Holbrooke from Dutton

[albion]

Thanks Gareth, I'm sure that many members are really looking forward to hearing this disc - the following note is by Philip Scowcroft (Musicweb) -

Holbrooke was so prolific in so many different directions that we should not be too surprised at his really remarkable corpus of saxophone music, bearing in mind the instrument's unfashionableness (Holbrooke was himself unfashionable) until the last generation or two. There was a Serenade for five saxophones and seven woodwinds and another one (Op 61B) for oboe d'amore, clarinet, basset-horn, harp, viola and seven (!) saxophones, a Nocturne for alto and piano, a Ballade for bass clarinet and saxophone, a Sonata, Op 99, for alto and piano, while the Tamerlaine Concerto Op 115 (1939) was scored for either clarinet or saxophone, plus bassoon and orchestra. Most interesting was the Concerto in B flat, Opus 88, composed in 1927, in three movements, the first (Allegro) for tenor saxophone, the second (Serenade) for alto and the third (Finale) for alto and soprano alternating. This was [...] originally devised for five different saxophones (presumably soprano, alto, tenor, baritone and bass) to be used one after the other with the idea of demonstrating the saxophone as a full family of instruments. (This was something Percy Grainger was also keen on; he was irritated at the concentration on alto and tenor and he himself often scored for a balanced choir of saxophone from sopranino down to bass). Holbrooke's Concerto, probably the first British concerto for saxophone, was given its premiere at St Albans on 25 November 1927, by Walter Lear who gave at least seven other performances in the next few years and it is said to have helped inspire Eric Coates' Saxo-Rhapsody.

In the meantime I would strongly recommend the new Naxos disc of Holbrooke's chamber music, including the lovely Horn Trio and the 'Sonata' version of the Grasshopper Violin Concerto. The latter makes me more keen than ever to hear the concerto in its orchestral guise - hopefully courtesy of the next volume in CPO's Holbrooke series.

[Gareth Vaughan]

Philip Scowcroft has, I'm afraid, got some of his information mixed up (an easy thing to do with Holbrooke, as there is no definitive list of his works and Joe was always re-writing, re-scoring or renaming pieces and was also very cavalier about opus numbers). The Opus 61B Serenade is for ten wind instruments, harp and viola. The ten wind instruments are: oboe d'amore (or oboe); clarinet; basset horn (or cor anglais); soprano saxhorn (or cornet); baritone saxhorn (or cello) five saxophones - soprano, alto, tenor, baritone & bass. The saxhorn is sometimes confused with the flugelhorn but, while the saxhorn was invented in Paris by Adolphe Sax, the flugelhorn is of German origin and predates the saxhorn.
There is, as far as I am aware, no Serenade for five saxophones and seven woodwinds (though I am open to correction here) and I think Philip may have confused it with the Op. 61B piece in one of its many possible scorings. The Op. 99 sonata is simply the piano/saxophone score of the Op. 88 concerto which was originally written for performance on 3 saxophones, each of a different timbre: tenor, alto and soprano, as described by Philip. However, I know of no evidence to suggest that JH ever conceived of using five different saxophones. It is hard enough to find one player sufficiently proficient to play the virtuoso part on 3 saxophones of differing pitch, let alone five! And, indeed, JH later permitted the use of just alto and soprano in the concerto.

[Dundonnell]

I have just finished listening to the new Dutton release of the Holbrooke Saxophone Concerto and Ballet "Aucassin and Nicolette"-the first of the new Duttons I have had time to get to my cd player

Delightful, tuneful, light music Certainly well worthy of revival.

...and how odd it is to hear the coupling of Sir Richard Rodney Bennett's Seven Country Dances for soprano saxophone and string orchestra. I have been listening to quite a few of his compositions from the 1960s and 1970s recently. What a complete change in style