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LENGNICK NEWS, November 2005 The Alwyn Centenary is creating a lot of interest, with many performances, new Naxos recordings, and Radio 3 coverage all adding to the excitement. New publications in honour of the Centenary are below. See further details under William Alwyn below. Work is underway for Sir Malcolm Arnold’s 85th birthday celebrations in 2006. In August he was awarded the Distinguished Musician for 2005 ISM Award, an honour more than justified. See below for further details. RECENT NEW PUBLICATIONS AND EDITIONS FROM LENGNICK (Purchase from Faber Music Distribution, sales@fmdistribution.com
Unpublished works by William Alwyn in preparation: Suite for Oboe and Harp Sonata for Flute and Piano Trio for Flute Cello and Piano RECENT AND FORTHCOMING PERFORMANCES of Lengnick titles
COMPOSER NEWS WILLIAM ALWYN The playlist for BBC Radio 3's Composer of the Week which was broadcast between Monday the 7th (composer’s actual Centenary of Birth) -11th November included Lengnick titles, as follows: PROG.1: Rhapsody for Piano Quartet/Concerto Grosso No.1. PROG.2: Symphony No.1-Last Movement only/Harp Concerto 'Lyra Angelica'. PROG.3: Crepuscule for Solo Harp/Autumn Legend for Cor Anglais and String Orchestra/Symphony No.3 PROG.4: Fantasy Waltzes nos. 1,2,3&6 for Piano Solo/Overture Derby Day/String Trio/Concerto Grosso No.3. PROG.5: Naiades for Flute and Harp/Symphony No. 5 'Hydriotaphia' This was repeated the following week starting on Sunday 13th November at 12 midnight. Recording activities include the five symphonies to be released by Naxos by the end of 2005. They join the first cycle recorded by the composer for Lyrita (1972 onwards) and the Hickox cycle on Chandos (1990s). All three series are still available. The recording of the piano concertos, Sonata alla Toccata, and the overture Derby Day was Gramophone’s Editor’s Choice for September. …Alwyn….is a composer of strong communicative gifts and the best of his music exhibits a disarming emotional candour, generous lyricism, powerful sense of argument and superior craftsmanship….Canny programming allows us to hear the bustling 1960 overture ‘Derby Day’…. the disc concludes with the exuberant ‘Sonata alla toccata’…Yet another Naxos winner. Andrew Achenbach THE GRAMOPHONE Favourable reviews for the second and fifth symphonies and Harp Concerto Lyra Angelica (Naxos 8 557647) are almost too numerable to include here, but here is a small sample. For further reviews and comments, go to the Alwyn website at www.musicweb.international.com/alwyn/index.htm …all three works showing the composer at the height of his powers. The Second Symphony… Economically argued and cast in two parts, it’s a stirring, heartfelt creation, full of striking invention and resplendently scored….Impressive, too, is the Fifth…, a tightly organised single-movement essay of considerable emotional impact and touching sincerity…..Sandwiched between the symphonies comes ‘Lyra angelica’, the ravishing concerto for harp and string orchestra…it’s a work of unbounded lyrical beauty and leaves just as indelibly rapt an impression…. Andrew Achenbach THE GRAMOPHONE I would however strongly recommend this performance of the LA. Lloyd-Jones and harpist SW revealing more dark and ecstatic poetry than any other performance had led me to expect… Stephen Johnson BBC Music Magazine A disc to include Symphonies 1 & 3 played by the RLPO and conducted by David Lloyd Jones is to be released in December 2005. In Jan/Feb 2006 there should appear a disc by the same performers of Sinfonietta for String Orchestra and Symphony No. 4. A historical recording of Symphonies 1 & 2 played by the Halle Orchestra conducted by John Barbirolli was released by the Dutton label. Other recordings, some historical are also under discussion. With this sort of performing, broadcasting, recording, and publishing activity, the Alwyn Centenary has become a very special occasion. MALCOLM ARNOLD Has been honoured with the Incorporated Society of Musicians’ Distinguished Musician Award for 2004. Established in 1976, previous recipients include Sir William Walton, Sir Adrian Boult, Jacqueline du Pre, Sir Michael Tippett, Sir Simon Rattle, Witold Lutoslawski, Sir Colin Davis, and Sir Peter Maxwell Davies. Proposing Sir Malcolm for the Award, Kenneth Hytch, the ISM’s Eastern Regional Councillor, said: In offering Sir Malcolm Arnold its Distinguished Musician Award for 2004, the ISM would be acknowledging the immense contribution of an increasingly recognised composer of great historical importance. His set of nine magnificent symphonies show the direct line of that genre back through Shostakovich, Mahler, and Berlioz to Beethoven. There are now two complete sets of recordings of these symphonies. His music has given great pleasure to all musicians, whether soloists, chamber groups or orchestras. Amateur music makers are always pleased to perform his approachable style. Indeed Sir Malcolm has always composed as his ‘own man’, whatever fashion might be in vogue. A new biography of Sir Malcolm –Rogue Genius – has just been published, illustrating the increasing interest in his music. Though now in well-deserved retirement, Sir Malcolm should be recognised for his lifetime’s achievements as one of the greatest composers of the 20th century. In August in Symphony Hall, Birmingham, Mark Bebbington recorded the Variations on a Ukrainian Folksong for SOMM as part of an Arnold/ Lambert CD. Preparations are well under way for celebrations of the 85th birthday. ALUN HODDINOTT Quodlibet on Welsh Nursery Tunes for brass quintet has been featured on a television documentary by Indus Films on the National Youth Orchestra of Wales. KENNETH LEIGHTON Delphian Records released the recording of the Complete solo piano music performed by Angela Brownridge, in April. This was an enormous undertaking by Miss Brownridge and the results have been duly rewarding. Calum MacDonald writing in BBC Magazine awarded the set of 3 CDs 5 stars. Robert Matthew-Walker in International Record Review stated that “this is quite magnificently composed music, which Brownridge plays superbly well”. Leighton was of course, a fine pianist himself, and this is reflected in his music for his own instrument. The first work for piano was the Sonatina No. 1, written when he was 17, the last the 5 Preludes for Piano, an unfinished set written in the last 3 months before his death. The piano music spans his entire career and reflects the changes in his compositional style. The CDs are now available from The Leighton Trust for the bargain price of £20 inc. p&p in the UK. . Angela Brownridge performed the piano music in various venues in England, Scotland, the U.S. (see performance list above) and in France. Mark Bebbington’s recent recital at Huntingdon Hall, Worcester, included the Sonatina No. 2. Christopher Morley, writing in THE BIRMINGHAM POST, made the following comment: ….From Gallic composers Bebbington moved to an all-British second half. Kenneth Leighton's neo-classical Sonatina no.2, pertly, deftly given, had a gently Celtic Scottish feel to its lovely middle movement… We are delighted that Richard Hickox will be recording 2CDs of Leighton’s orchestral music with the BBC Orchestra of Wales. The first, scheduled for recording in 2006 will include the early Symphony for Strings (premiered by Gerald Finzi while Leighton was still an undergraduate). ROBERT SIMPSON Hyperion continues to honour the commitment taken on by the late Ted Perry to record all of this composer’s output. Symphony No. 11 and Variations on a theme of Carl Nielsen were recently released (see below). Guy Rickards comments in GRAMOPHONE, as follows: ‘…[The symphony] is scored for a Classical orchestra, but it shares the airiness and transparency of texture of other late Simpson scores, for example the still-unrecorded Flute and Cello Concertos. The two-movement structure evokes the traditional symphony’s middle movements, Andante and Scherzo, extended to encompass attributes of the outer spans. The first opens out fan-wise from and returns to a radiant polyphony sounding both typical and utterly untypical: in places the string writing has the intensity of Shostakovich, yet there are passages of quiet, single-part spareness. The second span, Allegro vivace, builds with familiar Simpson verve into a dynamic, imposing edifice, the brass counterpoint crowning the final climax before the subdued, throwaway coda. Standing in Simpson’s output much like the eighth in Beethoven’s, No. 11 is a calm yet vigorous upbeat to his culminatory choral symphony. Or should have been: Simpson died before being able to execute his plan for No. 12. The coupling is a delightful set of variations on a theme from Nielsen’s late incidental music, Ebbe Skamulsen. Written in 1983 to a BBC commission, it shows off Simpson’s humour (evident in both theme selection as in, for instance, the tiny scherzetto variations 4-6). The fine seventh and Adagio ninth variations give over to the work’s second part, an 11-minute finale which develops into a most impressive structure. Matthew Taylor secures magnificent playing from the City of London Sinfonia, especially in the symphony where his pacing is ideal, due to this knowledge of the work – it was written for him and the orchestra. The Nielsen Variations purr along splendidly. An utterly marvellous disc, which I cannot recommend highly enough.’ FROM THE STRAD, April 2005 ….while he was alive Simpson achieved the greatest accolade that any composer could wish for: his music was respected by players, and the three quartets who championed his work most rigorously (the Delme, the Coull and the Vanbrugh) rightly acknowledged his cycle of quartets as among the finest by any British composer…. Matthew Taylor’s exposition on the Simpson quartets gives a wonderful insight into this music. Visit www.thestrad.com for the complete article. RECORDINGS RECENTLY RELEASED
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