Bowen Syms 1 & 2 from Chandos

[Alan Howe]

Friends will be delighted to hear of the release on 26th April of York Bowen's Symphonies 1 and 2 with the BBCPO under Andrew Davis - another potential Chandos winner!!!

http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/r/Chandos/CHAN10670

[albion]

Hoorah! Symphony No.2 is a gorgeous piece (previously available on a deleted volume of ClassicO's British Symphonic Collection). To have it coupled with No.1 is great and this release should be a wonderful advertisement for Bowen's individual brand of lush Romanticism. 

[edurban]

How marvelous...and with Andrew Davis, no less.
Can't wait!

David

[Mark Thomas]

Whoopdedoo indeed!

[Gareth Vaughan]

Symphony No.2 is a gorgeous piece (previously available on a deleted volume of ClassicO's British Symphonic Collection). To have it coupled with No.1 is great and this release should be a wonderful advertisement for Bowen's individual brand of lush Romanticism.

Readers of this forum may like to know that this Classico disk, which, apart from Bowen's 2nd symphony, contains the Symphonic Rhapsody "Spring" by Fredric Austin and the Symphonic Movement "Genesis" by Edgar Bainton (extracted by the composer from his large scale 1st symphony "Before Sunrise" - which contains parts for a contralto soloist and chorus) can be obtained for £10.99 here:
http://hmv.com/hmvweb/displayProductDetails.do?ctx=280;1;-1;-1;-1&sku=998512

A propos of Edgar Bainton it is a sad comment on the carelessness of publishers (in this case Stainer & Bell, and John Curwen) that, of the 7 large scale works for chorus and/or soloists(s) and orchestra known to have been written by Bainton and to have received professional performances during his life time - excluding Symphony No. 1, the performance materials of which happily are available - the MS Full Score and parts of 3 of them, originally held on hire by the publisher, are now known to be lost (so only vocal scores remain) and the orchestral parts of a further 3, originally held on hire by the publisher, are also known to be lost, though, fortunately, the MS Full Scores of these are extant and now reside in public collections or libraries. How depressing is that?!

[albion]

According to the usually-reliable musicweb, several volumes of ClassicO's British Symphonic Series are nla, including the Bowen disc - http://www.musicweb-international.com/Themed_releases/ClassicO/British.htm.

I think that, very unfortunately, the series has been wound up now and you may have difficulty in obtaining those discs that are running into low stock. 

[Gareth Vaughan]

I think that's right - the series has been wound up. But it looks as though HMV still have stock at reasonable, rather than "Amazon silly" prices. Well, if anyone wants a copy, it's worth trying the link I gave. Fortunately for me, I'm lucky enough to own that disk, so I won't be competing. But I shall also buy the Chandos CD, of course.

[albion]

Bowen Symphonies 1 & 2 now available to pre-order for £8.99 (post-free) from HMV -

http://hmv.com/hmvweb/displayProductDetails.do?ctx=280;0;-1;-1;-1&sku=47729

Is this the one where the ship sinks at the end?      

[Mark Thomas]

It does? Aww, you've spoiled it for me now! 

[albion]

As it's on nintendo, you can probably change the ending anyway.

[albion]

If you can't wait to find out whether it sinks or not, you can download now -

http://www.theclassicalshop.net/Details.aspx?CatalogueNumber=CHAN%2010670

BTW, Chandos claims that This recording presents his only two surviving symphonies, but other sites list Symphony No.3, Op.137 as available from the publisher de wolfe Ltd. There is, however, no reference to Bowen on their website - is any further clarification available? 

[dafrieze]

This posting reminded me that I have a broadcast recording of the Bowen 3rd symphony with Vilem Tausky conducting the BBC Northern SO.  I'm uploading it now and will send it today to Albion for posting.  It's quite a lovely piece.

[albion]

Brilliant - thanks Dave! If it comes through, I'll try to get it into BMB before I go away on holiday later this afternoon. 

[dafrieze]

Enjoy your holiday!

For what it's worth, about a month from now I'll be taking my own holiday in England for a couple of weeks.  If anyone in the London area would like to meet a crazy (but harmless) American, please let me know.

[M. Henriksen]

So there is a third symphony. Like Albion, I was sure I've seen it listed somewhere. And if there's a broadcast of it, Chandos surely must be wrong in their statement.


Morten