Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Vernon Handley - Bantock: Pagan Symphony; Fifine at the Fair etc. (1992)
BAND/ARTIST: Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Vernon Handley
- Title: Bantock: Pagan Symphony; Fifine at the Fair etc.
- Year Of Release: 1992
- Label: Hyperion
- Genre: Classical
- Quality: flac lossless (tracks) +Booklet
- Total Time: 01:19:42
- Total Size: 324 mb
- WebSite: Album Preview
Tracklist
01. Pagan Symphony: I. Tranquillo molto lento sostenuto
02. Pagan Symphony: II. Allegro con spirito
03. Pagan Symphony: III. Scherzo. Dance of Satyrs
04. Pagan Symphony: IV. Fanfare. Allegretto con moto
05. Pagan Symphony: V. Molto lento, sostenuto e rubato
06. Pagan Symphony: VI. Allegro molto e con fuoco
07. Fifine at the Fair: I. Prologue "Amphibian". Tranquillo, molto sostenuto
08. Fifine at the Fair: II. The Fair. Vivace
09. Fifine at the Fair: III. Fifine dances. Allegretto grazioso e capriccioso
10. Fifine at the Fair: IV. Elvire's theme
11. Fifine at the Fair: V. Epilogue. Lento con malinconia
12. 2 Heroic Ballads: I. Cuchullan's Lament
13. 2 Heroic Ballads: II. Kishmul's Galley
Despite his obvious talent for music it was only with the greatest difficulty that Granville Bantock persuaded his father to allow him to study at the Royal Academy of Music. His father had a point: the career of a musician in Victorian England was by no means certain, and certainly not a suitable profession for the son of an eminent London surgeon. But the young Bantock, already a prolific composer, had his way. He entered the Royal Academy in September 1889 and began to study under the direction of Sir Frederick Corder (1852–1932), a composer of progressive sympathies who was also to number Holbrooke and Bax among his pupils. On leaving the Academy in 1893 Bantock endured various musical hack jobs, of which conducting proved to be the most important. For a while he directed musical comedies for the impresario George Edwardes. This experience led to an appointment as Musical Director of The Tower, New Brighton, where from 1897 to 1900 he proceeded to astonish Merseyside holiday-makers with concerts that included not only the major classics (they were accustomed to a diet of foot-tapping marches and waltzes), but also the music of contemporary British and Continental composers. In 1900 he turned his attention to musical education, becoming Principal of the Birmingham and Midland Institute of Music, and in 1908 Peyton Professor of Music at Birmingham University in succession to Sir Edward Elgar. In both capacities, as in everything he did, Bantock made a lively and indelible impression.
As might be expected of a man of exceptionally wide culture, boundless curiosity, and unlimited energy, Bantock was a composer of works that were not only on the largest scale, but also heroic and exotic in theme. He was much influenced by Liszt and Wagner and it is significant that his most successful works were those that depended either upon words or were illustrative of some poetic or dramatic programme. Typical are the six tone poems he composed between 1900 and 1902, of which Fifine at the Fair is third in order of composition. Almost all his orchestral works, whether or not they are actually labelled ‘tone poems’, have a strong programmatic underlay: this was an age when composers revelled in the descriptive powers of music and had no economic inhibitions about the size of orchestras. Not for nothing was he a friend and admirer of Richard Strauss. Unlike Strauss, however, the themes that inspired Bantock were often exotic: tales of the Orient, tales of Celtic and Classical mythology—tales, in short, to compensate for life in prosaic, materialistic Britain.
The Pagan Symphony is a case in point. Here Bantock’s dream is of classical antiquity. According to his daughter, Myrrha, he began work on the symphony in 1923. The published orchestral score, however, firmly attaches the date 3 September 1927 (and the place, Paris) to the first bar, and 20 June 1928 to the last, some 1,046 bars later. It may well be that the initial sketches were made at the earlier date, but it is clear that the final details and orchestration belong to 1927/28. As with the Hebridean Symphony (1913) and the Celtic Symphony (1940), the Pagan Symphony is cast in one continuous movement which falls into a number of sections which provide the element of contrast that is characteristic of the separate movements of traditional symphonic form...
01. Pagan Symphony: I. Tranquillo molto lento sostenuto
02. Pagan Symphony: II. Allegro con spirito
03. Pagan Symphony: III. Scherzo. Dance of Satyrs
04. Pagan Symphony: IV. Fanfare. Allegretto con moto
05. Pagan Symphony: V. Molto lento, sostenuto e rubato
06. Pagan Symphony: VI. Allegro molto e con fuoco
07. Fifine at the Fair: I. Prologue "Amphibian". Tranquillo, molto sostenuto
08. Fifine at the Fair: II. The Fair. Vivace
09. Fifine at the Fair: III. Fifine dances. Allegretto grazioso e capriccioso
10. Fifine at the Fair: IV. Elvire's theme
11. Fifine at the Fair: V. Epilogue. Lento con malinconia
12. 2 Heroic Ballads: I. Cuchullan's Lament
13. 2 Heroic Ballads: II. Kishmul's Galley
Despite his obvious talent for music it was only with the greatest difficulty that Granville Bantock persuaded his father to allow him to study at the Royal Academy of Music. His father had a point: the career of a musician in Victorian England was by no means certain, and certainly not a suitable profession for the son of an eminent London surgeon. But the young Bantock, already a prolific composer, had his way. He entered the Royal Academy in September 1889 and began to study under the direction of Sir Frederick Corder (1852–1932), a composer of progressive sympathies who was also to number Holbrooke and Bax among his pupils. On leaving the Academy in 1893 Bantock endured various musical hack jobs, of which conducting proved to be the most important. For a while he directed musical comedies for the impresario George Edwardes. This experience led to an appointment as Musical Director of The Tower, New Brighton, where from 1897 to 1900 he proceeded to astonish Merseyside holiday-makers with concerts that included not only the major classics (they were accustomed to a diet of foot-tapping marches and waltzes), but also the music of contemporary British and Continental composers. In 1900 he turned his attention to musical education, becoming Principal of the Birmingham and Midland Institute of Music, and in 1908 Peyton Professor of Music at Birmingham University in succession to Sir Edward Elgar. In both capacities, as in everything he did, Bantock made a lively and indelible impression.
As might be expected of a man of exceptionally wide culture, boundless curiosity, and unlimited energy, Bantock was a composer of works that were not only on the largest scale, but also heroic and exotic in theme. He was much influenced by Liszt and Wagner and it is significant that his most successful works were those that depended either upon words or were illustrative of some poetic or dramatic programme. Typical are the six tone poems he composed between 1900 and 1902, of which Fifine at the Fair is third in order of composition. Almost all his orchestral works, whether or not they are actually labelled ‘tone poems’, have a strong programmatic underlay: this was an age when composers revelled in the descriptive powers of music and had no economic inhibitions about the size of orchestras. Not for nothing was he a friend and admirer of Richard Strauss. Unlike Strauss, however, the themes that inspired Bantock were often exotic: tales of the Orient, tales of Celtic and Classical mythology—tales, in short, to compensate for life in prosaic, materialistic Britain.
The Pagan Symphony is a case in point. Here Bantock’s dream is of classical antiquity. According to his daughter, Myrrha, he began work on the symphony in 1923. The published orchestral score, however, firmly attaches the date 3 September 1927 (and the place, Paris) to the first bar, and 20 June 1928 to the last, some 1,046 bars later. It may well be that the initial sketches were made at the earlier date, but it is clear that the final details and orchestration belong to 1927/28. As with the Hebridean Symphony (1913) and the Celtic Symphony (1940), the Pagan Symphony is cast in one continuous movement which falls into a number of sections which provide the element of contrast that is characteristic of the separate movements of traditional symphonic form...
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