Prom 22: A London Symphony – 31.07.18

[Nick Armstrong]

There was actually an extra London-themed suite originally programmed, but with the current heat wave, they decided to leave the Coates off.

You had me till the punchline. Nice comic timing.

[BBMmk2]

I’ll settle for Knightsbridge as an encore!

The BBC orchestras never do encores at the Proms for some reason.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

The BBC orchestras never do encores at the Proms for some reason.

What never?
No never.
What never?
Hardly ever.

Just on the last night.

[cloughie]

The BBC orchestras never do encores at the Proms for some reason.

I’m not sure that is true, it is just that they are not broadcast, but no doubt some regular in the hall will correct me on that. Maybe they are told not to because of the tight schedules nowadays on R3 and BBC4.

[Bryn]

I’m not sure that is true, it is just that they are not broadcast, but no doubt some regular in the hall will correct me on that. Maybe they are told not to because of the tight schedules nowadays on R3 and BBC4.

I think it tends to be visiting orchestras who offer encores.

[cloughie]

The BBC orchestras never do encores at the Proms for some reason.

Hang on Bbm, it’s the RLPO!

They might do Johnny Todd to partly redress the London bias!

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Hang on Bbm, it’s the RLPO!

They might do Johnny Todd to partly redress the London bias!

The Proms is a London bias. A national broadcasting company's nation music festival, tucked inconveniently in the bottom right hand corner of the UK. OK, they had a token Prom in Hull last year, and Proms in the Park

[Pabmusic]

An interesting idea, but it makes a very short concert. Perhaps Ireland's London Overture might have made a suitable addition to the first half.

I can't recall the programme for March 27th 1914 at the Queen's Hall, but I've posted it before. It began:

Delius: In a Summer Garden

RVW: A London Symphony

Bax: Three Songs

Ravel: Valses Nobles et Sentimentales.

And that was the first half!

[Flay]

And that was the first half!

I can't find the rest, but note from Henry Wood's autobiography that on June 26th 1914 one Richard Strauss "came over and directed four of his tone poems, and Elena Gerhardt sang three of his songs with orchestra. Strauss then finished by conducting his beloved Mozart symphony in G minor"



I do feel short-changed by today's concerts (although I'm not sure if the Strauss concert was a prom)

[richardfinegold]

I can't find the rest, but note from Henry Wood's autobiography that on June 26th 1914 one Richard Strauss "came over and directed four of his tone poems, and Elena Gerhardt sang three of his songs with orchestra. Strauss then finished by conducting his beloved Mozart symphony in G minor"



I do feel short-changed by today's concerts (although I'm not sure if the Strauss concert was a prom)

June 26, 1914. The eve of the Great War. I’ll bet Strauss wasn’t there for the 1915 season.

[LMcD]

Hang on Bbm, it’s the RLPO!

They might do Johnny Todd to partly redress the London bias!

Actually, Johnny Todd is appropriate in a way, as Johnny Keating's arrangement was used as the theme tune for 'Z Cars' which was set on Merseyside.

[cloughie]

Actually, Johnny Todd is appropriate in a way, as Johnny Keating's arrangement was used as the theme tune for 'Z Cars' which was set on Merseyside.

http://www.officialcharts.com/charts/singles-chart/19620412/7501/

a chart hit both for Mr Keating and his orchestra (arranged by Fritz Spiegl) AND also for Norrie Paramor whose recording was actually the one used for the TV Series!

[Pabmusic]

I wrote this for somethiing else, but it might be appropriate for this thread, and for a general 'feel' of London concert-going in 1914. It's based on the diaries of Frederick Septimus Kelly, concert pianist, composer and Olympic gold-medallist. He had been a King's Scholar at Eton (like Butterworth, though George was younger) and organ scholar at Balliol. He was a good friend of Rupert Brooke, who also attended the RVW concert:

Here's something. It's from the diaries kept by Olympic gold-medallist, concert pianist and composer Frederick Septimus Kelly and covers the two F. B. Ellis concerts in March 1914. F. B. Ellis was from the family of the Barons Howard de Walden; he had attended Eton and Oxford, as had Kelly and Butterworth. You might find interesting Kelly's impressions of the first London performances of two Butterworth pieces, and the first performance of RVW's London Symphony. And Kelly didn't seem to be a fan of Bax!

"Friday 20 March 1914

L. B. [Leonard Borwick] and I went to Alexander Scriabine’s recital of his own compositions at the Bechstein Hall [now the Wigmore Hall – a casualty of the war!] at 3 pm and our experience can best be described in his words – that we went to hear a composer and remained to bless the pianist … [gives the programme] … I have never heard a more constant beauty of tone nor a greater technical mastery. …

…[In the evening] we went to F. B. Ellis’s Orchestral Concert at Queen’s Hall. He is carrying on the Balfour Gardiner Concerts – his object being to produce modern English works and other novelties. The program was:

1. Festival Overture – Arnold Bax

2. a) Rhapsody ‘A Shropshire Lad’ – George Butterworth, b) Idyll ’The Banks of Green Willow’ – George Butterworth.

3. Symphonic Poem Die Mittags hexe – Dvorak

4. Four Orchestral Sketches – Arnold Bax: a) ‘Pensive Starlight’, b) ‘Dance in the Sun’, c) ‘In the Hills of Home’, d) ‘Dance of Wild Irravel’ (first complete performance).

5. Songs with orchestra: a) ‘La Procession’ – Cesar Frank, b) ‘Die beibgen drei Konge’ – R. Strauss. Miss Gladys Moger.

6. Symphonic Poem Don Quixote – R. Strauss

Conductors – Geoffrey Toye (nos 1-4) and F. B. Ellis (5 and 6)

I can’t find any distinction in Bax’s music. Butterworth’s things, however, were rather charming, if somewhat formless.

Friday 27 March 1914

At 3.15 I went to Leo Ornstein’s recital of futurist music at the Steinway Hall where there was a fairly representative gathering of musicians such as Vaughan Williams, Frank Bridge, Roger Quilter, E. J. Dent, James Friskin … among a society audience. [gives the programme and comments on it]

… I drove away with [W.] Denis Browne and [Cyril] Rootham (to whom he introduced me). … we went to F. B. Ellis’ second Orchestral Concert at the Queen’s Hall afterwards. The program was:

1. ‘In a Summer Garden’ – Delius (first performance in London of the revised edition).

2. A London Symphony – Vaughan Williams.

3. Three Songs with orchestra – Arnold Bax: a) ‘Celtic Lullaby’, b) ‘A Xmas Carol’, c) ‘Slumber Song’ (first performance. Miss Dilys Jones.

4. Symphonic Poem Thamar – Balakirew

5. Valses nobles et sentimentales – M. Ravel.

6. Pièce heroique – Cesar Franck, orchestrated by F. B. Ellis.

Conductors: Geoffrey Toye (nos 1, 2, and 4), F. B. Ellis (nos 3, 5, and 6).
The Queen’s Hall Orchestra.

Vaughan Williams’ Symphony lacks organity [sic] and is too long. It contains his usual percentage of fairly fine ideas and the orchestration and harmony are nearly always interesting. On the other hand there are one or two themes whose folk-song character seemed to me to make them out of place, and the tunes that go to make up the second subject section of the first movement all have a ring of vulgarity. According to the analytical program, they represent the Cockney element in London life, but that doesn’t excuse an unpleasant impression of banality. There was some delightful treatment of street-calls in the slow movement and bits of really fine music in the last movement, e.g. the opening Andante con moto and parts of the Epilogue. It seemed to receive a good performance at the hands of Geoffrey Toye. I found Delius’ ‘In a Summer Garden’ very pleasant, but Bax’s songs seemed to me bad. It was the first time I had heard the orchestral version of Ravel’s Waltzes and I agreed with L. B.’s verdict that the piano is a better medium for their refinement and intimacy. Ellis made quite a good job of scoring Franck’s Pièce heroique."

The next day he has tea with Percy Grainger’s mother!

Francis Bevis Ellis was one of the eight who volunteered together (Butterworth was another, so was Toye). Five of them were killed, Ellis about a month after Butterworth, at Thiepval Ridge. So the concerts were never continued after the war. Also, Butterworth, Ellis, and Francis Toye (Geoffrey’s brother) were the three who ‘revised’ the score of the London Symphony before the first performance, because RVW was in Switzerland and Italy. “Revised” was RVW’s word, but we don’t know what it entailed since that is the score that went missing. They also made the piano short-score that’s in the British Library (Butterworth did the Finale & Epilogue). They probably had nothing to do with reconstructing the score from the orchestral parts (which is what they’re usually credited with). It seems that was actually done by RVW, Adeline, E, J. Dent and W. Denis Browne.

It is very likely that the London Symphony was suggested to Ellis by his friend Butterworth.

Bevis Ellis’s estate came to more than £40,000 – about 2.5 million today.

Lieutenant Commander F. S Kelly was killed in November 1916, attacking a machine-gun emplacement on the Somme.

[Pabmusic]

Just to plug my own ego, a few years ago, I arranged a follow-up to the Henry Wood Sea Songs: A New Fantasia on British Sea Songs, by E. Alpensinfonie. Johnny Todd was there, along with many others not selected by Sir Henry. However, it required a minimum of three ensembles to achieve the best effect (not Johnny Todd, as a fife and drum effect was all that was required here).

The song is Everton's theme tune, unlike Liverpool's which is American.

And I'll add to the self-promotion. I've done a similar thing - I was always rather put-out that Wood's Fantasia contains no 'sea songs' beyond Spanish Ladies and Jack's the Lad (the hornpipie). My fantasia - The Leaving of Liverpool - contains only sea songs (unless you tack on Arne's original Rule Britannia (which you can).

Here's a computerised version of the non-Rule Britannia manifestation. And it's also the wind band version ( it's also for orchestra).

https://soundcloud.com/pabmusic-445605675/the-leaving-of-liverpool

It was first done at Liverpool Hope University in 2015.

[BBMmk2]

Thank you PBS for two interesting posts. The link however, is not accessible.