It has been suggested that I invite readers to nominate British Composers whom are unjustly neglected, and in so doing suggest a work of theirs that best represents them, whether recorded or not.
I’ll start the ball rolling and give you my choice, Sir Lennox Berkeley. His concise Third Symphony, as recorded on Lyrita conducted by the composer (preferable to Richard Hickox on Chandos), is a masterpiece.
With much pleasure, I now hand over to you, your friends and your acquaintances, please cut them in to this survey (hopefully someone will choose Robert Simpson’s Fifth Symphony, on Hyperion with Vernon Handley), and you don’t have to be British to contribute, with a Comment, below…
Postscript (June 1, midday): just thought of two pieces I’d love to hear again that may have had only the one performance, both from the BBCSO, namely David Wooldridge’s Five Italian Songs (sung by Heather Harper, conducted by Michael Gielen, Proms 1979) https://www.bbc.co.uk/events/eq5q9r and Benedict Mason’s Concerto for the Viola Section (and full orchestra) https://www.wisemusicclassical.com/work/8138/Concerto-for-the-Viola-Section–Benedict-Mason/ which Lothar Zagrosek conducted. Both works made a big impression that has resonated with me to this day.
The piano sonata by Frank Bridge is inexplicably neglected – it is a searching, impassioned reflection on the aftermath of the First World War – somehow both poignant and rage-filled.
Its lack of take-up amongst British (and, for that matter, international) pianists is mystifying. A few commercial records exist, though the finest performance I’ve heard is a private recording (of the Russian première), given at Gnessin Music School in Moscow, by British pianist Yuri Paterson-Olenich.
Bridge’s A Sea Idyll for piano – pre-Debussy Preludes, 1905 – drew me as a student in the early 60s. Evocative, pianistically grateful.
Mark Bebbington https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IeA6Af-5wgo
Can I suggest Howard Ferguson and his wonderful F minor Piano Sonata.
Premiered by Dame Myra at the National Gallery at the height of the Blitz, how I wonder did her audience react to the music’s anguish and unease (the Sonata’s opening has a muscular anger), when faced with its personal and collective uncertainty and hardship? Little to console in this Sonata, then, reflecting as it does the WW2 ‘zeitgeist’, but when the moments of consolation arrive, they are deeply moving; the coda of the second movement is one of the tenderest and most heartfelt passages in British piano music.
This Sonata is a masterpiece of structure and emotion. Yet when was it last performed ……..?
ADRIAN WILLIAMS Spring Requiem, Images of a Mind, Sonata for solo cello
Raphael Wallfisch, Adrian Williams Metronome MET CD 1028
“What is this life if, full of care, we have no time to stand and stare?”
An die Musik Roderick Williams, Huw Watkins words by Franz von Schober
http://www.adrianwilliamsmusic.com/musicsamples/MP3/An_die_Musik.mp3?fbclid=IwAR0o0wQ4MrNcvL-y8zPeK66SHW3SYUY2jq8hrOoFRxgTPBiEJ5CBC5umyoQ
To while away the minutes a link to a memoir Adrian published in 2003 of his composition teacher at the RCM, John Russell – a man from the days when teachers were mentors, friends and confidants, pints of ale to be shared, stories to be exchanged, never an eye on the clock … http://www.musicweb-international.com/…/Oc…/John_Russell.htm
Red Kite Flying Gillian Keith, Simon Lepper words by Adrian Williams
http://www.adrianwilliamsmusic.com/musicsamples/MP3/RedKiteFlying.mp3
Forward on my way,
No wish for noisy streets
or bitter crying
Stride without delay
To breathe the wind and watch
the red kite flying,
Till sun fire meets
far hills and drops away.
Up the rising lane
Feel no pain, forget
long nights of sighing,
Sad heart, lift again,
Behold in open skies
the red kite flying
above bracken red
and golden broome aflame.
Forward on my way,
Underfoot is love betrayed
Those rages of the heart
They push me on,
Red wings of passion
Keep swooping and rising
Dipping and gliding
Soaring, till, out of sight
Lift me away.
Across the gorse and heather
No fear of judgment day
or thoughts of dying
Fine in any weather
Is Radnorshire to watch
the red kite flying.
Alan Bush : Dialectic for String Quartet – one of the great quartets of the twentieth century and hardly ever heard. A remarkable piece
Off the top of my head: Horovitz; Jazz Harpsichord Concerto’ Williamson Violin Concerto; Brian Symphony 10; Simpson Symphonies 5 & 9, Violin Concerto; Rawsthorne Symphonic Studies; Piano Concerto No 2; Lambert Rio Grande; Bliss: Violin Concerto; Rubbra: Symphoies 5, 6 and 9; Gardner Symphony 1; Martelli Symphony 2; Schurmann Gardens of Exile (cello concerto); McCabe: Violin Concerto No 2; Hoddinott: Clarinet Concerto no 1; Ireland: These Things Shall Be; Tippett: Ritual Dances; Ferneyhough: La Terre est un Homme; Stanford; Down Among the Dead Men (variations for piano and orchestra); Gerhard symphony No 4 (New York)
That’ll do for the time being!
The Ferneyhough Bob cites is a remarkable piece, only not played due to its complexity rather than its worth, which is considerable. As far as I know, La Terre has only had three concert performances: the 1979 premiere in Glasgow conducted by Elgar Howarth, then soon after in London with LSO/Abbado (alongside Brahms & Tchaikovsky) and then a revival in 2011 from the BBCSO & Martyn Brabbins; this latter is on NMC D231.
I was at the premiere in Glasgow of Ferneyhough’s La Terre – it was conducted by Sir Alexander Gibson. The concert included Robin Holloway’s Second Concerto for Orchestra which does in part require two conductors, the second of whom was Elgar Howarth.
Sorry – late at night and misled in part by Colin’s Comment; it wasn’t Elgar Howarth but Edwin Roxburgh who was the second conductor in the Holloway Concerto.
Well Bob, Ferneyhough’s publisher also says Elgar Howarth.
https://www.editionpeters.com/product/la-terre-est-un-homme/ep7225
I don’t think even Jonson Dyer was at that premiere – but we all enjoyed a marvellous supper afterwards at The Ubiquitous Chip, with Hermann Scherchen’s delightful composer daughter Tania sitting next to me.
Interesting that, aside from Bob, Havergal Brian’s symphonies get no mention. It was a different story fifty plus years ago – Robert Simpson at the BBC, Boult conducting the Gothic Symphony at the Royal Albert Hall. Then, between 1974 and 1983, the publication of Malcolm MacDonald’s trilogy on the ‘thirty two’, a labour of love and scholarship helped to no small extent by the belief and input of the late Morris Kahn at Kahn & Averill – whose nicotine-filled, book-laden, flat/office in Goldhawk Road nursed equally the likes of Alan Bush and Ronald Stevenson … not to mention a galaxy of performers from Bernac and Perlemuter to Ronald Smith on Alkan.
The practical aspect with Brian is that his music is often technically difficult and needs rather more rehearsal time than most organisations, including the BBC’s orchestras, will give it: three hours for a 20-minuute symphony by him is not enough for proper preparation. Also, as the overwhelming majority of his symphonies were composed after the age of 80, his personal expressive language had evolved to the point where musicians have to come to grasp the way it works before it can be ‘interpreted’ satisfactorily. Once you understand what he’s doing, of course, it all falls into place naturally, but who’s going to bother today – especially when he asks for a large orchestra? Boult could conduct anything supremely well – he conducted the first ever performance of a Havergal Brian Symphony in 1954, No 8, the opening of which – two unaccompanied tubas – frightened the living daylights out of me as a 15-year-old. In an age like ours, when Schubert symphonies are a concert rarity, to whom should we look? Not the BBC any more, I suspect.
Rebecca Clarke Philomela
I’d add Lennox Berkeley’s Four Poems of St. Teresa of Avila (Op. 27), the Bliss Pastoral, ‘Lie strewn the white flocks’, (Op, 23) & Rubbra’s The Morning Watch, Op. 55. Re the comment from Robert Matthew-Walker, I conducted Ireland’s These Things Shall Be some years ago – financial support was secured from the John Ireland Trust and given because of its rarity.
Dominic Muldowney’s Oboe Concerto. Scandalously only a single performance, in 1992, although it was recorded on NMC shortly afterwards.
As the one who may modestly claim to have started off this listing, may I add my own original suggestion, namely John Joubert’s impassioned Second Symphony, in memory of those killed in the Sharpeville massacre. This symphony is relevant yet again, in view of the current situation in the USA, but in any case should be in the repertoire of all British orchestras – and others.
Perhaps I can add, off the top of my head, to this original suggestion, Giles Swayne’s Cry, and Nicholas Maw’s Scenes and Arias.
Elisabeth Lutyens
Oh, where to start? I’ll restrict myself to British symphonists: Bax, Simpson, Ruth Gipps, David Matthews and Philip Sawyers. Most are now adequately represented on record. The exception is Gipps: I wait in hope for accounts of symphonies 1, 3 and 5 to join the excellent Chandos disc of 2 & 4. The English Symphony Orchestra and Kenneth Woods are doing sterling work getting the music of Sawyers and Matthews into concert programmes, but overall the chance of ever hearing any of these symphonies live remains depressingly slim to non-existent.
The list is becoming very interesting, and I hope it continues…. May I ask, Adam Philp, while I don’t disagree with your list, on the whole, how many symphonies (or other symphonic works) does one have to have written in order to be counted as a British symphonist?
Haha I in no way intended my list to be exhaustive, merely the ones uppermost in my mind when I encountered this thread. If I wanted to create a list of symphonists deserving of greater exposure, it would include almost every name apart from Elgar. To date I have never managed to hear my favourite RVW symphony, the 9th, live in the concert hall. https://twitter.com/deeplyclassical/status/1140702936592465920
Now you’ve got me thinking about it further, I’d most certainly add Malcolm Arnold, John McCabe, Matthew Taylor and John Joubert to that list. Also Hans Gal who, though not born in the UK, spent the majority of his working life and composed three of his four wonderful symphonies here. I’d be tempted to put in a bid for Alwyn and Rubbra too, but a man’s got to know his limitations.
Sorry, Adam, I hope I didn’t sound too sniffy! Re your comments/replies – very nice of you, and appreciated. Actually, VW’s 9th Symphony was John’s favourite also.
It’s lovely to see Monica commenting here! So may I be the first person to suggest John’s Symphony no.4 ‘Of Time and the River’ (splendid Tod Handley recording with BBC SO on Hyperion). I played this with KSO some years back (yes, there’s a recording!) and it was a great privilege to have both John and Monica in the audience.
The Concerto for Orchestra (I know Colin agrees with this) is also a stunning work that demands more regular performance; and I’m still hoping to programme ‘Notturni ed alba’…
A MASSIVE yes to McCabe 4!
A little further emphasis on Simpson 5. When Chairman of the Young Musicians Symphony Orchestra I was pleased to programme this marvellous symphony in the composer’s presence at SJSS. The date? Well
It was shared by the Cup Final between Wimbledon and Liverpool which I also attended thanks to the generosity of a Wimbledon season ticket holder. It was a beautiful day all round.
More modern thoughts allow me to mention David Matthews’s Sixth Symphony, premiered at the Proms and still awaiting its Welsh premiere despite being well played by the BBCNOW under Jac van Steen. This is David’s finest symphonic essay and is in need of an urgent performance anywhere really!
Finally a composer not yet mentioned, Robert Still whose Second Symphony awaits a premiere let alone a recording that JohnGibbons and I were planning having studied the score at the Still archive at Trinity Laban. The score and parts are all ready to go!
There is so much music, it’s hard to know where to begin, but among my particular passions are John McCabe’s Hartmann Variations (which I heard when a schoolboy at the CBSO under Maurice Handford), E J Moeran’s Sinfonietta and the beautiful Violin Concerto, the Holst Lyric Movement (which I had the pleasure of recording with Sarah-Jane Bradley for Dutton), Arnold Cooke’s First and Third Symphonies, the Rawsthorne Piano Concertos (both of which I conducted with John McCabe as soloist – unforgettable), Walton’s lesser-known output in particular the Gloria (premiered by Sargent and the Huddrsfield Choral Society with the Dream of Gerontius in the second half!) and the Hindemith Variations (in the Szell recording, a real desert island disc) and a delightful miniature by Patrick Hadley ‘One morning in spring’. There are very many more …
I share the enthusiasms of very many and agree that there are too many to list.
Though the honoured dedicatee of Simpson’s 11th which we launched wIth CLS years ago, his 4th and 6th Symphonies have that rare ability to culminate with a real feeling of life affirmation and exhilaration without resorting to either bombast on the one hand or sentimentality on the other. Tippett No.1 does this too and Hugh Wood’s equally magnificent Symphony has a similar sense of jubilation, hard won triumph that is needed and valued. John McCabe’s No.4 has always been a strong favourite as have the 4th and 5th of David Matthews. A special place in my heart also for Rawsthorne’s ‘Practical Cats’. I have always cherished conducting the delectable Holloway Serenades and have a special fondness for Richard Bennett’s Serenade. And there are so many more….
Here are a few more largely forgotten names. John Buller had an amazing success with his work for the Proms in 1977 – Proença. He followed this with The Theatre of Memory in 1981, which I found more difficult. His later opera, The Bacchae, was rather tough going, but greatly impressed Guy Rickards and Tony Payne. It would certainly be interesting to hear Proença again.
Daniel Jones was a very eminent Welsh composer at one time. I’m not very au fait with his work, but he wrote I think 12 symphonies, among much other music. Surely there is something worth recalling there.
William Alwyn is better remembered, if only through his own festival, supported by the income from his film music. John was very impressed by his Third and Fifth Symphonies.