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Feeling duty-bound to explore my general indifference and lukewarm (actually less-than-tepid) response to "British Symphonies" (post-Elgar, other than RV-W, Tippett and the odd exception like Ernest Moeran and bits of Rubbra, which I've liked for a long time), I've been ploughing through the Lyrita "British Symphonies" 4 CD box: Sterndale Bennett/Rootham/Moeran/Bax/Rubbra/Rawsthorne/Berkeley/Alwyn/Williams/Arnold/Wordsworth/Searle/Joubert. I don't regret having spent five hours listening to them - there is nothing "wrong" with them - and there are some nice tunes - but would any orchestra/conductor really want to programme them in 2019? And, indeed, audience clamour to hear them? I suspect that what used to be a prevailing orthodoxy that one wasn't a "proper" composer until one had written at least one symphony (never mind the many ouevres of Brian and Derek Bourgeois) is largely to blame but, shoot me down if you will, best left as museum pieces.
Feeling duty-bound to explore my general indifference and lukewarm (actually less-than-tepid) response to "British Symphonies" (post-Elgar, other than RV-W, Tippett and the odd exception like Ernest Moeran and bits of Rubbra, which I've liked for a long time), I've been ploughing through the Lyrita "British Symphonies" 4 CD box: Sterndale Bennett/Rootham/Moeran/Bax/Rubbra/Rawsthorne/Berkeley/Alwyn/Williams/Arnold/Wordsworth/Searle/Joubert. I don't regret having spent five hours listening to them - there is nothing "wrong" with them - and there are some nice tunes - but would any orchestra/conductor really want to programme them in 2019? And, indeed, audience clamour to hear them? I suspect that what used to be a prevailing orthodoxy that one wasn't a "proper" composer until one had written at least one symphony (never mind the many ouevres of Brian and Derek Bourgeois) is largely to blame but, shoot me down if you will, best left as museum pieces.
I've recently worked my way through this box set and agree with your comments. It's unlikely that anybody would want to programme them, but I still think that it's not asking too much for some of these recordings to be broadcast on occasion - it could introduce listeners to new composers and works and, if nothing else, prove to be, if not a life-changing experience, then at least a pleasant one.
(I've also purchased the corresponding Piano Concerto and String Concerto box sets, and would say that what you say applies equally to them).
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