Edward Burlingame Hill

[Alan Howe]

Posted by Karl Miller and relocated here:

The Violin Concerto recording is available on CD on Western Hill. The discs were in the violinist collection. He daughter, Diana Burgin made them available. There are two surviving performances of the Sinfonietta...one with CBS conducted by Lichter...the other with Eastman conducted by Hanson. At one point I had uploaded both.

If you like EB Hill's music, you might want to come to Austin Texas on May 31 (2013) for the first performance of Hill's 4th Symphony. It will be recorded for release. The following season, the orchestra plans to perform and record Hill's two Concertinos and his Divertimento for Piano and Orchestra. Also in May, we will be recording a disc of Hill's chamber music: Flute Sonata, Piano Sextet, 4 Pieces for Wind Sextet.

Stay tuned.

Karl

[Alan Howe]

Excellent news, Karl. Thanks for posting - and welcome to UC!

[jerfilm]

Hills Symphony #4 plus some neat pieces for piano and orchestra are now available for download at Amazon.com.  And at $5.94, a super bargain.

First listen, I really like all of the pieces.  The symphony in three movements is interesting.  I'm wondering who his music reminds me of.   No one, right offhand.  Maybe others will have some ideas.

Jerry

[eschiss1]

How does the sound compare to the Hill symphony we have, or used to have, uploaded here?

[jerfilm]

I think the sound is really excellent.  The label is not familiar to me and the Austin Symphony Orchestra isn't well known, but I am really impressed with this recording.

Jerry

[eschiss1]

... I was very unclear, sorry! I meant the work's sound "world" as a piece of music (Hill symphony 4 as against Symphony No.1 in B-flat Op.34 (1927) (Allegro moderato, ma risoluto - Moderato maestoso - Allegro brioso) - the one we have uploaded somewhere or others in a WW2-era performance. (Conducted by Koussevitzky in 1943. See OCLC.)

(not asking to compare the modern sound of the sym. 4 performance to the WW2 sound of the Sym.1 performance, but the works themselves) (Admittedly, next time my Amazon balance is $6 or more (I think it's at about $2...), I may very well just go find out myself- he was a good composer )

[eschiss1]

Worldcat search shows quite a lot of music by him, btw, that's only in manuscript at one or another library, from solo piano to concertante and orchestral music. If an editor (and the copyright owner?) worked on some of that with an interested conductor and soloists - e.g. Ode for chorus and orchestra, or 3 Songs, or his Op.50 "Music for English horn and orchestra", etc. (of course they'd have to see the manuscripts to -become- interested conductors and soloists in the first place), could be good results. There are a fair number of published works too (duo sonatas, e.g.) That said, the dates suggest that a lot of it might be in date (if not necessarily in style- don't know?) outside the whatnot of this forum... (not surprising, as he was an exact contemporary of Armand Marsick and died a year later.)

[jerfilm]

I'd say it compares favorably with his first.  I don't know, late romantic.  Certainly in the remit of UC.  I especially liked the three works for piano and orchestra.  My favorite is the Divertimento for piano and orchestra.   This one is SO cheap, you can't afford to miss it.

Jerry

[SadRobotSings]

The library at New England Conservatory has a number of manuscript scores as well if I remember correctly, including a clarinet trio that I never got around to looking at...