British/Irish music about Russia/Slavs

[albion]

British opera is almost non existent. If you go to see an opera in England, it is very likely to be by a foreign composer.

Non sequitur.

[Jimfin]

I think one needs to make a distinction between 'British Opera' as in "the performance of opera in Britain" and "operas composed by Britons", and they are very different. The latter are terribly, terribly neglected, even among people who are interested in other British music. Look at how much of the output of composers like Stanford and Malcolm Arnold has been recorded, while barely a note of their operas is available commercially (but thank you BMRB for helping redress that). And someone like Rutland Boughton, who was 90% an opera composer: his complete symphonies are available, but only three operas. It's outrageous, even considering the high cost of producing operas. But then, even Verdi isn't exactly on the iPod of every teenager or person in the street, is he? There are plenty of magnificent scores waiting to be rediscovered, and I only hope I live long enough to hear some more of them or even watch them (since opera is supposed to be watched).

[albion]

I think one needs to make a distinction between 'British Opera' as in "the performance of opera in Britain" and "operas composed by Britons", and they are very different. The latter are terribly, terribly neglected, even among people who are interested in other British music.

Indeed, Britain has produced many fine composers whose operas could grace the stage and provide a vibrant national repertoire - Balfe, Benedict, Bliss, Boughton, Brian, Britten, Alan Bush, Delius, Hoddinott, Holbrooke, Holst, Lloyd, Loder, MacCunn, Macfarren, Mackenzie, Scott, Smyth, Stanford, Sullivan, Goring Thomas, Tippett, Vaughan Williams, Wallace, Walton ...

Unfortunately opera is a high-risk extravagantly-expensive business - in a crowded market they (apart from Britten and about half-a-dozen of Sullivan's lighter works) are clearly not perceived to be commercial propositions. Lacking the glamour of a foreign product, British opera (when it has been considered at all) has always been regarded as parochial, something for interested amateurs at best - it is, unfortunately, very difficult to envisage this situation changing to any great degree.

[Christopher]

Though again just as one looks for works inspired by Pushkin in the UK, one can look for works with Shakespeare or Ossian as inspiration or even librettist-at-one-remove for some examples- e.g. Tchaikovsky's... The Tempest (and the Storm also?...), 

Tchaikovsky's overture "The Storm" was based on a play of the same name by Russian playwright Alexander Ostrovsky.

[Jimfin]

I know, it is one of the great sadnesses of my life. The double tragedy is that whereas listening to a symphony on a recording is not too far from the experience of hearing it in a concert hall, listening to even a complete recording of an opera is never the same as seeing it on stage, live.

[Dundonnell]

British opera is almost non existent.

Not in the modern era, surely.

This is perhaps the stuff of a new thread, but...
I agree, and can only suppose it is a tongue-in-cheek comment. It's like calling England "a land without music"! From Purcell's Dido and Aeneas, then Handel, Arne and contemporaries, Sullivan, and into the 20th century, we do have more than a scattering of British operas. [I wonder if Colin will resist providing us with a comprehensive list?  ]

As to Russian themes in British music - and the paucity thereof - surely it's matched by a paucity of British themes in Russian music? I don't see Rimsky-Korsakov's Variations on a Cotswold Pastoral Theme, or Gliere's Ode to Lord Beaconsfield in their lists of works! 

Eh.......No (in response to your speculation ). I am not an opera buff

[eschiss1]

Re the Tchaikovsky example- thanks, sorry about that.
I should maybe add Stravinsky's last completed work, ''The Owl and the Pussy-Cat'', after a poem by Edward Lear.
Napravnik (Czech/Russian)'s Harold (opera op.45, 1886-ish Jurgenson 5-act vocal score in Russian and German @IMSLP), as previously noted.

[semloh]

/quote]

Yes, indeed - something else we have in common.

A propos Russian composers with British refrences, I did come across Shostakovich's  Six Romances on Verses by English Poets (1971), Op.140, and his Orchestration of Eight British and American Folk Songs (1943).

But as for Russian allusions in British music - the only things I can come up with, in addition to those already mentioned, are Richard Rodney Bennett's score for the film Nicholas and Alexandra   , and his Kandinsky Variations for 2 pianos! 

There's a short overview of the Russian elements in classical music outside Russia at:
http://english.ruvr.ru/radio_broadcast/2248383/2315590.html

[vandermolen]

Kabalevsky also wrote a work based on Romeo and Juliet I think.

[TerraEpon]

Incidental music for the play.

[eschiss1]

Maybe mentioned already, but I'm going to include certain dances (plural?) - specifically, écossaises - from Eugene Onegin - by Tchaikovsky in this category. (Russian music that touches - if lightly - on Britain; rather like a British composer using a Mazurka - which also happens. Or is too broad for this category/subject? ...   Ah, guessing so. Ah well.)

[Christopher]

Does anyone know anything about the British composer Albert Coates (no relation to Eric)?  A few of his pieces have featured in Albion's collection.  The reason I am raising him here in this stream is that, having read a little about his background on wikipedia, it would be reasonable to speculate that the Russian influence on his music might be significant. It would be good to see if he dedicated any of his works specifically to Russian themes.  As readers of my posts may have gathered, I am a particular fan of Russian music and so am intrigued to find out more about this (possibly) Anglo-Russian composer.  He was also a prolific conductor, which makes searching for recordings of his music difficult as most of the stuff which comes up consists of music conducted by him rather than written by him.  The wikipedia entry reads as follows:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Coates_(musician)

Albert Coates (23 April 1882 –11 December 1953) was an English conductor and composer. Born in Saint Petersburg where his English father was a successful businessman, he studied in Russia, England and Germany, before beginning his career as a conductor in a series of German opera houses. He was a success in England at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and in 1919 was appointed chief conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra.

His strengths as a conductor lay in opera and the Russian repertoire, and he was not thought as impressive in the core Austro-German symphonic repertoire. ... As a composer, Coates is little remembered, but he composed seven operas, one of which was performed at Covent Garden. He also wrote some concert works for orchestral forces.

Coates was born in Saint Petersburg, the youngest of seven sons of a Yorkshire father, Charles Thomas Coates, who managed the Russian branch of an English company, and Mary Ann Gibson, who was born and raised in Russia to British parents. He learned the violin, cello and piano as a child in Russia. From 12, he was raised in England...

He made his London début in May 1910, conducting the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) in a programme consisting of a symphony by Maximilian Steinberg, Tchaikovsky's First Piano Concerto and Beethoven's Seventh Symphony. The Times judged him "sound and artistic", though "not particularly inspiring to watch." In the same year he was invited by Eduard Nápravník to conduct at Saint Petersburg's Mariinsky Theatre.

Coates's conducting of Siegfried at the Mariinsky led to his appointment as principal conductor of the Russian Imperial Opera, a post he held for five years, during which he became associated with leading Russian musicians, including Alexander Scriabin, for whose music he became a strong advocate....

The Russian Revolution in 1917 did not at first adversely affect Coates. The Soviet government appointed him "President of all Opera Houses in Soviet Russia", based in Moscow. By 1919, however, living conditions in Russia had become desperate. Coates became seriously ill, and with considerable difficulty left Russia with his family by way of Finland in April 1919....

CompositionsIn its obituary of Coates, The Times wrote that his compositions "fell between the two stools of national character and international sympathy, with a resulting ambiguity of achievement." The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians describes them as "technically proficient rather than imaginative". His works include the operas Samuel Pepys and Pickwick; the former was given in German in Munich in 1929, and the latter in English at Covent Garden in 1936. His five other operas included The Myth Beautiful (1920). His concert works included a piano concerto and a symphonic poem The Eagle, dedicated to the memory of his former teacher Nikisch, which was performed in Leeds in 1925.

[Jimfin]

I remember that Coates conducted the concert at which Elgar's Cello Concerto was premiered (apart from the concerto itself) and kept Elgar waiting two hours, as he was rehearsing Borodin's 2nd Symphony: apparently he was a big champion of Borodin (so some sort of Russian link there)

[Christopher]

Just found this on wikipedia:

Darnton, Philip Christian (30 October 1905 – 14 April 1981) composed the overture Stalingrad during World War II. 

Darnton was born in Leeds as Philip Christian von Schunck (or Schunk). His paternal grandfather, born in Leipzig but who later settled in Britain, was part of an old German family that had, since 1715, held a Barony in the Holy Roman Empire. This grandfather, Edward, married Kate Lupton, born into the progressive and political Lupton family....

Darnton had joined the Communist Party of Great Britain in 1941.[6] His Communist views may have later hurt his popularity and led to his becoming relatively obscure. He also criticized the term "English Musical Renaissance", feeling England produced no "composer of international consequence" in that period.

[Alan Howe]

Just a reminder: this thread must now be confined to music that falls within our revised remit.