Holbrooke from Dutton

[Rob H]

All this talk of Holbrooke reminds me that only one of the Piano Concertos has been recorded (well, as far as I know). Does anyone know of any plans to put the second concerto onto disc?
Also in re-reading the notes to Hyperion's recording of the 1st concerto "The song of Gwyn ap Nudd" I see that an off-air recording of Frank Merrick playing it exists. Does anyone have info about the whereabouts of this / likelihood of CD transfer etc?
Rob

[eschiss1]

All this talk of Holbrooke reminds me that only one of the Piano Concertos has been recorded (well, as far as I know). Does anyone know of any plans to put the second concerto onto disc?
Also in re-reading the notes to Hyperion's recording of the 1st concerto "The song of Gwyn ap Nudd" I see that an off-air recording of Frank Merrick playing it exists. Does anyone have info about the whereabouts of this / likelihood of CD transfer etc?
Rob

cadensa.bl.uk says that Norman del Mar/BBC Orch were involved, 1958-03-22 either the performance or broadcast date (I don't know which is the one they're filing it under.) But yes, it is apparently in BBC tape archives.
Eric

[Gareth Vaughan]

There is a possibility that Panos Trochopoulos will record the 2nd Piano Concerto for Cameo with the Malta Symphony Orchestra in November. The conductor will be Leslie Howard (the Liszt specialist). A possible couplng is the ballet "Aucassin et Nicolette", which was successfully toured for more than one season by the Sadlers Wells ballet, but this has yet to be determined.
Having seen the 2-piano version of Holbrooke's "3rd Piano Concerto" - more correctly known as Symphony No. 8, Op. 112 - 'Dance Symphony', but in reality a PC - I can only deeply regret the absence of a Full Orchestral Score for this work.

[albion]

Having seen the 2-piano version of Holbrooke's "3rd Piano Concerto" - more correctly known as Symphony No. 8, Op. 112 - 'Dance Symphony', but in reality a PC - I can only deeply regret the absence of a Full Orchestral Score for this work.

Gareth, many thanks for the news about yet another tantalising Holbrooke prospect! Regarding the absence or loss of a full score for the 8th Symphony, I know that Holbrooke's house, Dylan, in Harlech was gutted by fire in November 1928 (outlined in the newspaper cutting at the bottom of http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2003/Nov03/Holbrook_wales.htm). Do you know if this particular score was a casualty, and what else was lost as a result?

[Rob H]

cadensa.bl.uk says that Norman del Mar/BBC Orch were involved, 1958-03-22 either the performance or broadcast date (I don't know which is the one they're filing it under.) But yes, it is apparently in BBC tape archives.
Eric

Oooooh! Thanks for unearthing that. I wonder if they can be persuaded to broadcast it? Or even release it on their BBC Legends - probably not: Frank Merrick was a lovely pianist but hardly what the BBC would class as a "legend". I'll still write to them.
Rob

[Rob H]

Have just glanced through the cadensa.bl.uk listings for Merrick and there are two performances of the Holbrooke Concerto op52. The one with de Mar that Eric mentioned and one from 1936 with Dan Godfrey (this is the one that Hyperion mention).
This is another topic of course but there's an awful lot of Frank Merrick listed. Now if I could track down all those "Frank Merrick Society" and "Rare Recorded Editions" LPs...

[giles.enders]

I have just purchased the Holbrooke cd and would like to know which version of the symphony I have.  In the notes it says that it was written in 1928 and then goes on to say that Holbrooke discarded the first movement and wrote a new one in 1934 and later still wrote a new finale.  This leaves only the original 7 minute middle movement from 1928 yet on the back it has in brackets(1928). It seems that if the other two movements still exist there is almost another symphony around.

[Gareth Vaughan]

As far as I can ascertain, Holbrooke wrote only a new slow introduction to the 1st movt., not a complete new movt. I have a copy of the symphony with the old slow intro. as well as one with the revised intro. The later intro. is used on the Dutton disk. I am not aware that Holbrooke wrote a new Finale. I think this is incorrect. On the copy of the score of the older version, however, the note values of the Finale's opening "fanfare" are very slightly different from those in the later version. Otherwise the two Finales are identical.

[Gareth Vaughan]

I know that Holbrooke's house, Dylan, in Harlech was gutted by fire in November 1928 (outlined in the newspaper cutting at the bottom of http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2003/Nov03/Holbrook_wales.htm). Do you know if this particular score was a casualty, and what else was lost as a result?

Oddly enough, I was discussing this very issue with Mrs Holbrooke only the other day. The whole episode, however, is shrouded in mystery. It is not known precisely which scores were lost, or which were subsequently reconstructed by Josef. I have a feeling that Op. 112 was written after the fire, but I'm really not sure. It is so difficult to tell the dates of composition of some of Josef's music because he was always rewriting, re-arranging and renumbering, particularly in the 1930s when he set about buying back the copyrights and publishing his own music under his "Modern Music Library" imprint. The Dance Symphony first made its appearance as an MML publication, and virtually everything he wrote from the 4th Symphony onwards was self-published.

[albion]

Thanks, Gareth - I have a mental image of Holbrooke staggering into his house and then emerging again through the front door against a background of smoke and fire carrying the autograph scores of The Children of Don, Dylan, Bronwen and the Dramatic Choral Symphony - and then collapsing unconscious under the weight of all that paper. Luckily these works were all published in full score - do the autographs survive?

[Pengelli]

What an image! Thank goodness Havergal Brian didn't have a house fire. With the weight of those scores,he wouldn't have got up.
Sad about the 'Dance Symphony'. That's one I was particularly curious to hear. Is there really absolutely nothing left for a performance?

[giles.enders]

Thank you for the info. re Holbrooke.  With reference to his fire, it is fortunate that his music didn't suffer the same fate as Geirr Tveitt's or Kuhlau's.

[Pengelli]

Silly me,you explained above.

[Gareth Vaughan]

Luckily these works were all published in full score - do the autographs survive?

Not as far as I am aware.

[albion]

Gareth, you may be interested to know that the autograph score of Bronwen (lacking Act 1) was sold as Lot 100 at Sotheby's on 8th December 2000 for £2115!

http://www.sothebys.com/app/live/lot/LotDetail.jsp?sale_number=L00209&live_lot_id=100

Lot 99 was also of exceptional interest - about 140 letters sold for £1410 (see the expanded description at the bottom):

http://www.sothebys.com/app/live/lot/LotDetail.jsp?lot_id=37CLY

The autograph of Ulalume was sold as Lot 108 on 25th May 2001 for £1175:

http://www.sothebys.com/app/live/lot/LotDetail.jsp?lot_id=354D4

It looks as though this went to the Juilliard - http://www.juilliardmanuscriptcollection.org/home.html - you can view the manuscript online!

The Viking was included in a sale on 7th December 2001:

http://www.sothebys.com/app/live/lot/LotDetail.jsp?lot_id=3GP6Z

I can't find a result for this, so it was probably unsold or possibly withdrawn.

I wonder where the others are now? I'd love to read those letters!

George Eastman House hold Alvin Langdon Coburn's unpublished photographs intended for his aborted volume Musicians of Note. Holbrooke sat for his portrait on 24th January 1916 - I think the result is a wonderful image. Others fared perhaps slightly less well - Holst looks like a provincial curate, whilst Bantock looks as though he's just rolled out of bed:

http://notesonphotographs.eastmanhouse.org/index.php?title=Alvin_Langdon_Coburn/Musicians_of_Mark,_1914-1921