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Another interesting release from Retrospect Opera is a new disc of three Dibdin pieces: The Jubilee (written for Garrick's Shakespeare Jubilee of 1769), Queen Mab (composed for the festivities in Stratford) and Ratchet Mead, much later, but also Shakespearean. As always, fine performance and recording quality as well as extremely informative notes. Dibdin really was a bit of a melodic genius and it's really good to hear such a substantial work here. I must confess to a slight bias, as I share a birthday with Garrick!

Thank you very much for that! Long awaited! I shall buy the CD as well, if I live that long, but am very happy to have this now.

[Moderator's note: This refers to BerlinExpat's post in the Downloads board].

For anyone interested, there is a new website dedicated to the works of Thomas Dunhill, which looks like a promising move forward for a composer who always seems to be the bridesmaid, never the blushing bride in terms of attention. It's on www.thomasdunhill.com

Recently listening to some Armstrong Gibbs, I noticed that he was from the toothpaste family as in Gibbs SR, which set me thinking: in addition to Gibbs, Beecham was the son of the creator of the chemists and Beecham's Powders, Dunhill was from a famous tobacco company of the same name, and Somervell was apparently the son of the founder of K Shoes. Does anyone know any other examples and can we expect Richard Branson to father a composer soon? I'm currently assuming that Lionel Sainsbury has no connection with the supermarket chain...

This is probably real musical geek territory, but is anyone interested in the notion that there is a 'tradition', perhaps continuous, of British music, based on teachers and pupils? I have played a game, trying to see how far back I can go, but I always get stuck on the 18th century. For example, Arthur Butterworth, who is still composing, studied under VW, who studied under Parry, who studied under Sterndale Bennett who studied under  Cipriani Potter, who studied under William Crotch and Thomas Attwood: but there it stops. I have managed to make similar connections earlier, for example Thomas Linley the Younger -Boyce -Maurice Greene -Jeremiah Clarke -Blow -Pelham Humfrey...
      Obviously, it varies tremendously how much influence a teacher has: Britten would not be thankful for being thought of as a disciple of Vaughan Williams, but it is still interesting to me to think that Butterworth has memories of Vaughan Williams, who perhaps told him anecdotes of Parry, etc. Can anyone make any longer connections?

Does anyone know of much that has been performed, or does anyone have any music of this composer? I know the 'Prospero' overture from Hyperion and the extract from 'Nordisa', but I would like to know more. He seems to be a lesser known Stanford. Pupils he taught at the RAM seem to include (please add more):

John McEwen (1868-1948)
Granville Bantock (1868-1946)
W.H. Reed (1875-1942)
Joseph Holbrooke (1878-1958)
Arnold Bax (1883-1953)
York Bowen (1884-1961)
Benjamin Dale (1885-1943)
Montague Phillips (1885-1969)
Eric Coates (1886-1957)
Alan Bush (1900-95)

He surely deserves some more exposure.

Does anyone know anything of this composer? I know he won the 1928 Schubert centenary prize for his 'Pax Vobiscum' (beating Holbrooke's lovely 4th Symphony), and he was mentioned in a concert in around 1911, but that's about it. 'Pax Vobiscum' was released on a Dutton Historical, and is a pleasant little piece.

I've been intrigued by Pearson since hearing the wonderful Hyperion 'Victorian Concert Ovetures', which included his 'Romeo and Juliet', two decades ago. At that time many of the composers represented on that disc were almost unheard elsewhere (Mackenzie, Macfarren, Corder and Pearson), but since then Macfarren and Mackenzie have seen some new recordings, but Pearson (and, for that matter Corder) has remained unheard, beyond a couple of songs. Does anyone know much more of this composer? It strikes me he was a radical at a time of conservatism (Macfarren, Loder), but has not quite been forgiven for going to Germany. Ripe for revival or best forgotten?