I believe that amongst the texts, Grace Williams sets Vernon Watkins poetry. Though none were Swansea born, Dylan Thomas, Daniel Jones and Vernon Watkins were members of the Kardomah Gang who regularly met up in a Swansea cafe. Grace Williams spent much of her life in Barry, close to Cardiff, and I guess we’ll find out tomorrow just how well she knew her fairly local contemporaries.

 Rowan Williams is, however, a Swansea born poet and great admirer of Vernon Watkins’ poetry, so the links are made, and his choice as narrator is a natural one. I do agree with Jim, though, about narration.in general.

Anyone interested in settings of Vernon Watkins may want to listen to Furnace of Colours by Christopher Painter on Youtube (Hoddinott pupil, and sounds like one! His Third Symphony is also up there).

1934 John McLeod - big omission from me there!

I've waited a while to watch for new recordings/ youtube uploads of Landowski. There is a 9 disc set of his music, which, if you take out an opera and other large scale (duration) works, is hardly a complete picture. Of his five symphonies, four are on a double erato cd (also in the box set) and all five are on youtube, but together with a couple of other works, he seems curiously very under-represented in all formats. The Erato recordings are old now, and his reputation may be waning with them. Does anyone know why, or is it the usual neglect many composers go through after death. Of course, some members may be able to rectify his absence from the usual listening/upload sites! I can't say he's up there with my favourites, but surely he must be regarded as a major French composer, with a clear lineage from Honegger, and deserves better current access/'airing'.

Yes, I've done exactly the same, so we're either going to be vey happy (probably will be anyway with the Grace Williams broadcast on Tuesday), or will just have to be patient up to the respective scheduled release dates!

This is a wonderful piece of work, with lots of works I’d never heard of as they often don’t appear on standard lists, I guess because of choral music’s status as lesser than purely orchestral works. It’s also good to see them in the context of other contemporaneous works. Great reference source. Thanks for posting it.

mp3s transferred into British and Irish Downloads section.

yes, I overlooked him, and, talking of Jonathan Powell's repertoire, the composer at the other end of the duration scale- Sorabji!!

and back to the USA, I think the Persichetti  cycle shows a definite serious commitment to the form, rather than just a brief excursion, although generally numbers doesn't, of course, mean greatness.

Beyond those composers already quoted, Hovhaness and Persichetti (12) wrote many piano sonatas. Then there’s Benjamin Lees (4), Arnold Rosner (3), Ross Lee Finney (3), George Walker (4), Charles Wuorinen (4) Ezra Laderman (3), George Rochberg (2), John Harbison (2) and George Perle (albeit a  ‘short’ one!), so the form is out there amongst fairly well-known names – it just depends on which of these, if any, you consider great. I haven’t heard many of these, but I think many are otherwise great symphonists!

Figureheads of British music like Elgar, Vaughan Williams, Walton and Britten never wrote any, with Bax leading the way for the important single contributions of Bridge, Bliss, Ireland, an equally impressive one by Wordsworth, and then Scott’s 4 and later Tippett’s 4. I guess Truscott’s 22 and Hoddinott’s 13 are the major most recent British cycles. Bax and Bridge stand out for me, but does anyone actually play them? Many recitals rely on the Mozart, Beethoven, Haydn, and Schubert as a base, with shorter works by others.

Hoddinott's Piano Concerto No. 3 is on this record -

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hoddinott-Landscapes-Piano-Concerto-Sinfonietta/dp/B0046SHB6I

a programme which could easily be transferred to a Lyrita CD in the same way they remastered Birtwistle and Musgrave from Decca Headline LPs, the Fricker and Banks from Argo etc. However the Hoddinott was on RCA
so that could be problematic.

I think there are a couple of versions of the early Clarinet Concerto on disc already, including Lyrita.

1. I didn't realise the Alan Bush recording was from Leipzig. oops!

2. I see from the other thread on possible Lyrita releases that within days of Latvian sharing a hope for a recording of Wordsworth's First Symphony, it duly appears (if possibly the wrong version)! That's very impressive!

3. Assuming I could be wrong about the Del Mar recording, and it is indeed by him, we know that he was associated with the Scottish S.O. so that bit holds true. I see from Genome that in 1960/1, these artists played around 10 concerts broadcast on the Home Service as 'Sunday Symphony Concert', but only one has any details of the programme. This series could have been the source of the recording, and of course it could have been rebroadcast at any time since with an even more ambiguous description making it impossible to trace. This is one of Genome's weaknesses. I wonder whether the uploader can shed any light on this?

Aren't they the same performance with the 'Del Mar' (actually Loughran) much better balanced giving it more sweep/energy. The timings also seem far too similar over 5-9 minutes to be different. Could be wrong... Probably wrong.

Very pleased that these symphonies are on their way out. No. 5 is, to me, one of the best British symphonies.
Looking at the Itter releases, major choral works seem to be a big feature so far, so works like Alan Bush's Byron Symphony and Daniel Jones' St. Peter could be nearer to the front of the queue than the back!

yes sorry - I think I was looking at the details of the repeat prom (second)performance in May 1977 rather than the May 1976 first performance!

See my comments re the Fricker - I'm not clear on this either