Messages

As Delius would have said: Ce n'est pas mesquin.

Yes, indeed, Colin - your most useful list reveals a prodigious symphonist - and the durations are interesting - 155 mins. for the Sym. No.42! As anyone familiar with the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy would realize, its title bespeaks a man with a powerful sense of humour! 

'Life, the Universe, and some other Futilities' would have done. 

The Symphony n,1 I got in an Unicorn Lp Kp 8000 (David Measham, Adelaide Symphony, 1977 recording): a very fine symphony.

A much cherished LP! I still prefer Measham's reading, even if the orchestra might be not the equal of the other two (with Handley and Hickox conducting) on CD. Since I bought this LP somewhere around 1983, I have a week spot for Goossens. I find the symphony epic and tragic at the same time, impressive indeed. 

[Harmonica Concerto]

And the Harmonica Concerto from 1953 is on an LP (RCA Gold Seal) with Larry Adler and the Royal PO under Morton Gould, taking 6:37', 6:40' and 5:45' for its three movements.

On the back cover, Adler tells about the 'musical highlight' in his career, the Romance Vaughan Williams wrote fror him in 1952, when the piece was premiered at the Proms, to be encored, VW himself shambling onto the platform to a standing ovation and playing the viola on that occasion.

"At my house after the concert VW said to Arthur Benjamin - I think he took both of us by the scruff of the neck - "Arthur, you must write the next work for Larry." You don't say "no" to Vaughan Williams so Arthur Benjamin did as he was told and the result is on this record. It also received a Proms premiere."

The "Romantic Phantasy" for violin, viola and orch. I have in Lp format by Heifetz and Primrose (coupled to Mozart!).

And I have the same performance (Heifetz, William Primrose viola, and the RCA Victor Orchestra under Izler Solomon, recorded in Hollywood, October 1, 1956) on CD, The Heifetz Collection Vol. 31. Coupled with other Heifetz performances (Stravinsky, Glïère, Wieniawsky, Falla, etc. but no Mozart  ) on RCA Victor Gold Seal  09026 61762 2.

The 'North American Dance Suite' is also available in an arrangement for two pianos and orchestra (1950) and in my view, is preferable to the orchestral version.  It has been recorded and is available in a Kleos Classics CD.

And I found another version, the orchestral one, not the arrangement, on cd ('Down Under'. Music from Australia, New Zealand & Canada [sic?]) by the Symphony Nova Scotia under Georg Tintner; CBC 2-5088, recorded in 1990 and taking 12:13' minutes. BTW the work is called "North American Square Dance" here.

I posted before on an intriguing claim made by Bate's first wive, Australian composer Peggy Glanville-Hicks in the essay by Michael Barlow and Robert Barnett: "STANLEY BATE - Forgotten International Composer" published on Musicweb Internationational.

Near the end it says: "Glanville-Hicks claimed he wrote a dozen or more symphonies and thirty or so piano sonatas." Is there any more to be said about it? Does anyone know? 

Great list again, many thanks.  A few remarks:

The Divertissement for orchestra, op.66, is also on the ABC Classics set (three cds, I had to import it from Australia in the 1990s  ).
By The Tarn, Op. 15 No. 1, is on EMI CDC 7 49933 2 (English Miniatures, the Northern Sinfonia of England under Richard Hickox).

Edit: and there's another,  finer, version available of the Concerto en un mouvement, Op. 45, the Oboe Concerto, at ASV 'English Oboe Concertos' CD DCA 173 (Ruth Bolister with the Elgar Chamber Orchestra under Stephen Bell).

Sometimes, the disguise may be really effective. John Cage's three-movement 4′33″ might also be a symphony in hiding. Who can tell? 

a cherished institution!

Indeed!

Big surprise. I confess I'd never heard of Whettam before. But apparently, there's one cd of his work, no doubt part of your private collection. 

[Overture for a Festival]

Time for another inner debate (Byzantine theology knew it by the name of perichoresis, the inner deliberations of the Trinity  ). What about the Overture for a Festival (c.1930-35), orchestrated by Rodney Newton and found on the same Dutton cd?

[Second Symphony (c.1939-1950)]

Another Labour of Love!

One could perhaps add the completion of the Second Symphony (c.1939-1950) by Martin Yates, as released on a Dutton cd recently. It maybe Yates, but it does sound like Moeran. 

I must confess the guilty secret that I rather like Glass

I personally can't stand his 'symphonies', but do play his other music. As you say: for entertainment. 

And how do we call a writer of over 215 symphonies? A symphoniac? 

In its inimitable way, Janacek's Sinfonietta strikes me as being a full fledged symphony. Anyone disagree?

Errrr, no. 

after Shaw threw brickbats at No.2 ..

Did he?