British Music

[albion]

These partsongs are now in the archive, the Boughton in Folder 4 and the Gibbs in Folder 5 -

Boughton - Burglar Bill
Boughton - The City
Boughton - Early One Morning
Boughton - Pan
Gibbs - Come, Sleep
Gibbs - Old Age
Gibbs - The Stranger
Gibbs - To Music

There are also two performances by the BBC Philharmonic conducted by Adrian Leaper -

Holbrooke's tone poem Ulalume (1901-03) - Folder 4

Moeran's Farrago Suite (1932), a work which the composer subsequently withdrew and quarried for his Serenade (1948) - Folder 5

Many thanks to Dylan for sending these files.

[britishcomposer]

Gosh, Moeran's Farrago does exist - has survived?! 
Seems I am not quite up-to-date concerning Moeran! 

I just listened to the incipits; movements I-IV sound like the Serenade, however V is 'new'.
Has anybody further information about the Suite?

Moereover, a new biography by Barry Marsh has been announced since the mid-90s I think. Don't know anything about it.

BTW, glad you took Dylan's recording of the Boughton-Gibbs part-songs. Sound quality is much better than mine! 

[albion]

Another important addition this evening - the opera Menna (1950-51) by Arwel Hughes (1909-1988), a composer who was recently the subject of an orchestral disc from Bis. This is a 2009 broadcast performance conducted by the composer's son Owain Arwel Hughes. Two files (Act I and Acts II/ III) can be found in Folder 7 and I've added relevant performance details in the archive listing.

Many thanks to Dylan for an opportunity to get to know this Welsh opera. 

Has anybody further information about the Suite?

There doesn't seem to be very much information available regarding Moeran's Farrago Suite - I'll have a dig around.

[Dundonnell]

You may be interested to hear that I have just discovered a taped version of Arwel Hughes's Symphony(1971)

I had no idea that I had this. Will add it to the list for uploading

[eschiss1]

Hrm. Moeran Farrago suite- ah. was going to ask if it is mentioned in Self's book (which I received over a decade ago in the mail confusingly briefly and agreed to send to its actual intended recipient, but was glad to have for as long as I did ...), but a review of Self's book online (Delius Society Journal PDF. page 19.) answers that question -- in part --- and interestingly...

[albion]

Nicholas Maw's Spring Music (1982-83) is now in Folder 8 - the 1987 performance is given by the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Sir John Pritchard.

Many thanks to Dylan for this file.

[albion]

Another important addition this evening - the opera Menna (1950-51) by Arwel Hughes (1909-1988), a composer who was recently the subject of an orchestral disc from Bis. This is a 2009 broadcast performance conducted by the composer's son Owain Arwel Hughes. Two files (Act I and Acts II/ III) can be found in Folder 7 and I've added relevant performance details in the archive listing.

This morning I have re-edited the files so that each of the three acts is now separate. I have also spliced-in the introductory and interval discussions between Penny Gore and Owain Arwel Hughes which give fascinating background to the opera.

[eschiss1]

Will try (well, trying) to upload a zip file (or maybe the individual mp3s) of Simpson 4 conducted by Nicholas Kok some years back (BBC Symphony Orch, (May 2001??); revised version) on Radio 3 The zip file is rather large so may have to upload it track by track anycase - will try to make it movable to the main BMB folder after that if all works out.

[Dundonnell]

I HAD a tape recording of the premiere of Simpson's 4th Symphony given by the Halle Orchestra under James Loughran. I preferred the original to Simpson's revised version.

Incredibly stupidly I taped a recording of the revised version(B.B.C. Symphony Orchestra/Sir Andrew Davis) over the original

[eschiss1]

(Which reminds me of how I taped something or other over the first two movements- especially painfully the sprightly scherzo - of a tape of the LP of  Golubev's memorable 5th symphony - ... erm. Anyway. )

[albion]

I'm afraid that I've committed similar wanton acts, one of the more grievous being the transplanting of a TDK90 of Mackerras' 1986 Leeds centenary Golden Legend from the shelf to the bin when Hyperion's recording came out.

[Dundonnell]

Nicholas Maw's Spring Music (1982-83) is now in Folder 8 - the 1987 performance is given by the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Sir John Pritchard.

Many thanks to Dylan for this file.

Maw was a tragic figure

Quote from the 'The Daily Telegraph' Obituary:

"The Grove Dictionary of Music described Maw's music as "an attempt to reconnect with the Romantic tradition that was broken with the onset of Modernism". At a time when Boulez and Stockhausen were in the ascendant, and the sort of big Romantic pieces Maw was writing were deeply unfashionable, he refused to change or abandon his idiom. Critical opinion remained sharply divided. One notice dismissed Maw's oeuvre as "pastiche music, echoing every late-twentieth-century tonalist you care to name"; but others praised the Straussian exuberance of his orchestration and his "Brittenesque" melodic writing. "

[albion]

Very interesting, Colin - thanks for this quotation. I don't know very much Maw at all, but I'm willing to have a listen to what's available!

[albion]

Ronald Stevenson (b. 1928)

In praise of Ben Dorain (2007)
Symphony for full chorus, chamber chorus, symphony orchestra and chamber orchestra,
Gaelic text by Duncan Ban MacIntyre and translation by Hugh MacDiarmid (1962–2007)

John McCabe (b. 1939)

Cello Concerto 'Songline' (2007)

John Pickard (b. 1963)

Piano Concerto (1999-2000)

Many thanks for these files (and even more for supplying comprehensive details) - I'll put copies into the main archive later today.

[eschiss1]

Re Bate's piano concerto no.2 op.28 (1947)- was it revised in 1947 or is the performance from 1947? The work itself seems to be from 1940 and to have been premiered in 1942, from the information I find so far... Thanks!