Cipriani Potter

[albion]

An A minor symphony (commissioned by the the Royal Philharmonic Society in 1833) is one of the supposed 'lost' Potter symphonies. No date is given for the recording but the Boyd Neel Orchestra was renamed the Philomusica of London in 1948. I'll contact the Archive and the present conductor of the Philomusica and see what they make of it!

Further to the 'A minor' Symphony: pending a reply from the Sound Archive at the British Library, I had another trawl through the online catalogue. By following another circuitous route I discovered that the performance was broadcast on BBC Radio 3 on 19th February 1976 as part of a programme which also contained Elgar's 'Sursum Corda' and Ethel Smyth's Concerto for Violin and Horn. The present conductor of the Philomusica is currently stranded in Italy, but has promised to get in touch when he gets back to the UK!

Alas, I've just received the following email reply from the British Library:

Thank you for your enquiry. Sorry to have raised your hopes, but this is a cataloguing error on our part. The recording is of a Symphony in G minor, recorded in 1975 and broadcast on Radio 3 in 1976.

I will ensure that our catalogue is amended.

Best wishes,

Rod Hamilton

Reference Specialist

Well, it was certainly worth a try!

[Gareth Vaughan]

Well done. It is important to correct these errors. Some years ago the Library of Congress was listing a 3rd Piano Concerto by Eduard Schutt. When I queried this it turned out to be a complete mistake. The item was actually a piano suite!

[albion]

To begin the New Year, here are six of Potter's nine extant symphonies:

http://www.mediafire.com/?c8gw844rt7c1s

[No.1] G minor (1819, revised 1824/6) - referred to as No.1
[No.2] B flat major (1821, revised 1839) - referred to as No.2
[No.3] C minor (1826) - alternatively No.6
[No.4] F major (1826) - alternatively No.7
[No.5] E flat major (1828, revised 1846) - alternatively No.8
[No.6] G minor (1832) - alternatively No.10
[No.7] D major (1833) - alternatively No.11
[No.8] C minor (1834) - alternatively No. 12
[No.9] D major (1834) - alternatively No.14 or 15

[thalbergmad]

What a splendid gift. Thanks hugely for this.

I was looking for something to listen to this afternoon whilst the darts was on.

Thal

[albion]

I've just added two more files: the Overture to 'The Tempest' (1837) and the alternative slow movement (1846) for the Symphony in E flat.

[Jonathan]

Albion,
Thank you so much for this.  A very happy new year to you and your nearest and dearest.

[albion]

A very happy new year to you and your nearest and dearest.

Messrs Bantock, Brian, Cowen, Foulds, Holbrooke, Korngold, Langgaard, Potter, Schreker and Sullivan thank you most cordially for your warm wishes and return the same to you. 

[Mark Thomas]

Thanks, Albion. A real treasure trove. thanks so much.

[oldman]

Thank you Albion for this wonderful gift.

I had been plowing through the Potter dissertation and had just hit the section on the music when you posted. I must say, the ability to hear a selection of potters work that spans a substantial his creative life is quite the revelation.

Where I to have been Limited to the Classico recording of the F major symphony that was all that I was able to find, I would have said that Potter was more late classical composer a la Wilm than a romantic.  Hearing his later works for me confirms his status as a early romantic composer.

Thank you again for this.

[albion]

I'm really glad that these wonderful symphonies have found a wider audience! The performances are:

Symphony in C minor (1826) - Ulster Orchestra/ Jerzy Maksymiuk
Symphony in F (1826) - Ulster Orchestra/ Hilary Davan Wetton
Symphony in E flat (1828) - Milton Keynes Chamber Orchestra/ Hilary Davan Wetton
Symphony in G minor (1832) - Milton Keynes Chamber Orchestra/ Hilary Davan Wetton
Symphony in C minor (1834) - Ulster Orchestra/ Jerzy Maksymiuk
Symphony in D (1834) - Ulster Orchestra/ Hilary Davan Wetton
Overture The Tempest (1837) - Ulster Orchestra/ Roy Goodman

Unfortunately my transcripts of the Ulster Orchestra in the E flat and G minor symphonies (both conducted by Davan Wetton) have not survived the years!

[John H White]

Hello Albion,
    When I tried to download a movement from one of Potter's symphonies from the address you quoted, my Bit Defender software told me I had been attacked by a virus but had not been infected. I also got a red warning sign from MacAffee Site Adviser indicating that the web site in question was decidedly dodgy!

[albion]

Hello Albion,
    When I tried to download a movement from one of Potter's symphonies from the address you quoted, my Bit Defender software told me I had been attacked by a virus but had not been infected. I also got a red warning sign from MacAffee Site Adviser indicating that the web site in question was decidedly dodgy!

Hi John, I've never had any problems at all using mediafire - to test out your point I just downloaded some of my own files from the Potter folder without a hitch. Is your software hyper-sensitive? This issue is alluded to elsewhere on the net, eg. http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20101002222454AAZavA6

[Pengelli]

Hope you don't mind,I downloaded them too! Potter is a composer I have heard of & read about but never actually heard,until now. I remember reading the original review of the Unicorn release in Gramophone. I must admit,I didn't buy it at the time,but my tastes have broadened out since then.
  I had no trouble with Media Fire,although I use Microsoft Security Essentials & some anti Spyware programs, which,so far,give me no trouble & seem to pick up any dodgy downloads. I did however get infected by a strange virus of some kind,or trojan,(I can't remember exactly what it was now)a few months ago which kept playing a piece of music over & over again. It was a song from Boughton's 'Immortal Hour',and strangely enough I had visited the Boughton website earlier in the evening,to try and find out what was happening to the recording of 'The Queen of Cornwall',(which HMV are currently selling at £10.99!). I discovered the infection at around 12.30 am,of all times. At first I thought they were playing it as background music on the radio station interview I was listening to. Unusual choice & very imaginative choice of music I thought,(for Radio London),then it carried on into the news bulletin.......
  Thank you so much,by the way Albion,for enabling me to hear 'The Tigers' again,after all these years. I was beginning to wonder if I would ever hear it again. A wonderful recording & cast. Brian had a wildly surrealistic sense of humour. One of my all time favourites.

[Richard Moss]

Albion,

Firstly, to add my own thanks to you for making this wonderful music available (I do already have the two commercial recordings noted and that was a wonderful introduction to Potter's music).

Secondly,  I had no  trouble downloading from your Mediafire site (I too have McAfee installed) so I guess John has some local issues (and/or I missed the warning?!)

Thirdly, do you have any information on the movements of the D major symphony of 1834?

Lastly, do you or Alan, Gareth or one of the other 'Cognescenti' know of any extant recordings of his PCs or any likely plans to produce them?

Best wishes for 2011 to you and everyone else who makes this such a wonderful sight.

Richard Moss

PS Alan, might it be possible/desirable to have a section where links to 'free' recordings available from the web (via members of this forum or otherwise posted by them) are collected? 

In my short time as a fan of this sight I've come across the VC and CC for Bortkiewicz, Syms for Potter, PC for Ricardo Castro and a few other delightful bits and bobs and could quite easily have missed them (and have probably missed quite a few others too).

[albion]

Hope you don't mind,I downloaded them too!

Of course not - that's what they're there for! You might be interested in the Cyril Scott recordings I've posted under British music broadcasts.

Thirdly, do you have any information on the movements of the D major symphony of 1834?

Lastly, do you or Alan, Gareth or one of the other 'Cognescenti' know of any extant recordings of his PCs or any likely plans to produce them?

Click Show Extra Details on the left-hand menu of the files folder - I've given the tempo indications for each movement.

There is a possibility than one or more of the piano concerti might make it into Hyperion's Romantic Piano Concerto series.