Dutton have released a CD containing inter alia the Symphony No.4 and the Cello Concerto...
http://www.duttonvocalion.co.uk/proddetail.asp?prod=CDLX7251&cat=385 (http://www.duttonvocalion.co.uk/proddetail.asp?prod=CDLX7251&cat=385)
Thanks,Alan.I'm ordering the cd from the Dutton website right now!
This is great news! Do we have you to thank, Gareth?
The new John Foulds CD from the same company should also be mentioned. Earlier on this forum Gareth Vaughan wrote about some upcoming releases of Foulds' orchestral music, and here's the first:
http://www.duttonvocalion.co.uk/proddetail.asp?prod=CDLX7252&cat=385 (http://www.duttonvocalion.co.uk/proddetail.asp?prod=CDLX7252&cat=385)
Morten
Also,the cd of Oboe Concerto's too,particularly for the Cyril Scott. I recently bought the Naxos cd of his Violin Sonata's. I think he was at his best when he was composing chamber & instrumental music. In fact the Chandos cd of Scott's chamber music is the one I have played more than any other cd's of this composer. Lovely music.
By the way,does anyone know the current situation regarding his Harpsichord Concerto?
Also in this wave of releases from Dutton, don't miss the new Arthur Butterworth CD of his 5th Symphony and other shorter pieces. I do hope Dutton will manage to do they same for his symphonic cycle as they did for Arnell. I heard this piece premiered a few years ago in Studio 7 Manchester and loved it.
I've also just ordered the Holbrooke and Foulds discs from Dutton: many thanks to Gareth for his outstanding practical contributions to the Holbrooke cause!
One problem - this means yet more music to squeeze into the listening schedule, and just as I was getting to grips with Hamerik, Langgaard, Raff, Rufinatscha ...
I can't take any direct credit for Dutton's enterprising new release of Holbrooke orchestral music. Peter Shore is the man behind this mouth-watering disk. But I did discuss the repertoire with conductor George Vass and helped to obtain some orchestral parts.
Thank you Peter Shore AND Gareth. I am really looking forward to it.
Is there a key for that cello concerto? Or does he engage in progressive tonality?
Quote from: JimL on Monday 12 July 2010, 23:47
Is there a key for that cello concerto? Or does he engage in progressive tonality?
According to http://www.musicweb-international.com/holbrooke/index.htm (http://www.musicweb-international.com/holbrooke/index.htm), if it's the 1936, E-flat, with the nickname "The Cambrian".
Eric
It's the Cambrian. E-flat, eh? Good key for a cello concerto. May pick this one up.
Quote from: JimL on Tuesday 13 July 2010, 04:50
It's the Cambrian. E-flat, eh? Good key for a cello concerto. May pick this one up.
... for a moment I thought I'd misspelled it badly. Or something.
Cello concertos in E-flat...hrm...
Shostakovich 1.
Brian's. (which was the first to come to my mind. A weird piece. I like it quite a bit, though.)
Several by Vivaldi and Boccherini, I think.
Shosty 1 was the one in particular I had in mind. Can you think of any 19th Century CCs in that key?
Let's try to stay on topic, please. No lists of E flat Cello Concertos, please!!
I wonder if there is anything specifically Welsh about the Concerto,beyond the subtitle? Does Holbrooke use any Welsh songs or tunes? Is it just inspired by Wales? Did Holbrooke actually write it IN Wales? Come to think of it,did he ever visit the country after,c.1920? Of course I'll find out soon,won't I?
According to the very helpful people at Dutton, the wonderful new July releases (Holbrooke, Foulds, etc) are expected shortly from the factory and should be available some time towards the middle/ end of next week. I can hardly wait!
As the rain drizzles from grey clouds, a thud is heard on the doormat - Foulds and Holbrooke direct from the wonderful people at Dutton. Professional performances of a concerto, an orchestral fantasy and a symphony by Holbrooke - what a great day in prospect! ;D
And here too. No doormat,though. (Must get a new one!). Still think I'm dreaming this...a cd of Joseph Holbrooke in professional performances? I shall have to avoid pinching myself,just in case!
So far,very, favourable impressions. As i have always felt the 'Cockney Wagner' label was just a cheap jibe; Holbrooke's influences are wide. I particularly liked Rob Barnett's comparison of parts of the slow movement of the Cello Concerto to the sound world of Bernard Herrmann.
...and I don't mean 'Psycho'!
What a wonderful disc - and a great appendix to CPO's excellent initial foray which concentrated on Holbrooke's early period. The composer's middle- and late-period style is even more elusive and quixotic, and repeated listening is essential.
The performances are first-rate, as is the recorded sound - incidentally, there is a fantastic 'match' between two different orchestras in two different venues, no mean feat. Some first impressions: The Pit and the Pendulum is a riot for the orchestra - a piece clearly from the same stable as Amontillado (CPO), it does ramble somewhat but Holbrooke's orchestral wizardry holds the attention. The Cello Concerto is a very substantial piece (beautifully played by Wallfisch) with many characteristically abrupt changes of mood and colour - in the booklet notes it is curious that Rob Barnett does not mention that the slow movement is built upon David of the White Rock.
The Symphony is fascinating - I thought during the first movement that I had switched discs subconsciously and was listening to Marriner and the ASMF in Brian Newbould's realisation of Schubert's 8th! This is a truly bizarre composition, but one which will bring a wry smile to Holbrooke's many fans. The remainder of the Symphony is more like the composer we know and love - wonderful woodwind (especially flute) solos in the middle movement and a return to the Schubert theme harmonically transformed right at the end of the work.
Pandora is well-crafted light music, nothing more and nothing less - but sumptuously orchestrated and performed without condescension. A truly great addition to Holbrooke's growing representation in the catalogue, with George Vass drawing superb performances from both orchestras.
'Dafydd Y Garreg Wen'. And there I was,(before receiving the cd),wondering whether there was anything specifically Welsh about the Concerto,beyond Holbrooke's more obvous connections with Wales. This is what happens when you cook,pack shopping away & do the laundry,while evaluating a new cd of unfamiliar music! And I'm a Dafydd,myself! But not,I should point out,of the White Rock.
I like 'Pandora',actually. Parts of it make me think that Holbrooke would have made a rather good Movie composer,(very Hollywood). He might even have made a few bob,although,probably not much. Just enough to keep the old wolf from the door.
Incidentally,does anyone here know whether Holbrooke was ever offered an opportunity to compose for films? Or,whether it would have been possible for him to do so,if he had wanted to. I suspect Holbrooke may have thought that kind of work a little beneath him.
Mozart's 'Requiem' now with Grace Bumbry!! More Holbrooke later....
Yes, this is a thoroughly worthwhile disc - a substantial and highly enjoyable late, late-Romantic cello concerto in particular. And this time Dutton have used full-sized orchestras (RSNO, RLPO) instead of the under-strength BBC Concert Orchestra.
Quote from: Alan Howe on Monday 26 July 2010, 19:24
the under-strength BBC Concert Orchestra.
What they may lack in numbers, they certainly make up for in commitment, expertise and sheer panache, as evidenced in their many truly outstanding Dutton discs of Edward German, Richard Arnell, Montague Phillips, Vaughan Williams, Parry, York Bowen, etc., not to mention the excellent new John Foulds recording!
But the problem is obvious: they simply don't have sufficient weight of tone for the late-Romantic repertoire. Dutton should have used the RSNO or RLPO.
I am really pleased that so many people on these forums are now discovering the joys of Holbrooke's music. When well-played and recorded, with commitment and understanding I think he emerges as a composer with a thoroughly individual voice - not quite in the front rank, but utterly unworthy of the dismissive remarks made about his music for decades by ignorant persons, most of whom had not even bothered to look at the scores of the works about which they were content to be so pejorative.
I have no doubt the CD of the Violin Concerto, to be recorded by CPO this autumn, will be equally enjoyable.
Quote from: Gareth Vaughan on Monday 26 July 2010, 22:59
I have no doubt the CD of the Violin Concerto, to be recorded by CPO this autumn, will be equally enjoyable.
What a truly fantastic prospect, hopefully coupled with the 3rd Symphony.
Quote from: Alan Howe on Monday 26 July 2010, 22:13
Dutton should have used the RSNO or RLPO.
No doubt any shortfall in the requisite funding for recordings by these major orchestras, taking into account their busy seasonal concert schedules (and assuming that they are falling over each other to play such sure-fire repertoire), could be readily supplied by members of the forum. ;)
Indeed a composer with a great degree of individuality. I enjoyed every single work on the cd. I can't think of one moment I was 'drumming my meaphorical fingers',and thinking,'Oh god,how long is this going to drag on?' Indeed,quite the opposite. I was fed up when the cd came to an end. Also,despite his adherence to 19th century,early 20th century late romantic sensibilties,there is allot of variety in his music. In fact,I find the scope of his music wider than that of Granville Bantock,fine composer that he was. Furthermore,unlike Bantock,Holbrooke's later music appears to have moved away from that of some of his 19th c models,towards a leaner and more refined sound world,closer to some of the French masters than composers like Wagner or Strauss,who neglected romantics like Holbrooke,are usually saddled with.
Having said that; regarding one of my previous posts. I was actually referring to the slow movement of the fourth symphony,not 'Pandora'. (Like I said,I was very busy,at the time!)This, gorgeously orchestrated movement, so good,I'm sure it could be enjoyed on it's own,actually made me think of Korngold,another severely underated,but better known composer,whose music has also suffered,over the years, from the same cruel,ignorant jibes.
The slow movt. of the 4th is an absolute gem. And you are right about the later works - after the opera "Bronwen" Holbrooke seems to have moved towards a more neo-classical style of writing - albeit that would not describe Pit and the Pendulum, but that piece derives much of its material from an earlier composition: the Ballet-Opera "The Wizard" Op. 65.
I was going to say,'neo-classical',myself! But I was too cautious. But,it is as if Holbrooke is paring everything down,albeit,not to the extent that Stravinsky did & certainly not for the same reasons. As to my reference to French composers, I was referring to the refined quality of the music,not that he actually sounds like Ravel or Debussy,(for example). Yet,I do find an impressionistic quality to some of his best music,and occasionally an astringency,which I don't find in any of the composers that Holbrooke seems to have been packaged with. In one curious example,the 'Prelude to Dylan', Some of the music,especially in the stormy bits,actually makes me think of late Sibelius!
Your remarks are very percipient, Pengelli. That slight astringency is a Holbrooke characteristic, and it is unlike the style of his contemporaries. Sibelius appears in parts of "Bronwen" too - but in the end Holbrooke is his own man.
Quite!
In view of the dearth of information on Holbrooke, I was trawling the web and came across an article written by David Wright. Very much a character assassination, laden with inaccuracies, would anybody like to comment on the author's assertions, particularly regarding the 'subtext' of Apollo and the Seaman?
http://www.wrightmusic.net/pdfs/joseph-holbrooke.pdf
(http://www.wrightmusic.net/pdfs/joseph-holbrooke.pdf)
We really do need a balanced assessment of Holbrooke, both as a man and as a musician - together with an attempt at an accurate and complete work-list!
Here is the author's website: http://www.wrightmusic.net/ (http://www.wrightmusic.net/)
David Wright is a distinguished musicologist but he has a "thing" about Holbrooke and, as you point out, the aggressive (and rather prudish) tone of his article, together with the numerous inaccuracies, undermine any claim it might have to be taken seriously. Perhaps it is not meant to be, as its style is reminiscent of some of Josef's own rants - perhaps deliberately so!
However, David is an authority on, and champion of, the music of Ruth Gipps and William Wordsworth, among others.
His other articles are quite interesting.
Yes - he doesn't think much of Schubert either!
Another eccentric? I was reading the other day how Glenn Gould thought Mozart was a lousy composer. Another critic on Musicweb thinks Gliere and Myaskovsky are better symphonists than Tchaikovsky,Shostakovich and Prokofiev. Another time I read a review in one cd review magazine saying a cd of Richard Strauss's 'Alpine Symphony' was so muddy,you couldn't tell one instrument the other,another magazine extolled the incredible clarity of the recording. And then there's David Hurwitz who has rubbished Jaqueline du Pre! Critics,eh?
(Incidentally,I like Glenn Gould AND Mozart!) I shall read more of his articles later. I notice he praises the underated Novak,and has articles about some Welsh composers. There's allot there. I must read the one about Schubert.
Correction: 'one from the other'. My typing!
Regarding Schubert. I was listening to two of Schubert's early symphonies,last night,which often tend to be dismissed as derivative & inconsequential. I was thinking how delightful & enjoyable they were.
Quote from: Gareth Vaughan on Saturday 31 July 2010, 10:28
David Wright is a distinguished musicologist
The more I read from the website, the more I suspect unbridled leg-pulling. In the list of Wright's own compositions, eye-catching titles include
An unexpected glimpse of lemon for two clarinets and horn, Op.39,
On seeing Lucy Owen read the news for oboe, Op.56 and
The Forsaken Brownie for string quartet, Op.71.
The scholarship of the articles is so suspect, the writing style is so inept, and the opinions are so perverse that irony appears to be the intent.
Quote from: Gareth Vaughan on Saturday 31 July 2010, 15:42
Yes - he doesn't think much of Schubert either!
Sorry for the off topic remark, but reading that article, I can come to no other conclusion that Wright is pulling the reader's leg. He probably took a couple of famous remarks and writings about Schubert, and rewrote them to give them the exact opposite meaning. Apart from the many inaccuracies and historical untruths, he makes such outrageous comments, that anyone with even the slightest interest in this composer knows it's some kind of hoax. The fact that it takes him 7 pages, I think can only have to do with how much the funny man admires the composer.
In any case, I reckon the article is a good lesson for all musicologists in training on how NOT to write scientifically... ;D
Wright sounds like a prudish homophobe and a snob to me. I think I know who died and appointed him God, but said person was unqualified to do so! 8)
Quote from: Albion on Sunday 01 August 2010, 07:38
Quote from: Gareth Vaughan on Saturday 31 July 2010, 10:28
David Wright is a distinguished musicologist
The more I read from the website, the more I suspect unbridled leg-pulling. In the list of Wright's own compositions, eye-catching titles include An unexpected glimpse of lemon for two clarinets and horn, Op.39, On seeing Lucy Owen read the news for oboe, Op.56 and The Forsaken Brownie for string quartet, Op.71.
The scholarship of the articles is so suspect, the writing style is so inept, and the opinions are so perverse that irony appears to be the intent.
There is also a The Forsaken Brownie by Alec Rowley. I do feel dubious about Unexpected Glimpse of Lemon since it's one of those odd ducks with exactly two google hits; this suggests no performances, no rental distribution, no nuttin', unless I'm fairly well mistaken. Even a friend with only one work performed had google works on that one work... But titles like
On seeing Lucy Owen read the news aren't that unusual in works by Weir and the Matthews brothers among others, if memory serves (or some composers in modern British music-- I may be thinking of the wrong examples... not
that entirely unusual though. Especially now that I know, which I didn't, that Lucy Owen is a newsreader/whatever the term is for, I assume, BBC.)
Eric
I have seldom read a more badly written and poorly argued article than Wright's on Holbrooke. It's generous of you, Kriton, to think that it's written tongue in cheek but I doubt it. Read his article on Elgar (http://www.wrightmusic.net/pdfs/elgar.pdf), which I chose to read at random. The writing is marginally, but only marginally, better but it is similarly vituperative and gives prominence to allegations about Elgar's sexual deviance. Not a pleasant read. The article on Chopin (http://www.wrightmusic.net/pdfs/frederick-chopin.pdf) is just the same both in its hostility towards the composer and in Wright's fascination with his sex life. Read his article on Walton (http://www.wrightmusic.net/pdfs/walton.pdf), remarkable for it's concentration on Britten's homosexuality!
To be sure, when he is writing about composers of whom he approves, Brahms and Karl Amadeus Hartmann for example, he does at least concentrate on their music, but his writing remains woefully ungrammatical. Wright clearly has strong musical opinions, both favourable and critical, and isn't afraid of expressing them strongly. That's to be respected. Less laudable is his careless, childish prose and his juvenile obsession with sex. Frankly, I find this man's writing distasteful.
I agree, Mark. Wright concentrates far too little on the music and far too much on the perceived foibles of the composer. Tabloid musicology of the worst kind, with unsupported opinions - and, as Mark says, often appallingly written. Avoid!
It is interesting that a whole raft of 'articles' by Wright have been removed from the MusicWeb site (http://www.musicweb-international.com/wright/index.htm (http://www.musicweb-international.com/wright/index.htm)), although some of his CD reviews remain - including one of the Naxos coupling of Raff's 3rd and 10th Symphonies (http://www.musicweb-international.com/classRev/2003/Apr03/RAFF310.htm (http://www.musicweb-international.com/classRev/2003/Apr03/RAFF310.htm)).
It is untypical of his style (judging by the other examples of his creative fancy that I have seen) in that it is relatively literate, although not irreproachable.
Quote from: Albion on Sunday 01 August 2010, 20:30
It is interesting that a whole raft of 'articles' by Wright have been removed from the MusicWeb site (http://www.musicweb-international.com/wright/index.htm (http://www.musicweb-international.com/wright/index.htm)), although some of his CD reviews remain - including one of the Naxos coupling of Raff's 3rd and 10th Symphonies (http://www.musicweb-international.com/classRev/2003/Apr03/RAFF310.htm (http://www.musicweb-international.com/classRev/2003/Apr03/RAFF310.htm)).
It is untypical of his style (judging by the other examples of his creative fancy that I have seen) in that it is relatively literate, although not irreproachable.
Thank you for the heads-up, have put a dead-link note on several Wikipedia references to Wright Musicweb articles . (This is better practice than removing the references and leaving claims entirely unreferenced, and sometimes entire articles so, while better references are sought.)
Wright (by his own pronouncements) appears to have been an intimate of many composers, with many a personal anecdote relating to both Walton and Britten (hmm, very plausible ???). To quote from his Walton 'tribute': "The one thing that riled Walton was the stupid remark that people made that he was Elgar's successor. The only times [sic] I saw Willie angry was when this comment was made to him. "Whoever first made that comment should have been shot five minutes before he made it ... and so should everyone who repeats it or believes it," Walton would snap."
Well I suppose (by repetition) that takes care of both David Wright and myself - I'll order a flak jacket forthwith.
Apologies for yet another post scriptum, but the more I read of David Wright the more I am convinced that he is truly the William McGonagall of music criticism. ;)
Quote from: Albion on Sunday 01 August 2010, 22:27
Apologies for yet another post scriptum, but the more I read of David Wright the more I am convinced that he is truly the William McGonagall of music criticism. ;)
The more
I read of him (although I have for some time tried to make it a point to read less rather than more), the more that I might be inclined to conclude that your William McG reference is probably too kind. Self-styled "critics" of any kind and of any level of intellectual reasoning powers or none who make their mark by exhibiting a tendency to draw far more attention to themselves and their apparent self-generated agendas in their writings than they do to the purported subjects of those writings can sometimes express themselves with all too unpleasant and unwelcome eloquence; in my unfortunate experience, David C[antus?] F[irmus?] Wright revealed himself as a classic case of such a writer from the moment that I read some of his prerenaturally distasteful and woefully ill-researched writings on Chopin. I rest my case.
Apparently Wright penned an article on Britten which was deemed to be so libellous as to be open to legal action. When Rob Barnett wrote a reasoned and intelligent article about Britten, Wright responded as detailed in http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2003/Sept03/Britten_comment.htm (http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2003/Sept03/Britten_comment.htm)
Those still in doubt as to the author's sanity are directed to the autobiography http://www.musicweb-international.com/wright/rain1.htm (http://www.musicweb-international.com/wright/rain1.htm) and encouraged to click on the 'continue' link.
I really do apologise if this is old news to members, but how have I missed all this? :o Clearly the need for rational and informed debate has never been greater - with such peurile rubbish as Wright's readily available to millions of surfers.
The more of Wright's work I read the more I realize that this is one seriously disturbed dude! Anybody who considers puerile ad hominem attacks based on his own sexual hang-ups to be music criticism must have only one lonely rock in his head!
I think that the time has now come to close the door on our discussion of Mr Wright's critcism.
By all means carry on talking about Holbrooke.
Quite so - the side-show tent should probably be zipped up again.
I really do hope that the next CPO disc features the 3rd symphony (Ships) rather than a duplication of the 4th: given the excellence of George Vass and the RLPO, and bearing in mind that so far we have only seen the tip of the Holbrooke iceberg, perhaps one first-class performance is sufficient (at least for the moment).
I think I remember reading that Rob Barnett has compiled or is in the process of compiling a catalogue raisonne of Holbrooke's music - does anyone know if this might be made available? I would love to know more about Holbrooke's life and music, but (as mentioned before) there is precious little either in printed or electronic form. George Lowe (1920) and Various Appreciations by Many Authors (1937) are interesting but seriously flawed and notoriously unreliable when it comes to listing compositions.
Quote from: Mark Thomas on Monday 02 August 2010, 07:43
I think that the time has now come to close the door on our discussion of Mr Wright's critcism.
Yes, I guess that it has, but if I may be forgiven, I wouldn;t mind dropping in a few pennies' worth. I was a student of Humphrey Searle, albeit a few years after Dr Wright was (if indeed he really was) and my studies with Searle were generously sponsored by Benjamin Britten. I never once heard Britten speak disparagingly about Searle, he spoke most warmly to me about Tippett and I always found him to be the epitomy of politeness and kindness. I daresay that Britten had his insecurities, but I no more recognise this spiteful, arrogant, dismissisive and generaklly unpleasant Britten than I recall Searle ever giving "classes at RCM. Wright is correct about Searle's shyness, but that's probably all the more reason why he never gave classes when I attended lessons with him which were always on the same one-to-one basis as those of his other students at the time.
Now, let's get off that subject once and for all. If Wright, then Roger and if David, then Matthews.
Best,
Alistair
Amen to that. People like that just get me started, and DON'T get me started! >:(
OK. An end. Finis. Stop.
Right. So, um, anyway, I can get a pretty decent price on the Cambrian CC/S 4 from Presto. Is that a pretty good introduction to Holbrooke for me?
QuoteI really do hope that the next CPO disc features the 3rd symphony (Ships) rather than a duplication of the 4th
Mrs Holbrooke has been asked by CPO to provide score and parts for the Symphony No. 3 "Ships" and I understand that CPO will not now record the Symphony No. 4, as had originally been planned.
Quote from: Gareth Vaughan on Monday 02 August 2010, 19:08
I understand that CPO will not now record the Symphony No. 4, as had originally been planned.
It's probably the most prudent and realistic approach - given Holbrooke's relative obscurity I doubt that the market could sustain two recordings headlining the same major work (even with different couplings). It would have been entirely different if the Dutton disc had been a dreadful disaster, but this was never really going to be an option!
Great news that
Ships looks as though its hoving into view - many thanks for the update.
All this talk of Holbrooke reminds me that only one of the Piano Concertos has been recorded (well, as far as I know). Does anyone know of any plans to put the second concerto onto disc?
Also in re-reading the notes to Hyperion's recording of the 1st concerto "The song of Gwyn ap Nudd" I see that an off-air recording of Frank Merrick playing it exists. Does anyone have info about the whereabouts of this / likelihood of CD transfer etc?
Rob
Quote from: hammyplay on Tuesday 03 August 2010, 13:51
All this talk of Holbrooke reminds me that only one of the Piano Concertos has been recorded (well, as far as I know). Does anyone know of any plans to put the second concerto onto disc?
Also in re-reading the notes to Hyperion's recording of the 1st concerto "The song of Gwyn ap Nudd" I see that an off-air recording of Frank Merrick playing it exists. Does anyone have info about the whereabouts of this / likelihood of CD transfer etc?
Rob
cadensa.bl.uk says that Norman del Mar/BBC Orch were involved, 1958-03-22 either the performance or broadcast date (I don't know which is the one they're filing it under.) But yes, it is apparently in BBC tape archives.
Eric
There is a possibility that Panos Trochopoulos will record the 2nd Piano Concerto for Cameo with the Malta Symphony Orchestra in November. The conductor will be Leslie Howard (the Liszt specialist). A possible couplng is the ballet "Aucassin et Nicolette", which was successfully toured for more than one season by the Sadlers Wells ballet, but this has yet to be determined.
Having seen the 2-piano version of Holbrooke's "3rd Piano Concerto" - more correctly known as Symphony No. 8, Op. 112 - 'Dance Symphony', but in reality a PC - I can only deeply regret the absence of a Full Orchestral Score for this work.
Quote from: Gareth Vaughan on Tuesday 03 August 2010, 17:43
Having seen the 2-piano version of Holbrooke's "3rd Piano Concerto" - more correctly known as Symphony No. 8, Op. 112 - 'Dance Symphony', but in reality a PC - I can only deeply regret the absence of a Full Orchestral Score for this work.
Gareth, many thanks for the news about yet another tantalising Holbrooke prospect! Regarding the absence or loss of a full score for the 8th Symphony, I know that Holbrooke's house,
Dylan, in Harlech was gutted by fire in November 1928 (outlined in the newspaper cutting at the bottom of http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2003/Nov03/Holbrook_wales.htm (http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2003/Nov03/Holbrook_wales.htm)). Do you know if this particular score was a casualty, and what else was lost as a result?
Quote from: eschiss1 on Tuesday 03 August 2010, 15:55
cadensa.bl.uk says that Norman del Mar/BBC Orch were involved, 1958-03-22 either the performance or broadcast date (I don't know which is the one they're filing it under.) But yes, it is apparently in BBC tape archives.
Eric
Oooooh! Thanks for unearthing that. I wonder if they can be persuaded to broadcast it? Or even release it on their BBC Legends - probably not: Frank Merrick was a lovely pianist but hardly what the BBC would class as a "legend". I'll still write to them.
Rob
Have just glanced through the cadensa.bl.uk listings for Merrick and there are two performances of the Holbrooke Concerto op52. The one with de Mar that Eric mentioned and one from 1936 with Dan Godfrey (this is the one that Hyperion mention).
This is another topic of course but there's an awful lot of Frank Merrick listed. Now if I could track down all those "Frank Merrick Society" and "Rare Recorded Editions" LPs...
I have just purchased the Holbrooke cd and would like to know which version of the symphony I have. In the notes it says that it was written in 1928 and then goes on to say that Holbrooke discarded the first movement and wrote a new one in 1934 and later still wrote a new finale. This leaves only the original 7 minute middle movement from 1928 yet on the back it has in brackets(1928). It seems that if the other two movements still exist there is almost another symphony around.
As far as I can ascertain, Holbrooke wrote only a new slow introduction to the 1st movt., not a complete new movt. I have a copy of the symphony with the old slow intro. as well as one with the revised intro. The later intro. is used on the Dutton disk. I am not aware that Holbrooke wrote a new Finale. I think this is incorrect. On the copy of the score of the older version, however, the note values of the Finale's opening "fanfare" are very slightly different from those in the later version. Otherwise the two Finales are identical.
QuoteI know that Holbrooke's house, Dylan, in Harlech was gutted by fire in November 1928 (outlined in the newspaper cutting at the bottom of http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2003/Nov03/Holbrook_wales.htm). Do you know if this particular score was a casualty, and what else was lost as a result?
Oddly enough, I was discussing this very issue with Mrs Holbrooke only the other day. The whole episode, however, is shrouded in mystery. It is not known precisely which scores were lost, or which were subsequently reconstructed by Josef. I have a feeling that Op. 112 was written
after the fire, but I'm really not sure. It is so difficult to tell the dates of composition of some of Josef's music because he was always rewriting, re-arranging and renumbering, particularly in the 1930s when he set about buying back the copyrights and publishing his own music under his "Modern Music Library" imprint. The Dance Symphony first made its appearance as an MML publication, and virtually everything he wrote from the 4th Symphony onwards was self-published.
Thanks, Gareth - I have a mental image of Holbrooke staggering into his house and then emerging again through the front door against a background of smoke and fire carrying the autograph scores of The Children of Don, Dylan, Bronwen and the Dramatic Choral Symphony - and then collapsing unconscious under the weight of all that paper. Luckily these works were all published in full score - do the autographs survive?
What an image! Thank goodness Havergal Brian didn't have a house fire. With the weight of those scores,he wouldn't have got up.
Sad about the 'Dance Symphony'. That's one I was particularly curious to hear. Is there really absolutely nothing left for a performance?
Thank you for the info. re Holbrooke. With reference to his fire, it is fortunate that his music didn't suffer the same fate as Geirr Tveitt's or Kuhlau's.
Silly me,you explained above.
QuoteLuckily these works were all published in full score - do the autographs survive?
Not as far as I am aware.
Gareth, you may be interested to know that the autograph score of Bronwen (lacking Act 1) was sold as Lot 100 at Sotheby's on 8th December 2000 for £2115!
http://www.sothebys.com/app/live/lot/LotDetail.jsp?sale_number=L00209&live_lot_id=100
(http://www.sothebys.com/app/live/lot/LotDetail.jsp?sale_number=L00209&live_lot_id=100)
Lot 99 was also of exceptional interest - about 140 letters sold for £1410 (see the expanded description at the bottom):
http://www.sothebys.com/app/live/lot/LotDetail.jsp?lot_id=37CLY (http://www.sothebys.com/app/live/lot/LotDetail.jsp?lot_id=37CLY)
The autograph of Ulalume was sold as Lot 108 on 25th May 2001 for £1175:
http://www.sothebys.com/app/live/lot/LotDetail.jsp?lot_id=354D4 (http://www.sothebys.com/app/live/lot/LotDetail.jsp?lot_id=354D4)
It looks as though this went to the Juilliard - http://www.juilliardmanuscriptcollection.org/home.html (http://www.juilliardmanuscriptcollection.org/home.html) - you can view the manuscript online!
The Viking was included in a sale on 7th December 2001:
http://www.sothebys.com/app/live/lot/LotDetail.jsp?lot_id=3GP6Z (http://www.sothebys.com/app/live/lot/LotDetail.jsp?lot_id=3GP6Z)
I can't find a result for this, so it was probably unsold or possibly withdrawn.
I wonder where the others are now? I'd love to read those letters!
George Eastman House hold Alvin Langdon Coburn's unpublished photographs intended for his aborted volume Musicians of Note. Holbrooke sat for his portrait on 24th January 1916 - I think the result is a wonderful image. Others fared perhaps slightly less well - Holst looks like a provincial curate, whilst Bantock looks as though he's just rolled out of bed:
http://notesonphotographs.eastmanhouse.org/index.php?title=Alvin_Langdon_Coburn/Musicians_of_Mark,_1914-1921 (http://notesonphotographs.eastmanhouse.org/index.php?title=Alvin_Langdon_Coburn/Musicians_of_Mark,_1914-1921)
Thank you very much for this fascinating and invaluable information. It is such a pity that the family don't have any autograph scores. It seems that Josef got rid of most of them - sold, when he was hard-up, probably. The letters would be really interesting.
Gareth, more good news - the autograph full scores of The Children of Don, Dylan and Apollo and the Seaman are at the British Library. The entry for The Children of Don tells us that the autograph full score of Bronwen sold at Sotheby's is now in the National Library of Wales:
Add. 54339
JOSEPH HOLBROOKE: 'Dylan, Son of the Wave', the second part of the operatic trilogy 'The Cauldron of Annwn', by Joseph Charles Holbrooke, a setting of poems by T. E. Ellis, i.e. Thomas Evelyn Scott-Ellis, 8th Baron Howard de Walden; 1909 (f. 3). Autograph full score, in ink. Full score first published 1911. First performed London, 4 July 1913. Presented by the composer to his nephew, Jim Baker, in Dec. 1951 (f. 2). Purchased from Mrs L. A. Baker, 18 May 1968.
Paper; ff. 170. 490 x 340mm. Red cloth binding, half red leather.
MSS Mus. 230-232. JOSEPH HOLBROOKE: music manuscripts; 1910 – circa 1920.
Three volumes.
MSS Mus. 230-231. JOSEPH HOLBROOKE: 'The Children of Don', music drama in a prologue and three acts to a libretto by Thomas Evelyn (Scott-)Ellis, 8th Baron Howard de Walden, after the Mabinogion, op.56; 1910-12. Autograph full score. Written in black ink, with numerous tempo markings and stage directions in red ink, as well as conductor's markings in crayon and pencil annotations in the hands of the composer and the engraver. Dated 1 Aug. 1910 (MS Mus. 230, f. 2), March 1911 (230, f. 194), July 1911 (231, f. 69), 20 Feb. 1912 (231, f. 140). With a note, 'With No Cuts as 1st performed – 1912 – by A. Nikisch & the Composer' (231, f. 1). Composed as the first part of the trilogy 'The Cauldron of Annwn': the full score of the second opera, 'Dylan' (1909) is Add. 54339, and that of the third, 'Bronwen' (1920) is MSS 23863-23865E in the National Library of Wales (lacking Act 1). First performed at Hammerstein's London Opera House, June 1912. Published Novello, 1912 (vocal score) and [1913] (full score). Purchased at Sotheby's, 15 May 1997 (lot 188).
Two volumes. 484 x 338mm. Red cloth binding, half red leather.
MS Mus. 230. Overture, Prologue and Act 1 (ff. 194).
MS Mus. 231. Acts 2 and 3 (ff. i + 140).
MS Mus. 232. JOSEPH HOLBROOKE: Quintet in G, for 2 violins, viola, 'cello and clarinet, op.27, no.2; circa 1920. Published score with autograph additional movement and copied parts. Subtitled '"Ligeia" ("Poeana" no. 2)' (f. 5). The quintet was originally written in two movements for horn and strings in 1901, and revised for clarinet and strings in 1910. It was published in two movements by Paxton & Co., in or after 1920. The composer subsequently made minor revisions to the two published movements and added the 'Nocturne' between them, attaching quotations from Poe's 'The Conqueror Worm' (in 'Ligeia') to each movement. All of these items bear a stamp of copyright of the Modern Music Library. Purchased from Lisa Cox, 8 Oct. 1997.
ff. 169. Overall size 315 x 287mm.
1. ff. 1-96. Printed score, with numerous corrections in autograph and typewritten quotations from Poe pasted onto the score. Marked 'Revised Ed.' (f. 2). The imprint of Paxton & Co. has been deleted and replaced by the stamp of the Modern Music Library.
2. ff. 97-102. 'Nocturne'. Autograph score of the additional second movement, in ink.
3. ff. 103-169. Parts for the three-movement version of the quintet. Copies, in ink.
Add. 64944
JOSEF HOLBROOKE: 'Apollo and the Seaman', dramatic choral symphony (words, Herbert Trench), op. 51; 1907. Full score. Autograph. Ink with pencil annotations including conductor's and engraver's markings. At the end (f. 161) is a revised version of the opening five bars incorporating amendments shown by annotations on f. 2. First performed 20 Jan. 1908, Queen's Hall, London, conducted by Sir Thomas Beecham. Published London: Novello, 1908. Purchased from Otto Haas, 28 Feb. 1987.
Paper; ff. ii+161. 355 x 265mm.
I've also tracked the letters to the British Library:
MSS Mus. 312-313. JOSEPH HOLBROOKE (b.1878, d.1958): letters to 'Ernest Newman' (William Roberts), music critic of The Times; 1900-56, n.d. With two letters from Holbrooke to Sir Granville Bantock and various other letters forwarded to Newman by Holbrooke. The correspondents are listed in the index. Purchased at Sotheby's, 8 Dec. 2000 (lot 99).
Two volumes. Overall size 300 x 230mm.
A valuable piece of research. Thank you very much. I must make time to investigate properly. Time (or, rather, lack of it) is the thing!
Fascinating. I'm printing it all out.
The problem with manuscripts at the British Library is that they're catalogued in all sorts of sequences and with shelfmarks which you don't expect. Furthermore they're squirrelled away from the main public catalogue which makes them a real pain to track down. Perhaps my mental picture of Holbrooke staggering out of his burning house with these particular items was not far from the truth!
At least we can rest a bit easier, knowing that at least a few of the most important autographs are in safe hands.
I do agree with you about the MSS at BL - most eccentrically stored and catalogued.
Complete nightmare, but they do have helpful librarians which makes things a little less complicated.
Thal
Quote from: Albion on Thursday 05 August 2010, 16:54
The problem with manuscripts at the British Library is that they're catalogued in all sorts of sequences and with shelfmarks which you don't expect. Furthermore they're squirrelled away from the main public catalogue which makes them a real pain to track down.
Not only the British Library! Having located the autograph full score of
Bronwen, I was perturbed to find that no method of searching the National Library of Wales catalogues brought up a reference to it. I contacted the library a few days ago and have just received the following reply:
The manuscript of 'Bronwen' is held at the Library and was catalogued some years ago (NLW MSS 23862-23865E). However, on close inspection, the catalogue entry is, for some unknown reason, hidden from public view, which explains why you were unable to find it.
We apologise and thank you for drawing attention to the matter. We have now released the description in our main catalogue.
Consequently a search now brings up the following detailed description:
Ref. no. NLW MSS 23863-23865E
Title Joseph Holbrooke: Opera 'Bronwen' 1916-1928
Summary Incomplete autograph manuscript by Josef Charles Holbrooke (1878-1958) of his three-act opera Bronwen (op. 75), being the third and final part of his operatic trilogy The Cauldron of Annwn; Act I is lacking. The libretto, based on the narratives of The Four Branches of the Mabinogi, was written by Holbrooke's patron, Thomas Evelyn Scott-Ellis, eighth baron Howard de Walden (1880-1946). Mostly composed at Harlech, the work was completed in parts, the Overture (MS 23863E) (published as a piano arrangement in 1917), here dated July 1916 (p. 17), Act II (MS 23864E) dated 5 Aug. 1918 (p. 183), and Act III (MS 23865E) October 12 ([19]24) (p. 295), the latter probably the completion date of the full score (confirmed by the note at the end of the published version of 1929), as opposed to the vocal score of the opera, which was apparently completed at Harlech on 5 February 1920 (see note at end of the published vocal score (1922), and cf. George Lowe, Josef Holbrooke and his work, (London, 1920), p. 273). However, a note added at the end of the Prelude to Act III (MS 23865E, p. 190) suggests that a final revision was made in 1928. The vocal score was first published, with English and German words, as Bronwen: A Music Drama (No. 3) (London, 1922), and the full score in 1929 (see British Library Catalogue of Printed Music); the opera was first performed by the Carl Rosa Opera Company in Huddersfield on 1 Feb. 1929. The manuscript of the second part of the trilogy, Dylan, Son of the Wave, is now BL Add. MS 54339; the whereabouts of that of the first part, The Children of Don, is unknown.
Description MS 23863: 10 ff. (original pagination 1-17), MS 23864: 46 ff. (original pagination 95-184), MS 23865: 56 ff. (now paginated [185]-295, original pagination 3-7, 192-295). Each volume 480 x 340 mm.
I have contacted the NLW again to let them know that the autograph score of
The Children of Don is in fact also in the British Library!
Good work Sir.
Who does one contact for permission to obtain copies of Holbrooke's scores???
Thal
Quote from: thalbergmad on Monday 09 August 2010, 18:44
Who does one contact for permission to obtain copies of Holbrooke's scores???
Presumably any copyright now resides with Jean Holbrooke, Josef's daughter-in-law. Gareth Vaughan is probably the person who could clarify this for you.
Quote from: Albion on Monday 09 August 2010, 19:41
Quote from: thalbergmad on Monday 09 August 2010, 18:44
Who does one contact for permission to obtain copies of Holbrooke's scores???
Presumably any copyright now resides with Jean Holbrooke, Josef's daughter-in-law. Gareth Vaughan is probably the person who could clarify this for you.
Also depends on a few other things of course- if I understand correctly, in Canada and some other countries his scores aren't in copyright since he died more than 50 years ago; while in the US this is true for any scores first published before 1924. (Not sure what the state of US copyright law is for works remaining in manuscript.) This does leave the EU and in the US more recently-published works (and possibly those never published at all.)
Yes, Holbrooke's music is still technically in copyright within the EU until 2028 (70 years since his death in 1958). If an unpublished score by a deceased author/ composer were to be printed in the EU today, a 25 year copyright term would apply.
In Canada, which applies a blanket 50 years-after-death rule, Holbrooke's music is out of copyright, hence the availability of many of his scores on ISMLP. This time-period also applies to copyright in China, Japan and South Korea.
In the US any work first published before 1923 is in the public domain, but anything published between 1923 and 1977 is subject to a copyright term of 95 years.
I can confirm that Mrs Holbrooke holds the copyright on virtually all her late father-in-law's music, wth some minor exceptions (a few brass band and light music pieces, I think, where the publisher declined to sell back the copyright) - also, the Ballet-Opera "The Enchanter", the copyright of which is held by a big American Co. (can't remember who at the moment) who, when I contacted them, declared they had never heard of the composer or the piece and certainly didn't have any performance materials in their archive. Mind you, I was talking to someone who sounded as if she'd only just grown out of nappies (diapers to you guys in the US).
I've been lobbying away for years on JH's behalf, and so was naturally delighted when the new disc appeared to complement last years (and this/next years?) CPO disc(s); having said that, I find myself slightly underwhelmed. Quite taken with the tone poem and the concerto, but (admittedly after a couple of hearings only) the symphony doesn't seem to work at all. The first movement is just bizarre - ok, I'm not keen on musical quotation as a principle - the second rather brief but successful ...but the finale? Oh dear. Unless I'm missing something it just never seems to get off the ground; twelve minutes of underpowered note spinning. I'll keep trying with it, but I'm reluctantly coming to the conclusion that JH was anything but a rigorous symphonic thinker. Anyone else hear it differently? BTW, has anyone heard any of the (3?) Cameo discs of piano music, and have a recommendation?
Quote from: Dylan on Friday 13 August 2010, 10:35
I'm reluctantly coming to the conclusion that JH was anything but a rigorous symphonic thinker. Anyone else hear it differently? BTW, has anyone heard any of the (3?) Cameo discs of piano music, and have a recommendation?
Hi Dylan, it's great to have another Holbrookean on board! I must say I do agree with you regarding the 4th Symphony - mighty peculiar and not really 'symphonic' but I find that my fascination with Holbrooke as a character leads me to enjoy whatever I hear of his, great or not so great, and the peculiar colour of his music I find ample compensation for rigorous working-out. I don't think that he was a natural symphonist at all in the sense of an organic builder-up of motifs within a long-term structural frame - the closest he came to convincing use and recurrence of themes within a symphony is probably
Apollo and the Seaman, but there the purpose was essentially descriptive of Trench's poem. Holbrooke was an illustrator and a fantasist in music, something which doesn't always sit well with the accepted conventions of symphonic thought.
I can assure you that both the Cameo discs are very well played and recorded - it's worth getting both as the
Rhapsodie Etudes are spread across them.
Hm! I enjoyed every single minute of the cd. I honestly couldn't believe how good the music was. Even better than the cpo disc. Fantastic! So,each to his own opinion,eh. I can imagine Andrew Clements in the Guardian giving it a terrible review,when he gets his hands on it,but who knows? The symphony was fascinating,but more like a sequence of interesting tone poems. The slow movement is so wonderfully orchestrated. It reminded me a little of Korngold. With luscious orchestration like that,who cares if it isn't really a symphony. I can hardly wait to hear No3. Bring it on!
Quote from: Pengelli on Friday 13 August 2010, 19:50
I can imagine Andrew Clements in the Guardian giving it a terrible review,
I've long since found that, in most instances, it's much better not to imagine Andrew Clements at all...
JH was not a rigorous symphonic thinker - but that's not what his music is about. His inspiration was almost always extra-musical and literary. He never used the term "symphony" in its 19th century sense, and virtually all of his so-called symphonies are really suites. There is, however, more sense of musical architecture in the Cauldron operas where the use of leitmotif helps to to give structure, but also you can sense that Josef was really inspired by his subject and the intensity of that inspiration gives a tautness to the music. I think the same is true of Queen Mab, Ulalume, The Bells and Apollo.
They all seem to have titles,except for No 7,suggesting that Holbrooke was more interested in some kind of programmatic content,than the actual structure and developement of a symphony in it's purest and most absract form. It seems to me that there are three kinds of symphonies, blatantly programmatic ones,like Raff's Fifth,purely abstract ones of the the kind Sibelius wrote,and ones that are merely a convenient frame work for expressing one's imagination. There are also eccentrics like Brian & Langgaard who seem to seem to have a blatant disregard for convention,throwing aside tradtional symphonic developement,like a writer who decides to omit grammar and punctuation.
Quote from: Pengelli on Saturday 14 August 2010, 00:14
It seems to me that there are three kinds of symphonies, blatantly programmatic ones,like Raff's Fifth,purely abstract ones of the the kind Sibelius wrote,and ones that are merely a convenient frame work for expressing one's imagination.
I would distinguish between the 'characteristic' symphony and the 'programme' symphony. The former is about moods, characters, seasons, etc., whereas the the latter actually attempts to tell a story. I wonder whether in fact Raff 5 is actually a hybrid - characteristic in movements 1-3 and programmatic in the finale.
Just a thought...
Quote from: Alan Howe on Saturday 14 August 2010, 02:24
Quote from: Pengelli on Saturday 14 August 2010, 00:14
It seems to me that there are three kinds of symphonies, blatantly programmatic ones,like Raff's Fifth,purely abstract ones of the the kind Sibelius wrote,and ones that are merely a convenient frame work for expressing one's imagination.
I would distinguish between the 'characteristic' symphony and the 'programme' symphony. The former is about moods, characters, seasons, etc., whereas the the latter actually attempts to tell a story. I wonder whether in fact Raff 5 is actually a hybrid - characteristic in movements 1-3 and programmatic in the finale.
Just a thought...
Well, Liszt eg did call a number of his works program works (including his Faust and Dante symphonies if I'm not mistaken) which were more or less characteristic works/symphonies here, and gave others somewhat specific programs only after the works had been written (I know this is well known, just putting my .009944 cents in)
Eric
Alan wrote:
QuoteI wonder whether in fact Raff 5 is actually a hybrid - characteristic in movements 1-3 and programmatic in the finale.
Spot on. In fact, almost all of Raff's symphonies are "characteristic" rather than "programmatic". There are many movements with some variant of "Impressions and Feelings" in their title. The Third,
Im Walde, is definitely a programme symphony throughout and the scherzo of
Im Sommer, No.9, is also programmatic (it's about Oberon and Titania from A Midsummer Night's Dream) but otherwise they lack detailed programmes. Once the programme symphony fell out of fashion, though, the categorisation of Raff as a writer of such works was another stick to beat him with.
Those who never thought to hear operatic music by Holbrooke may be intrigued to know that The Pit and the Pendulum is in fact derived from the Opera-Ballet The Wizard (1914) also known as The Enchanter. This work is ascribed to both Op.65 (Lowe) and Op.70 (Goodwin & Tabb vocal score).
The principal sections used are virtually the entire Prelude (vs pp.5-9), the Prelude to Act III (p.108) and the Dance of Terror (pp.125-127).
The following synopsis for The Wizard is taken from the vocal score:
ACT I. The story tells of a WIZARD in prehistoric times, who by the dark powers of enchantment caused all who came near his castle, to become dumb and serve in his service.
One OSCAR who had lost his way, comes near the castle. He sees PATRICIA appearing in one of the WIZARD'S dances, - he approaches too near, and becomes dumb. She explains his misfortune by signs. MARIA appears and sings a song. PRINCE ANTON now also appears and is enraptured by MARIA'S song. She warns him to fly from the danger. He refuses. He sees his friend OSCAR who fails to remember him. ANTON listens to MARIA'S explanation of the magic and promises he will return and rescue all the enchanted people.
ACT II. KING JOHANN'S palace crowded with courtiers, and their JESTER are holding an audience when ANTON, the KING'S son, returns and begs help against the WIZARD. The KING refuses his help. The MAGICIAN now appears and by incantation sees the vision of MARIA, etc. He promises to go with ANTON and defeat the sorcerer.
ACT III. The Ballet of the WIZARD is dancing. OSCAR is pleading his love with PATRICIA when he, also, is overcome by the WIZARD'S power. ANTON now appears with the MAGICIAN. The latter challenges the power of the WIZARD. The WIZARD gives a wierd [sic] invocation to the evil powers of darkness, - the MAGICIAN responds and appeals to the higher powers with his sword as a cross and enters the castle. The turrets fall - the enchanted are released - the WIZARD perishes - the lovers are united. Ballet and Chorus now sing and dance. (CURTAIN)
Makes you want to hear the rest of the work! I have an old s/h book,one of those 'Stories from the Opera's' type books,(for young people),they used to do,which recounts the plot lines of a couple of Holbrooke opera's,including 'The Wizard' or 'The Enchanter',in mouth watering detail'.
Mind you we haven't even had a complete recording of Holst's 'The Perfect Fool,yet'.( I keep pestering Chandos for one!)
Not that I'm all obscure. I've got Saint-Saens 'Organ' Symphony on at the moment! And very nice it is too.....
The Dover-republished book on Orchestration (http://books.google.com/books?id=8c_Tj2o1yqwC) by the Stanford pupil Cecil Forsyth (a century-old, of course out of date, but worthwhile for its attitude, humor, and many other qualities, like many other "outdated" good music books I've read written between 1910-1950 :) ) may be some peoples' (it may have been mine...) first introduction to Holbrooke's music, by the way- it includes excerpts from several of his scores, including Apollo and the Seaman (pp 170&285), Children of Don (p 283, for a basset horn passage, p 311 for a particular violin passage)...
Eric
Cecil Fosyth's "Orchestration" is an excellent treatise, still referred to by musicians, and, as has been noted, eminently readable.
The whereabouts of Act I of Bronwen in Holbrooke's autograph was a puzzle (at some point it was divorced from Acts II and III which are now in the National Library of Wales). I've now tracked it to the the Grainger Museum (part of the University of Melbourne Library) - so the whereabouts of the complete trilogy is as follows:
The Children of Don, Op.56 - The British Library
MSS Mus. 230-231. JOSEPH HOLBROOKE: 'The Children of Don', music drama in a prologue and three acts to a libretto by Thomas Evelyn (Scott-)Ellis, 8th Baron Howard de Walden, after the Mabinogion, op.56; 1910-12. Autograph full score. Written in black ink, with numerous tempo markings and stage directions in red ink, as well as conductor's markings in crayon and pencil annotations in the hands of the composer and the engraver. Dated 1 Aug. 1910 (MS Mus. 230, f. 2), March 1911 (230, f. 194), July 1911 (231, f. 69), 20 Feb. 1912 (231, f. 140). With a note, 'With No Cuts as 1st performed – 1912 – by A. Nikisch & the Composer' (231, f. 1). Composed as the first part of the trilogy 'The Cauldron of Annwn': the full score of the second opera, 'Dylan' (1909) is Add. 54339, and that of the third, 'Bronwen' (1920) is MSS 23863-23865E in the National Library of Wales (lacking Act 1). First performed at Hammerstein's London Opera House, June 1912. Published Novello, 1912 (vocal score) and [1913] (full score). Purchased at Sotheby's, 15 May 1997 (lot 188).
Two volumes. 484 x 338mm. Red cloth binding, half red leather.
MS Mus. 230. Overture, Prologue and Act 1 (ff. 194).
MS Mus. 231. Acts 2 and 3 (ff. i + 140).
Dylan, Op.53 - The British Library
Add. 54339
JOSEPH HOLBROOKE: 'Dylan, Son of the Wave', the second part of the operatic trilogy 'The Cauldron of Annwn', by Joseph Charles Holbrooke, a setting of poems by T. E. Ellis, i.e. Thomas Evelyn Scott-Ellis, 8th Baron Howard de Walden; 1909 (f. 3). Autograph full score, in ink. Full score first published 1911. First performed London, 4 July 1913. Presented by the composer to his nephew, Jim Baker, in Dec. 1951 (f. 2). Purchased from Mrs L. A. Baker, 18 May 1968.
Paper; ff. 170. 490 x 340mm. Red cloth binding, half red leather.
MSS Mus. 230-232. JOSEPH HOLBROOKE: music manuscripts; 1910 – circa 1920.
Three volumes.
Bronwen, Op.75 (Act I) - Grainger Museum, Melbourne, Australia
MG C2/H0L-10-1(Q)
[Bronwen. Act I]
Bronwen : drama : Act I / Josef Holbrooke. - 1 full score (86p. 40 stave ms. paper) taped & stitched into cardboard covers; 48cm. - Holograph signed (black ink). - Holbrooke's note: This is the original Score, by the composer, used on the Carl Rosa Opera Tour, 1922 [sic], of Act One. - Annotated for performance in red & blue pencil. - Stamped Modern Music Library Copyright.
Bronwen, Op.75 (Acts II & III) - National Library of Wales
Ref. no. NLW MSS 23863-23865E
Title Joseph Holbrooke: Opera 'Bronwen' 1916-1928
Summary Incomplete autograph manuscript by Josef Charles Holbrooke (1878-1958) of his three-act opera Bronwen (op. 75), being the third and final part of his operatic trilogy The Cauldron of Annwn; Act I is lacking. The libretto, based on the narratives of The Four Branches of the Mabinogi, was written by Holbrooke's patron, Thomas Evelyn Scott-Ellis, eighth baron Howard de Walden (1880-1946). Mostly composed at Harlech, the work was completed in parts, the Overture (MS 23863E) (published as a piano arrangement in 1917), here dated July 1916 (p. 17), Act II (MS 23864E) dated 5 Aug. 1918 (p. 183), and Act III (MS 23865E) October 12 ([19]24) (p. 295), the latter probably the completion date of the full score (confirmed by the note at the end of the published version of 1929), as opposed to the vocal score of the opera, which was apparently completed at Harlech on 5 February 1920 (see note at end of the published vocal score (1922), and cf. George Lowe, Josef Holbrooke and his work, (London, 1920), p. 273). However, a note added at the end of the Prelude to Act III (MS 23865E, p. 190) suggests that a final revision was made in 1928. The vocal score was first published, with English and German words, as Bronwen: A Music Drama (No. 3) (London, 1922), and the full score in 1929 (see British Library Catalogue of Printed Music); the opera was first performed by the Carl Rosa Opera Company in Huddersfield on 1 Feb. 1929.
Description MS 23863: 10 ff. (original pagination 1-17), MS 23864: 46 ff. (original pagination 95-184), MS 23865: 56 ff. (now paginated [185]-295, original pagination 3-7, 192-295). Each volume 480 x 340 mm.
More great news on the Holbrooke front. According to George Vass' home-page (http://www.georgevass.co.uk/news.php (http://www.georgevass.co.uk/news.php)), he has recently recorded the Saxophone Concerto, Op.88 (1927) and the ballet Aucassin et Nicolette (1935) for Dutton, coupled with Seven Country Dances by Richard Rodney Bennett.
There is mention also of his forthcoming disc for Somm, coupling two Piano Concertos by William Matthias with the very early Vaughan Williams Fantasia for piano and orchestra.
;D
Quote from: Albion on Wednesday 07 September 2011, 15:53
More great news on the Holbrooke front. According to George Vass' home-page (http://www.georgevass.co.uk/news.php (http://www.georgevass.co.uk/news.php)), he has recently recorded the Saxophone Concerto, Op.88 (1927) and the ballet Aucassin et Nicolette (1935) for Dutton, coupled with Seven Country Dances by Richard Rodney Bennett.
There is mention also of his forthcoming disc for Somm, coupling two Piano Concertos by William Matthias with the very early Vaughan Williams Fantasia for piano and orchestra.
;D
t
Excellent new about the two Mathias Piano Concertos in particular :)
I submitted the booklet notes for this CD to Dutton about a month ago and have just done the proofs last week. It should be out soon and, I hope, will give much pleasure.
Thanks Gareth, I'm sure that many members are really looking forward to hearing this disc - the following note is by Philip Scowcroft (Musicweb) -
Holbrooke was so prolific in so many different directions that we should not be too surprised at his really remarkable corpus of saxophone music, bearing in mind the instrument's unfashionableness (Holbrooke was himself unfashionable) until the last generation or two. There was a Serenade for five saxophones and seven woodwinds and another one (Op 61B) for oboe d'amore, clarinet, basset-horn, harp, viola and seven (!) saxophones, a Nocturne for alto and piano, a Ballade for bass clarinet and saxophone, a Sonata, Op 99, for alto and piano, while the Tamerlaine Concerto Op 115 (1939) was scored for either clarinet or saxophone, plus bassoon and orchestra. Most interesting was the Concerto in B flat, Opus 88, composed in 1927, in three movements, the first (Allegro) for tenor saxophone, the second (Serenade) for alto and the third (Finale) for alto and soprano alternating. This was [...] originally devised for five different saxophones (presumably soprano, alto, tenor, baritone and bass) to be used one after the other with the idea of demonstrating the saxophone as a full family of instruments. (This was something Percy Grainger was also keen on; he was irritated at the concentration on alto and tenor and he himself often scored for a balanced choir of saxophone from sopranino down to bass). Holbrooke's Concerto, probably the first British concerto for saxophone, was given its premiere at St Albans on 25 November 1927, by Walter Lear who gave at least seven other performances in the next few years and it is said to have helped inspire Eric Coates' Saxo-Rhapsody.
In the meantime I would strongly recommend the new Naxos disc of Holbrooke's chamber music, including the lovely Horn Trio and the 'Sonata' version of the Grasshopper Violin Concerto. The latter makes me more keen than ever to hear the concerto in its orchestral guise - hopefully courtesy of the next volume in CPO's Holbrooke series.
:)
Philip Scowcroft has, I'm afraid, got some of his information mixed up (an easy thing to do with Holbrooke, as there is no definitive list of his works and Joe was always re-writing, re-scoring or renaming pieces and was also very cavalier about opus numbers). The Opus 61B Serenade is for ten wind instruments, harp and viola. The ten wind instruments are: oboe d'amore (or oboe); clarinet; basset horn (or cor anglais); soprano saxhorn (or cornet); baritone saxhorn (or cello) five saxophones - soprano, alto, tenor, baritone & bass. The saxhorn is sometimes confused with the flugelhorn but, while the saxhorn was invented in Paris by Adolphe Sax, the flugelhorn is of German origin and predates the saxhorn.
There is, as far as I am aware, no Serenade for five saxophones and seven woodwinds (though I am open to correction here) and I think Philip may have confused it with the Op. 61B piece in one of its many possible scorings. The Op. 99 sonata is simply the piano/saxophone score of the Op. 88 concerto which was originally written for performance on 3 saxophones, each of a different timbre: tenor, alto and soprano, as described by Philip. However, I know of no evidence to suggest that JH ever conceived of using five different saxophones. It is hard enough to find one player sufficiently proficient to play the virtuoso part on 3 saxophones of differing pitch, let alone five! And, indeed, JH later permitted the use of just alto and soprano in the concerto.
I have just finished listening to the new Dutton release of the Holbrooke Saxophone Concerto and Ballet "Aucassin and Nicolette"-the first of the new Duttons I have had time to get to my cd player ;D
Delightful, tuneful, light music :) Certainly well worthy of revival.
...and how odd it is to hear the coupling of Sir Richard Rodney Bennett's Seven Country Dances for soprano saxophone and string orchestra. I have been listening to quite a few of his compositions from the 1960s and 1970s recently. What a complete change in style ;D ;D