Messages

Kansas Public Radio - not bad when it comes to programming unsungs, actually - played his Undine yesterday (30 November).  This was a first for me - heretofore, I'd heard of neither the man nor his music.  I was just curious as to whether or not anyone else had heard either this work or any other that has made it onto disc.  My initial impression of Undine was that it became just a bit monotonous after awhile in its dogged repetition of the same Ride of the Valkyries-like motif.  That isn't to say, however, that his orchestral writing lacked interest; the bass clarinet and the trumpets were especially exposed toward the end.  I wasn't knocked off of my feet by it though.

Glad to do it! 

By the way, Mark, I'd like to thank you again here for the Prout CD 

[Prout in practice]

Here is something kindly provided me by Mr. Roy Stanley, Librarian at the University of Dublin.  The title of the article is Ebenezer Prout in Theory and Practice.  It was written by Rosemary Firman in Brio Volume 41, No.2 pp 15-37.  I thought you all might like the section called Prout in practice which talks in some detail about his compositions.  I'll just cover the main points as the entire section might be overly long for this format.

Prout In Practice: Prout was not a prolific composer, but between 1861 and 1891 he produced a steady stream of compositions and a good proportion of which were published.  His output included: 4 symphonies, 2 orchestral suites, 2 overtures, 2 organ concertos, 7 cantatas, an organ sonata, a comic opera (Love and Taxation), chamber music, church music, and songs.  Many of his later works were written for specific choirs and orchestras and, in general, the impetus to compose appears to have come from external pressures, rather than artistic need....In the 1890's, his work on treatises took over and he virtually gave up composition.

One of the more interesting early works is the Organ Concerto in E minor, op. 5, dedicated to George Grove and performed by John Stainer at a Crystal Palace concert with great success...it was published by Augener in 1872.  In three movements, it is a rare example of a concerto for organ and orchestra by a British composer at this period.  It is unusual...for its strange fusion of baroque and early romantic idioms.  The principle material of the first movement is a fairly unremarkable piece of Victoriana, but, as the movement develops, the influence of Bach is found in broken arpeggio pedal passages...and the finale also features demanding solo pedal passages with octave leaps.

Prout's four symphonies, composed between 1873 and 1886, were all performed at the Crystal Palace and are startling for their conservatism at the time, although their style is typical of Prout as a whole.  The musical language and orchestration are perfectly controlled, but they are those of an earlier era - that of Beethoven and Mendelssohn.  This lack of originality, together with a tendency to select rather dull subject matter with perfectly balanced phrases, makes it unlikely that they will be revived.  The Third Symphony, op. 22 is the most successful.  It was composed for the Birmingham Festival of 1885 and was published in full score by Novello.  Its third movement is an attractive intermezzo "a l'espagnol" which is occasionally played today as a piece of light music...the movement is stylistically assured and satisfyingly coherent....His Suite de Ballet (1890) is an appealing work with folk-like touches enhanced by the use of a triangle and tambourine.

---Here Ms Firman goes on to state that his seven secular cantatas were marred by a combination of bad libretti and set to a "formula of set pieces in predictable styles".  She states that these were probably composed to satisfy "the insatiable demand during the second half of the 19th Century from choral societies for new works".  Firman further speaks of the fact that Prout wrote relatively quickly citing the fact that his Symphony No. 2 was composed in one month's time; his Fourth seemingly only took two weeks (sounds a bit like old Anton G. doesn't it???).  Back to Ms Firman now---

So composition came easily to him.  He had an excellent understanding of how music worked, of the theory of harmony, counterpoint, form and instrumentation.  He had an amazing memory and the ability to work quickly to meet deadlines....He had all of the tools and tricks of composition at his fingertips.  However, it becomes clear, once one starts to play and listen to the music, that he LACKED A NATURAL MUSICALITY AND THE ABILITY TO CREATE SOMETHING FRESH (my capitals here, bwb).  Although familiar with Brahms and Wagner, he uses the musical language of Mozart, early Beethoven, and Mendelssohn, with a touch of Bach thrown in from time to time.  Although interested in contemporary developments, he clearly had no desire to try them out for himself but was comfortable with working withing the constraints of the orchestration, style, and harmonic language of fifty years earlier.  He could imitate but not produce anything new.

OK! OK!  Put the pitchforks and torches away here....

I guess that having watched "Keeping Up Appearances" for so many years, it seems that I've turned into a snob like Hyacinth Bucket --- I mean BouQUET. 

In the past, Bulgarian orchestras weren't known for their great playing and then too, I somewhat jumped to a snap judgement of Maestro Mitchell when I looked at his CV.  But, you're right....a person has to start somewhere.  After all, Wagner didn't START with "The Ring".

I really shouldn't have weighed in on this topic anyhow in that I already have the Banowetz version so it's all "academic" really.

I'll be interested to hear what buyers of this version think.

Rubi's PC's numbers 3 and 4. 

Grigorios Zamparas (Piano), Philharmonia Bulgarica (not a first-rate ensemble by any stretch of the imagination) and Jon Ceander Mitchell (Conductor). 

The latter is most definately NOT a big-name conductor; he is mainly credited with a reconstruction of a very early Beethoven PC.  Zamparas is a professor of piano at the University of Tampa of all places.  All in all, I think I'd save my money and skip this one.

Sunday night on a Public Radio show called Pipedreams (a mostly pipe organ vehicle as you might expect), I was introduced to the name of Reginald Steggall and his Concertpiece for Organ and Orchestra, Op. 7.  The work itself contained attractive material and had something of a "big tune" at the end of it - for those of us who like that sort of thing at the end of our concertante works.  However charming it was though, it wasn't really something that reaches out and grabs you or leaves you with much to remember once it's finished.   If interested in hearing it, the Pipedreams program number is 1035 and can be found at pipedreams.publicradio.org   All I have been able to glean about Mr. Steggall is that he was the youngest of six children and lived from around 1867 to about 1938 or so.  Apparently his father, Charles Steggall (1826 - 1905), was a celebrated organist and hymn composer.

There were - and are - a LOT of Beckers in the musical world starting with a violinist named Dirk Becker in the Baroque era and then there was a cellist named Hugo Becker in the 19th Century.  Alas, I'm not related to a single one of them.  For me, this is like having the name "Bach" and not being so much as a twig from that distinguished tree.  BTW - was J J Becker's being friends with Charles Ives anything to really brag about???  Better for music, had he (Ives) stayed exclusively in the insurance racket......

OK - Found it on Sterling coupled with an outing by Zweers.  I will definately put that on my ultra-high priority must buy list now having "auditioned" it for free!!!  I am always a bit concerned about the ethics of these "freebies" on YouTube, to be honest.  The young man who posted it calls himself Meyerbeer1 and has placed tons of "unsung" items there.  Fortunately, Mark has quite rightly called attention to a key point here - and that is, if we're getting this music on there for free, is that not going to ultimately HURT our crusade rather than help it??? 

Check out his Symphony in C Minor on YouTube.  Make sure to type his name in quotes or you will never find it!!!

Nice to hear from you again Brandt!  Been a while.  How do you like the Forum's new avatar?

Thank you, Jim!  I like it just fine....  If I may, I'd like to make a small adjustment to my previous ranking by moving the 5th up one spot and putting the 4th at the very bottom.  Reason being, I'd forgotten how blessed long the "Dramatic" is.  Nearly a full hour of material that really isn't that captivating.  As for the 5th, when all is said and done, I actually can recall the clarinet theme now after a hearing of it last night.  Today, I put on #4 - can't recall a single theme.

For me, they're ranked in this order of enjoyment:

1) 6th
2) 1st
3) 3rd
4) 2nd (the 4 movement version preferably)
5) 4th
6) 5th

Of the latter two, I can recall not a single theme; the preceeding four on the other hand contain more memorable material.  I, too, had the old LP's of the 6th and the "Ocean".  The 6th was with Beisel (sp?) conducting and the "Ocean" was an old USSR Melodya LP with Fuat Mansurov at the helm (pardon the weak pun!).