English Music Festival, Dorchester

[DracoM]

Loved the Moeran Violin Concerto. Real surprise. Didn't know it at all.
Thanks R3!!

[moeranbiogman]

A wonderful performance. Followed by the Interval - but WHAT on EARTH! A CD of none too quiet music by Arnell which promptly destroyed the Moeran's reflective atmosphere! A talk about the Vaughan Williams' pieces, or the Bax (second part of the concert) would have been more appropriate?

[ardcarp]

Yes, The Moeran is a pleasant listen. Was anyone else struck by the bit in the first movement which almost turned into Banks of Green Willow? The chat between presenter and performer discussing whether this concerto ought to be 'up there with the greats' perhaps raised expectation rather too much! Notwithstanding Moeran's Irish roots, the piece is by any standards English Cowpat...and he was born 20 years after RVW. But pleasant. Interesting to know how our Nige might have played it!

I was rather more surprised by the Rutland Boughton, a composer I know little about and whom I had mentally bracketed with the likes of Bantock. But there was both substance and crafstmanship in evidence.

[amateur51]

As any fule kno.

I am NOT a fule


I'm just geographically challenged

[Flosshilde]

Me too - I only know about Dorchester on Thames because I was in near-by Wallingford many years ago for a socialist gay men's weekend. Beards, heavy duty wholefood meals, and being woken at dawn by a peacock jumping around & screeching on top of the caravan I was sleeping in are my abiding memories. Dorchester & its lovely teashop was the goal of a pleasant walk on the Thames bank - the best bit of the weekend

[ardcarp]

Dorchester Abbey has a lovely acoustic for singers, and I think several choral CDs have been made there.

[amateur51]

Me too - I only know about Dorchester on Thames because I was in near-by Wallingford many years ago for a socialist gay men's weekend. Beards, heavy duty wholefood meals, and being woken at dawn by a peacock jumping around & screeching on top of the caravan I was sleeping in are my abiding memories. Dorchester & its lovely teashop was the goal of a pleasant walk on the Thames bank - the best bit of the weekend

Very Edward (rather than Harry) Carpenter, Flossie

[Roehre]

Christopher Cook presents a concert, live from the abbey in Dorchester-on-Thames as part of the English Music Festival. Violinist Rupert Marshall-Luck joins Martin Yates and the BBC Concert Orchestra in Moeran's Violin Concerto. There's also music by Bax, Vaughan Williams and Rutland Boughton.

Parry: Jerusalem
Boughton: Troilus and Cressida (Thou & I)
Moeran: Violin Concerto

Interval

Vaughan Williams: Burley Heath; Harnham Down
Bax: Variations for Orchestra (Improvisations).


anyone thinking of listening ?

Have skipped the Parry as well as the Moeran (knowing both quite well and short of listening time...)
I think the Boughton is the really "grown up" piece of the "premieres". RVW in a clear Norfolk Rhapsody and Fen Country mood, very enjoyable, but nevertheless early works. The Bax is much better than its contemporary symphony in F, though a bit too long, and I don't see the point of introducing the organ. Remarkably there are so pre-echos of RVW (especially the english Folksong suite) and Boughton (3rd symphony's scherzo), right at the beginning of the variations. A bit of Dvorak and some Irish touches. As said, a tad too long IMO, but certainly a work to be heard more often.

[EdgeleyRob]

Have skipped the Parry as well as the Moeran (knowing both quite well and short of listening time...)
I think the Boughton is the really "grown up" piece of the "premieres". RVW in a clear Norfolk Rhapsody and Fen Country mood, very enjoyable, but nevertheless early works. The Bax is much better than its contemporary symphony in F, though a bit too long, and I don't see the point of introducing the organ. Remarkably there are so pre-echos of RVW (especially the english Folksong suite) and Boughton (3rd symphony's scherzo), right at the beginning of the variations. A bit of Dvorak and some Irish touches. As said, a tad too long IMO, but certainly a work to be heard more often.

Great to know your thoughts Roehre,pretty much sums those pieces up IMO,thanks.
I do love the Moeran vc.

[Roehre]

Great to know your thoughts Roehre,pretty much sums those pieces up IMO,thanks.
I do love the Moeran vc.

As I do. It's simply a genial concert, like his cello concerto, btw.

[mercia]

a recording from the 2015 Dorchester English Music Festival on R3 this afternoon

2pm
Arnell Overture The New Age, Op.2
Vaughan Williams Bucolic Suite

c.2.35pm
Butterworth Fantasia for orchestra

c.2.50pm
Finzi Cello Concerto in A minor, Op.40
Raphael Wallfisch (cello)
BBC Concert Orchestra
Martin Yates (conductor).

[PJPJ]

a recording from the 2015 Dorchester English Music Festival on R3 this afternoon

2pm
Arnell Overture The New Age, Op.2
Vaughan Williams Bucolic Suite

c.2.35pm
Butterworth Fantasia for orchestra

c.2.50pm
Finzi Cello Concerto in A minor, Op.40
Raphael Wallfisch (cello)
BBC Concert Orchestra
Martin Yates (conductor).

I didn't hear the Arnell this afternoon. Was it aired? At the concert it was the UK premiere.

Here's the concert programme:

PARRY: Jerusalem
ARNELL: Overture The New Age UK PREMIÈRE PERFORMANCE
HAVERGAL BRIAN: Third English Suite
VAUGHAN WILLIAMS: Bucolic Suite
BUTTERWORTH (Completed and orchestrated by MARTIN YATES): Fantasia for Orchestra WORLD PREMIÈRE PERFORMANCE
FINZI: Cello Concerto

Havergal Brian's Third English Suite was aired on Tuesday afternoon. I don't like this dissection of concerts then presented in bits and pieces over several days.

If anyone hears the Arnell played at some later date please let us know!

[EdgeleyRob]

I didn't hear the Arnell this afternoon. Was it aired? At the concert it was the UK premiere.

Here's the concert programme:

PARRY: Jerusalem
ARNELL: Overture The New Age UK PREMIÈRE PERFORMANCE
HAVERGAL BRIAN: Third English Suite
VAUGHAN WILLIAMS: Bucolic Suite
BUTTERWORTH (Completed and orchestrated by MARTIN YATES): Fantasia for Orchestra WORLD PREMIÈRE PERFORMANCE
FINZI: Cello Concerto

Havergal Brian's Third English Suite was aired on Tuesday afternoon. I don't like this dissection of concerts then presented in bits and pieces over several days.

If anyone hears the Arnell played at some later date please let us know!

The Arnell wasn't played.
The programme was worth listening to though for the Butterworth (Yates) piece and the unadvertised 'Blackdown – A Tone Poem from the Surrey Hills' by Alwyn,played at the vey end.

Arnell's overture is on a Dutton Epoch cd c/w the 3rd Symphony,sadly NLA.

[Pabmusic]

The Arnell wasn't played.
The programme was worth listening to though for the Butterworth (Yates) piece and the unadvertised 'Blackdown – A Tone Poem from the Surrey Hills' by Alwyn,played at the vey end.

Arnell's overture is on a Dutton Epoch cd c/w the 3rd Symphony,sadly NLA.

The Butterworth reconstruction was interesting. It was always going to be difficult, but Martin Yates gave all the existing music (92 bars) and most of it twice, at the beginning and end. In the middle he'd presumably composed some mock-RVW himself. This was a pity, since he missed the chance to expand on the 11 bars of Vivace at the end of the score - instead he played that slowly and mournfully. In fact, it was all a bit slow (it is marked Lento non troppo at the beginning, moving to Andantino for the main tune). I suspect there's a post-hoc rationalisation here - GSKB died in the war, so everything he wrote must have been regretful and fatalistic.

The 14 pages of score that survive are from a draft full score. Frustratingly (very much so) it seems there was a short score, presumably complete, since Butterworth has left a gap at bar 6 with a note "see short score". Needless to say that short score has never been found.

[PJPJ]

The Arnell wasn't played.
The programme was worth listening to though for the Butterworth (Yates) piece and the unadvertised 'Blackdown – A Tone Poem from the Surrey Hills' by Alwyn,played at the vey end.

Arnell's overture is on a Dutton Epoch cd c/w the 3rd Symphony,sadly NLA.

Thanks for the confirmation. The Alwyn is a fine piece - that performance is a studio one on Dutton:

Alwyn - Blackdown

The Arnell seems still listed by Dutton:

Arnell - Symphony No 3