I thought that for my 1,000th post
on this site I would try to bring back the name of the British composer
Robert Still.Still enjoys the distinction of being, along with Sir Hubert Parry, one of the few Old Etonian composers (the conductor Edward Gardner also attended Britain's most famous public school
). After studying at Oxford University and the Royal College of Music under Gordon Jacob, Still taught music at Eton for a few years and after that, devoted himself to composition. He died suddenly aged 60 in 1971.
Still wrote four symphonies: the First was premiered at the Royal Festival Hall in 1956, the Second has never been performed. The Third and Fourth Symphonies were recorded and are on the same Lyrita cd as Humphrey Searle's Second. The Third is conducted by Sir Eugene Goossens who gave the work its first performance in March 1962 and recorded it only a few months later. Goossens was desperately ill at the time and died less than a month after conducting the recording. Although advised to rest, Goossens, who admired Still's work, was determined to continue to work. (You will recall that Goossens never recovered from the disgrace he had suffered when he was dismissed from his post as Principal Conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra in 1956.)
The Fourth Symphony(originally called 'Sinfonia') is conducted on the Lyrita cd by that great advocate of British music Myer Fredman.
Still wrote a Piano Concerto(1969) and a Violin Concerto(1970) shortly before his own death but neither has ever been heard. The Concerto for Strings is in our own British Music Collection here and the Elegie for baritone, chorus and small orchestra was on a Decca LP which I hope to be able to digitise and upload shortly.
Many of the performances and, I understand, recordings of his music were financed by Still himself.
There is an excellent website devoted to Robert Still-
http://www.grahammusto.btinternet.co.uk/RStillhp.htmwhich I strongly commend to your attention and which provides a very considerable body of information about the composer's life and work.
What does Still's music sound like? Well, it should provide no great difficulties to any lover of 20th century British music
It is tonal and 'conservative'.
On the evidence of the music I have heard I would not rate Still a 'great' composer. The music is well-constructed, attractive. The use of dissonance marks it out as, say, slightly more advanced than that of a composer like Richard Arnell(at least the Arnell of pre-the 6th Symphony) but Still is no serialist. Perhaps the music lacks that last element of memorability that may distinguish it from that of greater figures but it certainly does not deserve its current neglect.
Once Albion has received delivery of the Lyrita cd I would expect to hear his comments on the symphonies
