Josef Holbrooke

[albion]

Hi Peter, these are the strongest recommendations:

Piano Concerto No.1 (Hamish Milne/ BBC Scottish/ Martyn Brabbins) Hyperion CDA 67127
Symphonic Poems (Brandenburg State Orchestra/ Howard Griffiths) CPO 777 442-2
Sextet, Piano Quartet, Symphonic Quintet (New Haydn Quartet) Marco Polo 8.223736
Piano Music, volume 1 (Trochopoulos) Cameo CC9035CD
Piano Music, volume 2 (Trochopoulos) Cameo CC9036CD

the Cameo discs are available from their website cameo-classics.com, the others from Amazon, etc. I would seriously avoid the two Marco Polo discs of orchestral music recorded in the 1990s. Hopefully, as the CPO series unfolds there will be much more to add!

[petershott@btinternet.com]

Hello Albion,

Thanks for taking the time to list these CDS. You're doing some good work on Holbrooke, and your initial posting has brought responses sufficient to put joy into our hearts!

How have you found these discs of the piano music? I ask since I don't know the piano music at all and I recall reading (in Grove I think) the suggestion that Holbrooke's piano music (and the songs) just weren't up there with the orchestral, choral or chamber music. True, false, an odious claim, or what?

But the other discs you mention: yes, what terrific music! And that last CPO disc is a veritable cracker!

Peter

[petershott@btinternet.com]

Whoops. Having gone back a page I see your response, Albion, is directed at Peter1953, and not to me! No matter, I still thank you for it and give you every assurance that Peter1953 is a very sound chap and would be an even better man with some Holbrooke in his CD player!

Peter (born 1948 actually!)

[Peter1953]

Thanks very much for your suggestions, Albion.
Yes Peter, in the very near future I hope to give one of my new Holbrooke discs a first spin...

The younger Peter (1953) 

[JimL]

My interest in Holbrooke is being piqued.  Is his music tonally progressive like Nielsen or does it have an established key center?

[Alan Howe]

No, Holbrooke is fully-fledged late Romantic. Think Bantock, perhaps?

[albion]

Yes, think Bantock but much more quirky! Where Bantock's melodies are smooth and regular, Holbrooke's are angular, where Bantock's orchestral colours are burnished gold, Holbrooke's are like the ever-changing glints from a diamond-cut crystal. One could occasionally accuse Bantock of blandness, but Holbrooke's music is like quick-silver and even if a theme is not particularly distinguished, he dresses it in such arresting orchestral clothing that the attention is gripped. When listening to the Variations on 'The Girl I Left Behind Me' (another fascinating Cameo disc), I frequently thought of early Havergal Brian (especially the Comedy Overture 'Dr Merryheart') in the rapid transitions, impish humour and idiosyncratic scoring.

Up to around the First World War, Holbrooke's music could be described as predominantly tonal with an increasingly sophisticated chromatic overlay, but he began to expand his harmonic palette in the 1920s and used more dissonant chromaticism much more freely. This is perhaps more apparent in some of the piano music ('Futurist Dances', 'Bogey Beasts') than in the orchestral/ instrumental works - although the opera 'Bronwen' (completed around 1920) has some amazingly bold passages which are almost atonal in feel if not in construction (judging from the vocal score and extracts broadcast by the BBC in 1995 in the series 'Britannia at the Opera').

Holbrooke was very much his own man when it came to compositional style - I honestly think that his was one of the most individual voices in early twentieth-century British music. No two of his works are really alike but the name of the composer is never for one moment in doubt.

[albion]

Peter, I forgot to list another strong recommendation: Lyrita  SRCD.269. Here you have Holbrooke's lovely 'The Birds of Rhiannon' based on themes from his operatic trilogy 'The Cauldron of Annwyn', and you also get Cyril Rootham's First Symphony and Nicholas Braithwaite's recording of Bantock's masterly 'Overture to a Greek Tragedy: Oedipus at Colonus' into the bargain.

The performance of the Bantock is, in my opinion, far superior to Handley's on Hyperion (his only failure in the entire series) with the development section taken at a proper driving speed rather than the curiously stodgy tempo that Handley adopts.

[albion]

Hi Gareth, regarding the 'Auld Lang Syne' Variations, op.60, if you have access to a score (pf or full) please could you possibly post a list of the initials as published at the head of each variation? George Lowe specifies

1. Josef Holbrooke
4. Coleridge-Taylor
5. Vaughan Williams
9. Edward Elgar
10. Frederick Delius
Finale. Granville Bantock

I think that 19, cited in Lowe as 'J.H.F.' must be John Foulds (Lowe's description of octaves moving in contrary motion is a bit of a give-away), whilst 15 'C.F.' could possibly be Cecil Forsyth.

Unfortunately, the score is not one that has made it onto IMSLP yet so it's difficult to read it and work out whose styles Holbrooke is imitating in the remaining variations, but it might be fun to have a guessing game!

[Pengelli]

Thank you Gareth for getting cpo to record Holbrooke. I will buy Vol 2 when it comes out.
Your description of the differences between Bantock & Holbrooke are pretty near the mark,Albion. Although, I don't find any of his music particularly bland. I was wondering what had happened to the cpo Holbrooke project,as I was reading the Gramophone Mag article about Rachmaninov's version of 'The Bells',on the 'throne',and thinking when are we going to hear THAT one! By the way,does anyone know what has happened to Cameo Classics ambitious plans for Holbrooke works. I know that they were hoping to record his 'Dramatic symphony' in Eastern Europe.

[Pengelli]

Obviously not!!!

[Pengelli]

Interesting to compare Bantock's 'Helena Variations' with Elgars famous 'Enigma' set. Bantock's are not as deep,but superbly & spectacularly orchestrated. An early effort,but still a fantastic & exciting showpiece,which really does underline the difference in aesthetic & mindset of the two men. The 'Helena Variations' should be heard and performed more often.

[albion]

Yes, the Bantock and Elgar make a fascinating comparison. The period 1895-1910 saw a blossoming of the variation form in Britain with many significant and attractive sets:

Hurlstone: Variations on an Original Theme (1896); Variations on a Hungarian Air (1899); Variations on a Swedish Air (1904)
Holbrooke: Variations on 'Three Blind Mice' (1900); Variations on 'The Girl I left Behind Me' (1905)
Havergal Brian: Burlesque Variations on an Original Theme (1903); Fantastic Variations on an Old Rhyme (1907)
Parry: Symphonic Variations (1897)
Stanford: Variations on 'Down Among the Dead Men' for piano and orchestra (1898)
Coleridge-Taylor: Symphonic Variations on an African Air (1906)
Elgar: 'Enigma' Variations (1899)
Bantock: 'Helena' Variations (1899)
Mackenzie: 'Under the Clock' [variations on the Westminster Chimes], forming the first movement of the 'London Day by Day' Suite (1902)

Any obvious omissions?

[Pengelli]

Very interesting. I'm ashamed to say,I haven't heard any Hurlstone,although I know a bit about him. I keep meaning to try his music,but there are so many other composers and music on my 'want to hear list'. I think the Mackenzie is the only item that hasn't received a commercial recording,although I may be wrong. But,I can't see any thing of importance missing from that period,although there probably is something..........
Must put the Hurlstone higher up my 'list', though! (It's Scandinavian & French symphonists at the moment). A major gap in my knowledge of the so called English musical renaissance ,tut,tut!

[albion]

Yes, all except the Mackenzie have now been recorded at one time or another, with Brian's 'Burlesque' Variations due out soon from Toccata (BBCSO/ Garry Walker). His 'Fantastic Variations on an Old Rhyme' (another set based, like Holbrooke's, on 'Three Blind Mice') are also worth hunting down on Marco Polo 8.223731. Hurlstone was particularly adept at this form and each of the three sets listed is well worth getting to know (all are available from Lyrita). We really do need another couple of discs of Mackenzie's orchestral music to supplement the excellent Hyperion issues - I feel another thread coming on!