English Music Festival - incl. M. Phillips Symphony

[musiclover]

Has anyone noticed the English Music Festival programme for this year yet? I just saw it and the opening concert has the Montague Phillips Symphony in C minor. I know that the full score has been missing since around the First World War, and Philips re worked the two middle movements into separate tone poems, but this looks like it could be a "find". As Martin Yates is conducting I presume he may have been responsible for putting the symphony back together, maybe from orchestra parts. I believe Phillips is thought of as a bit of a light music composer but whatever his reputation nowadays,  this symphony is supposed to be substantial. Could be interesting. The concert also includes a previously unplayed Stanford Overture. That should also be of interest to us and presumably the concert will be broadcast by Radio Three as they usually are.

[M. Yaskovsky]

And hopefully one or two Dutton releases on SACD!

[Mark Thomas]

I've uploaded today's broadcast of Stanford's Concert Overture, from this concert, in our Downloads Board here. Montague Phillips' Symphony follows...

[Alan Howe]

I heard parts of the Symphony in the car this afternoon. Looking forward very much to hearing it in full!

[Mark Thomas]

Here's the link to the recording of Montague Phillips' Symphony, broadcast earlier today on BBC Radio 3, and now available in our Downloads Board.  It's an impressive, convincing work which at first hearing certainly retained my interest over its 49 minute duration. The orchestration is very colourful, occasionally strident but also sometimes lapsing into almost chamber music-like textures. I hestitate to suggest that Elgar's First is a model, but Elgar certainly shines through here and there, although the piece lacks a "big tune" to stitch it together. All in all, an exciting discovery. The movement titles weren't broadcast, and I can only find online references to the two middle movements, which Phillips re-used. 

[Alan Howe]

Wow, a big piece indeed. Thanks very much, Mark!

[Alan Howe]

The opening night of the English Music Festival concluded with what we assume is the only symphony by Montague Phillips – a composer once famous, now largely unknown. Phillips – a Londoner – produced a work of Elgarian length and Tchaikovsky-like stature, but woven together with the silken threads of light music. Alongside the dramatic moments of the great score, which ended with an emphatic organ section thundering out "behind" and above the orchestral surge, there were sections of palm-court nostalgia and tenderness – a sense, perhaps, of Eric Coates before his time.
http://www.quarterly-review.org/endnotes-5th-june-2017/

[giles.enders]

We have the conductor Martin Yates to thank for resurrecting this very fine work.  I am hoping it will be released as a commercial recording.

[Alan Howe]

How much of it did he compose himself - if anything?

[FBerwald]

I believe this is 100% Phillips and Yates' contribution would be in recreating the score from the surviving parts.

[Gareth Vaughan]

That is correct.

[Alan Howe]

Oh, it's good that the whole piece survived. Kudos to MY for his fine work - and conducting!

[TerraEpon]

I believe this is 100% Phillips and Yates' contribution would be in recreating the score from the surviving parts.

I always wonder why when they have a full set of parts something is labeled a 'reconstruction'? One of the most prominant examples being Rachmaninov's 1st Symphony. It's simply a matter of copying, one would assume....sure maybe touching up some mistakes and whatnot, but hardly worthy of even being more than a footnote in a detailed discussion.

[Gareth Vaughan]

Well you try doing it. It's really not that straightforward at all - and takes a long time.

[Alan Howe]

It certainly isn't straightforward - much care has to be taken and egregious mistakes avoided.