Première recording of Percy Sherwood's Double Concerto

[eschiss1]

EM Records seems to plan to release a recording (this recording) of them, so I'm confused by what you mean...

Edit: Oh, I see- because they only have 48.9% of their funding goal reached (as of February 20, 2018 late.)

[Mark Thomas]

... and the promised release date slips and slips. Em Marshall-Luck wrote in June that: "we hope to release the disc in the Autumn." Well, hope springs eternal and spring is almost here.

[Alan Howe]

...but lagging, like the CD release.

[Gareth Vaughan]

Quite. This recording has been "imminent" for a long time.

[semloh]

Maybe it's actually "immanent" - staying within the system!

[eschiss1]

I wish I could follow you, but I Kant.

[Alan Howe]

Oh, Eric! You philosopher, you!

[Mark Thomas]

The Radio 3 host (I'm recording as I type) has said several times that the CD will be released "in the spring". I offer no comment, but at least we now have the opportunity to get to know these two major works thanks to the BBC. I'll try to get the recordings edited and uploaded by close of play today...

[Alan Howe]

Yes, I heard that too.

First impressions were that the Sherwood is a very fine piece with a particularly memorable first movement. It was very different from Brahms' famous concerto for the same combination: apart from the idiom, which was clearly later, there was much more simultaneous writing for the two soloists which, by the way, sounded fiendishly difficult.

Cowen's 5th, on the other hand, I didn't find all that convincing - I couldn't follow the disjointed rhythmic opening at all and very little else convinced me that this was a major missing symphonic statement. As usual, though, there was a tremendously attractive lighter movement, this time placed second. I just didn't think it sat well with the remainder of what is a pretty serious piece. No doubt I'll have to listen to this again, but for me Cowen lags some way behind Stanford and Parry in achivement.

[Mark Thomas]

My recordings of both pieces are now available in the Downloads board.

I must say, on first hearing, I was rather more impressed with Cowen's symphony than Alan obviously was. It seemed to me of a higher calibre than the other two examples which we have. Of course, the second movement's lightness of touch, attractive music though it is, does jar with the other three's uncharacteristic seriousness of purpose, but even the finale maintained interest and didn't fall away as those in the Scandinavian and the Idyllic Symphonies do, and I thought the slow movement a pretty fine effort. That said, Alan's right, he wasn't in the same class as Stanford or Parry.

I don't disagree with anything that he wrote about the Sherwood, though.

[Alan Howe]

I think Cowen's 5th deserves a thread to itself - especially as I've listened again...
http://www.unsungcomposers.com/forum/index.php/topic,6760.0.html

[semloh]

Totally agree with you about the Sherwood concerto, Alan. Thoroughly enjoyable, and a challenge for the soloists. I'm looking forward to listening to the Cowen symphony in due course.

Thank you, Mark, for uploading these works.... what a treat! 

[Richard Moss]

Tks for this (and Cowan) downloads - looking forward to hearing them. 

Does anyone have the tempi for the concerto's movements?

Much appreciated if you have.

Richard

[Mark Thomas]

I couldn't find them anywhere, which is why I left them blank.

[eschiss1]

Spooner's site claims that the 2016 performance is a world premiere, making my own usual efforts - searching up a score (nope, unpublished so far), or looking for movement headings in reviews back-in-the-day of a performance back around the late 1900s (when reviews did sometimes include that kind of information, and program notes too)- all go to naught too

I think I wrote earlier that some of Sherwood's concertos were being published. I was misreading an entry in the U. Oxford library in which they note that they have Takenouchi's own 2013 typeset edition of the piano concerto no.2 which (if I read it correctly, making some guesses) he made in preparing the work for performance, which is not however a publication, and I find no other examples to suggest a trend to which, as I'd hoped, the double concerto might soon be added- ah well.