Messages

Yes, I fully agree. All I know is the Marco Polo disc, which includes the 3rd Symphony, but we really do need more... How often we say this!

I must say that I get a bit frustrated when I see the most obscure, run-of-the-mill early European baroque composers getting significant CD coverage when there are so many undeservedly Unsung Composers. I suppose it's just easier and cheaper to produce CDs of Tortellini's Op.5, Op.6, Op.12 sets of Trio Sonatas (!) than a CD of a Cowen Symphony!

Indeed. I did search for evidence that ABC was broadcasting it but no sign during November. Maybe it'll be broadcast later  - I'll certainly keep an eye open for it, and get a recording if I possibly can. 

This is a retirement project for Jan Cosgrove, formerly dedicated National Secretary of 'Fair Play for Children', a voluntary organization founded in 1972 by the wonderful Trevor Huddleston, lobbying for safe play areas for children. Maybe the garish website reflects Jan's years of trying to see things through children's eyes.

Yes, Mike, my Internet Explorer doesn't work with the new Rapidshare, it just sits there, unresponsive. Google Chrome works most of the time, but sometimes, instead of downloading, I get a page saying "This webpage is not available". All a mystery to me. 

One small correction to my post - the performances aren't confined to the UK, as I see they are including the Cello Concerto being performed in Brisabane by the Queensland SO next month at their Aussie version of "The Last Night of the Proms"! (http://www.qso.com.au/the-last-night-of-the-proms) 

The performances of Iernin are over the next few evenings, in Croydon and Penzance, by Surrey Opera (http://www.georgelloyd.com/index.php/component/gcalendar/event/4/j923e42rvb3uin2lpa6vgpnvjs?Itemid=298)

These lists lend support to my earlier observation - casual as it was, and despite some obvious exceptions (Dvorak etc) - that purely orchestral variations are largely a 20thC form. I can only guess which ones are romantic in style.

For 2013? They'd better hurry...

Well, I suppose the webpage was written some time ago, Eric. Maybe I should have said "were scheduled".

Thank you, Mark and Alan, for those detailed descriptions. There are so many I want, but maybe there will just be room in Santa's sack to add this one! (it is only 8 weeks away - and a good excuse to make a dent in the wants list!) 

...... The 1916 Rosa Mystica Viola Concerto (a lovely work!) performed by Roger Chase, BBC Concert Orchestra / Stephen Bell, which came out on Dutton c/w the Stanley Bate Va Concerto.

Totally agree, Peter - what a marvellous disc this is, and the Rosa Mystica was a revelation for me. It left me saying "Who was this man? Why don't we know his music?"  The list with which Giles initiated he thread is quite amazing... yet another possible treasure trove by an Unsung Composer!

I have really enjoyed this discussion regarding the reasons for the symphony's neglect.

Since the response of audiences and critics when it was performed in the early years seems to rule out a perception that it was simply not that good, my own tentative explanation is that it arrived on the musical scene just as tastes changed, and the music world was pursuing new forms; and, it was overshadowed by Bloch's subsequent works because they were more in tune with the interwar zeitgeist, they were also shorter and more amenable to being added to a concert programme and put on a 78!

The third factor - Bloch's Jewishness and his explicit musical attachment to Jewish traditions - reportedly played a part in the unwillingness of authorities in France and Germany to perform the work during the inter-war years, but it doesn't seem to have been so strong as to affect the popularity of subsequent works during that period.

Anyhoo - all that aside, I love its shades of Bruckner, Mahler, and Strauss, as noted, and I reckon it's a very fine work!

Look here for the recording.
http://www.gmrecordings.com/gm2027.htm
There is a score available at IMSLP.

Thanks for that. Gosh, there's a lot of unusual music in the GM catalogue. I need to win the lottery! 

Yes, if only the others had someone like JoAnn Falletta! She was surely an inspired choice (http://www.joannfalletta.com/biography.html)

Yes, indeed. Better late than never! In any case, my funds are already promised to so many of the new CDs mentioned on UC. Santa's sack will be overflowing as it is! 

I wasn't thinking of a commercial recording, Peter, just one that might end up as a podcast or a download - on the George Lloyd website for example. As to the Albany recordings, the use of British performers illustrates a point I was making in the thread about the plight of US orchestras - namely that they (and American composers) are often passed over in their own country in favour of Europeans.

We should not forget, however, that interest in Lloyd's music is entirely a British phenomenon, notably through the efforts of John Ogdon, Richard Itter at Lyrita, the BBC and not least Edward Downes. A broadcast of the 8th set the ball rolling. Lloyd himself eventually made some 40 recordings. According to the GL webwsite, some 30 performances of his music are scheduled (in the UK alone I think) for 2013 - his centenary year - including at least five performances of Iernin. So, there is certainly no longer any neglect of Lloyd's music in Britain, the Albany contract notwithstanding. 

...(or should I say Czern?) out as many symphonies as he wanted. .....

Nice one, John!