Josef Holbrooke Symphonic Poems

[sdtom]

As a fun exercise, you might try reading Poe's fable "Silence" while listening to Myaskovsky's Silence, op. 9.

I find it interesting that Poe also wrote a poem called "Silence" and that Myaskovsky also wrote music for a song that he titled Silence (posth.) All of which just confuses the matter more.

I personally believe the liner notes accompanying that CD are incorrect, perpetuating the previous incorrect reference to the biography.

But we've gotten off the subject of Holbrooke, and I'm curious if there are other pieces by unsungs not yet mentioned that were directly linked to Poe.

You could very well be correct in your deduction Holmes!!!
Thomas

As far as my collection is concerned the only other material I have is some of the Les Baxter writing for the Roger Corman/Vincent Price remakes of the Poe.

[Amphissa]

As far as my collection is concerned the only other material I have is some of the Les Baxter writing for the Roger Corman/Vincent Price remakes of the Poe.

  I've got almost all of those old Vincent Price movies -- maybe all of them. I never paid much attention to the music.

[sdtom]

Les Baxter was primarily known in the music industry for his "exotica" music but he did a number of scores for AI pictures, the most noteworthy being "Master of the World."
Thomas

http://sdtom.wordpress.com/2009/05/02/master-of-the-world-goliath-and-the-barbariansles-baxter/

[JimL]

Master of the World?  The Jules Verne adaptation with Vincent Price?

[sdtom]

Master of the World?  The Jules Verne adaptation with Vincent Price?

Yes.  It also had Charles Bronson and Henry Hull.

[Alan Howe]

I think we're getting a little off-topic, gentlemen...

[sdtom]

http://sdtom.wordpress.com/2009/08/17/symphonic-poemsholbrooke/

My review of the new CPO recording of the Holbrooke Symphonic Poems.

Thomas

[Pengelli]

I wrote to Gwydion Brooke,some years ago.He not only
replied,but sent me an LP of Holbrooke's music.

[sdtom]

I wrote to Gwydion Brooke,some years ago.He not only
replied,but sent me an LP of Holbrooke's music.

What was included on the LP?

[Pengelli]

It was his  record label,Blenheim. Piano Quartet in G min.
op 21 & the Clarinet Quintet in G major,op.27.Nice of him!

[Pengelli]

NB : Listening to the cpo cd of Ernst Boehe, makes you
realise just how good Holbrooke's music is!

[Gareth Vaughan]

Many of the recordings Gwydion commissioned can now be obtained in CD format from Mike Skeet, 44 Challacombe, Furzton, Milton Keynes KK4 1DP, UK.

[Pengelli]

Thank you for that.I still have the LP,but my £49 Argos
record deck is hopeless!

[Pengelli]

R3 did 'The Bells' some years ago. I remember Gwydion
describing it,in his letter,as a 'travesty'.

[Gareth Vaughan]

I didn't hear the Radio 3 broadcast of The Bells, but I doubt it was quite the "travesty" Gwydion declared it to be, though they omitted a number of the more difficult to find (but very important nonetheless) instruments (e.g. mushroom bells, concertina and steer-horn). Gwydion could be needlessly damning sometimes - he had his father's temperament. Michael Freeman, a great admirer of Holbrooke's music, who knew Gwyd very well indeed, told me the performance was not bad at all. It is scored for a vast orchestra, but, like Richard Strauss, Holbrooke produces the most delicate and unusual sonorities, sometimes treatng the orchestra as if it were a chamber ensemble - and the extra instruments are fully justified. It's not, for example, more heavily (or oddly) scored than Messiaen's Turangalila.