Parry complete string quartets

[JimL]

Do you specialize strictly in chamber music, sir, or can you obtain the services of an orchestra?

[Gareth Vaughan]

May I suggest the three Folksong Suites for String Quartet by Joseph Holbrooke, Opp. 71,72 & 73, and his Piano Quartet "Byron", Op. 31. These have not been recorded. Nor has the 3rd String Quartet "The Pickwick Club", Op. 68.
The Sextet for Piano & Winds (flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon & horn), Op. 33 is, IMHO, a minor masterpiece. It can also be played as a Sextet for piano & strings (2 violins, 2 Violas, Cello), but works better, I think, with winds because Josef always wrote very beautifully for wind instruments.

[MikePurton]

Hi, being a former orchestral player (1st Horn Halle Orchestra 1973-86) I would love to make some orchestral recordings of unknown Romantic music, however this requires funding. Mind you, NAXOS can sometimes be persuaded. Suggestions please!

[MikePurton]

Hi Gareth, thanks for these suggestions, I recorded Holbrooke's Clarinet Quintet some time ago for Dutton Epoch, fine music. However, I have just realised that for this website we are only supposed to discuss music written before 1918. Having already broken the rule by accident, I'm not sure when the works you suggest were written. Certainly his earlier works would have been written before that cut off point, I'll do some research.

[Mark Thomas]

Mike, the 1918 cut off is only a guide and doesn't apply to composers who wrote in a "romantic" style after that date, of which Holbrooke is obviously one. So you're fine.

[MikePurton]

Thanks, does Arnold Cooke count as being OK?

[eschiss1]

I think we have Cooke classed as "Hindemithian", at least for his symphonies as broadcast. (Of course not something that "bothers" me, but that's beside the point.)

[matesic]

Mike - very interesting to hear from you. I read that Arnold Cooke died in Five Oak Green, at the other end of your road? That's very much my area too - I used to live in Yalding and commuted from Paddock Wood.

You'll have no shortage of suggestions from this site but could I put in a plea for another Kentish man, Percy Hilder Miles (1878-1922) who lived in Erith, was a fine violinist and taught harmony at the RAM. As a composer he published only three substantial works (all are on IMSLP) but the RAM hold the manuscripts of several more. My colleague Phil Hall, violist with the BBCSO and also a resident of Erith, is hoping to organise some performances.

[Alan Howe]

does Arnold Cooke count as being OK?

No, he's tonal, but not romantic - rather like Hindemith with whom he is often compared.

[MikePurton]

I'm quite familiar with his work now and think of it as being a little like Hindemith meets Vaughan Williams. I have always been a fan of Hindemith's music which needs to be played expressively, then it really comes to life. Do look out for future Cooke releases.

Percy Hilder Miles sounds very interesting and after a swift look at his music on IMSLP looks interesting too. A shame he died so young, I wonder if he was in the Great War? Just the thing for some research, thanks for the tip.

[JimL]

Well, Mike, I have been researching violin concertos, and other concertante music for violin lately, and have stumbled across several works that may be available in full score somewhere, although there are piano reductions available on IMSLP of all of them (and one full score.) Specifically, the only violin concerto by Otto von Tideböhl (a Russian, despite the Germanic name), the two violin concertos of the Hungarian virtuoso/composer Tivadar Nachéz (both of which are available on IMSLP, the 2nd in full score), the sole violin concerto of the Czech clarinet virtuoso/composer Jan Václav Novák, and the Zigeuner Fantasy of the Belgian violinist/composer César Thomson. All appear to be works of either some fun or much worth, or maybe a little of each. Nachéz was a favorite of Liszt, who also happened to have been a student of Liszt's nemesis Joachim.

[matesic]

Mike - we're straying a bit off-topic here, but if you're interested in Percy Hilder Miles I could supply you with more details about his life and a few intriguing questions, for example why his Cello Concerto was pulled from the 1908 Henry Wood Proms and apparently never performed; also why in his will he bequeathed his Strad to Rebecca Clarke who had briefly been his student nearly 2 decades earlier and rejected his marriage proposal. I'm at coatesandjones@gmail.com.

[JimL]

I would say Miles outlived WW I, judging from his year of death.

[matesic]

What he did in the war years is another slight mystery!

[Alan Howe]

Gentlemen: we're way off-topic here (partly my fault too), so do consider starting a new general topic...