Welcome to the twelfth issue of the British Composer Organisation Bulletin
As some of you may know, I have recently taken on over as Secretary
of the scheme, so this is my first official bulletin. I must apologise for
the delay in getting it out! This issues features forthcoming concerts,
CD releases, books, talks, exhibitions and other activities, brought to
you by the members of our organisation, so I do hope it will be of use.
The societies represent a huge variety of the composers, ranging from
the justly famous to the unjustly neglected – as well as other
organisations closely associated with English music. We hope that
among them you will find your own favourites, but also that you will
be tempted to explore new musical avenues. And if you belong to, or
know of, a composer society that is not a member of the scheme, please
let me know.
With regards to EMF news, the Autumn Festival was recently held in
the beautiful Yorkshire Dales. The Festival included organ and solo
violin recitals and a wonderful performance of folk songs, love songs
and light-hearted madrigals by the vibrant young choral group
Albion. The main focus of the Festival however, was the Richard III
New Commission Concert, held in Richard III’s own church and town
of Middleham. The performance featured four première performances
by Paul Carr, Paul Lewis, Richard Pantcheff and Francis Pott written
specially for the occasion. The concert was a deeply-felt and moving
exploration of one of England’s most controversial, yet most
intriguing, monarchs.
For more information on future EMF concerts, please visit the website;
www.englishmusicfestival.org.uk/forthcoming-events.
With best wishes,
Rachel Sutton
BCOS Secretary
INSIDE THIS BULLETIN:
The Arthur Bliss Society ..................... 2
The Rutland Boughton
Music Trust .......................................... 2
The Havergal Brian Society ............... 2
The Elgar Society ................................. 3
Holst Birthplace Museum .................. 4
The Herbert Howells
Society and Trust ................................ 5
Robin Milford Trust ............................ 7
The John Ireland Trust ....................... 9
The Delius Society ............................. 10
Peter Warlock Society ....................... 11
Sir Arthur Sullivan Society .............. 12
The Ralph Vaughan
Williams Society ................................ 13
The Stanford Society ......................... 14
The British Music Society ................ 15
Humphrey Searle .............................. 16
Mrs Em Marshall-Luck – Founder-Director, The English Music Festival
The Red House, Lanchards Lane, Shillingstone, Dorset DT11 0QU.
Tel: 07808 473889 Email: [email protected]
Website: www.englishmusicfestival.org.uk
2
Arthur Bliss Society
EMF British Composer Organisation Bulletin – Summer/Autumn 2015
www.arthurbliss.org
Secretary, Mrs Jill Smith, at [email protected] or
by phone on 01242 578688.
Further details of the Society’s activities and of
forthcoming concerts of Bliss’s music are to be found on
www.arthurbliss.org. Details of membership are
available on this website and through the Membership
2015 saw two major performances of Bliss’s masterpiece
Morning Heroes, the first in May at the Barbican in London
and the second in July at the Three Choirs Festival in
Hereford. The ballet Adam Zero was performed between
April and June in a season of five performances in
Bremerhaven, Germany by the acclaimed Ballett
Bremerhaven, while the Clarinet Quintet received a
sparkling performance by The Goldfield Ensemble in
Gloucester in April. The Society’s AGM was held in
Cheltenham on Saturday 13th June and was preceded by
a recital by Duo of music by Bliss and Elgar, to include
Bliss’s Masks and the Violin Sonata.
www.rutlandboughtonmusictrust.org.uk
the highly successful, and Boughton’s most noted work
for the stage, The Immortal Hour in 1983, on the
Hyperion label. More recent recordings include the
Oliver Cromwell symphony; Songs of the English; three
early symphonic poems and more recently The Queen of
Cornwall, which won the Opera magazine award for the
best recording in 2010.
Founded in 2003, the Arthur Bliss Society has the aim of
furthering the appreciation, understanding and
knowledge of the music of Sir Arthur Bliss (1891–1975).
The President of the Society is Ian Venables and
Vice-Presidents are Peter Ainsworth and Terry Barfoot.
The Chairman is Gerald Towell.
The Rutland Boughton Music Trust was established in
1978 as a registered charity to encourage performances
and sponsor recordings of the works of English composer
Rutland Boughton (1878–1960). From 1989 until his death
in 2008, its President was Dr Vernon Handley CBE. The
Trust is managed by members of the family and its
income derives from royalties and fees generated by
performances and broadcasts of Boughton’s music. The
Trust is not a membership organisation but welcomes
contributions to its biannual Newsletter that can be
downloaded free of charge from the Trust’s website.
Over the years, the Trust has sponsored a number of
commercial recordings, which began with the release of
The Havergal Brian Society
www.havergalbrian.org
In 2014, the Trust commemorated the centenary
anniversary of the Glastonbury Festivals that Boughton
founded and directed from 1914 to 1926. This included a
full production of The Immortal Hour at Finborough
Theatre and a series of events at the Glastonbury
Assembly Rooms which including the first performance
of Boughton’s second oboe quartet and the re-issue of
Michael Hurd’s biography.
For further information, visit the website or
write to Ian Rutland Boughton at 25 Bearton Green,
Hitchin, Hertfordshire SG5 1UN or email
[email protected].
President: Martyn Brabbins
Chairman: John Grimshaw
Membership Secretary: [email protected]
Founded in 1974 shortly after the composer’s death, the Havergal Brian Society (HBS) exists to promote knowledge
about the life and works of Havergal Brian (1876–1972). The aims of the Society are:
1.
2.
To act as an information source about the composer and his music for both the general public and musicians.
The Society has a comprehensive website and has a growing Archive at Bristol University Music Department
with many books, recordings and other documents including an extensive collection of Brian’s letters.
To promote and sponsor recitals, concerts and recordings of Brian’s music. The HBS has now sponsored
many recordings of Brian’s works on a wide variety of labels. All but two of Brian’s 32 symphonies and
EMF British Composer Organisation Bulletin – Summer/Autumn 2015
3.
4.
5.
3
nearly all his other orchestral works are now available on commercial recordings, many as a direct result
of HBS sponsorship and there are plans for additional discs.
To advise and assist prospective performers in their choice of works and in the acquisition of performing
material. New performing material has been created, including a newly-set vocal score for the Gothic Symphony
used for performances in 2010 and 2011 as well as full scores and parts for a number of other works.
To publish original material on Brian and his music. A bimonthly Newsletter has now reached over 230 issues,
many containing authoritative articles on aspects of Brian and his music available in no other source. Two books
of Brian’s journalism have been sponsored and a volume of the complete piano music has also been published.
To gather as much information as possible on the whereabouts of Brian’s missing scores. The most important
of these is the full score of Prometheus Unbound, for the recovery of which a reward is offered. The full
score of the opera The Tigers was recovered in 1977 after being missing for more than 30 years.
Membership
The Havergal Brian Society welcomes new members and offers a range of levels of Membership with differing benefits
ranging from standard annual membership (£20 or £10 for over-65s) to Life Membership at £250. For details and a
sample Newsletter, please contact the Membership Secretary using the contact details given above.
Saturday 28th November 2015
The Music Elgar heard
Christopher Redwood investigates the Music that Elgar
is likely to have listened to as he developed his skills.
East Midlands Branch
www.elgar.org/elgarsoc
The Elgar Society was founded in 1951 and has grown
into the United Kingdom’s largest single composer
society. It exists to promote the appreciation of the life
and music of Edward Elgar through its network of
branches, its educational initiatives and its support of
public performance and recording of his works.
This year the Society presented two events associated
with the Three Choirs Festival. During the festival, an
exhibition entitled Elgar at the Three Choirs Festival was
presented consisting of items relating to Elgar and his
relationship with Hereford.
For those who wish to attend other Society events, the
following branch meetings are open to both members
and non-members.
South Western Branch
Details of the South Western Branch
programme can be found at:
http://elgar.org/elgarsoc/branches/south-western/.
Saturday 31st October 2015
Elgar at Marl Bank
Michael Trott presents a programme based on Elgar’s life
and work at one of his best-remembered homes.
Details of the East Midlands Branch
programme can be found at:
http://elgar.org/elgarsoc/branches/east-midlands/.
East Anglian Branch
Details of the East Anglian Branch
programme can be found at:
http://elgar.org/elgarsoc/branches/east-anglian/.
Meetings are held at the Lecture Room, St. Edmundsbury
Cathedral, Angel Hill, Bury St Edmunds, IP33 1LS.
London Branch
Details of the London Branch programme can be found
at: http://elgar.org/elgarsoc/branches/london/.
Meetings are held at Queen’s College, 43-49 Harley
Street, London W1G 8BT.
Monday 9th November 2015, 7.30 p.m.
Elgar: Solo and choral songs with orchestra, Terry Barfoot
North West Branch
Details of the North West Branch
programme can be found at:
http://elgar.org/elgarsoc/branches/north-west/.
Meetings are held at Royal Northern College of Music,
124, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9RD.
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EMF British Composer Organisation Bulletin – Summer/Autumn 2015
Southern Branch
Details of the Southern Branch
programme can be found at:
http://elgar.org/elgarsoc/branches/southern/.
Meetings are held at ‘The Spring’ Arts and Heritage
Centre, 56 East Street, Havant P09 1BS.
Saturday 14th November 2015, Havant
AGM and “Lively Wives and Lovers”, Martin Bird
West Midlands Branch
Details of the West Midlands Branch
programme can be found at:
http://elgar.org/elgarsoc/branches/west-midlands/.
Meetings are held at the Elgar Birthplace Museum,
Crown East Lane, Worcester, WR2 6RH.
The Holst Birthplace
Museum
is
an
independent museum
housed in the Regency
Terraced
property
where the von Holst
family
lived
until
Gustav’s mother died
when he was 7 years
old. The rooms are
mostly set in the
Victorian period to
interpret how the house
would have looked when the family lived there around
the 1870s, with the exception of the Regency Room which
reflects the house as it would have been when first built
and when owned by Gustav’s mother’s family.
The dual purpose of the Museum is to celebrate the life
and works of the composer Gustav Holst (1874 –1934)
and to be a force for making the whole range of his music
more widely known and appreciated as well as to
preserve and to promote the house, in which Gustav
Holst was born, as an independent visitor and
educational facility which also illustrates the way of life
in a modest 19th century house in Cheltenham.
Exhibitions – Current and Recent
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l
• New Acquisitions (until December 2015)
Miniature Museum of Museums
(12th June – 1st September 2015)
It’s always surprising that so many years after his death,
items relating to Holst are still being offered to the
Museum.
The items in the New Acquisitions exhibition are a
mixture of those newly acquired and those newly
accessioned. They all continue to expand our knowledge
Saturday 14th November 2015, 2.30 p.m.
“Piers Plowman – Elgar’s Bible?”, Peter Sutton
Saturday 5th December 2015, 2.30 p.m.
Don’t Mention the War, Martin and Jane Bird
Yorkshire and North East Branch
Details of the Yorkshire and North East Branch
programme can be found at: http://elgar.org/elgarsoc/
branches/yorkshire-north- east/.
Meetings are held at the St Bede’s Centre, 21, Blossom
Street, York, YO24 1AQ.
Saturday 17th October 2015, 2.00 p.m.
Elgar in the Recording Studio, David Lloyd-Jones
of Holst and help to
build
a
more
comprehensive picture
of his character. The
exhibition includes an
unusual image of
Holst; a carte de visite
(‘probably of Holst’) of
a child in Highland
dress and also letters –
always enlightening –
which give an insight
into Holst’s character
and the informality
which drew people to
him belying the serious
exterior often presented in photographs of the man: this
to friend Gerald Forty, “If the weather is fine (which it
ain’t) and I feel energetic (which I don’t)”. The exhibition
in a small way encompasses the essence of Holst – his
friendships, his music, his family, his sense of community
and his creativity.
Produced by Flow Contemporary Arts, the Miniature
Museum of Museums, by artists Tara Downs and Bart
Sabel (which has sadly now ended) used the ingenuity,
essential to any creative process, to link the Holst
Birthplace Museum with Gloucester’s Waterways
Museum and Stroud’s Museum in the Park. The unique
interactive artwork was inspired by the collections of the
three Gloucestershire museums. Essentially it was a
writing desk transformed by sound, light and moving
parts, which was intended – and cries out – to be played
with. There were drawers full of objects and sounds
echoing the individual museums; for example, Imogen
Holst spoke about her father and there was a wonderful
and haunting interpretation of Holst’s Song of the
Shipbuilders by girls from Cheltenham’s Pate’s Grammar
EMF British Composer Organisation Bulletin – Summer/Autumn 2015
5
School. The wonderful artwork, itself a testament to
ingenuity, seemed to take on a different character in each
of the museums where it was exhibited.
More 2015 Events
October 16th:
The British Friends of Museums Conference
BAfM national conference co-hosted by the Holst
Birthplace Museum and the Friends of Cheltenham Art
Gallery and Museum. Theme: ‘Does the past have a
future? Engaging the next generation’
For further details please refer to:
www.holstmuseum.co.uk.
The Herbert Howells Society
www.herberthowellssociety.com
The Herbert Howells Trust
www.howellstrust.org.uk
President: Sir David Willcocks CBE MC
Vice-Presidents: Rev. Dr Paul Andrews,
Dr Harry Bramma, Dr Stephen Cleobury CBE,
Dr Simon Heffer, Dr David Hill,
Hilary Macnamara, James O’Donnell KCSG,
Dr Christopher Robinson CVO CBE, Patrick Russill,
Dr John Scott LVO, Howard Shelley and Paul Spicer
Chairman: Dr Martin Neary LVO
The Herbert Howells Society was formed in 1987 at the
request of the composer’s daughter, Ursula, to promote a
deeper understanding and wider appreciation of the
music of Herbert Howells, and to encourage and publicise
performances and recordings of his works. It is based in
Westminster Abbey where Howells’ ashes are buried.
The Society has supported the publication of many
hitherto unpublished pieces, and has been instrumental
in arranging the publication of printed full scores and
parts for the two piano concertos. It has supported a number of chamber music recordings and the highly praised
Priory Records project, covering all the canticle settings, by the Collegiate Singers, directed by Andrew Millinger.
It sponsored the computer setting and editing of a new performing edition of the composer’s greatest work, Hymnus
Paradisi, and continues to look for opportunities to publish the few remaining unpublished scores and to organise
new recordings.
Every year, before or after its AGM, the Society presents an event to publicise some lesser known aspect of Howells’s
music. In recent years this has resulted in programmes concentrating on solo songs, violin & piano works as well as
choral music. This year it covers chamber music and part songs. The committee includes the composer John Rutter,
who has done much editorial work for the Society.
New Publications
We have overseen the publication of several new pieces. The major work published by Novello was the completely
new computerised full score and parts of Stabat Mater edited by Stephen Cleobury. This editing unearthed many
6
EMF British Composer Organisation Bulletin – Summer/Autumn 2015
errors in the original and difficult to read handwritten
full score and parts. It was first used for a performance
on Good Friday 2013 in King’s College Chapel
Cambridge, which was subsequently broadcast on BBC
Radio 3. The piece was recorded later that year by the
Bach Choir, with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra
conducted by David Hill.
Quite fortuitously, David Hill was in the USA three
weeks before the recording, and was shown Howells’
own vocal score in which he had written in red ink a lot
of tempo changes a short while before the first
performance under David Willcocks in 1965. These
changes – for which Howells apologised to Willcocks for
the lateness of the revisions were quite significant, and
were able to be incorporated into the recording (see
below). The full score and parts are subsequently being
revised with these late changes.
The unfinished ‘cello concerto started in the 1930s
consisted of the published first movement as Fantasia, with
the second movement (Threnody) orchestrated after the
composer’s death by Christopher Palmer for the Centenary
concert in Westminster Abbey in 1992, with Raphael
Wallfisch and conducted by Martin Neary. The society
deposited the sketches for the final movement in the Royal
College of Music Library and Jonathan Clinch of Durham
University reviewed these and decided that it would be
possible to complete the score from the sketches without
excess of conjecture. Given permission to undertake this
work by the Herbert Howells Trust, he set to work, and
with advice and support from a number of people, not
least John Rutter (Committee member of the Society),
Christopher Robinson (Howells Trust), Anthony Payne,
Robert Saxton, Julian Lloyd Webber (Howells’ godson)
and Prof Jeremy Dibble, he completed the movement. The
final movement has now been published by Novello, and
recorded by Alice Neary and the Royal Scottish National
Orchestra under Ronald Corp (see below).
The society is grateful to Rupert Marshall-Luck and
Matthew Rickard for taking on a major project to perform
and record all the violin and piano works of Howells (see
below for double CD details). As part of this project, the
society organised the complete editing of a very early
work which Howells, then aged 18, composed for his
entrance scholarship to the RCM in 1911, the B minor
violin sonata. It was given its world premiere performance
by Rupert Marshall-Luck and Matthew Rickard as part
of the Cheltenham festival in 2013. This is a major work
that was jointly edited by Paul Spicer and Rupert, and has
now just been published by Boosey & Hawkes. Booseys
are also looking at publishing the two remaining violin
& piano items: Cradle Song and Lento Assai Espressivo.
With editorial work from Scott Crowne, and again
organised by the Howells Society, Novello has published
A Collection of Songs, nine solo songs which have never
before been published. They include: The Primrose, Upon
a Summer’s Day, By the Hearthstone, Blaweary, Sweet
Content, Here she lies, a pretty bud, An Old Man’s Lullaby, O
Garlands hanging by the doors and Lethe. These are available
now. The society is also looking at Five Early Songs with
a view to getting them published later this year or early
next. There is already interest in performing them.
As mentioned above, the Stabat Mater by the Bach Choir
and Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra under David
Hill was recorded in late 2013, and released on the Naxos
label (8.573176) which also includes Sine Nomine for
wordless chorus, soprano and tenor soloists and
orchestra, and the World Premiere of the orchestral
arrangement by the composer in 1977 of the famous
Collegium Regale Te Deum setting. The CD has had
excellent reviews in all of the major magazines. This is
the culmination of a number of years of background work
by the society putting the various pieces into place to
enable the recording to be made.
Just released a couple of months ago is a recording which
the society has been planning and working on for a
number of years, namely the recently completed ‘Cello
Concerto in the World Premiere recording. The recording
on Dutton Epoch (CDLX 7317) also includes the first
digital recordings of Puck’s Minuet and Merry Eye. The
CD is completed by the first recording of Ronald Corp’s
‘Cello Concerto. The soloist is Alice Neary, with the Royal
Scottish National Orchestra under Ronald Corp.
The English Music Festival, with assistance from the
Herbert Howells Trust, issued a 2 CD set of all the extant
violin & piano works by Howells on EMR CD019-20.
Performed by Rupert Marshall-Luck and Matthew
Rickard, the recording includes all three violin & piano
sonatas, the early B minor sonata, Slow Air, Country Tune,
Cradle Song, Lento Assai Espressivo and three pieces for violin
& piano, with several World Premiere recordings.
Also on the EM Records label is a recording of the
Phantasy String Quartet of 1917, performed by the Bridge
Quartet on EMR CD025
After a number of discussions with Decca / Argo about
the possibility of re-releasing the classic Kings College /
Willcocks first ever all-Howells LP of 1967, the Australian
arm of Decca (Decca Eloquence) has now released a CD
of Howells and Vaughan Williams which includes the
Coll Reg Te Deum, Jubilate, Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis,
the St Paul’s Service Mag & Nunc, Take Him Earth for
Cherishing, two Carol Anthems and Psalm Prelude Set 1 No.1
played by David Willcocks in one of the very few
recordings made by him on the organ. The rest of the CD
is accompanied by a young Andrew Davis. The RVW
works include the Three Shakespeare Songs and the Fantasia
on Christmas Carols.
New Society Website
The Howells Society has been working on a new website
which can be found at www.herberthowellssociety.com.
It gives details about the society, how to contact us, and
how to join. It also includes several papers written about
Howells by various authors and some member sections
are password protected. Membership is a minimum of
EMF British Composer Organisation Bulletin – Summer/Autumn 2015
£10 per annum. The new Membership Secretary of the
Society is Julian Parkin. He would be delighted to hear
from anyone interested in becoming a member via email
at [email protected].
Howells and Stanford Societies
Joint Weekend in Cambridge
Saturday 17th and Sunday 18th October 2015
Following the very successful Howells & Stanford
weekend in 2011, the two societies are collaborating again
for a weekend of music in Cambridge on Saturday 17th
(HH birthday) and Sunday 18th October involving the
colleges most associated with the two composers.
Stanford joined Queens’ College as an undergraduate,
and later transferred to Trinity College. Howells will
forever be associated with King’s College, Boris Ord,
David Willcocks, and Stephen Cleobury, having written
a number of works for that college (not least the full
Collegium Regale settings of the Morning and Evening
Canticles and Communion Service). It is not generally
known that he dedicated his 1932 Requiem to Boris Ord
and the Choir of King’s College (he never mentioned it
to Ord!). St John’s College was where Howells became
Acting Organist and Fellow from 1941-45, and it is where
the Howells Trust is based. All four colleges have been
enthusiastic in welcoming a return visit which will
include performances by the four Chapel Choirs, as well
as a chamber music recital by the Gould Piano Trio
(including Alice Neary on ‘cello) where the programme
includes: Stanford’s ‘Cello Sonata No.1, and his Irish
Concertino (in a brand new edition by Jeremy Dibble for
violin, ‘cello and piano). The Howells pieces include the
famous Carnegie Award Piano Quartet of 1916 and Three
pieces for violin & piano. The recital will be preceded by a
lecture by Dr. Simon Heffer the famous broadcaster, critic
and writer, talking about Howells.
Robin Milford Trust
www.robinmilfordtrust.org.uk
Introduction
7
There will be evensongs and a Eucharist featuring the
works of both composers at King’s, St John’s and Trinity
and an organ recital by our chairman, Dr Martin Neary
in Trinity on Sunday. Queens’ College Chapel Choir will
feature a part songs recital of lesser known works of both
composers, and organ music. Prof Jeremy Dibble will
give a talk on part songs before the recital.
There will be a formal dinner restricted to members and
guests of the two societies in the magnificent Hall of St
John’s College, with its 16th century hammer beam roof
and fine old linen fold panelling. The guest speaker after
dinner is the composer and conductor, John Rutter, who
knew Howells in the 1970s and early 1980s.
For further details, please contact the Hon. Secretary,
Andrew Millinger on [email protected] or
on 01707 335315, or at 32 Barleycroft Road, Welwyn
Garden City, Herts AL8 6JU.
Herbert Howells Trust
The society works closely with the Herbert Howells Trust
to enable editing work to be undertaken and new
publications to be issued. They are also involved with us
in offering support for recordings of the less familiar
works and some assistance for performances. Many of
the new publications and recordings mentioned above
would not have been possible without the generous
support of the Howells Trust.
For further information about the work of the Society
please contact the Hon. Secretary, Andrew Millinger on
[email protected] or on 01707 335315, or at 32
Barleycroft Road, Welwyn Garden City, Herts AL8 6JU.
For details of membership of the society, please contact
the Membership Secretary, Julian Parkin at
[email protected].
Patron: Dr. Stephen Varcoe
Trustees: David Pennant, Auriol Milford
and Peter Hunter
Oxford-born Robin Milford (1903–1959) wrote some 110 compositions. His best known
works were written for solo voice, choir, piano, organ, various instrumental ensembles
and solo instruments with piano. Milford also wrote works for large orchestral forces,
which include a symphony, a violin concerto, an opera, a ballet and some incidental music.
The Robin Milford Trust aims to promote the education of the public in the study and
appreciation of music – and to encourage the publication, performance and recording of
the music of Robin Milford.
The Trust came into being on 24th March 1986. The trustees were Marion Milford, Auriol
Milford and Anne Ridler. The object was and is to “promote the education of the public
in the study, practice, knowledge and appreciation of music and the other arts – and more
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EMF British Composer Organisation Bulletin – Summer/Autumn 2015
particularly the music of Robin Milford (1903–1959) ... by encouraging, promoting and assisiting the publication,
performance and recording of the music of Robin Milford.” Anne Ridler died in 2001, and Marion Milford retired in
2009. Peter Hunter and David Pennant became trustees in 2009, joining Auriol Milford who continues.
Milford’s Miniature Concerto for Strings was performed at the final concert of the English Music Festival on Monday
25th May, 2015, at Dorchester Abbey. This work will also be the subject of a summer workshop for strings during
June 2015 for students in a small city in the Mojave Desert in southern California.
On the 14th February 2015, Emma Sheppard and Gavin Sunderland gave a performance of Four Pieces for Viola and
Piano to a good-sized audience at Christ Church, Cheltham. Dr Philip Lane wrote a review of the concert. This is
available from Peter Hunter.
David Crocker, one of our most faithful ‘Milfordians’, once again included Milford in his annual organ recital as part
of the 2015 Tavistock Festival.
Other successful recent performances include the:
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Elegiac Meditation and Miniature Concerto (Peter Copley, Director; Musicians of All Saints)
l
Clarinet Quintet (the Goldfield Ensemble, directed by Dr. Kate Romano)
l
Prelude to Ariel (the Northern Lights Symphony Orchestra, directed by Adam Johnson)
l
Fantasia in B minor for String Quartet (the Goldfield Ensemble, directed by Dr. Kate Romano)
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‘Gavotte’ and ‘Minuet and Musette’ from Suite in D minor for Oboe and Strings (David Crocker, organist)
Please consider performing Milford’s music if you are:
l
concerts manager/orchestral conductor
l
presenting a solo song degree performance or recital/teaching diploma
l
presenting a song recital, piano recital or organ recital
l
planning a music competitive festival
l
planning a music examination syllabus
l
planning a choral concert or cathedral/church service list
Anyone interested in performing any of Milford’s works should please contact any of the Trustees. Small grants are
available from the Milford Trust for performances of Milford’s works.
BBC Radio 3 selected Robin Milford as the penultimate composer to be featured on their “Best of British” playlist in
2014. They chose Milford’s Fishing by Moonlight to play on the 30th December, with the final New Year’s Eve
programme being given to George Frederic Handel.
Robert Plane and others have issued a CD of seven pieces of chamber music by Milford with Toccata Classics. The
CD was “recording of the month” with MusicWeb International. It was reviewed by Philip R Buttall.
A recording of The Darkling Thrush, for solo violin and orchestra is due to be released under the Dutton Epoch label
during this summer, 2015. This will be part of a coupling with the Delius Violin Concerto by the violinist Philippe
Graffin with the RSNO and David Lloyd-Jones.
The English Music Festival’s 2014 CD, EMR CD013, containing Milford’s Violin Concerto (Rupert Marshall-Luck,
soloist, BBC Concert Orchestra, directed by Owain Arwell Hughes) continues to enjoy a high profile and good reviews.
Please see the Milford Trust Website for the many other recordings now available. Small grants are available from the
Milford Trust for recordings of Milford’s works.
Publications
During 2014 Animus Music Publishing published a new three-volume series of Milford’s organ music. Details can be
found at http://www.animusi.co.uk/.
Peter Hunter will soon be publishing the first of his two volumes entitled Robin Milford – A Composer Illuminated
by his Personal Correspondence and War Diary. The first volume is concerned with the period 1903-1938). Details
from Peter at [email protected].
Rupert Marshall-Luck of EM Publishing is currently editing the Milford Violin Concerto for publication.
Please see the Milford Trust Website for the publication of all other Milford works (solo song, sacred and secular
choral, solo instrumental, chamber, orchestral, piano, organ)
Our New Website
A modernised Milford Trust website has been created by Sam Milford. This includes current news, details and
discussions of Milford and his compositions, and contact details.
EMF British Composer Organisation Bulletin – Summer/Autumn 2015
9
As part of our on-going promotion of Milford’s works, we will soon be placing short examples of the composer’s
compositions on the Website, commencing with the songs.
A number of Milford’s large orchestral works are already available, in digitised format, for viewing through David
Pennant. These can be found under ‘Works’ and identified as ‘RMT’.
The Milford Trust is not only interested in promoting the life and work of Robin Milford but also other aspects of
British Music. To this end, the website will soon include a section devoted to Gordon Phillips and a section entitled
‘Lesser-known British Composers of the Twentieth Century’. Anyone wishing to write on and include information
regarding these areas should please contact Peter Hunter, as above. The Trust is also happy to advertise links, and
news of other musical bodies and musical events involving British Music around the world.
Research into the Life, Music and Musical/Historical Context of the Composer
Peter Hunter is currently working on:
l
Milford’s correspondence (with family, friends, Gerald Finzi and other composers)
l
the music and style of each decade
Anyone wishing to write on any of these areas as a degree dissertation or research diploma (Fellowship, Licentiate or
Associate levels), should please contact Peter Hunter, as above. He will be happy to assist with any of this work.
Small, grants are available from the Milford Trust for research and writing on Robin Milford.
The John Ireland Trust
www.johnirelandtrust.org
John Ireland remembered in Deal, Kent
On Saturday 9th May a Blue Plaque commemorating John Ireland’s frequent visits to
the Kentish seaside town, midway between Folkestone and Canterbury, was installed
on the imposing 18th-century house named ‘Comarques’ in the High Street where he
occupied the top floor whenever he could get away from London in the 1930s.
Ireland was particularly sensitive to place and he wrote that the town was “free from the crushing, tragic weight of
ancient times which is so oppressive in the Downs.” The flat was furnished with the greatest of care, according to an
acquaintance; the centrepiece being the baby grand piano which had been presented to him by Chappell.
The John Ireland Charitable Trust in co-operation with the Deal Festival and the Deal Society sponsored two concerts
in the Town Hall during the unveiling weekend; the first featuring the Odysseus Piano Trio (Clare Hammond piano,
Sarah Trickey violin and Gregor Riddell cello) in trios by Ireland, Martinu and Brahms, and Clare Hammond played
Ireland’s piano suite ‘Decorations’ and Cap Gris Nez by Deal resident and composer, David Matthews. On Sunday,
after a morning Mass in St Andrew’s Church (including Ireland’s anthem ‘Ex Ore Innocentium’ beautifully sung by
the choir) David Matthews and Bruce Phillips, Director of the Trust, discussed the music Ireland is known to have
written in Deal, and the talented young musicians of the Purcell School delighted the audience with their performances
of music by Ireland, Ravel and Debussy.
Focus on Ireland’s ‘Legend’ for Piano and Orchestra
Following the great national and international success of his Piano Concerto and the tremendous boost it gave to the
public recognition of composer and pianist, Ireland first thought was to write a second concerto. What remains became
Photographs courtesy of Tony Nandi
10
EMF British Composer Organisation Bulletin – Summer/Autumn 2015
a 15-minute work for piano and orchestra called ‘Legend’. Dedicated to the writer Arthur Machen, it was first
performed in January 1934 by Helen Perkin at Queen’s Hall with the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir
Adrian Boult. It was played soon after by Harriet Cohen, with Ireland conducting. The inspiration for this powerful
brooding work was a vivid dreamlike vision Ireland experienced while walking up on the South Downs at Harrow
Hill in West Sussex near the site of Neolithic flint mines, an Iron Age enclosure and the remains of a medieval leper
colony. In this remote spot, Ireland noticed some children silently playing and dancing, dressed in strange white
garments. The composer wrote to Arthur Machen giving a full account of the experience. Machen replied with a cryptic
postcard saying “Oh, so you’ve seen them too, have you?”
Forthcoming performances include:
Sunday 18th October 2015 at 7.30pm
Friday 20th November 2015 at 7.00pm
Royal Over-Seas League, London
Music at 22 Mansfield Street, London W1G 9NR
Ireland: If there were Dreams to sell; Strauss: Heimliche
Aufforderung, from 4 Lieder Op 27; Henri Duparc: Zartliche
Liebe; Ludwig van Beethoven: Chanson triste – Ich liebe
dich’; Reynaldo Hahn: L’heure exquise; Robert Schumann:
Ich bin dein Baum, from Minnespiel Op 101; Ich kann’s nicht
fassen, nicht glauben, from Frauenliebe und -leben Op 42;
Manuel de Falla: Polo, from 7 Canciones Populares
Españolas; Aaron Copland: Heart, we will forget him, from 12
Poems of Emily Dickinson; Richard Strauss: Ach Lieb, ich
muss nun scheiden, from Schlichte Weisen Op 21; Sergey
Rachmaninov: O no, I beg you, forsake me not, from 6
Romances Op 4; Franz Schubert: Am Bach im Fruhling D361;
Johannes Brahms: Immer leiser wird mein Schlummer, from 5
Lieder Op 105; Robert Schumann: Meine Rose, from 6
Gedichte und Requiem Op 90; Felix Mendelssohn: Volkslied,
from 6 Duets Op 63; Roger Quilter: Music, when soft voices
die, from 6 Songs Op 25; Richard Strauss: Morgen!, from 4
Lieder Op 27; Franz Schubert: Abschied, ‘Farewell’ D475.
Delius: Legend; Thomas Pitfield: Sonata no.1;
Cyril Scott: Two Sonnetts; Ireland: Berceuse and Bagatelle;
Lennox Berkeley: Elegy and Toccata
Sunday 6th December 2015 at 6.00pm
(Reception from 5.00pm)
St John the Baptist, Wellington TA21 8RF
Two Moors Festival
Gurney: I will go with my father a ploughing; The Fields are
Full; Desire in Spring; Severn Meadows; Lights Out; For G; In
Flanders; Lights Out; Tippett: Songs for Ariel; Come unto
these yellow sands; Full fathom five; Where the bee sucks;
Bingham: The Colour of Fire; Elgar: Sea Pictures; Ireland:
Earth’s Call; Her Song; My true love hath my heart; Richard
Rodney Bennett: The History of the Thé Dansant
Sarah Connolly, mezzo soprano
Joseph Middleton, piano
www.thetwomoorsfestival.co.uk
Monday 26th October 2015 at 7.30pm
20th century British violin and piano music
Fenella Humphreys, violin, Nathan Williamson, piano
To book: [email protected]
Thursday 29th October 2015 at 6.30pm
Holywell Music Room, Oxford
Oxford Lieder Festival
Butterworth, Selected songs from A Shropshire Lad
Orr, Selected songs from A Shropshire Lad
Ireland, Selected songs from A Shropshire Lad
Moeran, Selected songs from A Shropshire Lad
Robert Murray, Tenor; Mark Stone, Baritone;
Graham Johnson, Piano
Elizabeth Watts, soprano; Marcus Farnsworth, baritone;
Audrey Hyland, piano
The Great Hall, Berkeley Castle, Berkeley,
Gloucestershire, GL13 9BH
Corelli: Concerto Grosso in G minor Op 6 No 8 ‘Christmas
Concerto’; Vivaldi: The Four Seasons: Largo from ‘Winter’;
Bach: Brandenburg Concerto No 5 in D; Debussy: Syrinx;
[Christmas Reading]; Ireland: The Holy Boy; Minuet from
A Downland Suite; Toccata from Concertino Pastorale;
Warlock: Movements from Capriol Suite; Anderson: Blue
Tango; Strauss: Pizzicato Polka
English String Orchestra
Supported by The John Ireland Charitable Trust
http://www.orpheus-events.com/eso/esochristmas-concert-2015-at-berkeley-castle/#main
The Delius Society
www.delius.org.uk
A new book has been published by our esteemed Chairman
‘Delius and his Music’ by Martin Lee-Browne & Paul Guinery
(Foreword by Sir Mark Elder) – Boydell & Brewer £30
There are many biographies and articles about Frederick Delius’s life (1862–1934), but there has
never been a comprehensive book about his music until now. Everything he wrote, from his
EMF British Composer Organisation Bulletin – Summer/Autumn 2015
11
earliest compositions right up to his final works, is analysed here; the history and background of each work and its
critical reception are all examined, set against events in Delius’s life and the wider musical world. The book contains
numerous music examples and quotations from many contemporary newspapers and journals. A complete list of all
of Delius’s works, with catalogue numbers, and a select bibliography are also provided.
Martin Lee-Browne is the chairman of The Delius Society, a former Chairman of the Gloucester Three Choirs Festival,
and author of The Life & Times of Frederic Austin (1996).
Paul Guinery is a pianist and associate of the Royal College of Music, as well as a former broadcaster for the BBC
Radio 3 and co-author (with Lyndon Jenkins) of Delius and Fenby, A Photographic Journey (The Delius Society, 2004).
Forthcoming concerts include:
21st, 24th, 27th and 30th October 2015 at 8.00pm
Sunday 15th November 2015 at 7.45pm
The Forum Theatre, Malvern
Delius: Koanga.
Vaughan Williams: The Wasps Overture; Delius: Double
concerto; Elgar: Symphony No 1
O’Reilly Theatre, National Opera House, County
Wexford, Ireland
Wexford Opera Company
Monday 26th October 2015 at 7.30pm
Music at 22 Mansfield Street, London W1G 9NR
20th century British violin and piano music
Delius: Legend; Thomas Pitfield: Sonata no.1; Cyril
Scott: Two Sonnetts; Ireland: Berceuse and Bagatelle;
Lennox Berkeley: Elegy and Toccata
Fenella Humphreys, violin
Nathan Williamson, piano
To book: [email protected]
Saturday 31st October 2015 at 7.30pm
All Saints Church, Eastbourne
Delius: Légende for Violin and Piano and works by:
Fauré (Requiem) and Ola Gjeilo (Sunrise Mass)
Eloise Prouse, violin
Bernard King, piano
Aanna Colls Singers and Guest Orchestra
The Full English
Michael Lloyd, conductor
Amy Littlewood, violin
Hetti Price, cello
http://www.chandos.org.uk/
Sunday 14th February 2016 at 3.00pm
Huddersfield Town Hall, Huddersfield
Classic FM Classic Romance
Delius: A Village Romeo and Juliet and works by:
Tchaikovsky (Overture Romeo and Juliet); Mozart
(Overture Cosi fan tutti); Rogers (Carousel -ballet
music; South Pacific - Overture); Stenhammer (Two
Sentimental Romances for violin and orchestra) Elgar
(Enigma Variations - Nimrod); Wagner (Tristan and
Isolde - Prelude and Liebstod); R Strauss (Der
Rosenkavalier - Waltzes) and Bernstein (On the Town Three Dance Episodes)
Anne-Marie Minhall (Presenter)
Orchestra of Opera North
Tobias Ringborg (conductor/soloist)
www.peterwarlock.org
In his lifetime, the composer Peter
Warlock actively promoted himself
as a hedonistic hell-raiser who loved
women and beer. He did a good job, as this image of him still persists today. There
was, however, a much more serious side to Peter Warlock, whose real name was Philip
Heseltine. In addition to composing some of the most exquisite English music of the
early 20th century, he was an enthusiastic and industrious scholar. He was one of the
first early music revivalists and spent much time in the British Museum transcribing
Elizabethan manuscripts. He was also a prolific writer. His books include The English
Ayre, a survey of Elizabethan music, and Carlo Gesualdo, Musician and Murderer, the first
major book about this remarkable 16th century Italian composer. He wrote a host of
articles and short essays and the first biography of Delius, who was a significant
influence on the young Heseltine both musically and personally. Warlock’s
contribution to the musical world was immense.
12
EMF British Composer Organisation Bulletin – Summer/Autumn 2015
Peter Warlock died in 1930. At that time he was a
significant and well-known figure, not only as a
composer, a scholar and early music revivalist, but also as
an extraordinary personality. Today, his magnetism is as
potent as ever. Interest in him increases as his
compositions, colourful life, and extensive literary and
musical writings become better known. This wasn’t
always the case. Thirty years after Warlock’s death, his
published music was rapidly going out of print and his
name had all but disappeared from the contemporary
music scene. One man, Patrick Mills, reflected on how
vitally important it would be to preserve Warlock’s work,
and to keep the colourful ‘world of Warlock’ alive.
Accordingly in 1963, Patrick founded the Peter Warlock
Society and, with several like-minded acquaintances,
determined the Society’s remit, which would be to
promote performance of Warlock’s music, to encourage
the production of commercially available recordings, to
research further into his music and life and, in due course,
to publish all of Warlock’s writings and music. It was an
ambitious task. However, after 52 years the Peter Warlock
Society has realised much of Patrick’s initial vision.
The remit of the Society now is to continue to support
concerts, recordings and research. It publishes a journal,
still affectionately called the Newsletter, twice a year,
which contains fascinating and illuminating articles on
Warlock, his world and his music. These are based on
new research and it is extraordinary how much Warlock
related information, also of relevance to our knowledge
and understanding of early 20th Century British music,
is still being unearthed. The journal also carries reviews
of concerts, events, CDs and books, indeed anything that
has a Warlock connection. As such, the Newsletter, as well
as being of general interest, is a significant source of
information for all scholars of British music.
In less than two decades Warlock wrote around 120
songs, 24 part-songs, a dozen items of vocal chamber
music, half a dozen instrumental works and made
around 600 transcriptions of early music, some of them
vast undertakings. His writing – books, articles, prefaces,
reviews, and programme notes – amount to c.300,000
words. Copies of all these items are kept in the Society’s
Sir Arthur Sullivan Society
www.sullivansociety.org.uk
Registered Charity no. 274022 / Founded 1977
Resource Library and are freely available to bona fide
scholars and musicians without charge, although
donations are welcomed.
Every year the Society invites one of the UK’s colleges of
music to put on a ‘Peter Warlock Birthday Concert’ for the
general public in October. This enables music students up
and down the country to have direct practical experience
of performing and engaging with Warlock’s music and it
is always pleasing to hear those involved say how much
they appreciate having been introduced to his music. Last
year’s concert was given by the Birmingham
Conservatoire and was of an exceptionally high standard.
This year we look forward to being in Manchester at the
Royal Northern College of Music (6pm Tuesday 27
October, The Carole Nash Recital Hall).
Last year saw the 120th anniversary of Warlock’s birth.
To mark the occasion the Society held a symposium at
the British Library, which consisted of several talks, the
screening of a fascinating film about Warlock (in Welsh
with English subtitles) and an authentic 1920s listening
experience of Warlock’s music on 78rpm records played
on a wind-up gramophone.
The Warlock Society’s Annual General Meetings take
place, usually in May, in locations based on the
chronological order of places where Warlock lived. Last
year’s AGM was held in Broadstairs, where Warlock
attended Stone House School. This year we were in
Whitney-on-Wye (Warlock stayed with his aunt there
over the summer vacation) and next year we will be at
Eton College where Warlock became a pupil after Stone
House. The actual AGM itself is very short and forms a
small part of the AGM weekends where a number of
activities are offered including concerts, talks, walks and
general sightseeing of places of Warlock significance.
The Peter Warlock Society continues to work steadily to
increase knowledge and understanding of Warlock’s work
and to support performances, recordings and literary
projects. If you would like to know more about the Society,
please contact the Hon. Secretary Malcolm Rudland, 31
Hammerfield House, Cale Street, London SW3 3SG, Tel:
020 7589 9595, Email: [email protected] or visit our
website www.peterwarlock.org.
President: Mike Leigh
Contact: Doreen Harris
71 The Heights, Foxgrove Road, Beckenham, BR3 5BZ
020 8650 7979
[email protected]
The Society aims to encourage interest in the life and music of Sullivan by means of publications, lectures, concerts
and other activities, most notably recordings, of which we have promoted a large number. In recent years these have
included The Golden Legend, The Prodigal Son, the Boer War Te Deum, The Contrabandista and The Foresters with
Hyperion, and, with Chandos, The Beauty Stone and our Grammy-nominated Ivanhoe. In February and March 2015
EMF British Composer Organisation Bulletin – Summer/Autumn 2015
13
we recorded Sullivan’s complete incidental music to The Tempest (1861/2, the work that made his name) and Macbeth
(1888) plus the Marmion overture (1867), with Mary Bevan, Fflur Wyn, the BBC Singers and the BBC Concert Orchestra
conducted by John Andrews. This is the first complete recording of Macbeth and Marmion, and the first complete
Tempest since 1955. They will be issued on the Dutton Epoch label.
Society membership is open to all in sympathy with our aims. Benefits include a fully illustrated magazine three times
a year and regular newsletters giving details of forthcoming performances, events, recordings etc.
We hold an annual residential weekend devoted to performances of Sullivan’s music and talks on his life and work.
This year’s event took place at the Royal Agricultural University, Cirencester from 11th to 13th September. It included
song and chamber music recitals, a service of Matins using exclusively Sullivan’s music, and a range of talks by scholars
from both sides of the Atlantic, including the composer’s great-great nephew, Scott Hayes, who was promoting his
forthcoming book on Sullivan’s letters to his family. For more details contact [email protected] or visit
www.sullivansociety.org.uk/events.php.
Our library contains unique performing material, much of it available for hire, and we have an extensive sales catalogue
of CDs, booklets and libretti.
The adult subscription is £20, with reductions for the unwaged, OAPs, students and those paying by standing order.
Contact: Doreen Harris, 71 The Heights, Foxgrove Road, Beckenham, BR3 5BZ. Tel: 020 8650 7979. Email:
[email protected].
Forthcoming performances include:
Tano Rea presents The Great Big Gilbert and Sullivan Show at the Theatre Royal, Lincoln on 17th October 2015.
Kidlington Amateur Operatic Society presents Utopia Ltd from 21st to 24th October 2015 at Gosford Hill School,
Kidlington (near Oxford). For tickets, please call 01865 375613.
Charles Court Opera presents The Zoo and Trial by Jury at the Rosemary Branch Theatre on 25th, 26th, 28th and 29th
October 2015 at 7.30pm. Tickets £15 – Tel: 020 7704 6665; www.rosemarybranch.co.uk.
St. Andrews University University Gilbert and Sullivan Society presents Ruddigore in the week ending 31st October.
English National Opera present The Mikado at the London Coliseum: 21st/28th November, 3rd/5th December, 30th
January, 3rd/6th February at 7.30pm; 28th November, 5th December, 30th January, 6th February at 2.30pm; 29th
November and 6th December at 3.00pm. Cast includes Richard Suart and Robert Lloyd; ENO Mackerras Conducting
Fellow Fergus Macleod makes his company debut as Musical Director.
The Ralph Vaughan Williams Society
http://www.rvwsociety.com
We have been celebrating the 21st anniversary of the formation of
the Society with a variety of exclusive members’ events including
informal chats with conductors Sakari Oramo at the BBC Proms,
and John Wilson at the Royal Festival Hall prior to his performance
of Symphony No.5 with The Philharmonia, when the conductor
was interviewed by BBC Radio 3 presenter Sarah Walker.
In Manchester, Society members enjoyed a weekend of concerts
firstly at Chetham’s School of Music, preceded by a talk entitled
‘Vaughan Williams and World War I’ with Conductor Stephen
Threlfall, Vice-Chairman of the Society John Francis, and Director
of the Vaughan Williams Charitable Trust Hugh Cobbe. This was
followed by a concert entitled ‘Images of World War I’ featuring
Symphony No.3 performed by Chetham’s Symphony Orchestra.
Photograph courtesy of Karen Fletcher
Members reconvened at the Bridgewater Hall for a performance of The Lark Ascending and Symphony No.6 with
the BBC Philharmonic under John Storgårds. The Bridgewater Hall also hosted a performance of ‘Job’, again with the
BBC Philharmonic, this time with conductor Vassily Sinaisky.
14
EMF British Composer Organisation Bulletin – Summer/Autumn 2015
Other performances over recent months included ‘Burley Heath’ and ‘Harnham Down’ at the English Music Festival,
Nicholas Collon conducting Symphonies 3 and 6, two performances of Flos Campi in London, Symphony No.4 in
Philadelphia, and five performances of Symphony No.5 with the UTCinquieme Orchestre Paris. The complete songs
of Vaughan Williams featured at the London English Song Festival. An upsurge in performances of the Symphony
No.3 (‘Pastoral’) coincided with the centenary of the Great War and in the media, several radio programmes took
Vaughan Williams’s experience in the Great War as their theme, to mark the centenary.
New recordings have included An Oxford Elegy on Naxos, and Dona Nobis Pacem, Symphony No. 4 and The Lark
Ascending with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Robert Spano on their own label. Signum issued The Lark
Ascending and the Violin Concerto with soloist, Tamsin Waley-Cohen. The Halle continued their series of recordings
with Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis, Symphony No.3, Five Variants of Dives and Lazarus and The Wasps Ovt.,
conducted by Sir Mark Elder. Live recordings of Symphonies 4 and 8 from the London Philharmonic Orchestra under
Ryan Wigglesworth and Vladimir Jurowski were also released on their own label.
Looking ahead, we anticipate symphony cycles from Andrew Manze and Martyn Brabbins.
Highlights of the forthcoming season will include
BBC Prom ‘premieres’ of ‘Sancta Civitas’ and the
Violin Concerto at the Royal Albert Hall. Symphony
No.2 conducted by Karl-Heinz Steffans and No.4 by
Sir Mark Elder both feature with the Halle in
Manchester. In London, Symphony No.1 with John
Wilson and The Philharmonia is to be performed at
the Royal Festival Hall, and Symphony No.3 with
Sir Mark Elder will be heard at the Barbican. John
Wilson will also conduct Symphony No.5 with the
CBSO in Birmingham and Andrew Manze is giving
a rare performance of Symphony No. 8 with the
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra in October.
The Society looks forward to the remainder of our
21st birthday year, with two exclusive concerts in
Cheltenham, and at the Royal College of Music in
London. We welcome conductor Andrew Manze as
special guest at our AGM on 4th October, and a
memorial concert for Michael Kennedy takes place
at Manchester’s Royal Northern College of Music on
5th October, conducted by Sir Andrew Davis and
Sir Mark Elder.
The Society is hosting a combined Vaughan
Williams/Elgar Symposium on 7th May 2016 in
Woodbridge, Suffolk.
We have a strong social media presence on
Facebook and Twitter and we continue to work
towards forging links with the media, publishers,
performers and promoters of Vaughan Williams’s
music both in the UK and abroad.
The Stanford Society
www.thestanfordsociety.com
The next Stanford Society annual Festival Weekend will be held jointly with the Herbert Howells Society in Cambridge
on October 17th and 18th, 2015. This will include talks, recitals and services focusing on the music of both Stanford
and Howells. Events will be held in Kings, St John’s and Queens’ Colleges.
For further details of the October Weekend please see the Society’s website.
EMF British Composer Organisation Bulletin – Summer/Autumn 2015
www.britishmusicsociety.com
The British Music Society (BMS) is currently well into an
exciting period of change and development which aims
to bring together an even broader range of opportunities
and experiences for supporters of the British music cause.
Membership has always included the provision of our
flagship printed Journal, packed full of scholarly and
informative articles about wonderful musical rarities. As
of 2015, we are producing 2 journals per year - even better
value for your membership. Our most recent edition was
published in March 2015 and includes articles about John
McCabe, Gordon Jacob, Arthur Butterworth, Humphrey
Searle and Algernon Ashton, as well as a number of
significant obituaries. Further copies of past journals are
also available through our website. In addition, we are
now also circulating regular monthly eNews.
BMS has a long tradition of recordings and our latest CD
releases through the Naxos label were the Robert Still
string quartets, a splendid disk of historical performances
of music by John McCabe, and a CD of works connected
with the late Malcolm Smith, former publisher and huge
British Music enthusiast.
Join the Society to keep up to speed with our events and
to keep abreast of dates, links and promotions. If you are
interested in becoming part of the executive committee,
email us with a list of the skills that you might bring to
the job. We are currently looking for help with social
media and with the Journal, but there are always useful
contributions to be made elsewhere.
Saturday 16th October 2015
The Holbourne Museum, Bath
A one day study day entitled ‘The Loder family of Bath: Music and
culture in provincial Britain in the long nineteenth century’.
http://cmr.bathspa.ac.uk/loder-family-and-music-inprovincial-britain-study-day/.
Saturday 17th and Sunday 18th October
Combined Stanford and Howells weekend in Cambridge
We are pleased to announce the ninth Stanford Society Weekend and
the second Cambridge weekend to be organised jointly with the
Herbert Howells Society. This will be an opportunity to hear some of
the less well known music of both composers, together with lectures
by Dr. Simon Heffer, the critic, writer and broadcaster, and Professor
Jeremy Dibble, of the University of Durham, one of the UK’s leading
experts on Stanford.
The programme will also include services, a chamber music recital
performed by the acclaimed Gould Piano Trio and David Adams, a
recital of choral and organ music, the Howells Society AGM, a dinner
in the historic Hall of St John’s College, hosted by Prof Peter Johnstone
(Fellow of St John’s and Chairman of the Herbert Howells Trust
committee), and tea on Sunday afternoon in the President’s Lodge,
Queens’ College, hosted by Suzi Digby (Lady Eatwell, wife of the
President of Queens’, Lord Eatwell.)
http://www.thestanfordsociety.org/annual-festival/
15
Saturday 17th to Sunday 18th October 2015
Royal & Derngate, Northampton
The 10th Malcolm Arnold Festival: ‘A Gesture of Friendship’
Artistic Director: Paul Harris
Highlights include an explosive ‘all-Arnold’ programme which
kicks off this year’s Festival, with the BBC Concert Orchestra
under Martin Yates, and an exuberant toe-tapping and popular
finale with John Gibbons and the Worthing Symphony Orchestra.
http://malcolmarnoldfestival.com/events.htm
Saturday 17th October 2015 at 7.30pm
Arnold: Fairfield Overture, Op.110; Philharmonic Concerto,
Op.120; Fantasy on a theme of John Field, Op.116; Symphony no.
7, Op.113 – BBC Concert Orchestra; Martin Yates, Conductor; Peter
Donohoe, Piano
Sunday 18th October 2015 at 12.00
Arnold: Film music to Roots of Heaven: Overture; Symphony no.
2, Op.40 – Northamptonshire County Youth Orchestra; Richard
Roper, Conductor; Andy Kirkwood, Conductor
Sunday 18th October 2015 at 5.00pm
Malcolm Arnold’s ‘Symphony for Brass’ – Brasskompaniet
Sunday 18th October 2015 at 7.30pm
Arnold, Commonwealth Christmas Overture, Op.64; Saxophone
Concerto; Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue; Arnold: Four Scottish
Dances, Op.59 – Worthing Symphony Orchestra; John Gibbons,
Conductor; Martin James Bartlett, Piano; Jess Gillam, Saxophone
Sunday 18th October 2015 at 7.30pm
St John the Baptist, Wellington TA21 8RF
Two Moors Festival
Gurney: I will go with my father a ploughing, The Fields are Full,
Desire in Spring, Severn Meadows, Lights Out, For G, In Flanders,
Lights Out; Tippett: Songs for Ariel, Come unto these yellow sands,
Full fathom five, Where the bee sucks; Bingham: The Colour of Fire
(Commissioned by the Two Moors Festival); Elgar: Sea Pictures Op.37;
Ireland: Earth’s Call; Her Song; My true love hath my heart; Richard
Rodney Bennett: The History of the Thé Dansant
Sarah Connolly, mezzo soprano; Joseph Middleton, piano
www.thetwomoorsfestival.co.uk
Sunday 18th October 2015 at 3.30pm
The Falkland Islands Memorial Chapel, Pangbourne College,RG8 8LA
International Concert Series 2015
Frank Bridge: Allegro Appassionato; Ian Venables: Elegy; Frederick
Delius: Violin Sonata No.2 in an arrangement for Viola and Piano by
Lionel Tertis; Rebecca Clarke, ‘Morpheus’, God of Dreams; Franz
Schubert, Sonata for Arpeggione
Duo Karadys (Carol Hubel-Allen, Viola and Alan MacLean, Piano)
www.carolhubelallen.com/duo-karadys.html
Wednesday 21st October 2015 at 7.30pm
Music at Leighton House (limited ticket availability)
Ian Venables : a 60th Birthday Celebration; Ian Venables: On the Wings
of Love, Flying Crooked, At Midnight, The Invitation to the Gondola;
Finzi: Five Bagatelles, Farewell to Arms; Gurney: Sleep; Howells: An
Old Man’s Lullaby; Holst: The Heart Worships; Vaughan Williams: Six
Studies in English Folksong
Nicky Spence, tenor; Max Welford, clarinet; William Vann, piano
www.kcmusic.org.uk/concertoctober.htm
Saturday 24th October 2015 at 7.00pm
Royal College of Music, Amaryllis Fleming Concert Hall
RCM String Orchestra plus players from the RCM Junior Dept.
Mark Messenger, Head of Strings
In association with the Ralph Vaughan Williams Society in their 21st
anniversary year.
Vaughan Williams: Concerto Grosso; Tippett: Four phantasies by
Orlando Gibbons; Elgar: Serenade for Strings; Holst: St Paul’s Suite;
Walton: Two Pieces from Henry V Suite; Vaughan Williams: Fantasia
on a theme of Thomas Tallis
www.rcm.ac.uk/events/listings/details/?id=798642
16
EMF British Composer Organisation Bulletin – Summer/Autumn 2015
Sunday 15th November 2015 at 7.45pm
Sunday 8th November 2015 at 2.45pm
The Forum Theatre, Malvern
Butterworth: A Shropshire Lad;
Jehan Alain: Le Jardin Suspendo;
Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No.3
The Full English
Worthing Symphony Orchestra
John Gibbons, conductor; Poom Prommachart, piano
http://worthingsymphony.co.uk/upcoming_concert
Vaughan Williams: The Wasps Overture; Delius: Double concerto;
Elgar: Symphony No 1
Michael Lloyd, conductor; Amy Littlewood, violin; Hetti Price, cello
www.chandos.org.uk
Humphrey Searle (1915–1982)
Humphrey Searle’s reputation, where it is acknowledged, rests on his ability to fuse the serialism of Berg and Schoenberg
with the romantic power of Franz Liszt. Time and again, music historians and reviewers have commented on the success or
otherwise of this project. Coming to prominence when ‘modernist’ music had a largely bad press (although not as bad as
Searle and Elisabeth Lutyens insisted) he struggled to make a major impact on the musical scene. When the tide turned and
the avant-garde held sway, he was deemed to be reactionary. In 2015, his centenary year, it is possible to ignore former cultural
prejudices and to enjoy Searle’s music for its power, drama, workmanship and often great beauty.
Humphrey Searle was born in Oxford on 26 August 1915. After an education at Winchester College and Oxford University
he studied at the Royal College of Music with John Ireland, R.O. Morris and Gordon Jacob. During 1937-8 Searle enjoyed a
year’s study at the Vienna Conservatory as well as private lessons from Anton Webern. One major event which had a major
impact on his musical style was the British premiere of Alban Berg’s opera Wozzeck.
At the outbreak of the Second World War Searle worked for the BBC, but later enlisted with the Gloucestershire Regiment
and latterly the Intelligence Corp. After the war he returned to the BBC, before resigning in 1948 to concentrate on composition.
Following his deep interest in the music of Franz Liszt he published an authoritative book on that composer’s music as well
as producing a catalogue of Liszt’s music for Grove’s Dictionary. He was a founder member of the Liszt Society.
During the 1960s and 70s Searle held a number of musical teaching posts in England, Germany and the United States.
Humphrey Searle died on 12 May 1982 in London.
Searle’s catalogue is wide-ranging and includes three operas, ballet scores, much orchestral and chamber music. His major
legacy is the cycle of five symphonies written between 1953 and 1963. These are powerful and demanding works that ought
to be at the heart of the British symphonic repertoire. Of equal importance are the three massive works written for speaker,
chorus and orchestra, Gold Coast Customs and The Shadow of Cain both with texts by Edith Sitwell and The Riverrun (James
Joyce). These largely experimental works follow a trajectory from Schoenberg’s A Survivor of Warsaw. In the Joyce setting in
particular, Searle has achieved a near-perfect synthesis of words and music.
There is another side to Searle’s musical achievement – film music. For more than twenty years he contributed excellent scores
for dozens of documentaries and feature films. Much of this music seems to belie his commitment to serialism. Nevertheless
it proves the composer’s personal statement that he is always ‘trying to write music first and use the twelve-note method
afterwards. The twelve-note method is just a means to an end, never an end in itself. One should say this of all methods.’
For readers who have not approached Humphrey Searle’s music the following pieces would serve as an excellent introduction:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
‘Cat variations’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsqogJXfFhM (accessed 1 January 2015)
Aubade for horn and strings, op.28 (Lyrita SRCD.335)
‘Night Music’ op.2 (CPO 999 541-2)
Symphony No. 2, op.33 (Lyrita SRCD.285)
Piano Sonata, op.21 (Naxos 8.571354)
And one more piece that is totally different – the opening credits to the film The Baby and the Battleship (1956)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7i8uE2GBsU (accessed 1 January 2015)
© John France 2015
PLEASE NOTE:
The EMF takes great care to ensure that details are correct but cannot accept
responsibility for any error, omissions or claims made in the Bulletin. If you are planning
to attend a concert or event, we would advise to confirm details with the organiser first.