Ethel Smyth Mass

[MartinH]

I've been enjoying the new Chandos recording of Ethel Smith's Mass this week. How did I go so long without knowing this music? The Wreckers overture is more familiar, and the BBC and Oramo play it marvelously. But what I am really puzzled by is the booklet.

The writer, Laura Turnbridge, writes that at age 19 she went to Leipzig to study. "Her classmates there included Edvard Grieg, Antonin Dvorak, and Pyotr Tchaikovsky." This just can't be right. Smith was born in 1858 so at 19 would have put her in Leipzig in 1877. Now Grieg was  born in 1843 and did go to Leipzig - at age 15, or in 1858. Almost twenty years earlier. Dvorak was born in 1841 and to the best of my knowledge completed all his music studies in Bohemia - at the Organ School. Tchaikovsky, born 1840, studied in Moscow - he conducted in Leipzig around 1877-78 but surely wasn't a student there. Am I missing something? Going bonkers? or is Miss Turnbridge getting bad information from somewhere?

[Kevin]

I noticed that too. It's completely wrong of course what she says and one wonders why the editor didn't correct it before release. Maybe that happened in some parallel universe but in our reality I can assure it didn't happen. It's a bit shoddy if you ask me.

I do look forward to listening to the mass and I strangely never gotten around to the Wreckers which Beecham called one of the greatest English operas.

[Gareth Vaughan]

Chandos need to be made aware of this error. It is an egregious one.

[Alan Howe]

So, who's going to tell them?

Alternatively, Ms Turnbridge can be contacted here: laura.tunbridge@music.ox.ac.uk

[MartinH]

What the heck, I'll send her an email. Let you know what happens!

[MartinH]

Got a very quick response:

Thanks for your message and for noticing that error. You're correct that Grieg, Dvorak and Tchaikovsky were not her class mates, but figures Smyth met in Leipzig while she was there.

I hope you're enjoying the disk nonetheless.

Laura

[Kevin]

I'm glad that's been sorted.

[Alan Howe]

Now to inform Chandos of her reply: https://www.chandos.net/contactus

[MartinH]

She already has and says if the booklet is reprinted the error corrected. Problem solved.

[Alan Howe]

Good - as far as it goes. Ought not the booklet to be withdrawn forthwith and a corrected version offered to every purchaser of the CD at the earliest opportunity?

[Mark Thomas]

Ought it to be - of course. Will it be? Of course not - it would kill any profit Chandos might hope to make on the release. I guess they could offer a corrected downloadable pdf of the booklet.

[MartinH]

Of course, we're assuming readers of the booklet will be as astute as the people on this website. 99% of people won't even think twice about the statement.

[Alan Howe]

...and there's the problem. That's how incorrect 'facts' spread, i.e. among those less astute than members of this forum. And once falsehoods are believed, there's no stopping them...

[eschiss1]

Speaking of, is it Turnbridge or Tunbridge?

[Alan Howe]

Tunbridge:
https://www.music.ox.ac.uk/about/people/academic-staff/university-lecturers-and-college-fellows/laura-tunbridge/

Thanks, Eric. Didn't notice that error.