Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

William Alwyn’s musical style is in the main of a romantic nature firmly grounded in tonality, notwithstanding some forays into modernity, calling on dissonance and freedom of form when he felt the need. This approach can be keenly felt in the works included on this album, all of which were completed when he was aged between eighteen and twenty-five. The medium of the string quartet held a long and lasting fascination for Alwyn, which began during the earliest years of his composing career. He was to compose a total of sixteen string quartets between the years 1920 and 1984. Alwyn considered that the string quartet was the ‘most intimate of mediums’ and reveled in the challenge to provide interesting material in which to balance the four instruments. The sixteen string quartets that he was to compose can be divided into two groups; the first thirteen quartets were composed between 1920 and 1936, and the last three quartets were composed between 1953 and 1984.

Classical Music

The two works by Sherwood presented on this release were not published during the composer’s lifetime and are recorded here for the first time, using texts prepared and edited by Hiroaki Takenouchi from manuscripts held by the Bodleian Library. The Suite presumably dates from 1901 or early 1902, shortly before its first known performance, which was given by the composer and Bertrand Roth on 20 April 1902 as part of Roth’s regular series of salon concerts at his home in Dresden. An inscription on the surviving manuscript names two dedicatees: Lucy Bambring and Edith Hempseed, a pianist active in the UK from around 1900 until the 1930s. More ambitious than the Suite in terms of its scale and emotional range, the Sonata in C minor for two pianos was first performed by Sherwood and Hermann Scholtz under the auspices of the Dresden Tonkünstler-Verein on 27 April 1896. The work’s gestation is documented in the autograph manuscript held by the Bodleian Library, in which Sherwood noted the dates on which he completed the second, third and fourth movements over the course of a few weeks in April and May 1890. First performed in 1877, the Duo appeared in print in the same year as part of Breitkopf und Härtel’s high profile ‘Klavier-Bibliothek’ (‘Pianist’s Library’) series – the first edition of Parry’s music to be published abroad. Perhaps recognising the new opportunities that international recognition might bring, Parry also relinquished his insurance job in 1877 in order to focus his efforts on developing a career as a composer, teacher and writer. Despite inhabiting a quite different sound-world to Parry’s later choral works – such as Blest Pair of Sirens, with which he is now indelibly associated – the Duo therefore emerges as a pivotal work in his early career and musical development.

Probably no other country turned out such a bountiful crop of minor masters as England in the first decades of the 20th century. E.J. Moeran was one of the best: his work is finely crafted, melodically appealing, colorful, and effectively structured, and this is the disc to own if you only have room in your collection for one sample of his output. The Symphony in G minor in particular stands with the finest works of the period. Yes, the music is derivative: of Vaughan Williams, Sibelius, and even Tchaikovsky (the start of the first movement's development section), but that doesn't matter. It's a terrific listen, and on balance Boult's is the finest performance of the work.

It has in abundance the qualities for which this conductor was rightly acclaimed: an effortless feeling of movement, ideal clarity of texture, firm rhythms, and all of this with none of the ensemble sloppiness that sometimes intruded on his interpretations. The performance also features Lyrita sonics that remain a touchstone to this day in terms of naturalness and impact. With by no means negligible couplings consisting of equally successful versions of the Sinfonietta (a substantial piece with a particularly imaginative central variation movement) and the Overture for a Masque, this disc is a classic any way you look at it.

--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

Classical Music

Classical Music

This two disc set is a BBC recording that was broadcast on February 2, 1964 of Phyllis Tate’s The Lodger, an opera in two acts. The work was commissioned by the Royal Academy of Music. It was first performed there in 1960. This recording was the opera’s first broadcast. The work features Anthony Jacobs as the narrator, as well as the BBC Northern Singers and BBC Northern Orchestra.

Classical Music

Because George Lloyd's personal attention is a dominating influence on the scores and recordings - which he mostly conducted himself - we have decided to headline this representation the 'Signature Collection'. Scores will be cleaned, and new orchestral parts created, recordings will be reorganised into affordable sets with new notes commissioned from Paul Conway. All digital platforms will have access to a unified and comprehensive offering from a single source.

Because George Lloyd's personal attention is a dominating influence on the scores and recordings - which he mostly conducted himself - we have decided to headline this representation the 'Signature Collection'. Scores will be cleaned, and new orchestral parts created, recordings will be reorganised into affordable sets with new notes commissioned from Paul Conway. All digital platforms will have access to a unified and comprehensive offering from a single source.

Because George Lloyd's personal attention is a dominating influence on the scores and recordings - which he mostly conducted himself - we have decided to headline this representation the 'Signature Collection'. Scores will be cleaned, and new orchestral parts created, recordings will be reorganised into affordable sets with new notes commissioned from Paul Conway. All digital platforms will have access to a unified and comprehensive offering from a single source.

Because George Lloyd's personal attention is a dominating influence on the scores and recordings - which he mostly conducted himself - we have decided to headline this representation the 'Signature Collection'. Scores will be cleaned, and new orchestral parts created, recordings will be reorganised into affordable sets with new notes commissioned from Paul Conway. All digital platforms will have access to a unified and comprehensive offering from a single source.