What British, commonwealth, or similar 'neglected' composer are you listening to?

[Extended Play]

Boilk, EdgeleyRob and Beef Oven #26, 27 and 28: your enthusiasm for the Alwyn symphonies is infectious. You have inspired me to investigate them, but I'm starting from scratch. I'm tempted, on paper, by the Naxos coupling of 2 and 5 -- not least because it includes Lyra Angelica which I have heard once or twice, and which I remember as a rather beautiful and captivating work. Can you recommend this CD as a starting point? Any thoughts would be much appreciated.

PS: Isn't the Hyperion art work consistently wonderful?

[EdgeleyRob]

Boilk, EdgeleyRob and Beef Oven #26, 27 and 28: your enthusiasm for the Alwyn symphonies is infectious. You have inspired me to investigate them, but I'm starting from scratch. I'm tempted, on paper, by the Naxos coupling of 2 and 5 -- not least because it includes Lyra Angelica which I have heard once or twice, and which I remember as a rather beautiful and captivating work. Can you recommend this CD as a starting point? Any thoughts would be much appreciated.

PS: Isn't the Hyperion art work consistently wonderful?

Yes the Naxos, or you could do a lot worse than this to start,or nos 1 & 4 on the same label.



and there's the complete set on Chandos (Hickox).

Enjoy.

[Extended Play]

Yes the Naxos, or you could do a lot worse than this to start,or nos 1 & 4 on the same label.



and there's the complete set on Chandos (Hickox).

Enjoy.

Thank you -- am looking forward to getting started.

[Rosie55]

Alun Hoddinott: Landscapes - Song Cycles and Folk songs

I adore the lighter folk song arrangements on this disc, featuring soprano Claire Booth and tenor Nicky Spence.

I also love the cover of the CD and cannot upload it - any friends here able to illustrate my point by adding the cover of this disc?

[AmpH]

RAWSTHORNE

COMPLETE PIANO MUSIC

Ballade - Valse - Ballade in G sharp minor - Four Bagatelles - Sonatina - Four Romantic Pieces - Theme and Four Studies - The Creel

John McCabe ( piano )

[EdgeleyRob]

Alun Hoddinott: Landscapes - Song Cycles and Folk songs

I adore the lighter folk song arrangements on this disc, featuring soprano Claire Booth and tenor Nicky Spence.

I also love the cover of the CD and cannot upload it - any friends here able to illustrate my point by adding the cover of this disc?

I am ashamed to say I don't know much of his music at all Rosie.

[Beef Oven]

Thank you -- am looking forward to getting started.

Happy listening!

I have the Naxos CDs with the Lyrica Angelica and I also have the Lyrita, which I just about prefer. it also has the added interest of having the composer conducting.

The Naxos releases are of course much cheaper!

[Beef Oven]

Not sure which division this is but it's wonderful stuff.

[Serial_Apologist]

I am ashamed to say I don't know much of his music at all Rosie.

I would once have described Hoddinott's music as unrelievedly dark and foreboding, in an almost Bergian kind of way; but recently I have heard one or two works, mostly later ones, that escape from this generalisation, being full of vivid, luminous orchestral colours, almost tonal, and quite ecstatic in mood.

[Beef Oven]

Playing Star Children by Alun Hoddinott, inspired by Rosie55

[Roehre]

I would once have described Hoddinott's music as unrelievedly dark and foreboding, in an almost Bergian kind of way; but recently I have heard one or two works, mostly later ones, that escape from this generalisation, being full of vivid, luminous orchestral colours, almost tonal, and quite ecstatic in mood.

Mathias' music is immediately recognizable as his -most of the time rather sunny orchestral scores, his chamber music shows a darker side of this composer. Both these remarks I cannot say re Hoddinott's output. It is not immediately recognizable as his. But I do think that giving Hoddinott's works generally the epithet "Bergian" doesn't do justice to it. His orchestral scores show a wide variety of orchestral colouring, his vocal works cover a wide range of moods and atmospheres. Only the best part of his piano sonatas are IMO dark and broody, but most of them are relatively early (quasi dodecaphonic or even serial) works.

But I prefer Mathias (or, for an older generation of Welsh composers, Grace Williams and Daniel Jones).

[Beef Oven]

Alun Hoddinott: Landscapes - Song Cycles and Folk songs

I adore the lighter folk song arrangements on this disc, featuring soprano Claire Booth and tenor Nicky Spence.

I also love the cover of the CD and cannot upload it - any friends here able to illustrate my point by adding the cover of this disc?

[Beef Oven]

Mathias' music is immediately recognizable as his -most of the time rather sunny orchestral scores, his chamber music shows a darker side of this composer. Both these remarks I cannot say re Hoddinott's output. It is not immediately recognizable as his. But I do think that giving Hoddinott's works generally the epithet "Bergian" doesn't do justice to it. His orchestral scores show a wide variety of orchestral colouring, his vocal works cover a wide range of moods and atmospheres. Only the best part of his piano sonatas are IMO dark and broody, but most of them are relatively early (quasi dodecaphonic or even serial) works.

But I prefer Mathias (or, for an older generation of Welsh composers, Grace Williams and Daniel Jones).

Grace Williams Her 2nd Symphony is next up for me tonight! I have a couple of Daniel Jones CDs that I'm fond of too.

[Beef Oven]

Grace Williams - Symphony #2. Lyrita

Played the whole CD earlier, Fairest Of The Stars is wonderful!

"[The Second Symphony is] an absorbing work whose mix of styles and models serves as a reminder that pluralism in music is not just a phenomenon of the years since 1980. The symphony begins by evoking Shostakovich and Vaughan Williams but, by the finale, it is late-romanticism recalling both Wagner and Mahler that provides the source for William’s most powerful utterances. The orchestral compositions reveal a distinctive personality, but Williams is still more impressive in the neo-Straussian opulence of Fairest Stars, a setting of Milton whose vocal line seems to reflect the wonder and ecstasy of Ariadne auf Naxos … here projected with admirable sensitivity by Janet Price" Arnold Wittall, Gramophone

[Rosie55]

Thank you Serial! Such a lovely CD cover - contents to match too!
Hoddinott is often described as 'brooding' or 'nocturnal' but much of his music is thrilling and very atmospheric.
Thinking about it, with his international reputation and the very easy to listen to lighter music he wrote for Royal occasions, Hoddinott would have made a fine Master of the Queen's Musick...