Composer Anniversaries - 2013

[Suffolkcoastal]

Thanks lateralthinking. The 2009 results were on the old R3 messageboard. I've just got to check through today's pieces and I'll prepare the 2012 results during tomorrow.

Yes I'm hoping that there is a way to attach my spreadsheet, as at least for presentation purposes it makes the results so much clearer.

As last year I've also surveyed all the complete symphonies broadcast in 2012, which show a decline from 2011 and 2/3rds of the warhorses I surveyed are up on the previous year, and there is an increase in the amount of non-classical music in predominately classical music programmes/slots.

[Suffolkcoastal]

Tom Service is looking at Dowland on Saturday.

I began to wonder if R3 had the Dowland anniversary down as 2012 by mistake, as the amount of Dowland compared to 2011 had more than doubled.

[Lateralthinking1]

2/3rds of the warhorses I surveyed are up on the previous year, and there is an increase in the amount of non-classical music in predominately classical music programmes/slots.

Not good news. On Dowland, I sometimes wonder whether they have any reasoning for anything. For example, it is quite clear to me from many posts on this forum that RVW should not be down in the mid-twenties even on the grounds of commercial ratings.

When I try to figure out their strategy, I feel atypical. I am on a learning curve. That places me in a very different category from the forum's many experts and yet I find like many of them that it is the less obvious that often appeals most. The Top 10 does not in the main excite me although I suppose it is intended to win CFM learners across. I'm still not wholly convinced by the theory.

[maestro267]

While we're talking about composers, there are also a few well-known pieces that were premiered 100 years ago, the most significant of which is probably Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring. Others include Debussy's ballet Jeux and his orchestral Images, Prokofiev's 2nd Piano Concerto and Schoenberg's massive Gurrelieder.

[Pabmusic]

While we're talking about composers, there are also a few well-known pieces that were premiered 100 years ago, the most significant of which is probably Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring. Others include Debussy's ballet Jeux and his orchestral Images, Prokofiev's 2nd Piano Concerto and Schoenberg's massive Gurrelieder.

Here's a few British pieces composed (if not performed) in 1913:

George Butterworth: The Banks Of Green Willow (composed 1913; f/p 27 February 1914)
Gustav Holst: St Paul's Suite
John Ireland: The Forgotten Rite
Charles Villiers Stanford: Irish Rhapsody No.4 ‘The Fisherman of Lough Neagh and what he saw.’ [composed 1913; f/p: 1914]
Ralph Vaughan Williams: A London Symphony [composed 1912/3; f/p: 27 March 1914]

[Lateralthinking1]

Extraordinary. If I am given the role of putting together the programme for the Proms, I am starting with posts 20 and 19.

[Pabmusic]

Extraordinary. If I am given the role of putting together the programme for the Proms, I am starting with posts 20 and 19.

Now that would be a good job, wouldn't it?

[Thropplenoggin]

George Lloyd, come on just one symphony would be nice.

I bet we don't have an Alkan fest on radio 3

I've recently discovered the incredible piano works of this composer. Why? Because, apart from a chance appearance of the incredible 'la chanson de la folle au bord de la mer' on CD Review (the Stephen Hough 'French Album'), I'd never heard his music played on R3. Pitiful stuff.

Still, all it would take is Lang Lang to record the préludes for Alkan-mania to erupt globally in concert halls and radio programming.

[verismissimo]

As a verismist, an exploration of the neglected operas of Mascagni (at 150) would be good!

[EnemyoftheStoat]

As a verismist, an exploration of the neglected operas of Mascagni (at 150) would be good!

Really?

[EdgeleyRob]

I've recently discovered the incredible piano works of this composer. Why? Because, apart from a chance appearance of the incredible 'la chanson de la folle au bord de la mer' on CD Review (the Stephen Hough 'French Album'), I'd never heard his music played on R3. Pitiful stuff.

Still, all it would take is Lang Lang to record the préludes for Alkan-mania to erupt globally in concert halls and radio programming.

Alkan is my favourite composer for the piano by a long chalk.

Chopin nocturne ? pah !

[EdgeleyRob]

Now that would be a good job, wouldn't it?

I could do that,gizza job.

[Thropplenoggin]

Alkan is my favourite composer for the piano by a long chalk.

Chopin nocturne ? pah !

It really is in a world of its own. The eeriness of 'La Chansonne De La Folle...', then the absolute modernity of Prelude No.25 op.31 'Priere', which sounds like Max Richter or some modern film score!

[gurnemanz]

Alkan is my favourite composer for the piano by a long chalk.

Chopin nocturne ? pah !

I have those Alkan CDs and agree with you. Here's a snippet from the MusicWeb review:
"The first and third movements of the Op. 61 Sonatine are stylistically similar to Saint-Saëns with whirling Cossack interludes and Chopin-like waltz episodes along the way. The very strange second movement suggests powdered wigs and has a stately 'olde worlde' English Warlockian feeling. The finale hints at the sort of brusque whirl we associate with Bartók in his village dances. This is crossed with and zither evocations as harmonic pepper. The Trois Grandes Etudes have a grandeur redolent of the Granados's Goyescas and then Handelian arpeggiation finishing with mephisto velocity. The first Etude is for left-hand only; the second for the right-hand and the third mouvement semblable et perpétuel, for both hands. Finally come the Etudes de Bravoure with their Beethovenian musculature and Russian prestissimo."

[EdgeleyRob]

I have those Alkan CDs and agree with you. Here's a snippet from the MusicWeb review:
"The first and third movements of the Op. 61 Sonatine are stylistically similar to Saint-Saëns with whirling Cossack interludes and Chopin-like waltz episodes along the way. The very strange second movement suggests powdered wigs and has a stately 'olde worlde' English Warlockian feeling. The finale hints at the sort of brusque whirl we associate with Bartók in his village dances. This is crossed with and zither evocations as harmonic pepper. The Trois Grandes Etudes have a grandeur redolent of the Granados's Goyescas and then Handelian arpeggiation finishing with mephisto velocity. The first Etude is for left-hand only; the second for the right-hand and the third mouvement semblable et perpétuel, for both hands. Finally come the Etudes de Bravoure with their Beethovenian musculature and Russian prestissimo."

I don't understand why his music isn't as critically acclaimed as say that of Chopin and Liszt,but I'm no expert.