BBC SSO . 10/03/14. MacCunn, Chisholm, Spratt, MacMillan

[teamsaint]

Interesting looking programme from Glasgow.
Particularly interested to hear the Chisholm. The CD of this received a play on R3 a year or two back, I think , and sounded excellent. (It may have been the first PC that received a play though.).

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Chisholm-Piano-Concertos-Hyperion-CDA67880/dp/B0072A4FKW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1394395612&sr=8-1&keywords=chisholm+piano+concerto

[richardfinegold]

Interesting looking programme from Glasgow.
Particularly interested to hear the Chisholm. The CD of this received a play on R3 a year or two back, I think , and sounded excellent. (It may have been the first PC that received a play though.).

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Chisholm-Pia...piano+concerto

The only composer that I recognize is MacMillan. Are they all contemporary?

[Vile Consort]

The only composer that I recognize is MacMillan. Are they all contemporary?

Hamish MacCunn's dates are 1868 - 1916 (according to Wikipedia). The work on the programme was given its first performance in 1888. Very unusual to hear a work other than his concert overture The Land of the Mountain and the Flood.

Erik Chisholm 1904 -1965. I've never heard a note of his music but the Wikipedia article makes me want to redress that.

[Pabmusic]

Hamish MacCunn's dates are 1868 - 1916 (according to Wikipedia). The work on the programme was given its first performance in 1888. Very unusual to hear a work other than his concert overture The Land of the Mountain and the Flood.

Erik Chisholm 1904 -1965. I've never heard a note of his music but the Wikipedia article makes me want to redress that.

Hamish MacCunn was a theatre conductor, based in London. He conducted the first run of Edward German's Merrie England. It's amazing what comes back to you!

[teamsaint]

Mr Hinton will no doubt fill us in on Erik " MacBartok" Chisholm, but from my one listen to one of his piano concertos this should be well worth catching.

Here is the Chisholm Trust website.

http://www.erikchisholm.com/

There is plenty of his solo piano music available to hear in the Naxos Library.

http://wiltshire.naxosmusiclibrary.com/google/searchgoogle.asp?googletext=chisholm

[Serial_Apologist]

Listening to the Chisholm right now, I am reminded of Rawsthorne, who also used the double augmented scale (alternating minor seconds and minor thirds) as a basis for composition. But, as with the case of Foulds, the results to me sound closer to Klezmer than Indian Raga music.

[antongould]

Hamish MacCunn was a theatre conductor, based in London. He conducted the first run of Edward German's Merrie England. It's amazing what comes back to you!

Simon Heffer played, on the recommendation of his producer, the Ship O ' The Fiend in his first R3 series of British Music - very enjoyable IMHO......will listen on iplayer.....

[edashtav]

McBartok or A.N.Singh?

Simon Heffer played, on the recommendation of his producer, the Ship O ' The Fiend in his first R3 series of British Music - very enjoyable IMHO......will listen on iplayer.....

I have a soft spot for Hamish MacCunn. He advanced precociously from his Mendelssohnian beginnnings, but even there his musicality was apparent. I've enjoyed the Ship O' The Fiend in the past and hold a candle for his "Dowie Dens of Yarrow"; sadly I heard only the recap. of the former, this evening.

What of Chisholm aka McBartok? Certainly an I.H.F. - is he more than the sum of his borrowings? I fear not, but it's great to be able to make one's own judgement - so many thanks to Danny Driver, James MacMillian and orchestra (and not forgetting our much-derided Radio 3) .

So many notes chasing so few ideas! Furthermore, I feel that Chisholm's ideas have not been hammered into shape, they've arrived as "inspirations", and accepted as hallowed material. Oh, that Chisholm had possessed some Beethovenian notebooks. Note 'em down, let 'em cool to room temperature, then appraise in a cold, objective light.

On Sunday, our Rector, Liz, preached of people who keep themselves eternally busy and deny room for "God's Stillness". Erik suffers, I feel, from hyperactivity. I wish that he'd used his rubber as frequently as his pencil. His music lacks the "neccessity" one discovers in Bartok , and even in extended Indian ragas. There's so much note-spinning that one finishes "in a spin". I'm a great admirer of Sorabji , but sitting through a few months ago, his sixth piano symphony ( well over 4 hours in duration), I felt that there was less redundancy than in Chisholm's 20+ minute concerto.

Mc Bartok or A.N.Singh is appropriate for Erik - he borrows the Emperor's new clothes but that's it; he fails to penetrate the depths of the Emperor's thoughts be they Hungarian or Indian. I warm to S-A's invocation of Alan Rawsthorne - a better composer than Erik but another British composer who possessed the fluency to chug away, relentlessly. Some of his pieces - e.g. Symphonic Studiesand his 3rd Symphony command my respect, others outstay their welcome.

I missed the Spratt whilst eating Salmon but returned for Isabel Gowdie. I've said & written too much of MacMillan's piece of Grand Guignol to comment more - I'll leave that to others.

But... this is the type of programming that I look to R.3 to provide. There's nothing like second-rate music for defining why we admire and respect masterworks.

[Roehre]

..... There's nothing like second-rate music for defining why we admire and respect masterworks.

You've got to know the valleys in order to be able to appreciate the mountains and especially the summits properly