England's Dreaming

[sidewinder]

I must visit Bradford at some point. It's not far away.

I've not been there but I hear that the National Film Museum in the city centre is worth a trip in itself.

[A Lark Ascending]

I must visit Bradford at some point. It's not far away.

I've not been there but I hear that the National Film Museum in the city centre is worth a trip in itself.

Yes, I've heard good things about that. And wondering round gentrified former industrial areas can be interesting - they've transformed the Lace Market area of Nottingham in that way.

Back to the Delius programme - it was fascinating to hear one person interviewed describe becoming bewitched by Delius as a result of this LP:



Exactly the one that grabbed me back in 1978, followed quickly by this:



The programme left me regarding Delius as a similar figure to Charles Ives. Not as radical in his musical innovations but someone who just went down his own path regardless and who, consequently, has never been part of the musical mainstream. Seems to invite a limited band of worshippers.

Another interesting bit - and one of the reasons I love this sort of programme - was where David Owen Norris demonstrated how 'On Hearing The First Cuckoo in Spring' was derived from a Norwegian folk song. Edited June 2, 2013 by A Lark Ascending

[sidewinder]

The Norwegian folk influence was obviously big - along with the influence of all those Paris impressionistic painters and the Florida plantation/spiritual influence. Having said that, there were compositions (such as that 'Sea Drift') that sound anything but Norwegian or black-American in influence. An enigma !

Interesting that he predated Gershwin by 20 years or so with his black-American influenced opera.

I think I'd have gone for 'Delius: a nice sort of chap.'

Based on this programme and the Ken Russell - egotistical with a very short fuse.

Edited May 27, 2012 by sidewinder

[A Lark Ascending]

Based on this programme and the Ken Russell - egotistical with a very short fuse.

Yes! I'm sure I'd have quickly fallen out with him on a bulletin board!

[A Lark Ascending]

The Norwegian folk influence was obviously big - along with the influence of all those Paris impressionistic painters and the Florida plantation/spiritual influence. Having said that, there were compositions (such as that 'Sea Drift') that sound anything but Norwegian or black-American in influence. An enigma !

Interesting that he predated Gershwin by 20 years or so with his black-American influenced opera.

There's a lot in 'Appalachia' that makes you think of Gershwin. I must admit that at times of high excitement I am prone to burst out with 'Oh, honey I am going down the river in the morning...' 'Hey-ho, hey-ho, down the mighty river!' from that piece.

I've never heard 'Koanga' but it's on the new box set so I'm looking forward to it when I get there (somewhere around disc 15!).

Edited May 27, 2012 by A Lark Ascending

[A Lark Ascending]

Lots of British music on Radio 3 in June. Think it might by an artificial coronation anniversary tie in.

Unfortunately, what could have been an interesting TV series on Music and Monarchy (don't care for monarchy but it's generated a fair bit of wonderful music) is fronted by the dreadful David Starkey. A man (along with Gove) I would gladly morris dance on the head of in hob nailed boots.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2013/starkey-music-monarchy.html

[A Lark Ascending]

Nice radio programme about music in or inspired by Cornwall - Arnold, Bax, Lloyd, Fitkin etc

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b02yj9gx

[sidewinder]

Nice radio programme about music in or inspired by Cornwall - Arnold, Bax, Lloyd, Fitkin etc

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b02yj9gx

Presumably 'Pirates of Penzance' is outlawed?..

[A Lark Ascending]

Nice radio programme about music in or inspired by Cornwall - Arnold, Bax, Lloyd, Fitkin etc

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b02yj9gx

Presumably 'Pirates of Penzance' is outlawed?..

Well, I don't think it was mentioned. But Radio 3 is quite open-eared these days. They even had a Cornish folk band!

More to the point, no mention of Veryan Weston, Jim Hart or Rory Simmons.

Edited June 22, 2013 by A Lark Ascending

[A Lark Ascending]

Nice little piece about the friendship between Ravel and RVW here and the importance of Ravel in helping develop RVW's style:

http://www.theguardian.com/music/tomserviceblog/2014/feb/28/ravel-vaughan-williams-friendship-radio3-ravel-day

[A Lark Ascending]

As BBC Radio 3's CD Review sends its 'Building a Library' into summer recess during the Proms, they seem to be doing a composer survey in the 9.30-10.15 slot instead.

Nice survey of E.J. Moeran on record this morning. Worth a listen on the iPlayer if you want a taste of his major pieces.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04b1wj9

Next week, Sally Beamish. Good to see it not just sticking to golden oldies.

Edited July 19, 2014 by A Lark Ascending

[A Lark Ascending]

Well, I'll be. Lyrita seems to have sputtered back into life again:

Stumbled on this by chance on Amazon. Haven't seen mention of it anywhere else.

[Just checked e-music and there are 6 other 2014 releases - 2 seem to be anthologies of piano concertos and string concertos on the label.]

Edited December 2, 2014 by A Lark Ascending

[mjazzg]

Ignorance alert. I don't know any of these names. Are we talking cowpats here Bev?

I'm very fond of cello and this is oddly tempting for a punt

[A Lark Ascending]

I don't know any of those pieces (yet!) - Simpson is very uncowpat in his symphonies. Rather lean. A big Nielsen fan. Wright is a contemporary tonal composer but not a gushy one. I have a Joubert record somewhere but it's not returned to the player more than a couple of time (which says more about my butterfly listening than it does about the music).

If you want a breathtaking British cello piece go for Frank Bridge's 'Oration' - a heartfelt response to the Great War which affected him deeply. Several recordings around.

Edited December 2, 2014 by A Lark Ascending

[mjazzg]

Thanks for the Bridge tip. This review got me more interested

http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2014/Nov14/British_CCs_SRCD344.htm

[A Lark Ascending]

Strange how these have snuck out - I've seen nothing in Gramophone/BBC MM.

On British cello concertos Britten's gritty Cello Symphony is superb and the Walton is a spectral beauty. The Finzi and Moeran are lovely pieces but more pastoral.

[David Ayers]

The cello concerto material is already on Spotify - not sure which the other new ones are. Lyrita seem keen to get their stuff up there.

I notice that the disc you list is issued by Wyastone - i.e. Nimbus - so it may be they have taken over the reins.

[A Lark Ascending]

Those below seem to be compilations:

Richard Itter, the founder, died in March this year.

Lyrita came back to life in the late 00s and digitalised all its collection. It then seemed to vanish - the last activity on e-music was 2011.

I wonder if this was connected with illness. Maybe the label has now been reactivated by family or associates.

Details of some of these here:

http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/newreleases.php?label=Lyrita&age=6

Edited December 2, 2014 by A Lark Ascending

[David Ayers]

According to the Nimbus website they started to issue them in 2006. I guess you are right about the reason for the hiatus.