Fricker, Peter Racine (1920 - 90)

[Petrushka]

I see that this new release is upcoming on the Lyrita label: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Peter-Racine...s=peter+racine

I remember the Symphony No 5 for organ and orchestra from a 1976 Prom but 40 years on can't recall that much other than that I enjoyed it and it was a very hot evening in that memorable summer. Can't remember hearing any more of his music but having conductors like Charles Groves and Colin Davis to direct it leads me to think this issue could be worth investigation.

The Vision of Judgement is unknown to me.

Any opinions? I think that ER is might just be best qualified for this one!

[LeMartinPecheur]

Years ago I bought PRF's 1st symphony on an RCA Gold Seal LP by the (legendary?) Louisville Orch under Robert Whitney. Never got on with it at all, though this probably wasn't helped by a bad 'heartbeat' (remember them?) in the pressing.

[Yup, just dragged out that LP and there's the dimple halfway through the 1st movement. And halfway through the 3rd on the opposite side Quite rare that: usually it was just one side that was affected. Ah well, it might just play OK in a temperature above about 130C - see if the dimple rises far enough to prevent stylus thuds]

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Mentioned in Lucky Jim.

I remember hearing a series of programmes presented by Ian Kemp on R3 in the early '80s: I have heard none since as far as I can remember. I wasn't very attracted to the sound world of the Music - seemed a bit stodgy, didn't spark any excitement in me at the time.

[EdgeleyRob]

I see that this new release is upcoming on the Lyrita label: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Peter-Racine...s=peter+racine

I remember the Symphony No 5 for organ and orchestra from a 1976 Prom but 40 years on can't recall that much other than that I enjoyed it and it was a very hot evening in that memorable summer. Can't remember hearing any more of his music but having conductors like Charles Groves and Colin Davis to direct it leads me to think this issue could be worth investigation.

The Vision of Judgement is unknown to me.

Any opinions? I think that ER is might just be best qualified for this one!

Oh you've got me there Pet.
I did see that future Lyrita release but plumped for Arnold Cooke's 4th and 5th.
The only PRF I have is the 2nd Symphony (EMI c/w Bob Simpson 1 and Robin Orr) and I'm sure I've got the Violin Sonata here somewhere.
The 2nd Symphony is super,gritty,driven,rhythmic,angry,reminds me of Bartok at times.
I have heard the Vision of Judgement (it's on you tube) big piece on the scale of,and reminiscent of, Walton's Belshazzar's Feast.
I notice the 5th Symphony is on you tube too,I think I've just talked myself into ordering the cd

[teamsaint]

Has the great virtue of a wonderful name.


For those interested, there are several downloads available on Unsung Composers , including the first Symphony under Mackerras (probably with the New Philharmonia), and the 4th , BBCNSO/ Handford.

Both also available on youtube.



Edit: reading ERs post above, the Violin Sonata is available in this set:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/English-Violin-Sonatas-Susanne-Stanzeleit/dp/B000SR0TJC/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1453935756&sr=8-7&keywords=Fricker+sonata

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

(it's on you tube)

Why didn't I think of that! There's quite a lot of PRF there:

Symphony #1 (with Mackerras conducting):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gN8mhjAN-Q0

Symphony #2:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBCbVMIJPj4

Symphony #3 (conducted by Ted Downes):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9VesoqB_ds

Symphony #4:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgFWj2zu8XE

Symphony #5:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9T7Syt2BzjA

Vision of Judgement:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pzmx97dWRUk

... etc (links to other works provided with these)

[teamsaint]

Why didn't I think of that! There's quite a lot of PRF there:

Symphony #1 (with Mackerras conducting):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gN8mhjAN-Q0

Symphony #2:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBCbVMIJPj4

Symphony #3 (conducted by Ted Downes):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9VesoqB_ds

Symphony #4:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgFWj2zu8XE

Symphony #5:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9T7Syt2BzjA

Vision of Judgement:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pzmx97dWRUk

... etc (links to other works provided with these)

The spoken introduction to the first symphony ,by Antony Hopkins ,is well worth hearing.

I think the Sunday papers must have changed since that introduction....

[Serial_Apologist]

A wonderful composer, one of those from an era of British music when he and a few others mentioned in this thread were attempting to move beyond the Britten/Berkeley/ Tippett generation in terms of expanding the language of music, offering a bridge to Searle and Lutyens. ER is right to love the second symphony which is suffused with an almost Sibelian chill in its near-Bartokian textures, and in sustaining a taut dramatic symphonic span of its length with hardly any tonal resolution until the very end (in later works he sometimes used 12-tone rows).

Thanks ferney for providing those links - I don't know any of the other works.

[EdgeleyRob]

Some of PRF's Symphonies get decent write ups in Suffy's Symphonic journey thread (reference library).

[Beef Oven!]

Before now, I've posted about his symphony no.2 on the Neglected British, Commonwealth etc thread.

An excellent CD that I've owned for quite a few years. The real star is Robin Orr's 1960/63 Symphony in 1 Movement, IMHO.

[ardcarp]

A wonderful composer, one of those from an era of British music when he and a few others mentioned in this thread were attempting to move beyond the Britten/Berkeley/ Tippett generation in terms of expanding the language of music, offering a bridge to Searle and Lutyens.

Absolutely agree, SA.I wish I could afford every new CD that's mentioned (e.g. in the OP). In the 60s he was 'famous' for a short time for his lovely Christmas Carol
'A Babe is Born all of a May'. In fact it opens a Novello Carol Book called Sing Nowell which is a treasure trove of (then) modern carols by the likes of Britten, Peter Aston, Rubbra, Nicholas Maw, Ridout, Leighton, Bush, Wishart, Joubert...I could go on. It is a generation of composers which is a bit neglected at the moment. I'm always bleating on about this wonderful carol book and always try to get others to include some of its content in their carol services. I always slip at least two into ones that I fix.

[Roslynmuse]

Absolutely agree, SA.I wish I could afford every new CD that's mentioned (e.g. in the OP). In the 60s he was 'famous' for a short time for his lovely Christmas Carol
'A Babe is Born all of a May'. In fact it opens a Novello Carol Book called Sing Nowell which is a treasure trove of (then) modern carols by the likes of Britten, Peter Aston, Rubbra, Nicholas Maw, Ridout, Leighton, Bush, Wishart, Joubert...I could go on. It is a generation of composers which is a bit neglected at the moment. I'm always bleating on about this wonderful carol book and always try to get others to include some of its content in their carol services. I always slip at least two into ones that I fix.

Completely agree, ardcarp; I've used a good number of these since being introduced to the book; there's also a very simple PRF carol, The First Christmas, which is always popular. Novello don't do themselves any favours though - the most recent edition of the book is almost unusable as it won't stay open without applying brute force, and then each (glued in) page starts to fall out.

[makropulos]

Mentioned in Lucky Jim.
.

Here's the quote:
'See you later.' Dixon began edging past the doorway.
'Aren't you going to stay for the P. Racine Fricker?'
'Shan't be long, Professor. I think I'll...' Dixon made some gestures meant to be indecipherable. 'I'll be back.'
He shut the door on Welch's long-lived wondering frown.

But despite that, I've certainly enjoyed some P. Racine Fricker, including the first two symphonies. And now thanks to youtube I'll try to explore the others – rather than edge past the door. The new CD looks interesting.

[grewtw]

Peter Racine Fricker was born in London in 1920, and educated at St Paul’s School.

In 1937 he entered the RCM, where he studied theory and composition, the organ and the piano. He also attended classes at Morley College. In 1941 Fricker joined the Royal Air Force and was trained as a radio operator. In 1943 he was posted to India as an intelligence officer, after an intensive course in Japanese at the University of London.

During World War II English music had been dominated by the pastoral folksong tradition. The new spirit of the immediate postwar years was epitomized by Fricker’s music, which owed nothing to folksong, was predominantly instrumental and densely chromatic, and displayed an assured grasp of large-scale formal processes and a rigorous intellectual drive.

Fricker’s feeling for harmony was one of the most sophisticated aspects of his style. Yet at the same time it was one of the most conventional, since his fondness for the principle of melody and accompaniment obviously derived from 19th-century models. Sometimes he could rely too heavily on the expressive quality of his harmonic accompaniment without sufficiently characterizing its presentation. This tendency to settle on repeated harmonic patterns may be regarded perhaps as a product of native English caution. On the other hand he drew strength from this by writing a large number of concertante works where the principle finds a natural outlet and where his melodic gifts could flower.

The two violin concertos, the viola and piano concertos and Laudi concertati for organ and orchestra must be counted among his finest works. The melodic invention is notable as much for its suitability for development as for its intrinsic quality. Fricker could sustain melodic growth over extended structural units and regulate the dramatic tension of large-scale quasi-sonata forms with remarkable assurance. In some works, such as the Rapsodia concertante, the second and third symphonies and the Concerto for orchestra, this resulted in a controlled vehemence rare in British music.

Although Fricker’s language may frequently suggest the use of 12-note technique, wholly 12-note works are few and of modest dimensions, such as the Concertante no. 1 and the Sonnets for piano. The technique is used more as a tool than a method. From a series he could derive a melodic and chordal vocabulary deployed within a more traditional conception of musical development. In the Rapsodia concertante, for example, there is more music in a "free" than in a strictly 12-note style, although the work is based on a series derived from the opening bars. The Litany, one of his most beautiful works, makes free use of a 12-note melody complementing the dominant plainsong theme. In later works Fricker developed his thematic use of serialism, by using series of intervals (as in the piano Episodes) or a family of short series of a few notes each (as in Come Sleep).

In the first twenty years or so of his creative maturity Fricker worked largely in traditional forms. He showed a masterly command of three- and four-movement designs and an especially inventive use of rondo (notably in the Symphony no. 2, each of whose three movements is in a complex rondo form). The oratorio The Vision of Judgement was perhaps the most spectacular example of his neo-classical temperament. But after the mid-1960s Fricker grew impatient with classical prototypes. His Symphony no. 4 is in a single movement, whose ten sections bear little relation to the conventional four-movement design. Its multiplicity of tempos is mirrored in the mosaic-like character of the piano Episodes and the Rondeaux for horn and orchestra. Fricker’s interest in independent tempos can be seen in such works as The Roofs, Introitus and the Third String Quartet. In general the more economical, linear textures of his later work show Fricker developing a style as concentrated as his early music was expansive.

Some of his most striking things:

Symphony no. 1, opus 9, 1949 (conducted by Whitney if that matters)

http://youtu.be/P-8UlmhKOzM

Symphony no. 2, opus 14, 1951

http://youtu.be/yj4qkhbgBUE

http://youtu.be/8iiM8Z8tgnM

http://youtu.be/Vho1eJR-6Rk

Symphony no. 3, opus 36, 1960 (conducted by Wordsworth if that matters)

http://youtu.be/hT97vwjfgUg

Symphony no. 4, opus 43, 1966

http://youtu.be/LN5VkJGRtaU

Symphony no. 5, opus 74, for organ and orchestra, 1976
(may be found at reply number six)

Litany, opus 26, for double string orchestra, 1955

http://youtu.be/1lleiNVaniU

Concerto for orchestra, opus 93, 1986

violin concerto no. 1, opus 11, 1950

http://youtu.be/nPZ20YfG7zA

Viola concerto, opus 18, 1953

http://youtu.be/jRGW4xfDtZ4

Piano concerto no. 1, opus 19, 1954

http://youtu.be/zyaa33DNfOI

violin concerto no. 2, opus 21, 1954

http://youtu.be/KjU6eCvLGoI

The Vision of Judgement, oratorio, opus 29, 1958
(may be found at reply number six)

Laudi concertati, opus 80, for organ and orchestra, 1979

Piano concerto no. 2, 1989

String quartet no. 1, opus 8, 1947

http://youtu.be/IesXyiz1DW4

String quartet no. 2, opus 20, 1953

http://youtu.be/dqLobIaaMJw

http://youtu.be/ueSB-UMN4Ug

http://youtu.be/3RjDKJ5G4xI

String quartet no. 3, opus 73, 1976

http://youtu.be/CeSZLn5FQd4

--oOo--