British overtures from Chandos

[Albion]

Coming in January -



- a disc of the following overtures:

Frederic Austin - The Sea Venturers (1934)
Granville Bantock - The Frogs (1935)
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor - The Song of Hiawatha (1899)
Frederic Cowen - The Butterfly’s Ball (1901)
Henry Balfour Gardiner - Overture to a Comedy (1906, rev. 1911)
Alexander Mackenzie - The Little Minister (1897)
Charles Villiers Stanford - Oedipus Rex Prelude (1885)
Arthur Sullivan - Macbeth (1888)

Whilst this disc is greatly to be anticipated, some repertoire choices might be questioned. Most valuable, surely, are the Bantock, Cowen, Gardiner and Mackenzie works (at last, this should be a wonderful performance of The Butterfly's Ball), but Frederic Austin's overture is already available on an excellent single-composer Dutton disc, whilst Sullivan's Macbeth exists in numerous fine recordings. Most oddly, Stanford's Oedipus Rex Prelude has already been recorded by Chandos as part of Vernon Handley's excellent survey (originally coupled with Symphony No.4).

If Stanford was required, I would have preferred the unrecorded Prelude to The Eumenides, likewise Sullivan's early Marmion overture (1867) has only been recorded (Decca, 1977) in a significantly truncated version. It seems a pity that no room was found for one of Parry's overtures or preludes from his sets of incidental music (Agamemnon or The Acharnians would have been sound choices). Something by Cipriani Potter or George Macfarren would have helped to give a more balanced chronological picture, and judging from the Marco Polo disc of Coleridge-Taylor, which includes the Hiawatha overture, the composer's Toussaint L'Ouverture would have been a more enterprising choice.

Nevertheless, it's good to see composers such as Cowen and Mackenzie finally appearing on the Chandos label (The Little Minister is a real winner, previously only available in a sub-par performance by the Hull Youth SO on a Gough & Davy LP). Hopefully, this disc may lead to further exploration - further volumes along similar lines would be very welcome indeed.

 :)

[Dundonnell]

John has said it all in his detailed post. I have therefore deleted the duplicated topic/thread that I started.

[cilgwyn]

He certainly has! In short. Exciting release.Minor disappointments but heartening. Great cover! Pre-order.
 :)

[Albion]

The Balfour Gardiner is especially valuable, as according to Grove there are a whole raft of lost works:

Orch: Sym. [no.1], perf. 1901, lost; Heroic Ov., perf. 1901, lost; English Dance, perf. 1904, unpubd, arr. Grainger 2 pf, 1925, unpubd; Suite, A, perf. 1905, lost; Ov. to a Comedy, perf. 1906, lost, rev. perf. 1911; Fantasy, perf. 1908, lost, rev. perf. 1914, lost; Sym. [no.2], D, perf. 1908, lost; Shepherd Fennel’s Dance, perf. 1911, arr. pf (1911); A Berkshire Idyll, 1913, perf. 1955, unpubd; In Maytime, perf. 1914, lost; Ballad, 1915–19, perf. 1920, lost; Café Milani ’95, 1925, unperf., lost

 :(

Some small compensation - there is a good broadcast performance of A Berkshire Idyll in the archive.

 :)

[Dundonnell]

There seems to be a suggestion that Gardiner in fact destroyed most of his own unpublished manuscripts(including possibly two symphonies ???).

If that is indeed the case does anything remain beyond the Overture to a Comedy, "A Berkshire Idyll" and the short "April" for chorus and orchestra of 1913-of which there is also an ancient recording in our Archive ??? It would appear that Gardiner's generosity towards his fellow composers in financing performances of their music and supporting Delius towards the end of his life was, ultimately, more important to him than his own music. The orchestral music I have heard is rather Delian and its lush textures are not really to my taste......but so what ;D

[britishcomposer]

Now hopefully in the right thread.  ;D

The Balfour Gardiner Overture is not a first recording but a very engaging piece:

http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/album.jsp?album_id=166967

Currently available on this EMI compilation:

http://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/art/British-Composers-Best-of-British/hnum/3681826

[jimfin]

The Mackenzie is especially exciting: I wish he had had the same level of recording attention as Parry and Stanford have had: whereas Cowen is often disappointing (though the Butterfly's Ball is a lovely piece), everything I have heard of Mackenzie has been engaging and enjoyable.

[cilgwyn]

Yes,I feel the same way;although it's true that his orchestration does has a different sound world to Stanford or Parry.It's the total absence of memorable themes or ideas that is a major problem for me. The movements seem empty. Rubinstein or Raff at their worst (even Rubinstein!) have a knack of covering their empty patches with a lot of busy note twiddling,bluff rhetoric and,in the case of Raff,pretty orchestration,which can help you get through to what good bits there,hopefully,are. (In the case of Rubinstein's third,none!! ;D) Cowen doesn't even seem to have that! A bit like Holbrooke at his worst,or if you're kyjo;a bit like Holbrooke! ;D

[kyjo]

A bit like Holbrooke at his worst,or if you're kyjo;a bit like Holbrooke! ;D

 ;D

Believe it or not, my favorite Holbrooke work is his much-maligned PC 1, which appeals to me in its Lisztian/Rachmaninoffian heroics. Yes, it's diffuse, but at least it's not influenced by R. Strauss! ;)

[cilgwyn]

Despite my reservations (see previous post) about everything I have ever heard by Cowen,so far (and like everyone else,I haven't heard much) I am really looking forward to hearing his overture performed by a first class orchestra in the famous Chandos sound! This cd really is a nice surprise,and what with Malcolm Williamson piano concertos from Hyperion,maybe there is some hope,after all?

[Dundonnell]

Despite my reservations (see previous post) about everything I have ever heard by Cowen,so far (and like everyone else,I haven't heard much) I am really looking forward to hearing his overture performed by a first class orchestra in the famous Chandos sound! This cd really is a nice surprise,and what with Malcolm Williamson piano concertos from Hyperion,maybe there is some hope,after all?

Hope for what ???  Hope for more late 19th century/early 20th century tuneful, lyrical, pleasant, attractive music ???......yes, almost certainly from Dutton, perhaps Chandos.
Hope for more Williamson ???  Not from Chandos apparently :( Hope for slightly later British symphonists ??? Very, very little :(

[cilgwyn]

Erm,what's wrong with more late 19th century/ early 20th century tuneful,lyrical,pleasant,attractive music?! Sounds nice to me!
Luckily they've done most of York Bowen's output. Gulp! I see what you mean!! ;D
Seriously,I DO see what you mean! I'd like more Holbrooke,for instance;but I'm not sure how much of his output is really worth recording instead of composers like Daniel Jones and Peter Racine Fricker. As to York Bowen?!! At least his output was consistent,but then so is Richard Clayderman! ::) :o And he can play the piano,too! (Though,my rendition of chopsticks has more fire! ;D).
And what about Stanley Bate? Probably one of the most amazing rediscoveries of all! Music of quality like that and what do we get from Chandos? New recordings of Joachim Raff and Atterberg symphonies that already exist in perfectly good recordings. Nice for Raff and Atterberg admirers,but money that could have been spent on allowing people to hear more Stanley Bate!
And is a beautiful,lyrical,thought provoking piece of music like the Second Symphony of Daniel Jones really that hard to assimilate?
It's a crazy world!! ::) ???

[patmos.beje]

I wholeheartedly agree with jimfin and cilgwyn on Mackenzie and Bate respectively.  I will buy the Chandos disc for the Mackenzie alone.

[Albion]

Great-sounding audio clips and download here -

http://www.theclassicalshop.net/Details.aspx?CatalogueNumber=CHAN%2010797

 :)

[Albion]

Needless to say, Cowen's The Butterfly's Ball is absolutely wonderful and beautifully orchestrated (a feature which didn't come across particularly well in the Marco Polo recording), with lovely touches of celeste, harp and glockenspiel. It should be heard at least as often as Sullivan's Di Ballo. All performances on this disc are top-drawer.

 ;D