Unsung Composers

The Music => Recordings & Broadcasts => Topic started by: BFerrell on Tuesday 10 January 2012, 12:56

Title: Somervell "Thalassa" etc.
Post by: BFerrell on Tuesday 10 January 2012, 12:56
The 3rd Volume of the Cameo Classics is now on the website to purchase.
Title: Re: Somervell "Thalassa" etc.
Post by: albion on Tuesday 10 January 2012, 16:13
Thanks, Tapiola - I've been keeping an eye out for this exciting new release (for me, the best Cameo programme so far) to go to 'order' status and ...

???

... strangely enough, I've just ordered it!

;D
Title: Re: Somervell "Thalassa" etc.
Post by: Alan Howe on Tuesday 10 January 2012, 16:43
Same here. It'd better be good - at £17.13 (incl. p & p) it's pretty expensive!
Title: Re: Somervell "Thalassa" etc.
Post by: Jimfin on Thursday 12 January 2012, 04:27
I have to say I find the website fiddly to use, but I'm very much looking forward to hearing the disc, though actually it's the Mackenzie and the Holbrooke that especially excite me. Somervell never really takes off for me, apart from his songs, but I've not heard that much, so I live in hope. The 'Highland Concerto' sounded like a longer, Scottish, equivalent of the 'Warsaw Concerto': Mackenzie's similar work impresses me a lot more.
Title: Re: Somervell "Thalassa" etc.
Post by: BFerrell on Tuesday 17 January 2012, 20:32
Has anyone received this CD as yet? Mine was on December 22 and nothing. It ships from France for some reason. Thanks.
Title: Re: Somervell "Thalassa" etc.
Post by: albion on Tuesday 17 January 2012, 20:40
From experience, things take a while to come through from Cameo, but do so eventually - hopefully David Kent-Watson is inundated with orders for Volume 3!

;D
Title: Re: Somervell "Thalassa" etc.
Post by: BFerrell on Tuesday 17 January 2012, 20:42
David is a good guy.  He has offered to send another copy.
Title: Re: Somervell "Thalassa" etc.
Post by: Alan Howe on Tuesday 17 January 2012, 22:07
Mine's presumably on its way...
Title: Re: Somervell "Thalassa" etc.
Post by: Jimfin on Tuesday 17 January 2012, 22:17
I was told mine was dispatched last Friday, which means it should reach Japan today or tomorrow, if the French post is similar to the British. But it's first time I've ordered from Cameo. Dutton are always excellent, dispatching the same day without fail.
Title: Re: Somervell "Thalassa" etc.
Post by: Dundonnell on Wednesday 18 January 2012, 00:12
It will be interesting to compare this new Cameo recording with that by the Ulster Orchestra/Adrian Leaper in the British Music Collection on here ;D
Title: Re: Somervell "Thalassa" etc.
Post by: Jimfin on Wednesday 18 January 2012, 13:39
No sign: guess the French post is slower than the British. I'm hoping to be the first person in Asia to own the disc
Title: Re: Somervell "Thalassa" etc.
Post by: Justin on Wednesday 18 November 2020, 03:16
When I uploaded the 1991 broadcast, my understanding was that the second movement is an elegy entitled "Lost in Action; Near the South Pole; 28 March, 1912," dedicated to Robert Falcon Scott.

However, some other sources online say that it is called "Killed in Action; Near the South Pole; 28 March, 1912," and dedicated to Somervell's brother, Gordon, who died during active service.

Captain Scott is believed to have died around the 29th of March.

The first explanation seems more likely to me.
Title: Re: Somervell "Thalassa" etc.
Post by: CelesteCadenza on Wednesday 18 November 2020, 07:25
FWIW, the notes on the 2018 Lyrita reissue [REAM 2139] of the Cameo Classics' recording of the work state:
The second movement, called Elegy, has the following note: 'Killed in action near the
South Pole, 28 March, 1912', a reference to Robert Falcon Scott's tragic Terra Nova
Expedition to the South Pole. Scott and his companions died in March 1912 at their
camp in One Ton Depot, near the South Pole, and this movement, which is in the style
of a dirge, was written in August of that same year. The cor anglais, making its first and
only appearance in this work, is here given an important solo part which rises to a
memorable climax towards the end.

Those notes are by Michael Laus, the conductor of the 2011 recording of the 'Thalassa'.