Charles Villiers Stanford

[JimL]

Wonderful news!  But didn't the liner notes for the recent Hyperion RCC release hint that there was a certain orchestral effect in the VC 2 that he also used in one of the cello works, which, to me at least, indicated that someone had possession of, or at least knowledge of the full score of VC 2?

[Alan Howe]

This is indeed great news. Perhaps Rupert Marshall-Luck will be recording the piece subsequent to this first performance...?

Anyway, here's a link to details of the concert:
http://www.thestanfordsociety.org/event2012.aspx

[albion]

Perhaps Rupert Marshall-Luck will be recording the piece subsequent to this first performance...?

It would be a prime candidate for his wife's EM record label.

[Alan Howe]

EM(-L)'s EM label, eh?

[albion]

EM = Em = Em Marshall = English Music [Festival], or Irish in this case ...

[Alan Howe]

Quite so...

[Mark Thomas]

Well, Jeremy Dibble is the Stanford expert, so it bodes very well. Great news.

[albion]

Yes, Stanford's non-church settings of the Latin liturgy are a lovely thing, the Requiem, the Stabat and that op. 66 Te Deum. He also set the Latin mass, I believe, which I suppose would have been in a similar vein

Stanford appears to have produced at least five settings of the Latin mass, only two of which are extant -

1892 - Mass in G, for soli, chorus and orchestra, Op.46 (Brompton Oratory, London, 26th May 1893)
c.1919 - Mass in D minor, for unaccompanied chorus, Op.169 (unperformed and lost)
1919 - Mass Via Victrix 1914-1918, for soli, chorus and orchestra, Op.173 (only partially performed)
1920 - Mass for 8 voices unaccompanied (Westminster Cathedral, London, 4th April 1920) (lost)
c.1920 - Mass, for unaccompanied chorus, Op. 176 (unperformed and lost)

[Jimfin]

Thank you. Something for Chandos to chew on, perhaps? Though I'm even keener to hear the operas, especially after the tantalising extracts available on UC.

[albion]

A further trawl through the fruits of research generously made available by Durham University has brought this to light - http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/2542/.

This is an agglomeration of contemporaneous press commentary on Stanford's choral works - as such the remit is narrow but it is very useful to have reviews gathered in one source. Still a woefully unexplored area of Stanford's output, there is much here to stimulate interest.

It is wonderful that these resources are being made generally available - would that other universities followed suit.

[JeremyMHolmes]

Stanford appears to have produced at least five settings of the Latin mass, only two of which are extant -

1892 - Mass in G, for soli, chorus and orchestra, Op.46 (Brompton Oratory, London, 26th May 1893)
c.1919 - Mass in D minor, for unaccompanied chorus, Op.169 (unperformed and lost)
1919 - Mass Via Victrix 1914-1918, for soli, chorus and orchestra, Op.173 (only partially performed)
1920 - Mass for 8 voices unaccompanied (Westminster Cathedral, London, 4th April 1920) (lost)
c.1920 - Mass, for unaccompanied chorus, Op. 176 (unperformed and lost)

I am not sure if this has been posted elsewhere yet on this site (and apologies if so) but I came across news of an interesting Stanford premiere coming up this October:

http://seenandheard-international.com/2018/07/a-major-work-by-stanford-to-be-premiered-99-years-late/

[Mark Thomas]

Thanks for this, what a fascinating prospect! Fingers crossed for a recording, or a broadcast at least.

[eschiss1]

The BBC website already does have what seems to be a list of performers and placeholder for the eventual broadcast of the October 27 performance... so I'd say the latter's fairly likely

(The rest of the program seems thematically appropriate- Frederick Kelly's Elegy for Strings, and Ravel's Tombeau de Couperin.)

[semloh]

Oh, yes, thank you Savoir_Faire. It's heartening to hear that a neglected work - especially one by Stanford - has been 'resurrected'. Fingers crossed that a recording is on the cards, and - if not - that someone will take on off-air recording.

[Mark Thomas]

Thanks, Eric, but the BBC bookmark is for the concert itself (because it's a BBC orchestra at a BBC venue), and not necessarily for a broadcast, so my fingers remain crossed.