Saturday Classics/Inside Music

[BBMmk2]

Finally got around to listening to yesterday's broadcast of the third of Simon Heffer's increasingly indispensable series of programmes on British 20th century composers. As a Finzi devotee I was delighted to make the acquaintance of the early song cycle, "By Footpath and Style". However, the real revelation was the trombone concerto of Gordon Jacob, whom I had only previously known as the orchestrator of Elgar's organ sonata. Two more CDs for the wishlist.

Any song cy,cle by Finzi is worth having! Have you tried the Naxos series at all?

[Panjandrum]

Any song cy,cle by Finzi is worth having! Have you tried the Naxos series at all?

Just ordered off Amazon, for a shade over 2 quid BBM!

[antongould]

Just ordered off Amazon, for a shade over 2 quid BBM!

as have I - another superb programme, the Finzi was magical and was seemingly suggested by the series producer.

[Suffolkcoastal]

Sadly this series is still full of BCs, why can't we have more complete works? I suggest R3 extend the series to 6 months, or better still a year in length, this would allow the programme to cover the full range of British music and consistently play full works as well.

[Panjandrum]

Sadly this series is still full of BCs, why can't we have more complete works? I suggest R3 extend the series to 6 months, or better still a year in length, this would allow the programme to cover the full range of British music and consistently play full works as well.

Happy for Heffer to keep the presenting gig too: even if he does have a certain adenoidal quality to his delivery (hope that's not libellous).

[rauschwerk]

However, the real revelation was the trombone concerto of Gordon Jacob...

Do try his very fine horn concerto, excellently recorded by David Pyatt. According to Grove, Ken Russell directed a BBC documentary on Jacob in 1959. One supposes that it has not been preserved.

[Wallace]

I have just driven to and from work with Mr Heffer's programme thanks to some mp3 advice from Anton's daughter. No more SMP for me.
The Finzi was a joy and several other pieces suggested areas for further exploration.
I think at least two hours a week devoted to British music selected and presented in this style are required. Anywhere in the schedule will do, the iplayer will take care of it. As many as are in favour will say aye.

[antongould]

Aye from me wiki- has this Heffer article on George Lloyd in which he praises someone who gets precious little praise hereabouts http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/m...ing-tunes.html

[EdgeleyRob]

Aye from me too.I adore the music of George Lloyd, and have stated so many times on this forum, but there's been very little of it on radio 3 since he was composer of the week as mentioned in the Telegraph article.
His symphonic mass would be ideal for the proms (I can dream).

[Anna]

Regarding that Telegraph article - as there is a CotW on George Lloyd already made then why should we not petition for it to be repeated instead of this week's CotW on Elgar which was last broadcast first week of November 2011? How many more British Music composer programmes have they got hidden away in the vaults at Broadcasting House?

[Wallace]

Finzi to be explored (a Naxos recording is now on the way from Amazon) and Lloyd to be discovered (for me anyway). This is what public service broadcasting is all about. This I think is the time and the place where the BCs can be justified - to introduce us to works and composers which we might not otherwise have discovered. If we had heard all of Lloyds 4th symphony we would have missed out on so much else, including those songs from the Cecil Sharp collections which were such fun.

Yes, so much gold in the vaults of BH. If it could not be broadcast could we listen again via the iplayer?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/cotw/pip/uihkj/

[Serial_Apologist]

If we had heard all of Lloyds 4th symphony we would have missed out on so much else

After getting myself into trouble over a piece I described as completely derivative - not, as happens, one by George Lloyd - I made a New Year Resolution never to comment here again on music I disliked, having reached the conclusion others have voiced that taste is a poor arbiter of quality. What it would be nice to know is whether or not this delightful series is going to venture further into post World War II music. It would be great, for once, to hear some music by Iain Hamilton and Peter Racine Fricker. Fricker's very fine Second Symphony of 1952 got an airing a year or two ago, but, apart from that particular work, I cannot recall any other performances of his, or Hamilton's music on Radio 3, since the 1970s.

S-A

[Suffolkcoastal]

Iain Hamilton's 2nd symphony must have been broadcast in the 1990's as I have an off-air cassette of the work from that period and I've one of Fricker's 3rd from around the same time. I can't justify BC's in this case, as I mentioned above, instead of cramming as much as possible into four programmes, why not have 2 hours devoted to the variety of British music every Saturday afternoon for the whole year with the chance to hear some very fine music in full?

[Bax-of-Delights]

Regarding that Telegraph article - as there is a CotW on George Lloyd already made then why should we not petition for it to be repeated instead of this week's CotW on Elgar which was last broadcast first week of November 2011? How many more British Music composer programmes have they got hidden away in the vaults at Broadcasting House?

I thought I had a bad case of deja vu with this week's CotW or Alzheimer's had kicked in but thanks for confirming that this Elgar had been broadcast just a couple of months ago.
Very odd that it should be repeated so soon...

[salymap]

Regarding that Telegraph article - as there is a CotW on George Lloyd already made then why should we not petition for it to be repeated instead of this week's CotW on Elgar which was last broadcast first week of November 2011? How many more British Music composer programmes have they got hidden away in the vaults at Broadcasting House?

Not only programmes Anna, reel to reel tapes of many British works that were never broadcast or returned
to the publishers. Promotion was hard work and there are many treasures waiting to be discovered from the 50s onwards. Of course, they may have been quietly thrown out.