Your wishes for 2016 (Music-related suggestions only please)

[ahinton]

my excuse would have been that I had done an honest days work

I don't think that this would be an excuse that I'd ever have been able to make or indeed ever have made...

[peterkin]

A complete cycle of the symphony's of George Lloyd!! (Played by the Berliner Philharmoniker under Sir Simon!)

[zola]

... I think it would be wonderful to have a year without any Proms.

Those who find them tiresome would be happy.

Those who relish them would enjoy them all the more after a year's forced abstinence.

Glastonbury have a "fallow year" every five years to give locals and organisers a break. Maybe not such a consideration for the denizens of Kensington Gore but there is lot to be said that for keeping it fresh. "Bigger, bigger, bigger, more, more, more" is not always the best and leads to a dilution of quality.

[teamsaint]

I don't think that this would be an excuse that I'd ever have been able to make or indeed ever have made...

Do You prefer to call it An honest days Opus, perhaps,AH?

[ahinton]

Do You prefer to call it An honest days Opus, perhaps,AH?

No, it's not that - but what most people would call "an honest day's work" is not something that certain such people would likely think to associate with composing music!

[Pulcinella]

I wish Warner Classics would release Tippett's 'The Mask Of Time'.

Agreed, but there are new copies available from Amazon if you need one:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sir-Michael-Tippett-Mask-Time/dp/B00000DOCP

[ahinton]

Oh, please, NO!! Assuming that BPO/SR would be prepared to perform any of this repertoire at all, just no. 7 would, I think, create a more positive impression of him as a symphonist to the uninitiated than would the whole lot!

[teamsaint]

No, it's not that - but what most people would call "an honest day's work" is not something that certain such people would likely think to associate with composing music!

Well its all done on computers these days,I suppose....

( I never fail to marvel at the sheer volume of work in a large scale hand written score).......

[pastoralguy]

Oh, please, NO!! Assuming that BPO/SR would be prepared to perform any of this repertoire at all, just no. 7 would, I think, create a more positive impression of him as a symphonist to the uninitiated than would the whole lot!

George Lloyds' time will come! He just needs a strong advocate. After all, there was a time when Mahler was looked down upon!

[ahinton]

George Lloyds' time will come! He just needs a strong advocate. After all, there was a time when Mahler was looked down upon!

George Lloyd's time has already come - and partially gone, I think. His work certainly got a lot of attention a few years ago and this was undoubtedly welcome, not least becuase he was one of the pioneering symphonists who revived the British symphonic tradition that had largely fallen on stony ground in the years leading to the early 1930s when he and Rubbra began writing symphonies. After Vaughan Williams's first three and Elgar's first two, Bax seems to have been the only British composer of note to carry the torch for symphonism in Britain until Brian and then Lloyd and Rubbra got going (although, of course, Brian's early symphonies - some of his best, I think - did not really impact of the consciousness of British concert goers in the days that he wrote them because they didn't receive public performances). I don't know why it is that Lloyd's Seventh Symphony seems to be on a considerably higher level than all of his others (and I've heard them all at one time or another apart from 2 and 10), but it deserves a great deal more attention that it's ever had and really ought to be a staple of British orchestras. That said, I'm just not convinced that he could reach the heights of his best work very often. Perhaps I'm wrong about that, but this is how it seems to me. The four piano concertos, each successive one of which grew out of the preceding one, just don;t add up to very much (and Lloyd was not a pianist anyway). He had more orchestral expertise than Brian occasionally displayed, but less substance, I fear.

Yes, Mahler's time really began to come long after his death, although he always had his advocates - not only conductors like Walter but also critics such as Sorabji who never lost an opportunity to bang the drum for him.

[Serial_Apologist]

George Lloyd's time has already come - and partially gone, I think. His work certainly got a lot of attention a few years ago and this was undoubtedly welcome, not least becuase he was one of the pioneering symphonists who revived the British symphonic tradition that had largely fallen on stony ground in the years leading to the early 1930s when he and Rubbra began writing symphonies. After Vaughan Williams's first three and Elgar's first two, Bax seems to have been the only British composer of note to carry the torch for symphonism in Britain until Brian and then Lloyd and Rubbra got going (although, of course, Brian's early symphonies - some of his best, I think - did not really impact of the consciousness of British concert goers in the days that he wrote them because they didn't receive public performances). I don't know why it is that Lloyd's Seventh Symphony seems to be on a considerably higher level than all of his others (and I've heard them all at one time or another apart from 2 and 10), but it deserves a great deal more attention that it's ever had and really ought to be a staple of British orchestras. That said, I'm just not convinced that he could reach the heights of his best work very often. Perhaps I'm wrong about that, but this is how it seems to me. The four piano concertos, each successive one of which grew out of the preceding one, just don;t add up to very much (and Lloyd was not a pianist anyway). He had more orchestral expertise than Brian occasionally displayed, but less substance, I fear.

There seem to be few exceptions to what you say here - Ravel being one for the sheer gloriousness of his piano works, although not apparently a great technician himsmelf. As to Lloyd, displaying all the symphonies might on the other hand serve to show him to be the sub-Baxian he was in my opinion, composing with an expressive scope that really had had its day by the 1930s when even Bax himself was starting to have self-doubts, though this kind of music undoubtedly would have its impact on later movie composers.

Yes, Mahler's time really began to come long after his death, although he always had his advocates - not only conductors like Walter but also critics such as Sorabji who never lost an opportunity to bang the drum for him.

I've often wondered about why those great interwar and post-WW2 composers who were influenced by Mahler - Berg, Schoenberg and Webern (at times), Wellesz, Zemlinsky, Shostakovitch - never as far as I know gave Mahler the plug; until I realise that none of these was really good at plugging his own publicity in any great way, which possibly might explain the delay factor. Britten could have done more, maybe; but much of the problem could be put down to the completely erroneous view of Mahler's music as an example of bloated sprawling Late Romantic excess, together with the oft-used myth about "music that does not travel well", also ascribed to Vaughan Williams, Elgar, Reger and Schmidt in that era.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I've often wondered about why those great interwar and post-WW2 composers who were influenced by Mahler - Berg, Schoenberg and Webern (at times), Wellesz, Zemlinsky, Shostakovitch - never as far as I know gave Mahler the plug

Schoenberg and Webern both conducted performances of Mahler Symphonies as regularly as they were enabled; Webern's performances of the Sixth Symphony were legendary - in a 1974 interview, Karajan mentions attending one and was very impressed. And, as for Schoenberg:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9KGqRoKGiY

Not to mention the Chamber Ensemble arrangements (such as that of Das Lied von de Erde) for the SPMP evenings.

AND the references to Mahler's Music in the Harmonielehre and the various articles collected in Style and Idea.

[verismissimo]

George Lloyd's time has already come - and partially gone, I think...

Sir Edward Downes, RIP...

[Demetrius]

Kalliwoda died in 1866, that would be a chance to perhaps give one of his works an outing. It would be the first.

Reger will likely feature, perhaps with a visiting orchestra ...

Otherwise, my standing request for some Diamond, Rubbra, Cipriani Potter.

[Jonathan]

How about some York Bowen? Any of the Piano concertos would be good. I also liked the suggestion of a whole week (or whatever) of works that had never been on at the Proms. Perhaps we could have the remaining Liszt symphonic poems as part of this? Kalliwoda is also a good suggestion, I recently discovered a few of his symphonic works and find them very interesting.
Joachim Raff???