John Foulds (1880-1939)

[Albion]

As with the Brabbins performance of Havergal Brian's Gothic Symphony, I was lucky enough to attend the Armistice Day 2007 performance of John Foulds' A World Requiem (1918-21) at the Royal Albert Hall. Listening to it again this evening I have been struck by just how original and engaging a composer Foulds was. With his Cello Concerto due for commercial release from Dutton shortly (probably coupled with Lionel Sainsbury's Concerto), a thread on this composer might be useful for members who have not yet explored his music on disc.

Foulds (like Brian) was essentially a maverick who went his own way, owed no allegiance to any 'school' and wrote in a personal idiom which often perplexed his contemporaries. From his experiments with quarter-tones (as early as 1910) to his attempted synthesis of Western and Eastern music (whilst in India in the 1930s) there is much that is intriguing, mysterious and ultimately very rewarding in his music. We are fortunate that there is now a fine cross-section available on disc -



Chandos CHSA5058, Lyrita SRCD211, Lyrita SRCD.212



Warner 2564629992, Warner 2564615252



Dutton CDLX7252, Dutton CDLX7260

[Tapiola]

Also the BIS piano music CD and the Pearl recording of two quartets. Both available on Amazon. BTW this is great music in the best meaning of "great". Either powerful and passionate and/or delightfully melodic. Dynamic Triptych and the Mantras are "masterpieces"equal to any composer, anywhere. The Cello Concerto is absolutely a treasure. Most will find it unbelievable that every cellist hasn't taken it up!. The two other Dutton releases are very, very enjoyable "light music" by a master composer. No one should hesitate if you love Bax, Moeran, Elgar, etc.

[Albion]

One thing that comes through, especially from the two Dutton discs (a third is a potential prospect), is just how many 'hats' Foulds could wear when writing music for the 'popular' market. Eclectic yes, but always with something (melodic, harmonic or instrumental) that strikes off down an idiosyncratic path - much of this is the best quality 'light music' that you will ever hear - Strophes from an Antique Song and the Florida Spiritual (both on Dutton Volume 2), for example, are quite achingly beautiful.

 

[Jimfin]

So sad that a lot of his late music seems to have vanished in the tropical damp of India. One still hopes for a surprise rediscovery of it all, much as one hopes for Sullivan's 'Sapphire Necklace' or Brian's 'Prometheus Unbound' to resurface...

[Dundonnell]

Foulds of course is another composer Malcolm MacDonald has championed for years. I have his book on the composer. Is it still in print I wonder

Lucky Foulds indeed that now virtually all of his extant orchestral music is on disc

I do agree about the 'Florida Spiritual'....gorgeous

[Albion]

virtually all of his extant orchestral music is on disc

... and in excellent performances. It is also well worth seeking out two other works, the Pasquinade Symphonique No.1 [No.2 is on Lyrita SRCD212] and the colourful Suite derived from incidental music to Shaw's Saint Joan (1924). Recorded in 1981 by the Luxembourg Radio SO under Leopold Hager, and originally released by Forlane, these are now easily available to download -

http://www.amazon.co.uk/John-Foulds-Saint-Joan-Suite/dp/B001V7CVJ4/ref=sr_shvl_album_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1326890310&sr=301-1

It is probably too much to hope for a recording of the large-scale concert opera The Vision of Dante, Op.7 but perhaps there could be a chance on disc for

Epithalamium, Tone Poem, Op.10
Chinese Suite, Op.95

 

[Dundonnell]

Music Pictures III, op.33 is on the Warner Classics disc of music by Foulds(City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra/Sakari Oramo).

There is however also a Puppet Ballet Suite from 1934 which remains unrecorded.

Foulds really has been very well-served in recent years by the record companies.

[Dundonnell]

I too am guessing-probably correctly - that the Foulds Cello Concerto is being released in a coupling with the Lionel Sainsbury Cello Concerto.

Hmmmm

Sainsbury's Violin Concerto, previously issued by Dutton, did not make any lasting impression on me.......................but maybe that was my fault for not listening hard enough

I was going to add that finding an appropriate unrecorded British cello concerto with which to couple the Foulds may have been difficult and the Sainsbury might have seemed a suitable choice rather than one of the unrecorded concertos by better known composers.....except that having just listened to the Thomas Dunhill Symphony and then heard that running into Richard Arnell's "Lord Byron" is certainly a contrast in idioms

[Albion]

Music Pictures III, op.33 is on the Warner Classics disc of music by Foulds(City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra/Sakari Oramo).

Of course it is! I have the disc!! Brain malfunction occurred!!!

 

Item removed from previous post.

 

Thanks, Colin - the list of unrecorded Foulds orchestral music just got that little bit shorter.

 

[Jimfin]

@Dundonnell: yes, few British cello concertos seem to be unrecorded now, largely thanks to Rafael Wallfisch. Of course, if Dutton could do something with the Vaughan Williams unfinished one, like they did with the Moeran 2 symphony...

[Tapiola]

You are right. It looks like Sainsbury and Foulds will be coupled.

[Dundonnell]

@Dundonnell: yes, few British cello concertos seem to be unrecorded now, largely thanks to Rafael Wallfisch. Of course, if Dutton could do something with the Vaughan Williams unfinished one, like they did with the Moeran 2 symphony...

We have been down this road before 

http://www.unsungcomposers.com/forum/index.php/topic,1631.0.html

I have enormous admiration for Wallfisch as a cellist and as someone who has recorded so much British cello music but I continue to find it strange that he should not have committed the Robert Simpson Cello Concerto to disc. He commissioned the work from Simpson and gave it its first performance in 1991.

With the Foulds release imminent I would suggest that the Lennox Berkeley, the Arnold Cooke and the Daniel Jones concertos are the ones crying out the most for a first recording.

[alberto]

About thirty years ago I bought in Paris, as a very cheap bargain, the Three Lps Forlane "Masters of rhe English Renaissance",
dedicated to Parry, Brian and Foulds : Foulds was the only one by whom I had heard nothing.
Much later I bought the two Warner Cds by Oramo, and a Marriner anthology comprising again April-England.
In the Forlane booklet I read that the thirteen years old Foulds ran away from home (but not in order to know an old Austrian composer) and that in the '90s he "met" Anton Bruckner in Wien at the rehearsals of the Seventh Symphony of the latter.
Therefore Foulds was not older than sixteen. I suppose some of you know more about that apparently odd meeting.

[calico]

There's also a BMS recording of Foulds' Cello Sonata (1905, revised 1927) coupled with sonatas by York Bowen & Ernest Walker:

http://www.britishmusicsociety.com/audio/13_english_cello/recordings_13.html

Foulds comments, in his own programme notes, that the second movement includes "this composer's earliest use of quarter-tones".

[semloh]

Foulds of course is another composer Malcolm MacDonald has championed for years. I have his book on the composer. Is it still in print I wonder

There are two books:

MacDonald, Malcolm (1989). John Foulds and his music : an introduction ; with a catalog of the composer's works and a brief miscellany of his writings. White Plains, New York: Pro/Am Music Resources. ISBN 0-912483-02-4.

and

MacDonald, Malcolm (1975). John Foulds : his life in music : with a detailed catalogue of his works, a discography, a bibliographical note, and with music examples and illustrations. Rickmansworth: Triad Press. ISBN 0-902070-15-0.

Details of availability at:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=John+Foulds+and+his+Music&x=13&y=19