George Butterworth and contemporaries

[BBMmk2]

I don't know, about anybody else, but I am rather a fan of Roderick Williams's interpretations of English song...? His recordings on Naxos are rather good.

[EdgeleyRob]

TS & Cali thank you. Mine still has a life - an international one. Performances I know about are 2 in London (Proms and RAM), Also Mons, Vilnius (twice!), Ottawa and Toronto in October. The Mons & Vilnius performances were of the whole 11 songs, the rest the 6.

Good to hear

[EdgeleyRob]

I think I have provided a link to this book before (but this time through Hive, not Amazon).
Might be of interest to those following this thread.

Trevor Hold: Parry to Finzi (Twenty English Song-Composers).

http://www.hive.co.uk/Product/Trevor-Hold/Parry-to-Finzi--Twenty-English-Song-composers/6939887

Just dug my copy out and found the bookmark at page 52, so another project is to carry on from where I left off.

[EdgeleyRob]

I don't know, about anybody else, but I am rather a fan of Roderick Williams's interpretations of English song...? His recordings on Naxos are rather good.

Another thumbs up

[EdgeleyRob]

This is turning out to be a really fascinating week; I hand it to Dr Kate Kennedy for really doing her research on these composers.

The two figures who have unexpectedly bowled me over with their music have been George Butterworth, whom I had previously, wrongly, thought of as an understated, simpiified "version" of Vaughan Williams, and WD Browne, who must surely have had the most advanced approach to harmony of any British composer of that pre-WW1 era. The second-hand Germanicisms of Farrar and Coles, however interesting in their own right, feel somehow overdone and suffocating, and don't do it for me, I'm afraid.

Yes there's more to a lot of these neglected Brits than meets the eye (ear).
Regarding your last sentence S_A that's a good point.
Thing is I'm a sucker for these kind of composers.

[Pulcinella]

I don't know, about anybody else, but I am rather a fan of Roderick Williams's interpretations of English song...? His recordings on Naxos are rather good.

And he's lined up to be Billy Budd in the forthcoming Opera North productions.

[EdgeleyRob]

I wonder if any of you have acquired this record yet from good old em ?
I must get it ordered asap.
Includes Butterworth and Gurney premier recordings.

https://www.em-records.com/discs/emr-cd036-details.html

[Pabmusic]

Well, I’ve thought this over long and hard and I’ve decided to share it with you. In the process I’ll no doubt annoy Martin Yates and Kevin Russman a great deal.

George Butterworth started writing a Fantasia for orchestra. He never completed it, though he might have finished a short score. In 1915 he destroyed much music (including the piano piece Ferle Beacon, which RVW liked a lot). It’s thought that the short score of the Fantasia perished in that cataclysm. However, 19 pages of full score survived, and those provide the bases for Yates’ and Russman’s reconstructions. Their versions are nice enough (I prefer Russman’s), but there really is not enough to make a performing version out of. The total length of the remaining score is about 90 bars, which takes about 3' 45" to play. The last 12 bars are Allegro vivace (you'd never guess that, would you?). From this, Martin Yates has constructed a piece of 16' 38", Russman of 8.36. That alone tells you how much added stuff there is, none of it Butterworth’s. It seems we prefer to preserve our version of reality than the truth.

After just 5 bars, there’s a note: “see short score” and a gap (who knows how long?).

Just because we know that GSKB would die in 1916 (on this day!) doesn’t mean that he knew it. The tempo markings for the main themes of the Fantasia are Andantino and Allegro vivace, not the dirge-like tempi on the two recordings.

The sound is not good: it’s electronic, but I promise you that every note of GSKB is her (plus some of mine).

https://soundcloud.com/pabmusic-445605675/george-butterworth-fantasia

[Nevilevelis]

Well, I’ve thought this over long and hard and I’ve decided to share it with you. In the process I’ll no doubt annoy Martin Yates and Kevin Russman a great deal.

George Butterworth started writing a Fantasia for orchestra. He never completed it, though he might have finished a short score. In 1915 he destroyed much music (including the piano piece Ferle Beacon, which RVW liked a lot). It’s thought that the short score of the Fantasia perished in that cataclysm. However, 19 pages of full score survived, and those provide the bases for Yates’ and Russman’s reconstructions. Their versions are nice enough (I prefer Russman’s), but there really is not enough to make a performing version out of. The total length of the remaining score is about 90 bars, which takes about 3' 45" to play. The last 12 bars are Allegro vivace (you'd never guess that, would you?). From this, Martin Yates has constructed a piece of 16' 38", Russman of 8.36. That alone tells you how much added stuff there is, none of it Butterworth’s. It seems we prefer to preserve our version of reality than the truth.

After just 5 bars, there’s a note: “see short score” and a gap (who knows how long?).

Just because we know that GSKB would die in 1916 (on this day!) doesn’t mean that he knew it. The tempo markings for the main themes of the Fantasia are Andantino and Allegro vivace, not the dirge-like tempi on the two recordings.

The sound is not good: it’s electronic, but I promise you that every note of GSKB is her (plus some of mine).

https://soundcloud.com/pabmusic-4456...worth-fantasia

Excellent - well done!

[Serial_Apologist]

Well, I’ve thought this over long and hard and I’ve decided to share it with you. In the process I’ll no doubt annoy Martin Yates and Kevin Russman a great deal.

George Butterworth started writing a Fantasia for orchestra. He never completed it, though he might have finished a short score. In 1915 he destroyed much music (including the piano piece Ferle Beacon, which RVW liked a lot). It’s thought that the short score of the Fantasia perished in that cataclysm. However, 19 pages of full score survived, and those provide the bases for Yates’ and Russman’s reconstructions. Their versions are nice enough (I prefer Russman’s), but there really is not enough to make a performing version out of. The total length of the remaining score is about 90 bars, which takes about 3' 45" to play. The last 12 bars are Allegro vivace (you'd never guess that, would you?). From this, Martin Yates has constructed a piece of 16' 38", Russman of 8.36. That alone tells you how much added stuff there is, none of it Butterworth’s. It seems we prefer to preserve our version of reality than the truth.

After just 5 bars, there’s a note: “see short score” and a gap (who knows how long?).

Just because we know that GSKB would die in 1916 (on this day!) doesn’t mean that he knew it. The tempo markings for the main themes of the Fantasia are Andantino and Allegro vivace, not the dirge-like tempi on the two recordings.

The sound is not good: it’s electronic, but I promise you that every note of GSKB is her (plus some of mine).

https://soundcloud.com/pabmusic-4456...worth-fantasia

Truly, many many thanks for this Pabsy! I listened to the Yates version earlier - it formed the last work to be played on the week's COTW - and really wondered if the customarily succinct GB would have committed so meanderingly directionless a piece to score paper. Mention was made of Butterworth's reference to the two trumpets ending the piece, and to my ears it sounded authentically open-ended a conclusion, similar to that of the Rhapsody, which I woldn't have said about the rest of the piece (admittedly only on this one hearing), notwithstanding the idiom.

I'll have a listen to this later, when I have a spare mo.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Excellent - well done!

I agree - many thanks, Pabs

[BBMmk2]

RIP George Butterworth this day 1916, 04.45hrs

[EdgeleyRob]

I agree - many thanks, Pabs

Thanks from me too Pabster

[EdgeleyRob]

RIP George Butterworth this day 1916, 04.45hrs

Yes indeed

[DracoM]

Terrific week. One of the few COTWs of which i have listened to every minute.