LENGNICK NEWS, February 2005

NEWS

7th November 2005 marks the Centenary of the birth of WILLIAM ALWYN.   Lengnick will celebrate this through the publication of several unpublished works, as well as a special edition or two.  The first new publication is Nocturnes for baritone and piano (see below).

A large programme of recording, broadcasting, and concerts has been arranged, and Alwyn will be featured as Composer of the Week nearer the birthday. 

Recordings already ‘in the can’ for Naxos include

Derby Day          Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra/James Judd        

Symphonies Nos. 1, 3, 4  Royal Liverpool Philharmonic/David Lloyd Jones           

Lyra Angelica (Harp Concerto)  Suzanne Willison, harp/Royal Liverpool Philharmonic/David Lloyd Jones

Sinfonietta, Symphonies 2 & 5 (‘Hydriotaphia’)  RLP/Lloyd Jones

Conductors and performers in this country and abroad should seize the opportunity to perform these attractive and substantial works.  Sign on to www.alfredlengnick.co.uk for more information or write to Sally at Gbmuswill@aol.com for a complete list of works and perusal scores.

 RECENT NEW PUBLICATIONS AND EDITIONS FROM LENGNICK

 (Purchase from Faber Music Distribution, sales@fmdistribution.com)

***BRAND NEW***AL5904      William Alwyn  Six Nocturnes for baritone and piano (Poems by Michael Armstrong)  £8.95

Everything is Now:  Your fingers curl thro’ mine, I feel their flesh…But only guess their bones…

Summer Rain:  What will you say when the stone’s blossom at last… Their shells breaking to expose their saffron petals…

Visitation:  Up the green stairs came the silent footsteps, as I wait without fear apprehending a mystery…

Summer Night:  The scent of honeysuckle drives us mad…Its pink and yellow fingers milk the moon…

Circle:  That man dying has my pain, that man dead is alive again.  Within his love my hat began, my hate was love for every man…

Response:  The hem of the sea turns white, flaps on a sandy thigh, rinses the head of each rock, unravels among the stones…

AL0673  William Alwyn  Naiades:  Fantasy Sonata for flute and harp   £9.50

Naiades, subject of Greek mythology, were water carriers.  In this virtuoso work the composer demonstrates his extraordinary talent for evoking the visual through sound.  The piece ebbs and flows and is a romantic and compelling masterpiece of its genre.

AL5900  Malcolm Arnold English Dances arr. by Paul Harris for clarinet and piano  £7.95

AL5901  Malcolm Arnold English Dances arr. by Paul Harris for flute and piano  £7.95

Further versions of English Dances  for oboe and violin to be published at a future date.

AL1136  Malcolm Arnold  Oboe Sonatina Essential repertoire for the oboist  £7.95

Charles Camilleri  Pacem in Maribus SATB          Beautiful piece, suitable for all levels of choral singing,

and also available for SSA and TTBB.  £1.95

AL1092  Freda Dinn  Dexterity Studies          A ‘must’ for the beginner recorder player £3.95

AL1006  5 x 10 Book 1 £4.95

AL1010 5 x 10 Book 5  £4.95

5 x 10 is a series of 5 books, graded in difficulty, of imaginative and useful pieces by 10 British composers:  William Alwyn, Malcolm Arnold, Madeleine Dring, Julius Harrison, Elizabeth Maconchy, Charles Proctor, Franz Reizenstein, Edmund Rubbra, Bernard Stevens, William Wordsworth.  This is an unusual and attractive opportunity for beginner pianists to explore the best of 20th Century British music.

AL0160  Kenneth Leighton             Piano Sonata No. 2  One of the most appealing solo piano works of the past half-century.  £8.50

AL3587  Matthews (ed. Jenkins)          Cadenzas to Mozart Piano Concertos               £9.95

Dissatisfied with the anachronistic cadenzas added to Mozart’s 18th piano concertos by 19th century composers and performers, Denis Matthews, a fine and sensitive 20th century performer, produced his own set.  These are elegant and considered, as is Philip Jenkins’s 21st century editing.  This book will be a joy to any classical pianist, not least for the sparing and often witty glosses to the main text.  Stock it.  (MI Pro, August 2003)

SOME RECENT AND FUTURE PERFORMANCES/RECORDINGS OF LENGNICK TITLES

29.10.04     Arnold, Malcolm  Clarinet Concerto No. 1  St George's Hall, Bradford  Orchestra of St Johns  outside broadcast
1.11.04     Hoddinott, Alun  Bells of Paradise  Cardiff City Hall  Cardiff University Orch/Timothy Taylor

2.11.04          Dohnanyi  Sextet in C major          Dimension Piano Trio:  Rafal Zambrzycki-Payne, violin; Thomas Carroll, cello; Richard Hyung-Ki Joo, pianoMichael Collins, clarinet/Radovan Vlatkovic, horn/Krzysztof Chorzelski, viola

5.11.04          Maconchy, Elizabeth            Proud Thames          RFH  BBC Concert Orch/Barry Wordsworth

14-16.12.04  Arnold, Malcolm  String Quartet No. 1        Potton Hall, Suffolk  British music series for Naxos.

30.1.05          Arnold, Malcolm  English Dances, Set 1  Derngate Tngpitze, Northampton          Northants County YO

8.2.05  Leighton, Kenneth  Sonatina No. 2  Huntingdon Hall, Worcester  Mark Bebbington, piano

11.2.05          Arnold, Malcolm  English Dances, Set 1  Ellis Theatre Marlborough College/Ian Sutcliffe

18/19.2.05  Hoddinott, Alun  Symphony No 7 (Organ)          St David's Hall Cardiff  and Brangwyn Hall, Swansea: BBC promoted public concerts  Thomas Trotter, organ/BBC National Orchestra of Wales/Otaka

23.4.05          Watson, Stephen  Cello Concerto  The Civic Hall, Ellesmere Port  Peter Dixon, cello/Wirral Philharmonic Orchestra/Malcolm Perry

1.6.05  Alwyn, William  Symphony No. 4  Adelaide’s, Bath St, Glasgow          Glasgow SO

11.7.05  Arnold, Malcolm  English Dances, Set II  Konstanz, Germany Hampton School Orchestra/I C Donald

COMPOSER NEWS

MALCOLM ARNOLD

Article written by David Angel, second violin of the Maggini Quartet: Sir
Malcolm Arnold’s String Quartets in performance and on tour:

They have very much enjoyed playing this repertoire, and it has had a
terrific reception from audiences.

"………Among the most popular of all the English quartets we play have been Malcolm
Arnold’s 1st and 2nd Quartets.  In 2004 we performed them widely in the UK,
including major tours of Northern England and Scotland, and also in France
and Norway.   Some initial scepticism amongst audience members seemed to
spring from either nervousness at hearing a ‘modern’ work, or uncertainty
whether it was ‘acceptable’ to enjoy Arnold: after all, didn’t he write
light, frivolous music – and didn’t the critics used to hate him?    
However, once they heard the works these doubts were laid to rest.   In
concert after concert audiences were entirely convinced and won over.  Those
doubtful of Arnold’s merit realised the consummate skill behind his craft;
those nervous of modern music were surprised at how easy it was to follow
his musical thought.  All were struck, as we were, by the sheer breadth of
his emotional range, his dramatic contrasts and his intensity.

We have played Arnold’s quartets at more than twenty venues this season. 
Three of them were especially memorable for me; each for very different
reasons.    The first concert of our Scottish tour (in March 2004) was in
Dundee, and it was our first performance of Arnold’s 2nd Quartet since 2001.
Dundee Music Club has an awe-inspiring list of performing artists,
reaching back over the decades and including the Amadeus and Smetana, and
singers like Peter Pears and Kathleen Ferrier.   The audience gave the
Arnold a most enthusiastic reception…..

 The third venue will have to remain nameless.  It was unique in being the
only one to have requested us NOT to include Malcolm Arnold in the
programme.   We obliged and played Britten and Frank Bridge instead.   Then
for an unannounced encore we played the short, fast and ferocious second
movement from Arnold’s 1st Quartet. The audience was stunned.  “What was
that?”, asked the awestruck promoter when we went backstage.  A somewhat
embarrassed laugh was the response to our answer.  I hope we also brought
about a timely reappraisal of the worth of Malcolm Arnold!

We received very many enquiries about recordings.  We will be recording the
1st and 2nd Quartets, together with the Phantasy for String Quartet, this
December, as part of Naxos's ongoing British Music series, and would
anticipate the CD being available in about a year's time."

David Angel
September 2004

ADAM GORB

has a new website worth visiting:
http://www.adamgorb.co.uk

ROBERT SIMPSON

Following the release of the recording of this composer’s final symphony, Stephen Johnson writes in BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE October 2004:


Having been initially disappointed by Robert Simpson’s 11th, I’m beginning to think it might be one of the finest of his later symphonies……full of memorable colours and textures, and – perhaps best of all – surprisingly expressive….I particularly love the end of the Symphony:  a tremendous build-up, then a tiny, quiet final gesture like the snuffing out of a candle.  The humour that flickers in moments like that then romps center stage in the Falstaffian Variations on a Theme by Nielsen, but there’s magic here, too, especially in the dream-like serenity of the final variation….It’s hard to imagine a more fitting memorial tribute to Hyperion’s Ted Perry, whose faith and tenacity of purpose made this whole project possible.  Strongly recommended.

NEW RECORDINGS RELEASED

Dohnanyi, Erno    Sextet in C major  Spectrum Concerts Berlin  Naxos 8.557153

Dohnanyi, Erno    Piano Concerto No. 2          Howard Shelley, piano/BBC Phil/Matthias Bamert

Chandos CHAN10245

Ellis, David  String Quartet No. 2  Coull Quartet           ASCCSCD6

Leighton, Kenneth  Chamber Works  Edinburgh Quartet  Meridian CDE84465

Simpson, Robert  Symphony No. 11; Variations on a Theme by Nielsen  City of London Sinfonia/Matthew Taylor  Hyperion CDA 67500

LENGNICK ANNIVERSARIES

2005

William Alwyn            November 7 Centenary of birth

Christian Darnton    Centenary of birth

Charles Proctor        Centenary of birth

Stephen Watson       50th Birthday

 

2006

Charles Camilleri     September 7   75th Birthday

Ian Parrott                   March 5   90th Birthday

Edmund Rubbra       20th anniversary of death

Ronald Senator          80th Birthday

 

2007

George Newson          July 27 75th Birthday

John Veale                 85th Birthday

                                                        

2008

Adam Gorb                March 12 50th Birthday

Kenneth Leighton   20th anniversary of death

Alec Rowley              50th anniversary of death          
  ..