The advertising for this disc explains that it “offers a unique fusion of musical expression and the natural world, inviting audiences to join in this extraordinary sonic exploration created through skilled and instinctive improvisation.” It further suggests that “this profound ritual of spontaneous outpourings invites listeners on an immersive journey, experiencing the direct transmission of sensory encounters through eight tracks that shape the discovered music of the moment.” I am grateful to the liner notes and personal communication with Edward Cowie during my preparation of this review ..read more

Cecil Frederick Gottlieb Coles is one of the most gifted composers to have been killed during the Great War: he is also one of the least known. Coles was born near the Galloway market-town of Kirkcudbright in 1888 and after moving with his parents to Edinburgh attended the George Watson Grammar School and Edinburgh University.  In 1906 he went up to the London College of Music.  Although he had won the Cherubini Scholarship, he was always rather short of cash. There is an apocryphal story told of how he used to stand outside a nearby pickle factory and enjoy the smell for his lunch ..read more

The Divine Art website explains that this new CD of music from Cheltenham College Chapel is a “meticulously curated album that explores the organ’s remarkable breadth and sonority. Featuring three monumental organ works and delightful arrangements of English classics, the collection is a testament to the grandeur and versatility of the instrument.” The Suite No.1 by Florence Price dates from 1942. However, it shows none of the then-modernist traits of Olivier Messiaen, Marcel Dupré or Jean Langlais. What she does bring to the party is an enthusiasm for certain African American musical tropes ..read more

One of the first pieces of music by Finnish composer Jean Sibelius that I heard was his Night Ride and Sunrise, op.55 (1908). It remains one of his most neglected tone poems. It was included on a Decca Eclipse LP coupled with the Symphony No.5 in E flat, op.82 and the Overture from Karelia Music. This had been recently issued in 1972 with the ‘trademark’ sleeve featuring a National Trust property. In this case it is a scene of Gowbarrow, near Ullswater in the Lake District. It is what encouraged me to invest in the album, as I was just beginning to explore this part of the country during the ..read more

I have a very tenuous connection to the first performance of RVW’s Serenade to Music. My late father told me that one day, before the Second World War, he came home from school, to be introduced to Isobel Baillie and Walter Widdop in the family drawing room. My grandfather often organised musical events in and around Manchester and would liaise with soloists contracted to sing Messiah in the area. These two singers along with fourteen other performers provided the vocal forces for the Serenade’s premiere on 5 October 1938 during the Henry Wood Jubilee Concert at the Albert Hall. The added val ..read more

The tradition of Newcastle Cathedral dates back for more than nine hundred years. Along with the castle and the large stretches of city wall it represents the medieval city. As the liner notes explain, “music is central to the…Cathedral’s daily life of prayer, worship and witness.”  The programme has “concentrated on the rich treasury of 20th century music, along with some more recent compositions.” Several are receiving their premiere recordings. The Church’s Year opens with Edward Elgar’s Benedictus with words drawn from the Book of Common Prayer Mattins. It was written for the Herefor ..read more

Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951) and Arnold Bax (1883-1953) are two of my favourite composers. The latter is neo-romantic, inspired by the Celtic Twilight and Irish poetry. His music is often evocative of landscape and always poetic in spirit and content. In 1941, Bax was named as Master of the King’s Music. The former also wrote romantic, Wagner inspired, music in the early part of his career, such as the massive Gurre-Lieder (1900-03) settings of poems by Jens Peter Jacobson for soloists, chorus and orchestra, the tone poem Pelleas and Melisande, op.5 (1902-03) and the sextet Verklärte Nacht ..read more

One of the most delightful miniatures to come from the pen of English composer Bruce Montgomery (1921-78) is the Scottish Lullaby. The work was completed on 16 July 1954. David Whittle, in his study of the composer (2007, p.148) writes that the work’s antecedents was the score for the 1954 film, The Kidnappers. This sentimental fable was set in Nova Scotia at the turn of the 20th century. The plot concerns “small orphan brothers who come to live with their tyrannical Scots grandfather and, while mixed up in the disappearance of a baby, soften the old man's stony heart, prompt him to end a bit ..read more

This CD features diverse works by four “Middle-European” composers. This can be loosely defined as countries to the west of Russia and to the east of France. The disc includes music by an Austrian of Czech origin, a Czech, a German, and an Austrian. Each of these men share a personal history that is “marked by persecution and emigration.” One, Emil František Burian was a prisoner in three concentration camps. Born in Vienna on 23 August 1900, Ernst Krenek moved to the United States in 1938 to escape Nazi persecution. There he taught in several universities. Stylistically, he is hard to pin do ..read more

In the coming days and months there will no doubt be many events to celebrate the Sesquicentennial Anniversary of Gustav Holst’s birth. The Planets may well feature at this year’s Proms. The English Music Festival has already programmed the Cotswold Symphony, A Song of the Night, and the Hymns from the Rig Veda, 3rd Group as well as some short choral pieces for their May Festival. Hopefully, there will be a raft of CDs, articles, and essays. In Cobbett’s Cyclopaedia Survey of Chamber Music (1929) Edwin Evans mentions that Holst’s only published chamber work at that time was the Seven Scottish ..read more