British and Irish Music

[Albion]

I can thoroughly recommend the Northern Opera Much Ado. Only piano accompaniment but magnificent. I hope we can expect a full recording of the work one day. Jeanie Deans of course exists in substantial extracts on Hyperion. I would love to hear some Goring Thomas or Mackenzie operas though.

On a previous post I included the following paragraph:

Perhaps the recent Northern Opera Group's performance of Stanford's Much Ado About Nothing [see: http://www.northernoperagroup.co.uk/much-ado-about-nothing/4594599648 ] might make it to, at least, a privately available CD.  One can only hope. More than a hour of excerpts from this opera (5 in total), from an earlier 2016 performance accompanied by piano, can be accessed from: https://soundcloud.com/northernoperagroup/sets/much-ado-about-nothing-by-charles-villiers-stanford

Many thanks for alerting me and hopefully many others to these extracts from an excellent performance. Although without orchestra it is a rare privilege to hear such skill and commitment dedicated to neglected British opera. I would also echo the wish for some Mackenzie (especially Colomba, 1883, and The Cricket on the Hearth, 1901) and Goring Thomas' Esmeralda, 1883. Excellent!

 

[Greg K]

The Joubert Requiem, - great.  Thank you.  Before I get to the piece myself, how would you evaluate it?

[britishcomposer]

The Joubert Requiem, - great.  Thank you.  Before I get to the piece myself, how would you evaluate it?

Greg, I am sorry, I haven‘t listened to the requiem myself yet.
I did upload this recent BBC broadcast just because Joubert is one of the better known composers of his generation and held in high esteem by members of this board. We have some of his works in Albion‘s archive but not this one yet.

My first acquaintance with Joubert was via a BBC broadcast of the first symphony. The dramatic thrust impressed me but I couldn‘t quite figure out wether Joubert‘s music had a strong enough personality on its own. The piece still convinces me though.
In his later music there is a tendency to rely too much on sequence. This is especially annoying in his songs. (A CD was released by Toccata Classics.) Sequencing a phrase is a technique to emphasize a statement. However, by making too much use of it the good intention is in danger to become thwarted.

[relm1]

The Joubert Requiem, - great.  Thank you.  Before I get to the piece myself, how would you evaluate it?

I loved it.  Very RVW to me.  It's lovely, lyrical, concise (around 45 minutes) and dramatic.

[Albion]

There is an mp3 in the archive of yesterday's BBC broadcast of Cipriani Potter's Symphony No.1 in G minor (1819-26) given by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales conducted by Howard Griffiths. Seven of Potter's nine extant symphonies can now be heard in either commercial recordings or non-commercial BBC broadcasts:

a. commercial recordings

F major (1826), E flat major (1828), G minor (1832) - the first on Classico (2005), the latter two on Unicorn-Kanchana (1989)

b. BBC broadcasts

G minor (1819/ 26), C minor (1826), C minor (1834), D major (1834) [those in F major (1826), E flat major (1828) and G minor (1832) were also broadcast in 1995]

leaving those in B flat major (1821) and D major (1833) unrecorded.

The best readily available sources for information on Potter's symphonies remain A. Peter Brown's The Symphonic Repertoire Volume III Part B (2008) and Jurgen Schaarwachter's Two Centuries of British Symphonism: From the beginnings to 1945 Volume I (2015).

[Albion]

The many items "recently" donated by generous members are now in the archive and the catalogue is up to date again: these include broadcasts of works by Sally Beamish, James MacMillan, Huw Watkins, James Dillon and John Joubert. Many thanks.

Please could members with an interest keep an eye on the radio listings for anything of import. Afternoon on 3 is often a happy hunting ground...