Holbrooke from Dutton

[albion]

It is interesting that a whole raft of 'articles' by Wright have been removed from the MusicWeb site (http://www.musicweb-international.com/wright/index.htm), although some of his CD reviews remain - including one of the Naxos coupling of Raff's 3rd and 10th Symphonies (http://www.musicweb-international.com/classRev/2003/Apr03/RAFF310.htm).

It is untypical of his style (judging by the other examples of his creative fancy that I have seen) in that it is relatively literate, although not irreproachable.

[eschiss1]

It is interesting that a whole raft of 'articles' by Wright have been removed from the MusicWeb site (http://www.musicweb-international.com/wright/index.htm), although some of his CD reviews remain - including one of the Naxos coupling of Raff's 3rd and 10th Symphonies (http://www.musicweb-international.com/classRev/2003/Apr03/RAFF310.htm).

It is untypical of his style (judging by the other examples of his creative fancy that I have seen) in that it is relatively literate, although not irreproachable.

Thank you for the heads-up, have put a dead-link note on several Wikipedia references to Wright  Musicweb articles . (This is better practice than removing the references and leaving claims entirely unreferenced, and sometimes entire articles so, while better references are sought.)

[albion]

Wright (by his own pronouncements) appears to have been an intimate of many composers, with many a personal anecdote relating to both Walton and Britten (hmm, very plausible  ). To quote from his Walton 'tribute': "The one thing that riled Walton was the stupid remark that people made that he was Elgar's successor. The only times [sic] I saw Willie angry was when this comment was made to him. "Whoever first made that comment should have been shot five minutes before he made it ... and so should everyone who repeats it or believes it," Walton would snap."

Well I suppose (by repetition) that takes care of both David Wright and myself - I'll order a flak jacket forthwith.

[albion]

Apologies for yet another post scriptum, but the more I read of David Wright the more I am convinced that he is truly the William McGonagall of music criticism. 

[ahinton]

Apologies for yet another post scriptum, but the more I read of David Wright the more I am convinced that he is truly the William McGonagall of music criticism. 

The more I read of him (although I have for some time tried to make it a point to read less rather than more), the more that I might be inclined to conclude that your William McG reference is probably too kind. Self-styled "critics" of any kind and of any level of intellectual reasoning powers or none who make their mark by exhibiting a tendency to draw far more attention to themselves and their apparent self-generated agendas in their writings than they do to the purported subjects of those writings can sometimes express themselves with all too unpleasant and unwelcome eloquence; in my unfortunate experience, David C[antus?] F[irmus?] Wright revealed himself as a classic case of such a writer from the moment that I read some of his prerenaturally distasteful and woefully ill-researched writings on Chopin. I rest my case.

[albion]

Apparently Wright penned an article on Britten which was deemed to be so libellous as to be open to legal action. When Rob Barnett wrote a reasoned and intelligent article about Britten, Wright responded as detailed in http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2003/Sept03/Britten_comment.htm

Those still in doubt as to the author's sanity are directed to the autobiography http://www.musicweb-international.com/wright/rain1.htm and encouraged to click on the 'continue' link.

I really do apologise if this is old news to members, but how have I missed all this?  Clearly the need for rational and informed debate has never been greater - with such peurile rubbish as Wright's readily available to millions of surfers.

[JimL]

The more of Wright's work I read the more I realize that this is one seriously disturbed dude!  Anybody who considers puerile ad hominem attacks based on his own sexual hang-ups to be music criticism must have only one lonely rock in his head!

[Mark Thomas]

I think that the time has now come to close the door on our discussion of Mr Wright's critcism.

By all means carry on talking about Holbrooke.

[albion]

Quite so - the side-show tent should probably be zipped up again.

I really do hope that the next CPO disc features the 3rd symphony (Ships) rather than a duplication of the 4th: given the excellence of George Vass and the RLPO, and bearing in mind that so far we have only seen the tip of the Holbrooke iceberg, perhaps one first-class performance is sufficient (at least for the moment).

I think I remember reading that Rob Barnett has compiled or is in the process of compiling a catalogue raisonne of Holbrooke's music - does anyone know if this might be made available? I would love to know more about Holbrooke's life and music, but (as mentioned before) there is precious little either in printed or electronic form. George Lowe (1920) and Various Appreciations by Many Authors (1937) are interesting but seriously flawed and notoriously unreliable when it comes to listing compositions.

[ahinton]

I think that the time has now come to close the door on our discussion of Mr Wright's critcism.

Yes, I guess that it has, but if I may be forgiven, I wouldn;t mind dropping in a few pennies' worth. I was a student of Humphrey Searle, albeit a few years after Dr Wright was (if indeed he really was) and my studies with Searle were generously sponsored by Benjamin Britten. I never once heard Britten speak disparagingly about Searle, he spoke most warmly to me about Tippett and I always found him to be the epitomy of politeness and kindness. I daresay that Britten had his insecurities, but I no more recognise this spiteful, arrogant, dismissisive and generaklly unpleasant Britten than I recall Searle ever giving "classes at RCM. Wright is correct about Searle's shyness, but that's probably all the more reason why he never gave classes when I attended lessons with him which were always on the same one-to-one basis as those of his other students at the time.

Now, let's get off that subject once and for all. If Wright, then Roger and if David, then Matthews.

Best,

Alistair

[JimL]

Amen to that.  People like that just get me started, and DON'T get me started!

[Mark Thomas]

OK. An end. Finis. Stop.

[JimL]

Right.  So, um, anyway, I can get a pretty decent price on the Cambrian CC/S 4 from Presto.  Is that a pretty good introduction to Holbrooke for me?

[Gareth Vaughan]

I really do hope that the next CPO disc features the 3rd symphony (Ships) rather than a duplication of the 4th

Mrs Holbrooke has been asked by CPO to provide score and parts for the Symphony No. 3 "Ships" and I understand that CPO will not now record the Symphony No. 4, as had originally been planned.

[albion]

I understand that CPO will not now record the Symphony No. 4, as had originally been planned.

It's probably the most prudent and realistic approach - given Holbrooke's relative obscurity I doubt that the market could sustain two recordings headlining the same major work (even with different couplings). It would have been entirely different if the Dutton disc had been a dreadful disaster, but this was never really going to be an option!

Great news that Ships looks as though its hoving into view - many thanks for the update.