Richard Arnell - String Quartets Nos. 1-5 - The Tippett Quartet - Dutton Epoch 2011

I cannot resist posting more Arnell, and I still have several discs to go, happily for those who visit. Here we have five of his String Quartets (he completed a 6th, but I don't think it has ever been recorded). It took me a few listens initially to really appreciate them all; it was clear from the beginning that each quartet is superbly crafted-and as is always the case with Arnell, there is an abundance of ideas throughout.

Richard Arnell's String Quartet No. 1 of 1939 is on one movement and is an excellent example-though not the only example in his output-of a concentrated single-movement quartet. It is an exceptional score in British music of the time, and it followed no fewer than five student chamber works Arnell composed between 1936-38: three quartets and two string trios. I do not know if this first "official" quartet draws upon material from those earlier works, but the mere fact of their existence surely explains the composer's assured command of the medium and the handling of his material. There is no uncertainty here for the 22-year-old Englishman in New York, confidently demonstrating his own character. Here, within this concentrated single-movement span, is the personification of multi-movement expression, spurred by the juxtaposition of two principle melodic germs allied to a virtual plethora of developmental ideas, seemingly at times as a patchwork, but which on analysis declare themselves to be but organic growths from the very first idea after the the work's rhythmic birth, 'Allegro vivace'. A slower section unfolds, the textural richness of the music a complete contrast to the discursive nature of the first part, at all times emotionally mature and unwilling to hide behind a wall of youthful self-pity. Yet perhaps the the most remarkable aspect of this first mature essay is the nature of the closing pages: here is extraordinarily original quartet-writing as the work approaches its conclusion, the texture full yet emotionally satisfying as the music,  almost suddenly, fades and leaves us with a memory of the opening idea. The first performance was given in the New York Public Library in 1940 by the great Galimir Quartet, Viennese émigrés from Europe, who had studied Berg's Lyric Suite, Ravel's Quartet and Milhaud's Seventh Quartet with the respective composers.       

The First Quartet was followed relatively quickly by the Second, in 1941. This very different work, in three movements, was premiered in New Jersey. Here, the language may be similar, but the material is perhaps more elliptical yet at all times full of those inner motifs of organic life, as the music unfolds in the Allegro first movement. The ending of this movement is astonishing in context-for it is as though the central movement's study in slow motion, Andante con moto, grows naturally from the first, but only after a sudden break: our ears tell us that Arnell, having mastered the medium in his Opus 4, wishes to flex his new-found mastery on a broader (but not too broad) canvas. Here there is a textural mastery as well as a developmental one, subsumed by way of emotional expression of notable inner strength, fully able to encompass a wide emotive range, which never gets out of hand. The Presto con fuoco finale begins with similar richness, eruptive and powerful, but the emotional tenor soon eases to a lighter frame of mind, almost leading us to expect a rondo-like finale, which in some respects the music resembles, but the initial inherent energy will not be gainsaid as the music eventually surges to its final defiant gesture.

By 1947, Arnell had returned to England from the States, bringing with him three completed quartets, the Third having been written in 1945. The Second Quartet was first heard in Britain in a BBC broadcast in September of 1947 by the Martin Quartet (which had been founded by David Martin, with Neville Marriner as second violin). Like the Second, Arnell's Third Quartet is in three movements, but is on a somewhat broader scale, yet the work had to wait until June of 1949 for its first performance, by the Blech Quartet at that year's Cheltenham Festival. At the time, the Blech Quartet was one of the most important in Britain, having been founded in the 1930s by its leader Harry Blech, who was soon to leave to set up a new orchestra, the London Mozart Players. 

Arnell's Third Quartet is the first of his mature quartets to which he appended a key -E flat major - and it is true that, compared to its predecessors, a basic tonality is more in evidence. In the earlier quartets, tonality as such is not abjured, but is felt more as a succession of tonal regions rather than an underlying force. This is planted immediately at the beginning with a descending unison idea from which the work grows; additionally, as the movement gets under way, a slightly greater preponderance of rhythmic figures, located within E flat and its related keys, becomes evident. Another point is the character of the work, notwithstanding what we may by now identify as characteristics of the composer, the nature of the material seems less combative, in a word more relaxed-perhaps engendered by the reliability of a strong home key-that permits the music to explore with a greater degree of certainty, and implied in the tempo indication Allegro vivace. The second movement, Lento non troppo, is a profound contemplation as the individual instruments one by one occupy center stage to take the mood forward though a succession of deeply-felt and warmly lyrical passages. This movement contains some of the very finest music within this series of works-utterly consistent in terms of style and outstandingly well written for the medium. Yet the final bars contain an element of dissent. The finale, Poco presto, is a remarkable tour de force of compositional skill, not least in the composer's control of the tricky rhythmic impetus he has set under way, and the main theme (the first four notes of which oddly recall, doubtless unwittingly, the plainchant 'Dies Irae')  takes center stage until an intense release of energy sets the second main part of the movement in train to end the work in a mood of high exuberance.  

Arnell in (I believe) his mid 50s

The New London Quartet (which was actually the three remaining players of the Blech Quartet led by Erich Gruenberg) gave the premiere of Arnell's Fourth Quartet, also at the Cheltenham Festival in July of 1952. The work had been written two years earlier, and in it Arnell reverted to a single-movment structure, such as he had utilized 11 years earlier. The Fourth Quartet shows shows considerable powers of concentration on Arnell's part-the concentration arising from just four notes - C, D, E, D - that are stated at the outset by the first violin in a basic Allegro tempo. Scalic passages decorate the texture, and at times expand it, but all the while the organic development of these adjacent four notes and their semi tonal contractions provide the true living character of the music. In terms of genuinely thematic material, therefore,  for mnemonic purposes 'first or second subjects', there are none in this hefty opening paragraph, until a highly contrasted section gets under way,  melodically more intense, itself growing from just three notes and affording a contemplative study-the texture more finely woven from such a simple beginning. 

The sympathetic listener who has followed the line of Arnell's String Quartets thus far will be aware that here is a remarkable original body of music-and the Fifth Quartet from 1962 continues this train of compositional  thought. The American conductor Warren Cohen (who has performed almost all of Arnell's orchestral music in the U.S., giving several premieres) commented that the "..professionalism of Arnell's music - [is] so effortlessly perfect that you might miss the depth, beauty and profundity behind those notes". 

Arnell in his later years

One of the more remarkable aspects of Arnell's Fifth Quartet is the extraordinary structural premonition it contains of Britten's Quartet No. 3  (1975) - that, as mentioned earlier, of the "multi-movement" work, either as a group of movements or as parts of an (often) concentrated single-movement composition. Needless to say in 1962 Britten's Quartet had not yet been written, but in this 

multi-movment structure Arnell foreshadows aspects of Britten's work and even goes one further in terms of texture: for Arnell's Fifth Quartet comprises solo and duo movements and a trio before the coming together once more of the four players in the finale. In other respects, the texture also presages aspects of late Shostakovich in sudden unison writing. All in all, the work has to be counted one of the most impressive achievements for a composer who was not himself a string player! 

Enjoy!

Richard_Arnell_String Quartets_Nos._1-5-Tzadik.zip

http://www77.zippyshare.com/v/GbUlyM7d/file.html

Richard Arnell - The Great Detective, Ballet Music - The Angels, Ballet Music - BBC Concert Orchestra, Martin Yates - Dutton Epoch 2008

This was supposed to be a birthday post (Arnell was born yesterday, September 15th, 1917) however I simply could not summon the energy to get to the computer last night. So, a 24-hour belated birthday tribute will have to suffice; I doubt Arnell would have minded, and I'm most certain that those of you reading this-whether you have discovered Richard Arnell's magnificent music on my blog or elsewhere-shall not quibble ;)

These wonderful ballet scores needless to say will undoubtedly only further the appreciation of Arnell's rich orchestral palette and ability to compose exciting sure-fire music. I have never heard an Richard Arnell work with anything in excess-ne'er a 'note too many' I'd say! If anything the listener is always left wanting for more.

The first time I heard "The Great Detective" I was immediately taken with it's exuberance, as well as it's Prokofiev-esque feeling. I would love to see the music staged, although clearly the music speaks colorfully and cogently on it's own. It's fantastic music, as is the substantial and highly symphonic "The Angels" ballet score, which Arnell wrote four years after The Great Detective. 

I don't have time for a synopsis of either work at this time so here's a Gramophone review for now:

Dutton’s enterprising exploration of the works of Richard Arnell here moves from the symphonies and Piano Concerto to the ballet scores, which through recordings were for some 50 years the most readily available representation of the composer. Beecham championed Arnell’s music and recorded a suite from Punch and the Child, while the composer himself set down excerpts from both works here during the 1950s. These are, though, the first CD recordings and the first complete recordings of both.

The two scores differ significantly in style. The Great Detective – based loosely on Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes – is what one might expect of a ballet score of the 1950s, developing the action through lively orchestral transition passages that frame more lyrical set dances. A visual record would help; but even without it one can sense something of the action. The Angels is very much different, an altogether more powerful score, essentially structured as a three-movement symphony – the first movement a Theme and Variations, the second a beautiful Roundelay, the third a Vivace and final Transformation. It’s a sumptuous, uplifting score that transcends the ballet format and more meaningfully represents part of Arnell’s symphonic output. That those present in the recording control room during the sessions dubbed it Arnell’s “Symphony No 5-and-a-half” only begins to do it justice.

Martin Yates directs full-blooded, compelling performances that follow the composer’s own timings closely without ever suggesting slavish imitation. Arnell well deserves attention, alongside Alwyn and Arnold in Britain’s composing A-team.

Enjoy everyone!

Richard_Arnell-The_Great_Detective-Tzadik.zip

http://www71.zippyshare.com/v/iOiFKMOf/file.html

Richard Arnell - String Quintet - Music for Harp (Flute, Violin, Viola & Harp) - Trio for Violin, Cello & Piano - Trio for Flute, Cello & Piano - Suite for Unaccompanied Cello - Locrian Ensemble - Dutton Epoch 2002

Some chamber music, especially of the early 20th century-onwards, asks (or challenges) the listener from the first bar to penetrate its aural membrane. Often static, or on the other hand in-your-face, it is with patience that the music's 'true colors' emerge-and frequently repeated listens are required. One experiences this 'ascension through the clouds' with all types of musics and genres needless to say; however chamber music in particular I think poses the most obstacles for the average or erudite listener. Of course like anything else it's also a question of the quality of the work-is it worth the effort, or is it the music that's simply uninspired? 

Here the chamber music of Richard Arnell challenges the listener to *not* find it all irresistible from the start...that's been my experience anyhow! Indeed the pull is strong immediately, the craftsmanship and invention found in the opening work "Trio for Violin, Cello & Piano" makes it's case and wins one over, it's too good, too beautiful to resist..

The Trio for Violin, Cello and Piano, Op. 47, was written in 1946 and is Arnell's last work composed in the States before his return to England, financially hard-pressed due to being released from his job with the BBC Stateside. He dedicated the trio to his close friends Ilsa Falk and Herbert Farber, the latter a successful dentist who had been supportive. Arnell describes the Trio as "the most compelling of my chamber works" and it was first performed with Dennis East playing the violin and Arnold Ashby, the cello. The piece was subsequently taken up by the Rubbra Trio in England, and recorded for the BBC, the string parts being played Eric Gruenberg and Douglas Cameron. 

Back in England Arnell moved in with his father. Arnell was shocked by the turmoil in post-war Britain, especially when he experienced rationing and saw the operation of the black market. Nevertheless, Arnell was regularly performed by Beecham and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as by Barbirolli with the Hallé. He enjoyed enthusiastic support from the New London String Quartet and both Gruenberg and Cameron continued to commission and perform his quartets (which, happily, are also recorded on Dutton). Yet, Arnell felt that trends at the BBC under William Glock were not favorable toward his compositional style. When his fifth string quartet was declined for broadcast at the Cheltenham Festival, Cameron organized a special performance at his own expense. However, one new chamber work, the String Quintet Op. 60 of 1950 was particularly well-received and attracted critical acclaim. 

Arnell became a lecturer at the Royal Ballet School from 1958-59 and later he was to be Chairman of the Composer's Guild and Musical Director of the London International Film School. Meanwhile, he was composing an impressive list of symphonic and chamber works, as well as ballet scores and an opera. In 1960 came the "Suite for unaccompanied Cello", written for Douglas Cameron. It is neo-baroque in character and a lovely addition to the solo cello repertoire. 

The draw of America however was ever-present, partly because he continued to visit his daughter in California, There he was employed by the film studios, producing scores for 20th Century Fox, on the recommendation of Leonard Bernstein's sister. At this time, Benjamin Britten was composing for film documentaries, and likewise, Arnell enjoyed this medium, considering his most notable scores to be for the films "The Visit" (1964) and "The Man Outside" (1966).

"The Boat Race" poster by N G Cayford, used as the album cover. Pretty charming.

In 1967, on a Fulbright Exchange, Arnell became visiting lecturer at Bowdoin College, Maine, and subsequently took a post as "Professor of Humanities" at Hofstra University in New York. During this time he composed the "Music for Harp" Op. 72a for Flute, Violin, Viola and Harp which is a brief, somewhat meditative work. I wish this was but one of several movements from a sonata! These were interesting times for Arnell, as he observed the protests against the Vietnam war, to which he added his own comment in the form of a piece for voice and electronics entitled "Prague 1968".

Returning to England once again, Arnell dedicate himself to both education and composition. For forty years he was senior lecturer in Theory Composition at Trinity College of Music until his retirement. Serving on committees of musical colleges and film schools, organizing festivals and promoting performances of works by contemporary composers, he worked tirelessly to support young musicians, whilst continuing to add his own very considerable output.  

The "Trio for Flute, Cello, and Piano" (Three for Three) Op. 168 was written in 1991, and is a gentle and lyrical piece from the composer now in his 74th year. It has only two short movements, one quite poignant and the other searching. Arnell was still going strong, his magnificent output continuing to grow for many years. 

Track list:

Trio for Violin, Cello and Piano

1)Allegro (8:30)

2)Andante (9:33)

3)Adagio-Allegro (5:24)

4)Music for Harp - Andante con moto - Allegro moderato (5:56)

String Quintet

5)Allegro (4:58)

6)Andante (4:37)

7)Vivace (2:27)

8)Fantasia (Andante-Allegro) (8:37)

Trio for Flute, Cello and Piano

9)Andante (2:07)

10)Allegro moderato (4:58)

Suite for unaccompanied Cello

11)Variations (rhythmically in the manner of 16th century Lute Divisions) (3:07)

12)Canzonetta (1:45)

13)Minuet (1:03)

14)Scherzo fugato (1:14)

15)Study (1:59)

16)Arioso (2:38)

17)Presto Finale. (1:30)

Enjoy!

Arnell-Quintet_Trios_Music_for_Harp_Cello_Suite-Tzadik.zip

http://www6.zippyshare.com/v/8uMZjx24/file.html

Thomas F. Dunhill - Symphony in A minor - Richard Arnell - Lord Byron: A Symphonic Portrait - Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Martin Yates - Dutton Epoch 2008

Here's another enlightening and invaluable disc of unsung British symphonic music from Dutton's Epoch series. I got this for the Arnell (I have already posted several Arnell discs, and there are more to come), one of my favorite British composers ever since I discovered his music on Dutton about eight years ago. Thomas F. Dunhill (1877-1946) I know only from this recording of his Symphony and one other disc.

Thomas Dunhill was born in London in 1877 and studied with Charles Stanford and Frederick Taylor at the Royal College of Music. He later became a professor at that school and also taught at Eton. To promote the music of his contemporaries, he founded in 1907 the "Thomas Dunhill Chamber Concerts" and also worked as a conductor. His compositional output was not vast but included light operas (his most successful genre), ballets, orchestral works, chamber music and songs. In addition to his single Symphony, making its recorded debut on this release, some of his other works for orchestra written over the span of four decades and ranging from serious to light are: "Rhapsody in A minor" (1903), a suite for small orchestra "The Pixies" (1908), "Capricious Variations on an Old English Tune for Cello and Orchestra" (1910), prelude "The King's Threshold" (1913), "Elegiac Variations on an Original Theme" (1922), "Chiddingfold Suite for Strings" (1922), The "Guildford Suite" (1925), "Triptych - Three Impressions for Viola and Orchestra" (1942), "Waltz Suite" (1943) and overture "May-Time" (1945).

Dunhill's Symphony in A minor was first conceived in 1913 and completed in 1916. It received a reading at the RCM in 1922 but had its official premiere that same year in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. The first British performance took place the following year in Bournemouth conducted by the composer. Before disappearing prior to this current recording the Symphony would receive several further hearings with its last one being in 1935.

The Symphony makes an immediate impression as a big, warm, tuneful and memorable statement. It is decidedly conventional and old-fashioned even for its own time. No influence of the folksong movement or Delian pantheism is evident while the influence of Elgar's Symphonies is unmistakable though not pervasive. Despite its gestation during World War I the music lacks any significant sounds of deep anxiety. The opening movement is forceful, though perhaps a little over-extended, and abounds in big tunes one of which bears a striking resemblance to a similar melody in Ernest Chausson's Symphony in B flat major. The rollicking scherzo might remind the listener of Litolff's famous scherzo from his Concerto Symphonique No. 4 but it is pure delight. The slow movement marked adagio non troppo is haunting and the work's crowning section. Here is where Elgar's spirit looms large in its elegiac beauty. The last movement returns to the soundworld of the first movement and moves inexorably towards a grand climax that ought to bring any audience to its feet. 

The main course for me is Arnell's  Symphonic Portrait "Lord Byron." Like Dunhill two generations before him, Arnell was born in London and studied at the Royal College of Music. His composition teacher was John Ireland who, again like Dunhill, was a student of Stanford. He spent a number of years in America where his music was championed by Bernard Herrmann and other conductors and a number of his major works received performances. Back in England after World War II, Beecham became a patron as well but Arnell's prominence eventually faded when composers of his tonal ilk were consigned to near-oblivion by the musical fashion-police.

Those familiar with Arnell's expansive post-romantic/conservative modern idiom will find much to enjoy in "Lord Byron". Written in 1952, the work was commissioned and first performed by Sir Thomas Beecham and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. It plays without a break for more than 21 minutes but is divided into eight distinct sections that highlight six episodes in the poet's life girded by a prelude and an epilogue. This very descriptive music ranges from gentle to soaring and is delightful from beginning to end.

Thomas F. Dunhill - Symphony in A minor, Op. 48

1)Moderato

2)Prestissimo

3)Adagio non troppo

4)Allegro

Richard Arnell - Lord Byron, Symphonic Portrait

5)Prelude

6)Newstead

7)Augusta

8)Success & Disgrace

9)Voyage

10)Serenade

11)Battles

12)Epilogue

Enjoy..

Arnell_Lord Byron_Symphonic_Portrait_Dunhill_Symphony-Tzadik.zip

http://www88.zippyshare.com/v/oqkTpBNA/file.html

Richard Arnell - Punch and the Child - Harlequin in April - Concerto Capriccioso for Violin and Orchestra - BBC Concert Orchestra, Martin Yates - Lorraine McAslan, Violin - Dutton Epoch 2009

Here is a great disc that contains two of Arnell's most important ballet scores, "Punch and the Child" (this is the first complete recording, Beecham's 1950 recording was actually not "complete" as the Gramophone review below states) and the glorious "Harlequin in April" which is a world-premiere recording. Both of these scores enjoyed success when they were premiered and the ballets remained in the repertoire for quite some time, touring the world with British ballet companies. The "Concerto Capriccioso" is Richard Arnell's second violin concerto, and is ripe with emotional impact. 

I will be adding notes about the current recording tonight (I must leave for work now) so for the time being I have pasted two different reviews below-they will be deleted late in the evening.

*Update: I just added the link, sorry everyone! That's what I get for posting whilst rushing :/  I will have to keep the reviews alone up another day, too tired to write now..

Gramophone:

This latest Dutton release of Richard Arnell's music is primarily a second instalment of the ballet scores that until recently provided much of Arnell's meagre representation on record. The accompanying note suggests that both ballets here were previously known only for their suites and are here recorded complete. In fact, the 22-minute concert version here of Punch and the Child was also recorded by Beecham in 1950. Like The Great Detective in a previous Dutton collection (11/08), it's sprightly, satirical, episodic music, and if Beecham's interpretation perhaps has a more spontaneous swagger, it's still splendidly done here.

Harlequin in April, recorded here for the first time, was Arnell's most enduring ballet in the theatre; it's a version of the Everyman theme, representing man's journey from birth to death. It's a decidedly more substantial score than Punch and the Child, with longer movements and altogether deeper intent, possessing some of the sound quality of Holst's The Planets to add to the suggestion of Prokofiev that permeates much of Arnell's finely orchestrated music.

The concluding Concerto capriccioso is really Arnell's second violin concerto, following the early one-movement work on another previous Dutton release. Though apparently never performed in Britain until this recording, it's an endearingly inventive and moving work, with sweet lyricism masking technical challenges for the soloist which include a second movement that's played solo.

These Arnell recordings provide the perfect demonstration of how CD has opened up access to neglected music with much to enjoy - especially when performed and recorded as expertly as here.

Archive:

This most welcome Dutton release, another installment in its exemplary restoration of the outstanding British composer Richard Arnell (1917–2009) to his rightful place in the 20th-century music pantheon, completes the survey of his four ballets with this premiere recording of what is the most complex and wide-ranging, both musically and symbolically, of them all, Harlequin in April of 1951. Although the scenario bases its allegorical treatment of everyman’s life-and-death cycle on figures from the commedia del’arte , this score contains some of the darkest and harrowing passages Arnell ever wrote for the dance. After a typically abrupt, bold, and busy introduction, we first hear the sad strains of “Pierrot’s Song,” which returns later in the two extended pas de deux to underline a tale of loss and defeat at the hands of the inescapable and fateful Unicorns. Even the miniature violin concertino (“Pierrot and His Violin”) is surrounded by intimations of heart-stopping regret and failure. Over all, this work has very little of the traditional spirit of April, and the elements of grotesquerie and caricature present in the puppet ballet Punch and the Child are kept to a minimum. 

The program opens with the first complete recording of Arnell’s heretofore best-known work, Punch and the Child , the 1947 ballet that was premiered in New York near the end of the composer’s American exile and later recorded in a concert version by Beecham reissued in several different formats over the years. Except perhaps for a few transitional measures, there is no discernible difference between the two recordings, though, while Beecham approaches the piece as an integral independent symphonic statement, Yates gives us a more dance-oriented, red-blooded and hence sharply delineated version that emphasizes Arnell’s inherent narrative skills and his Til Eulenspiegel -like strengths. 

As always in the past, Yates, here with the BBC Philharmonic, gives us his typically dedicated, glowing, and insightful representation of the Arnellian genius, with special emphasis on the revelation that is Harlequin in April.

Enjoy everyone

Richard_Arnell-Ballets_&_Concerto_Capriccioso-Tzadik.zip

http://www46.zippyshare.com/v/kjca0kER/file.html

Richard Arnell - The Unnumbered Symphonies - Sinfonia - Dagenham Symphony - Landscapes and Figures - Overture "1940" - RSNO, Martin Yates - Dutton Epoch 2012

Instead of posting Richard Arnell's other (numbered) symphonies, I thought it would be interesting to post these even lesser-known so-called "unnumbered" symphonies first. This recording also includes and starts off with the Overture "1940", a very nice and exciting work bristling with energy and a strong Hindemithian feel to boot. It's my favorite work here and sets the mood swimmingly indeed!

Richard Arnell came from a well-off background; his father was a builder (property developer these days) but Arnell encountered considerable family opposition before he was allowed to study at at the Royal College of Music. At the Royal Academy, his composition teacher was John Ireland (to whom he dedicated his early Violin Concerto, posted prior to this disc). It is a curious paradox that while the attitude of many young composers in the late 1930s was to reject the concept of symphony, most of that generation went on to write them. Arnell himself remembered his "very strongly held musical beliefs in 1939... that symphonies were archaic. Orchestral works should be short, preferably in one movement. They should not contain untuned percussion". The reality was different. From the beginning, Arnell was constantly preoccupied with the symphony as a form. He completed his "Sinfonia" at the Royal College of Music in 1938, his most significant student work. Arnell confessed: "I enjoy thinking architecturally. Musicians all do although they might not understand if you put it to them just like that. Music is sound within a space, so the space and its shape and texture is an intimate part of the sound".

The Sinfonia was long thought lost, but in 2009 when Jessie Page, Arnell's first daughter, arrived in from the United States to attend his funeral she announced that she had the score, which had come to light on the death of her mother in Lincoln City, Nebraska, the previous year. She soon passed it to Martin Yates, seeking a performance, which, edited by Martin, is here achieved. Martin points out: "The date of the work would have made Arnell 21 years old at the time of writing it. It was almost definitely one of the handful of works he took with him to New York in 1939. There are no conductor's markings on the score and there is no record of it ever having been played". The original ink-written full score is dedicated to "A.A.", Arnell's first wife, Charlotte Augusta Cronin-Lowe. The first movement is followed by two deeply felt meditations, returning to the big canvas sound in the shadowed but ultimately striving finale. The Sinfonia is prefaced by a slow intro (lento) in which we immediately find that the student Arnell primarily in thrall to the music and orchestral textures of Sibelius, although Hindemith soon indeed became his stylistic starting-point. The orchestra is used in blocks of color-strings, brass, woodwind-the color emphasized by soft timpani rolls, often sustained through crescendo and decrescendo and with the build-up of slowly evolving motifs and patterns into wide-spanning themes. In the 1930s, it was impossible to ignore the influence of Walton's then new "Symphony in B-flat minor" on his contemporaries, and Arnell occasionally succumbed, most notably at the climax of his first movement. In the finale, allegro vivace, the full orchestra is heard and Arnell sets in motion repeated notes (A) in the strings and leaves us with a brief coda of restless incident and punchy, climactic fortissimo chords.

The "Dagenham Symphony" is a work from 1952, actually the pre-composed soundtrack for a film. 

The film is Op. 65, a documentary commissioned by the Ford Motor company celebrating their Dagenham works, and variously referred to as a "Symphonic Study", and, on the score, a "Suite". Similarly to Beecham's then recent recording of Brian Easdale's ballet music "The Red Shoes", the music was and recorded first and the film shot to it. The resulting "Symphonic Study" was announced as being in three movements. The surviving score is in six movements, often celebratory not unlike Arthur Bliss in "Things to Come". There are two march tunes, which can be heard as more reminiscent of Malcolm Arnold than that the composer himself actually. Arnell uses short piano solos, played on screen by himself to introduce the sequences.

Arnell's first four numbered symphonies were written in the space of five years between 1943 and 1948. The Fourth was very well received by contemporary audiences in the late 1940s, though it did not reach London until 1953. It was in this climate that he produced both the Dagenham Symphony and "Landscapes and Figures" Op. 78. The latter was commissioned by Beecham and the Edinburg Festival. The score is actually headed "To Sir Thomas Beecham" and was first performed by Beecham and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at the Edinburg Festival in 1956. It had few subsequent performances despite a quite favorable reception. "Landscapes.." consists of eight short movements with enigmatic titles, each a short piano intro. Arnell said: "The piano plays an important role. It is the commentator separating one variation from the next". In his own program notes, Arnell pointed out that the music had its origins in visual imagery. Arnell kept regular notebooks about his works in progress and in one he jots down: "Landscapes with Figures... a symphonic poem... several imagined and unpainted pictures in contemporary but not abstract style".  At one stage he envisaged commissioning actual pictures (quickly rejected) and persuaded Stephen Spender to write a linking text, presumably never completed. Reviewing the first two performances  the critics equated it with Mussorgsky's ubiquitous  "Pictures at an Exhibition". This makes much more sense to me after reading Arnell's notes in entirety about the work-Arnell's goal of visual inspiration and depiction succeeds I think (for example the first movement "The City", initially conceived as "Escape from the City", Arnell noted Francis Bacon as a possible artist to illustrate it; I for one can imagine that). 

In the program notes for the Festival Hall in 1956 (the second performance) Arnell wrote: "The poet, obsessed by images, figures, colors-tries to dispel them. He can catch them briefly, but they constantly vanish and re-assemble further away, still brighter and harsher. Only his genius could save him from madness, but his mind is frustrated and emptied by the flickering visions. A sudden cluster of notes, unexpectedly placed, shatters all the images. He is freed to return to his dream, elated but uneasy".  I quite like that. One critic wrote that "Landscapes.. should soon find a home in the ballet theater". This colorful, lyrical, and immediately communicative music would be effective in the context of ballet and although unlikely perhaps someday someone will attempt it.

Just like the "Dagenham Symphony", "Landscapes and Figures" was regarded by Arnell as being a symphony. I regard this music, all of it, as a find.

Enjoy

Arnell_The Unnumbered_Symphonies-Tzadik.zip

http://www2.zippyshare.com/v/VMHZjKil/file.html

Guirne Creith - Concert in G for Violin and Orchestra - Richard Arnell - Violin Concerto in One Movement, Op. 9 - Thomas Pitfield - Concerto Lirico for Violin and Orchestra - RSNO, Martin Yates - Lorraine McAsland, Violin - Dutton Epoch 2009

*I tried to post this morning, several things actually, and of course that's when zippyhare decides to have issues (uploading would have taken 30 min per file!) So, things seem to be ok now, here's the first post at least for tonight..

Here's another Dutton Epoch gem offering three British violin concertos by three obscure composers (especially the unknown Guirne Creith, whose actual birth name was 'Gladys Mary Cohen'..her concerto is gorgeous). I forgot I owned this disc, and was very happy to find it yesterday whilst looking for my collection of Richard Arnell discs. I bought this for the Arnell but the two other works were a great surprise, every bit as good as the Arnell-and every bit as memorable as the Arnell-perhaps even more so (the Arnell concerto is a very early composition (his Opus 9) I will be posting several all-Arnell discs soon.

Guirne Creith (1907–1996), rather like Roger Sacheverell Coke, Walter Gaze Cooper  and Sam Hartley Braithwaite, remains a mystery figure. Dutton dispel some of the mist and add to the fascination with this recording of her Violin Concerto. As mentioned above she reinvented herself under the exotic name Guirne Creith during her student years at the Royal Academy of Music. She reinvented herself, in fact, several times during her lengthy life: first, as a struggling but successful composer; then as a concert pianist and pupil of Edwin Fischer. This was followed by a brief singing career, after an accident left her with a permanently injured right hand. When this didn’t work out particularly well, she became a teacher of piano, and finally an authority on French food and wine. Her Violin Concerto was premiered in a 1936 live BBC broadcast with Albert Sammons as soloist and Constant Lambert at the helm. When performers of this level take major roles in a debut, their presence in itself constitutes high praise, but the Violin Concerto then vanished, along with most of Creith’s music. This piece, at least, reappeared in handwritten full score after the composer’s death, with markings and a few corrections noted by Lambert. It's a very attractive work in the same part of the firmament as the violin concertos by Bax, Elgar and Coleridge Taylor-if this doesn't sound like too strange a confection. It's a serious concerto with a stirring dramatic mien. It might be seen as the 'Bax concerto Bax might have written' had the inspiration caught him in the middle of his Nordic period rather than when he was left only with sputtering recollections of the Ballets Russes, Richard Strauss and the lighter aspects of his music. The Creith is not of the English pastoral school. It is a full-blooded romantic work with great ideas in the solo line and in the orchestra. It's really a work of great depth of sentiment and strength of purpose, and it moves easily between the Wagnerian intensity of the 'Tristan' harmonies through moments of incredible lightness and whimsy to the wonderful sweetness and shimmer of the slow movement, which flowers with coaxed tenderness. There is also a violin sonata which really should be included in one of Dutton Epoch's sonata anthologies. Hopefully more of her orchestral works will be discovered and recorded (and as convincingly as this!) Creith’s concerto is a major find indeed. 

Guirne Creith

Enthusiasts will already know of Thomas Pitfield but this is the first time his beautiful "Concerto Lirico" from 1958 has become available, written against a contemporary tidal surge of dissonance by a composer who held true to his style. That style is melodic and carefree, the concerto here in the same singing company as the Respighi, the Finzi Introit, the Moeran and the Ivanovs, and partaking a little of Rubbra's "Collana" dance movements. Its central movement makes passing contact with Warlock's "Frostbound Wood". There is a distressing story of the premiere with an unsympathetic conductor; this recording is only possible due to the discovery of a microfilm of the full score found in the composer's garage after his death. Typically his music is very much in the English folk-song tradition, and well deserving of its "lyrical" title. The Concerto is structured as a single, continuous movement that falls into the usual three sections; and if the finale is slightly too long and repetitive to sustain its otherwise fine material, the central elegy possesses a fine, melancholy eloquence. Pitfield was also a craftsman in many other fields including typography, calligraphy, line drawings, and also woodcuts. 

Thomas Pitfield

Richard Arnell's substantial Concerto in One Movement, Op.9, is from 1949-preceding Samuel Barber’s Concerto by two years but clearly celebrating the same world. It's a flamboyantly romantic piece-rather akin to Rawsthorne yet without the tart astringency. It was written during Arnell’s time in New York and premiered in Carnegie Hall in 1946. It reveals the same influence of Hindemith that his "Sinfonia quasi variatione" of the following year would show. A few more years would make all the difference for Arnell, whose recognizable and masterful style makes an early appearance in the Symphony No. 1 of 1943.

Richard Arnell

Enjoy everyone

Creith_Arnell_&_Pitfield-Violin_Concertos-Tzadik.zip

http://www27.zippyshare.com/v/rmrUlkah/file.html

Richard Arnell - Piano Concerto - Symphony No. 2, "Rufus" - Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Martin Yates - David Owen Norris, Piano - Dutton Epoch 2007

Richard Arnell (1917 - 2009) is one of my favorite "unsung" British composers. Dutton has at this time recorded the complete symphonies (and also a disc of his "unnumbered" symphonies-there are three) as well as a few concertos, ballet music, some orchestral works, and chamber music, including his string quartets and a great disc with his string quintet, a trio for violin, cello and piano, a trio for flute, cello and piano, music for harp, and a suite for solo cello. Once again it's Dutton to the rescue, making the music of a great composer available to all (all who manage to discover these releases anyhow). This disc was my first experience with Arnell's music. I was excited and extremely impressed, especially with his Piano Concerto, Op. 44 which has become one of my favorites, it's a truly great listen time and again. This really is deserving of concert performances. Symphony No. 2 is very fine, it's style reflects the turbulence of the times (and of an America just entering the war after Pearl Harbor). Indeed the Second Symphony is music in emotional turmoil with strong rhythmic impetus and brass emphasis. There's a determined Allegro quasi presto in a thorny lyrical style close to late 1940s Alwyn, and in some sections, Alan Rawsthorne's concert music might come to mind. 

Richard Arnell was born in London during the 1st World War. He attended the the Royal College of Music from 1935 to 1938 where he studied composition with John Ireland, and won the the Farrer composition prize. Going to New York for the New York World Fair in the summer of 1939, he found himself trapped there when war was declared. The British consul in New York advised not trying to get back unless there was an overriding reason to do so, and so Arnell found himself living in New York. As an unknown composer, making a living was difficult, but Arnell quickly found himself part of the Greenwich Village scene and, soon with a wife and child, he remained in New York throughout the war. He also worked for the BBC North American service for the last two years of the war, becoming its music director. His first wife was a fashion artist, and he was a personal friend of the composer Virgil Thomson and of Greenwich Village figures such as Mark Rothko. Perhaps his most significant American friend was the conductor and composer Bernard Herrmann, who encouraged him and played his music with the Columbia Broadcasting Corporation Orchestra. Hermann with the CBC conducted the First Symphony, the cantata "The War God" and later the Piano Concerto. Herrmann advised Arnell to "go to Hollywood and grab yourself a movie", but Arnell found that this was easier said than done because of the union agreement that prohibited new names working before they had been resident for a year. 

Soon the celebrated Galimir Quartet gave the first performance of his First String Quartet at the New York Public Library. Arnell composed many works while in New York and enjoyed a succession of performances at Carnegie Hall and elsewhere. He gave the designation "Opus 1" to a set of classical variations in C for strings, which was broadcast from the station WQXR (the first classical radio station that I listened to while at the end of my teenage years, and that I continue to enjoy to this day), New York in December 1941. Before that his overture "The New Age" had been heard at Carnegie Hall, in a performance given by the 123-strong National Orchestral Association, a youth orchestra conducted by Leon Barzin, which later played Arnell's "Violin Concerto in One Movement" Op. 9. Arnell later acknowledged Barzin's support, with the dedication of his Fourth Symphony.

After Pearl Harbor, Arnell found himself drafted into the American army, but was rejected when he failed the medical. He soon encountered Sir Thomas Beecham, then resident in the States, who conducted his "Sinfonia quasi Variazione", Op. 13 with the New York City Symphony Orchestra. Arnell responded by dedicating his First Symphony to Beecham, who gave the first public performance in May 1944. It would only be after Arnell returned to London in 1947 that Beecham took him up in a whole-hearted way, with many performances of his works. When Sir Winston Churchill visited Columbia University in 1946, it was Arnell who wrote the "Ceremonial and Flourish" for brass that marked the occasion (it was later conducted by Stokowski at Houston). There were also chamber and instrumental works including the aforementioned string quartets (Arnell wrote three). All this was crowned by the ballet "Punch and the Child", commissioned by the Ballet Society of New York for the American impresario Lincoln Kirstein's Ballet Caravan. It was first produced at Hunter College Auditorium in February 1948, and later by the New York City Ballet. This was given added cachet when the suite from the ballet was taken up and recorded by Beecham. 

A very young Richard Anthony Sayer Arnell

This was a remarkably successful launching of a composer in his twenties, and in 1947 Arnell decided to return to England. From 1948 he taught composition at Trinity College of Music, and was associated with many musicians and composers organizations, including the Composers Guild. Once he was living in London, Arnell became known as as one of the most active younger British composers. In the late 1940s and throughout the 1950s a constant succession of new works appeared, and he was a regular name at the Cheltenham and other festivals. With these kinds of credentials he was soon commissioned by Sadler's Wells, writing a series of ballets for them including "Harlequin in April" in 1951, "The Great Detective"(with a Sherlock Holmes story) in 1953, and "The Angels" in 1956 which was seen at Covent Garden in December 1957 with the composer conducting. His output continued unabated but later his name began to to fade, and with the rise of the Darmstadt avant-garde, he received along with many others a decreasing number of performances. 

Arnell was also active as a film composer, his first two film scores being for the celebrated American director Robert J. Flaherty, to whom he was introduced by Virgil Thomson. His second film score was for the US Department of Agriculture's film "The Land", a 1940 documentary about the Tennessee Valley, from which in the late 1940s Arnell extracted a suite that was played by the NBC Symphony conducted by Dean Dixon. Arnell later celebrated his association with Flaherty in the orchestral "Impressions - Robert Flaherty" written in 1958. Because of his interest in film he was a notable influence on the teaching of film scoring as an art, first at the London School of Film Technique-later the London Film School-where he started the music dept. as music consultant, and maintained a pioneering link to teaching at Trinity College of Music.

Early on Arnell enjoyed the championship of celebrated conductors, the most notable being (the already mentioned) Sir Thomas Beecham, who having conducted Arnell in New York, subsequently gave five Arnell premieres in London between 1951 and 1956. After Beecham's death in 1961, however, Arnell never found another champion in that class-even though he went on to write six symphonies, concertos, orchestral works, chamber music and two television operas. Much later he produced a second piano concerto, with the title "Sections", for the 21st anniversary of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and first performed by them in September 1967 with the late John Ogdon as soloist. 

The Piano Concerto Op. 44, of 1946, was commissioned by the Columbia Broadcasting System, doubtless at the instigation of their music director and Arnell's friend, Bernard Herrmann. It was written between November 1945 and June 1946, and first performed on the Wednesday evening program "Invitation to Music" by the CBC house pianist, Vera Brodsky in a 1947 broadcast. Herrmann conducted the CBSSO. The following year Moura Lympany played it at Carnegie Hall, making a splash in her New York debut. It was then taken up by the Canadian pianist Ross Pratt, who gave its UK premiere in a May 1950 broadcast with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. He played it again at the Royal Festival Hall in March 1954, and at the Proms on September 2nd 1957. It was published in 1951, but failed to find another champion until taken up by David Owen Norris almost half a century later. Immediately striking for its clean outlines, its strongly tonal feeling is underlined by the tendency for the piano writing, often in two parts, to be in octaves. Arnell's practice of alternating passages of full orchestra and solo piano underlines its neoclassical clarity.

The concerto opens with a dramatic orchestral call to attention in stark octaves, immediately underlined by the soloist's headlong double octaves chromatically surging up and down. What we might call the first subject group is very rich, for in an extended orchestra tutti we now hear the first subject proper, expanded from the opening fanfare and with a lyrical 'tail' on the strings, all set in a surging orchestral texture including various motifs to which the composer later returns. The fanfare is now expanded as a charming melody high on the keyboard. There later comes the lyrical second subject, which is first heard high on the keyboard, and is eventually given the big romantic treatment.

The slow movement opens with the solo piano playing a repeated chord in the left hand, while the right hand plays alternating notes very low and very high, linked by melodic phrases. Soon the orchestra takes over, the chords now in the strings, while the winds sing the melodic fragments. The piano announces a dolce patetico melody, and the music builds from it with increasing emotion-at one point the piano gives a literal reprise of the opening statement. Eventually we reach the cadenza and the movement ends with the piano's opening statement. The rondo finale opens with three ideas in quick succession: an opening fanfare, the first theme proper in the orchestra, and then, in contrast, the second theme as a piano solo. Eventually, a barnstorming passage of double octaves leads to a piano solo that the composer marks as a second cadenza (but in fact it is more of a reflective interlude) and after long-held trills in the right hand, includes an expressive andante interlude of serene calm. This is before the dash for the close, which comes with the soloist's triumphant double octaves rising through three and a half octaves. -You are all in for a beautiful 32+ minutes :)

I shall write of the Symphony No. 2 tomorrow, it's getting too late here..

Track listing:

Piano Concerto Op. 44 (1946)

1)Allegro - Molto apassionato 

2)Andante, con molto - Cadenza

3)Poco Presto

Symphony No. 2 Op. 33, "Rufus" (1942 rev. 1944)

4)Allegro quasi Presto

5)Allegretto 

6)Allegro

Enjoy (what I hope is) a grand discovery!

Arnell_Piano_Concerto_Symphony_No.2-Tzadik.zip

http://www46.zippyshare.com/v/dWin0fnH/file.html