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It is now confirmed that CPO will record in January: The Grasshopper VC with Judith Ingolfsson; The Raven & The Variations on "Auld Lang Syne". The orchestra will be the Brandenburgisches Staatsorchester, under Howard Griffiths.
Although the 3rd Symphony "Ships" was under serious consideration, Howard was unhappy with the music, feeling (so I am told) that it was too much like Havergal Brian (a composer of whom he is not fond). This is a pity, but perhaps another company (like Dutton) could be persuaded to do it.
There is still talk of joining forces with a Berlin choir to set down Queen Mab and The Bells, but nothing concrete as yet.

Members might like to know that I have just heard from Ian Hobson that Vol. 4 of his Moscheles series will be released in February, containing PCs 7 & 8 (the latter with his own realisation of the orchestral part, of course) and the Sonata, Op. 41.

I had a look at the MS of Walford Davies' "Fantasy - Big Ben Looks On" at the RCM last Friday. It is a delightful piece and, since to my surprise and delight Peter Horton, the Librarian, told me they had a set of parts. I am hoping to programme it as part of the 2nd St Lazarus Concert which I am scheduling with the Orion Symphony Orchestra at the Cadogan Hall, London, for 31st October 2012. The other pieces are perhaps less exciting to readers of this forum - we have to get an audience (!) - but well worth attending the concert for: Parry - Symphonic Variations; Walton - Violin Concerto; Elgar - Enigma Variations. I hope some of you guys will be able to come.

Does any one know what has become of Lawrence Collingwood's MSS, please?

I have some very good news regarding this forgotten Derbyshire composer. I had thought that all the MS music of his which remained extant (and precious little was published) had been deposited in the Coke-Steel Archive in Chesterfield Library. While this contains much of interest (including complete scores and all parts for his opera "The Cenci") I was disappointed to find it contained the full score & parts of only one of his 3 symphonies (no. 2) and only one and a bit of his 6 piano concertos (No. 4 & the slow movt. of 5).
Now, having made contact at last with his nephew, John Christopher Sacheverell Darwin, the copyright holder and principal beneficiary of his will, there is a chance that some more of this music may appear. Mr Darwin told me that he has an extensive collection of his late uncle's music and will let me know what is in his possession. More exciting, he has agreed to lend me anything I would like to see. Oh joy, oh rapture unforeseen! (No prizes for guessing the quote.)

As readers of this forum will know, Valentina Seferinova is playing Dorothy Howell's Piano Concerto at London's Cadogan Hall, Sloane Terrace, with the Orion Symphony Orchestra under Toby Purser on November 11th. I hope any readers living in the metropolis or nearby will consider coming to this concert.
Here is a Youtube clip of Valya performing part of the PC before some of her students at South Downs College, with Director of Music, Peter Rhodes, playing the orchestral part (reduced for a second piano) on an upright.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZea9kiORuM

I have just learned that CPO have already recorded Jadassohn's 1st and 4th symphonies, and sessions to record 2 & 3 are scheduled for July 2011. However, we may have to wait a while for these disks to emerge as there is a possibility that they will now be issued altogether as a 2 CD set. So "modified rapture".

I have just been listening to a recording, taken off the air and sent to me on CD by Michael Freeman (a man with enormous knowledge of Holbrooke's music, who knew Josef's wife and was a great friend of the composer's eldest son, the late Gwydion Brooke), of a broadcast in the late 1980s of the Sextet for piano and winds, Op. 33a "Soul". This is one of the compser's most lyrical and delectable creations. As one would expect, the writing for winds (flute, oboe, clarinet, horn and bassoon) is extremely accomplshed and effective (Josef knew how to write for these instruments), as is the part for piano. It is a most moving and captivating work. The last movt. is Holbrooke at his music-hall best! It should go to the top of the list among Josef's chamber works for recording AS SOON AS POSSIBLE - together with the glorious Trio for violin, horn and piano in D minor, Op. 28, and the lovely Serenade, Op. 63 for harp, viola and 10 wind instruments (oboe, Bflat clarinet, basset horn, 2 flugel horns and 5 saxophones - soprano, alto, tenor, baritone & bass).

I know we have discussed Raff's Octet on this forum before, but I recently read this dissertation:

http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1006&context=musicstudent

and was astounded to find no mention of Raff at all - though Molbe and Thieriot get (very) brief references.

Tucked away in this year's Proms Programme is a concert by the Ulster Orchestra on Sunday 5th September in which is included the first public performance by a professional orchestra, for a very very long time, of Dorothy Howell's sumptuously beautiful tone poem "Lamia". So three cheers to Roger Wright for unearthing this masterpiece.

Her piano concerto will be given its first performance in about 70 years in a professional concert which I am organising at The Cadogan Hall on 11th November this year. Valentina Seferinova is the soloist. Please put the date in your diaries. Other delights of British music featured in the concert are: Holbrooke's Variations on "The Girl I Left Behind Me" and Lilian Elkington's wonderful "Out of the Mist". I hope some of you this side of the pond will be able to make it.

Volume 2 of Cameo Classics' survey of Holbrooke's music for solo piano will be available later this month. In this volume Panos Trochopoulos plays the remaining Rhapsodie Etudes (nos. 5-9), the remaining Nocturnes Op. 121 (Nos. 3 and 5-8), the Celtic Suite, the Concert Valse "Talsarnau" Op. 79 and the first two of the Four Futurist Dances, Op. 66.  This is a very good disk, recorded on an excellent instrument and Panos offers some astonishing playing.

I have just played my Hyperion CD of the Stenhammar PCs (RPC No. 49) - Seta Tanyel with the Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra under Andrew Manze - and I must report that it is superb in every way. These performances are outstanding. Seta Tanyel gives a most intelligent interpretation of both concertos and the orchestra plays like a dream. Excellent recording as well.

Mike tells me that the reason this series is going so slowly is that he is finding it much more difficult to persuade violinists to embrace "unsung" repertoire than pianists. On the whole, he says, they are pretty reluctant.
So, if we can find some top-notch violinists who are prepared to look beyond the normal concert fodder, we can perhaps help this series to blossom.

Somewhere on this forum (perhaps on the old site) I waxed vituperative about the refusal by the owners of the MS of Sterndale Bennett's 6th PC to allow anyone to see it, let alone perform it. I heard fairly recently - and I think it was here - that the MS was now in the Bodleian Library. I regret to say that their Music Librarian informs me this is not the case. It is still with the odious owners who continue, odiously, to refuse access to it. Poor Sterndale Bennett!

On a happier note I can report that Hyperion have scheduled recording sessions for this summer for Somervell's "Highland" concerto + the "Normandy" Variations + Cowen's Concertstuck. Following that, plans are afoot for the Pixis Grand Concerto Op. 100 + the Concertino + something else. The "something else" should have been the 2nd Grand Concerto by Carl Eduard Hartknoch, but we cannot find the orchestral parts (all we have is the solo piano part), so an unsung PC written around 1830 is needed, preferably by someone who wrote only one concerto (or has only one concerto extant).
Czerny is a possibility, or Aloys Schmitt. I also thought of Kuhlau, but at 1810, that's a bit early. Thalberg would do, but it's been recorded before, a few times. The Sterndale Bennett 6 would not have been out of place, but we can forget about that for the foreseeable future.
So - suggestions on a postcard please...

I spoke briefly to Mike Spring today. Forthcoming releases in the RPC series are:
Stenhammar (2) in the autumn; Taubert (2) + Rosenhain, spring 2010; then probably Joseph Wieniawski & Goetz No. 1. Pixis is still definitely on the cards. Under consideration is the 2nd PC of Carl Eduard Hartknoch (1830), but finding the orchestral parts might be a problem.
I'm sorry but we didn't get round to discussing the RVCs.

The CPO CD of orchestral music by Josef Holbrooke has now been released. It contains the early tone poems, The Viking and Ulalume + the late overture Amontillado (in effect, another tone poem based on E.A. Poe, a perennial source of inspiration for the composer) and the delicious orchestral variations on "Three Blind Mice", a tour de force of invention. The orchestra is the Brandurburgisches Staatsorchester, Frankfurt an der Oder, under Howard Griffiths, and they play superbly. The booklet notes by Franz Groborz are excellent. My only quibble is that one of the music examples is incorrectly printed: instead of the love theme from The Viking, which is what is being referred to, the printer has duplicated a theme referred to earlier from Amontillado! A pity. But it is marvellous to have these works available in good modern sound and splendidly committed performances.