later, my wife popped Cowen 6 into the cd player without telling me what it was.  I didn't recognize it, but the first movement seemed quite good to me, then the familiar deadly lack of melodic interest set in, and the last movement seemed like a hopeless jumble to me.  So I keep the disc on the strength of that first movement. 

This still leaves Cowen as the greatest Jamaican composer until Bob Marley...
David

[Mark Thomas]

Sorry to come to this thread late. I've been away doing musically interesting things.

I'm afraid that I agree with the consensus on Coleridge-Taylor's youthful Symphony. It's not up to much. Cowen's work has more going for it, he was a mature composer who knew his craft, but as David says, it starts well and then declines with each movement. The completist in me is pleased to have it in my catalogue, but I doubt it'll get many listens.

[Josh]

Well, I seem to be the only one to see any charm in those works.
What about other orchestral works by C-T, such as the violin concerto and the Variations on an African Air?

Guess again! Well, I can't speak to the Cowen, as I've never heard it, but I actually kinda like Coleridge-Taylor's early symphony. Maybe it makes me seem like an idiot, but good tunes are enough for me to give a work at least a better than mediocre score. I'm a sucker for a melody that strikes my fancy, and I don't deny it. I like those other works you mention as well, especially the Violin Concerto. Oddly, when I bought a CD with that concerto on it, I ended up liking the work paired with it (Somervell) even more! The number of orchestral works from the 20th century that I like is somewhat limited, so this is more odd than you might think, in my case.

I think Coleridge-Taylor had a real gift for melody, and I'd like to have heard him attempt another symphony in the fullness of his powers. He died young, otherwise we might very well have been gifted with such a work. I do feel he's worthy of more attention than he receives, and I'm glad that so many of his works (relatively speaking) have been recorded in the last few years. I doubt his one and only symphony will ever become all that popular, but I forgive it much for its enthusiasm and tunefulness. I just love the way that thing opens, and I think, considering that it really is a student work, the orchestration of the first movement is pretty impressive, if nothing else. This is one that stuck with me after the first hearing. But I have to confess, it does tend to ramble at times.

So you're not alone!

PS: Have you ever heard his Romance in G for Violin and Orchestra? If not, you really need to get the Rachel Barton CD that contains that and possibly my favourite violin concerto of all time, that in F-sharp minor by José White Lafitte.

[Syrelius]

Glad to hear that I'm not alone in thinking that C-T:s symphony contains a lot of good music, Josh! I also agree with you on the Somervell VC. Excellent piece of music!

The José White Lafitte CD sounds interesting, too!

[John H White]

I was rather disappointed with Cowen's 6th symphony. Not a patch on the 3rd, which is one of my favourites. I reckon that, by the time he came to write No 6, he was well past his sell by date. However, I found the CT symphony quite charming and I too regret that he did not pursue the genre further.

[Pengelli]

I was a bit disappointed with the Cowen too! But he was a major figure in British music at the time and the cd is a useful source of reference,if you are genuinely interested in the period leading up to the 'so called' English musical Renaissance. It is also  quite interesting in so far as it reminds us that not all neglected music is necessarily going to turn out to be a gem. Having said that,I do find Cowen's sixth interesting in respect to his influences;and his orchestration does have a different sound to it,albeit,without the tunes, than Parry or Stanford,so maybe there are some plums worth hearing in his output,somewhere. I would particularly like to hear his 4th,although I somehow doubt that there is anything particularly Welsh about it.

[Pengelli]

The two William Wallace cds from Hyperion are a case in point.
On the other hand Wallace was influenced by Liszt and did allot to pioneer the British,or perhaps I should say,Scottish tone poem.
Incidentally,I once tried to sell them on Amazon,but no one wanted them! Wallace,unlike Cowen,however,did seem to have some flair for melody & colour and 'Villon',in particular, is rather good.

[Lionel Harrsion]

While I agree that it was enterprising of Classico to record these symphonies (and the Coleridge-Taylor is to my mind the more interesting piece by far) neither of them is well served by the blandness of the interpretations, the reverberant acoustic or the undernourished string sound.  Better advocacy is needed: didn't someone say of Beecham that one of his great gifts was to make second-rate music sound as if it were first-rate?  Where is today's Tommy?

[Alan Howe]

There isn't one. But then Beecham didn't do a great deal for unsung composers either...