Benjamin Dale

[giles.enders]

In The British Music Societies journal, September issue.  There is an excellent article by Christopher Foreman about Benjamin Dale which briefly covers his life and compositions.  It would seem that he wrote a lot more music than is usually listed.  The article is to be continued in the next issue.

I recently purchased a recording of his piano sonata which I can heartily recommend.

[Kriton]

That sounds interesting: 2 weeks ago I was listening again to the Dale recordings I have (unfortunately not more than a few CD's with piano & violin/viola works), it made me wonder why his viola pieces aren't played more often; it's not as if violists have a lot to choose from... His huge op.2 d minor "suite" (more of a sonata...) is really one of the finest viola pieces I know.

[Mark Thomas]

Giles wrote: I

recently purchased a recording of his piano sonata which I can heartily recommend.

I have never really thought much about Dale. Can you characterise his Piano Sonata, please, Giles? Anything like the early York Bowen piano works, for instance?

[Pengelli]

I have an off air cassette tape of a R3 broadcast of Vernon Handley conducting 'The Flowing Tide'. I Must dig it out! It's suprising that no one has got round to recording it yet.

[JeremyMHolmes]

My thoughts entirely - see my separate thread on the "new recordings" section which I posted a couple of months back. I also posted a message on the Chandos forum about this piece, and in particular the existence in the BBC archives of a Vernon Handley recording, but have had no response from them to my suggestion of releasing this on CD as a tribute to the much missed Tod Handley. I also suggested it a while back to Mike Dutton, but they have a full shopping list at the moment with their excellent Holbrooke/Butterworth CDs.

[Pengelli]

I posted something about a composer there,recently,and they took a while to reply,so there may be hope yet. However,they are usually quicker than that. Otherwise,you get this 'deathly silence'.
Back in the early 90's,I sent Chandos a letter,by snail mail,as they call it now,in which I pleaded on behalf of several composers,including Holbrooke and Ethel Smyth. I received a letter informing me that Mr Brian Couzens,himself,had been shown my letter,and that not only were they very interested in recording Holbrooke,they were also planning a series of Ethel Smyth cd's.
I'm still waiting.......

[eschiss1]

I posted something about a composer there,recently,and they took a while to reply,so there may be hope yet. However,they are usually quicker than that. Otherwise,you get this 'deathly silence'.
Back in the early 90's,I sent Chandos a letter,by snail mail,as they call it now,in which I pleaded on behalf of several composers,including Holbrooke and Ethel Smyth. I received a letter informing me that Mr Brian Couzens,himself,had been shown my letter,and that not only were they very interested in recording Holbrooke,they were also planning a series of Ethel Smyth cd's.
I'm still waiting.......

Well, what do you think of the one they did produce? (CHAN 9449, Serenade and Concerto, 1996, conducted by de la Martinez; Watkins/Langdon/BBC Phil?)

[Pengelli]

I was referring to the fact that they didn't do a series. I was just suprised that they didn't do any more after that,the single cd they did was so good. Since then,interest in Ethel Smyth seems to have cooled. Although,I notice a posting from one enthusiast on the Chandos forum,so maybe there are some 'fans' out there.

[Gareth Vaughan]

A recording of "The Prison" is needed. This is a very important work in her canon.

[Pengelli]

Indeed. It's not so long ago that allot of people seemed to be going on about Ethel Smyth,and there were a number of recordings of chamber and instrumental music. It all seemed to fizzle out. What happened? (Apart from,absolutely nothing!)

[Alan Howe]

Anybody heard the Dale Piano Sonata yet?

[Mark Thomas]

It's winging it's way to me from Amazon....

[albion]

I notice a posting from one enthusiast on the Chandos forum,so maybe there are some 'fans' out there.

I cannot tell a lie (well, not many). You might have been able to spot a startling correlation - shameless 'plugging' for Potter, Sullivan, Mackenzie, Cowen, Smyth, Bantock, Holbrooke, Schreker ...

To be fair to the Chandos forum, it is usually the MD himself who replies, and he must be a very busy man! The response regarding Dame Ethel was actually fairly positive - "More discussions are taking place about this composer".

[Pengelli]

Yes,of course. The letter I sent was back in the days of the Marco Polo efforts. There is of course far more interest now,and Chandos have done a heck of allot,bless 'em.
I wonder if any of the major labels will get round to this kind of stuff? Some of the recordings emi made of British composers,back in the 70's, are unthinkable now.

[chill319]

If memory serves, in his History of the Sonata Idea William Newman finds the Dale sonata to be one of the best (along with d'Indy's) from the first decade of the 20th century and discusses it at some length.