Something Old Something New: Music For Recorder & Strings - Arnold Cooke - Alan Hovhaness - Antonio Vivaldi - J.B. de Boismortier

This Titanic Records disc from 1990 is a true gem to me. It was hard enough to find years ago, but with it's recording of the rare Hovhaness "Sextet for Recorder, String Quartet, and Harpsichord" I would have travelled to the Himalayas to acquire it. And what a magical piece it is. I find it to be one of AH's best chamber pieces, and the unusual scoring makes it that much more intriguing and magical; with each listen I experience it anew, mesmerized, awaiting each and every turn and wrinkle, every plucked string and song, mysterious aleatoric passages and stately harpsichord, recorder songs transporting me back to ancient times only to thrust me back firmly in the present with the utmost excitement. This recording is also significant as it also introduced me to the music of Arnold Cooke, a major discovery for me. His "Concerto for Recorder and String Orchestra" really impressed me and opened up a reservoir of interest in this composer. As in much of Cooke's music,

the studies with Paul Hindemith are clearly evident, although typically subtle. The concerto reminds me, to a degree, of Vagn Holmboe's lovely Recorder Concerto also. It's one the finest examples of recorder music in the 20th century. 

The Vivaldi Concerto in C I have always been fond of (I am rather fond of all of the almost countless Vivaldi concerti though) and here receives a strongly committed performance, although sonically it's a tad tinny sounding and lacks robustness due to I assume, spatial relationships & concert hall. (a quick play with a decent EQ will solve this mostly)

The Boismortier Concerto is elegant, although underwhelming imo. Probably why I rarely revisit

any all Boismortier discs that I own. The last piece by Jonathan Lovenstein was written for the great recorder soloist John Tyson. It's a forgettable barely 4 minute piece.

Track listing:

Antonio Vivaldi - Concerto in C Minor

1)Allegro non molto

2)Largo

3)Allegro

Joseph Bodin de Boismortier - Concerto in G Major

4)Allegro

5)Affetuoso

6)Allegro

Arnold Cooke - Concerto for Recorder and String Orchestra (1957)

7)Allegro Vivace

8)Andante

9)Scherzo

10)Variations on Prince Rupert's March

Alan Hovhaness - Sextet for Recorder, String Quartet, and Harpsichord (1958)

11)Andante

12)Pastoral

13)Allegro vivo

14)Landscape

15)Jonathan Lovenstein - Fantasie (1987)

*The string orchestra is not named or mentioned anywhere in the cd

Enjoy!

Music_For_Recorder_and_Strings_Cooke_Hovhaness_Tz.zip

http://www14.zippyshare.com/v/63503454/file.html

Three English Clarinet Concertos - Arnold Cooke - Gordon Jacob - Alan Rawsthorne - Thea King, Clarinet, Northwest Chamber Orch Of Seattle, Alun Francis

This early (1982) Hyperion disc features three clarinet concertos by British composers. I'm posting it for the Arnold Cooke concerto, as a continuation of my Arnold Cooke birthday post.

Rawsthorne's neoclassicism comes somewhat from Hindemith, and his idiom sounds a little like Walton because of it. His music lacks the physical ebullience of Walton's. He strips his music to the bone, and his work usually testifies to an austere, guarded personality. The sun seems to have forgotten to rise, despite some sprightly rhythms. The proportions and the means are very modest, but Rawsthorne manages to suggest great weight without actually piling on the musical pounds. Rawsthorne subtly links its four movements, so that the end of one "fits" the beginning of the next. A current of worry runs through the first-movement "Preludio." The "Capriccio," a scherzo on a three-note idea, jokes, but the laughs are grim and short of breath. The slow movement "Aria," finely adumbrated by pizzicato bass at the scherzo's end, is a grave conversation among the string sections and their principals. The clarinet, to a surprising extent, stays out of things here. When it does sing, it uses its low register. The "Aria" weeps over a bleak landscape. The finale, "Invention," bustles like a wasp guarding its hive. It's not exactly ill-humored, but you can't really call it jolly fun, either. Of the three concerti it's my least favorite actually.

The "Mini-Concerto" of Gordon Jacob makes no claims to profundity. The music seeks, in Debussy's happy phrase, "humbly to please." Jacob has essentially written four miniatures in a kind of Mendelssohnian fast-slow-allegretto-fast progression. He wrote it in 1980 (Jacob died in 1984), but the work harkens back to the heady days of the Twenties. The neoclassicism, as is immediately evident, has more in common with home-grown models than with anything on the continent: Vaughan Williams's "Concerto Accademico" and Holst's "Fugal Concerto", for example. The ideas however are wonderful. He has made little jewels of melody and elegant settings to surround them. The lovely slow movement, at three and a half minutes the biggest of the four – manages to say a lot with very little. The first and third movement will charm you out of your drawers. The tarantella finale is my favorite, quite jaunty and energetic. 

Arnold Cooke's Clarinet Concerto is not unlike his mentor's (Hindemith) Concerto, and much of Cooke's music shares the German master's idiom, with it's fondness for fourths, and a seriousness of attitude. Cooke tends to sing more and to dance less than Hindemith. The counterpoint intensifies rapt singing, rather than exciting rhythm. He has written the most ambitious concerto of the three at slightly under a half-hour, the longest by far. Like Nielsen's Clarinet Concerto, it's genuinely symphonic and has a great deal of matter. It divides into three movements – Allegro, Lento, Allegro vivace. Despite the modesty of its forces, the concerto gives its soloist an heroic part of great substance. It's not a young hero who slays dragons, as in, say, the Strauss first horn concerto, but a hero moving through a darker, uneasier world. The strings shoulder as much of the argument as does the soloist, particularly in the first movement, but the contrast of timbre ensures that we never really forget that the clarinetist is first among equals. The slow movement sings mainly of serious matters, but one also hears the call of the blackbird, which the composer heard in his garden and noted down. Curiously enough, the blackbird's call has ties to the main subject of the movement. The finale is the most Hindemithian part of the concerto, and adds some playfulness to the environment with surprising and vigorous ear-stretching modulations. Enjoy..

English_Clarinet_Concertos_Tz.zip

http://www77.zippyshare.com/v/13008426/file.html

Today's Birthday - Arnold Cooke (b. November 5, 1906, d. 2005) - Three String Sonatas

Born in 1906 in West Yorkshire in England, Arnold Cooke read history at Cambridge, though he was then already aspiring to a career in music. His subsequent study with Paul Hindemith in Berlin proved to be a critical influence, as evident in the striking similarities between Hindemith’s Clarinet Sonata in B (1938) and Cooke’s Sonata, written in 1959. I first discovered the music of Cooke on a ultra-rare cd on Titanic Records called "Something Old, Something New" which i bought for a Hovhaness work, indeed perhaps the rarest Hovhaness piece that's been recorded- The "Sextet for Recorder, String Quartet, and Harpsichord". The Cooke work on the disc is wonderful, his "Concerto for Recorder & String Orchestra". It really impressed me and soon I was hungry to find every Arnold Cooke recording that I could. I will post it tonight when I have the time.

Arnold Cooke's studies with Paul Hindemith are evident in many of his compositions (although more lyrical usually than Hindemith) which for me is a real plus. He is, needless to say, an original voice and deserves much more recognition (although he is here presented on Naxos...a very good sign). As I bought this digitally rather recently and haven't played it enough, perhaps twice-I have impressions, all very positive however I do not like to talk about compositions until I have more of a true feeling for them.. 

Tonight I will be posting (at least) Cooke's Recorder Concerto and his Clarinet Concerto. Enjoy..

Arnold_Cooke_Three_String_Sonatas_Tz.zip

http://www32.zippyshare.com/v/40163551/file.html

John Ireland - The Forgotten Rite - Satyricon - Scherzo & Cortége - Tritons - The Overlanders Suite - LSO, Richard Hickox

Here's an earlier (1991) Chandos disc of Ireland's music. The main attraction for me has always been the lovely and stirring Orchestral prelude "The Forgotten Rite". It is somewhat Baxian, although Frank Bridge and early Vaughan Williams might spring to mind as well.

The "Scherzo & Cortége" is from the Incidental music for "Julius Caesar",  and was arranged by Geoffrey Bush. It is a brief and ceremonial work, and in truth pleasant but rather lightweight. 

"Tritons" is an early, expertly constructed work and also somewhat Baxian (Arnold Bax) in nature.

"The Forgotten Rite" is undoubted mastery, and the overall effect is simply sumptuous. This is extraordinarily magical and mysterious music imo; gentle, dreamy and enigmatically beautiful. An object lesson in transparent scoring technique.

The Overture "Satyricon" is based on the novel by Petronius. It is joyous and capricious music that is full of life and celebration.

"The Overlanders Suite" is in five movements and was compiled by Sir Charles Mackerras from Ireland’s incidental music for the 1947 film, The Overlanders. This was Ireland's sole foray into film music, and is good fun. "Scorched Earth" has a Rawsthorne-like lyrical acidity, recalling the younger composer’s music for "The Cruel Sea".

There will be more Ireland to come in the near future (especially from Lyrita, Dutton, Chandos and Naxos) when I can locate my Ireland stash. Enjoy

Ireland_Forgotten_Rite_Overlanders_Suite_Tz.zip

http://www18.zippyshare.com/v/63812700/file.html

John Ireland - A Downland Suite - Concertino Pastorale Two Symphonic Studies - Orchestral Poem - City of London Sinfonia, Richard Hickox

John Ireland is one of the most notable English composers of the early 20th century, and in my opinion one of the finest. This Chandos disc from 1995 was the first collection of Ireland's music that I bought, and it's always been a delight to listen to time and again. The first piece I heard by John Ireland was his delightful and quintessentially British "A Downland Suite". I heard it on the radio during the early 1990's, and it was one of those moments where I was completely intoxicated (yes by the music) and on the "edge of my seat" with curiosity; not wanting the music to end yet eagerly awaiting the end so as to learn of it's author. 

"A Downland Suite" was influenced by John Ireland's beloved Sussex countryside, and is easily one of the most appealing string works in all of English music. Hickox and the CLS lovingly shapes the sublime second subject of the Prelude, the meltingly beautiful Elegy and the charming Minuet, without allowing the Romanticism to become cloying. The "Concertino Pastorale" is a strong contrast. Written shortly before the Second World War in 1939, it reflects its times with dark clouds hanging over Downlands that are now wrapped in more sombre hues. The "Concertino" is my favorite work on this disc, and the 3rd and final Toccata movement especially does it for me; after the somewhat ominous music that has passed, this energetic movement contains shifting accents full of verve and dynamism, and is an exciting conclusion to this masterful opus.

The "Orchestral Poem" is an early work strongly influenced by Brahms and Stanford. It is good music, dramatic and colorfully orchestrated, but it shows little of the mature Ireland. The "Two Symphonic Studies" derive from music Ireland wrote for the film The Overlanders. The work demonstrates Ireland’s skill in evoking scene and atmosphere and flair for the dramatic; you can almost see the animals stirring in the immense, hot and dusty landscape that is the great Australian outback..

A short bio for those who are interested:

John Ireland (1879-1962)

John Ireland was born in Bowdon, near Manchester, England on 13th August 1879. His parents were literary people and knew many writers of the day, including Emerson. Ireland entered the newly-established Royal College of Music in London at the age of fourteen, lost both his parents shortly after, and had to make his own way as an orphaned teenager, studying piano, organ and composition. The last was under Sir Charles Stanford, who taught many of the English composers who emerged at the end of the 19th century: Ralph Vaughan Williams, Gustav Holst, Frank Bridge (born in the same year as Ireland), Eugene Goossens, Arthur Bliss, Herbert Howells, George Butterworth, and many others.

Ireland destroyed almost all his student works and juvenilia (the beautiful Sextet for clarinet, horn and string quartet being one of the few works which he permitted to be published, and then only towards the end of his life) and emerged as a celebrated composer towards the end of World War I when his Violin Sonata No.2 in A minor brought him overnight fame. From then until his death in 1962 he led an outwardly uneventful life combining composition, composition teaching at the Royal College (where his pupils included Benjamin Britten and E. J. Moeran), and his position as organist and choirmaster at St. Luke's Church, Chelsea, in London.

Ireland's music belongs to the school of 'English Impressionism'. Having been brought up on the German classics, notably Beethoven and Brahms, he was strongly influenced in his twenties and thirties by the music of Debussy, Ravel, and the early works of Stravinsky and Bartók. While many of his contemporaries, such as Vaughan Williams and Holst, developed a language strongly characterised by English folk song, Ireland evolved a more complex harmonic style closer to the French and Russian models. Like Fauré, he preferred the intimate forms of chamber music, song, and piano music to the larger orchestral and choral canvases, He wrote neither symphony (unlike his friend Arnold Bax who wrote seven) nor opera and only one cantata, These Things Shall Be, but his Piano Concerto is arguably the best to have been written by an Englishman, and is a work of intense emotion and nostalgic feeling.

Ireland was strongly influenced by English poetry. His settings of A. E. Housman, Thomas Hardy, Christina Rossetti, John Masefield and Rupert Brooke are among the best known of his works. He was also highly susceptible to the spirit of place. He lived for many years in London's Chelsea (Chelsea Reach is a depiction in the form of a barcarole of that great sweep of the Thames as it passes along the Embankment to the west of the Houses of Parliament). He was also devoted to the Channel Islands of Guernsey and Jersey. Their location between England and France must have seemed appropriate to his musical orientation, but more importantly he found there traces of prehistoric pagan ritual to which he had originally been drawn through the writings of the Welsh writer Arthur Machen.

But perhaps his greatest love was for the English county of Sussex, a landscape of rolling downs and (in Ireland's day) isolated villages, including Amberley whose 'Wild Brooks' - streams coursing through fields - gave him the inspiration for one of the most brilliant of his piano pieces. Ireland eventually retired to Sussex in 1953 when he bought a converted windmill, Rock Mill, underneath the Downs. He died there on 12th June 1962.

Enjoy!

John_Ireland_A_Downland_Suite_Concertino_Tz.zip

http://www64.zippyshare.com/v/29994462/file.html

A Tree In Your Ear - Music for Oboe & English Horn - Phillip Kent Bimstein - William Grant Still - Alan Hovhaness - Virko Baley - Yusef Lateef - Mark Phillips - Stephen Caplan, Oboe and English Horn

A delicious rarity from 1999 on Musicians Showcase, "A Tree In Your Ear" offers the great artistry of Stephen Caplan on Oboe and English Horn and a program that is refreshing and varied. Indeed even the two composers who are familiar (Hovhaness, William Grant Still) are here represented by

works that will likely be new for most listeners.  

The piece that opens the program is the most unusual. It's "Half Moon at Checkerboard Mesa" by

composer Phillip Kent Bimstein. To call it a "Nature poem" is an understatement; the piece is subtitled "Fantasy for Oboe, Frogs, Crickets and Coyotes" and indeed uses recorded tape for the

"creature ensemble". Also heard are the sounds of rocks, thunder, a waterhole, and the waters of the Virgin river. If you know Hovhaness's piece for Orchestra & recorded whalesong or Rautavaara's Concerto for Birds & Orchestra, well then you are in (somewhat) similar territory. The difference though is that the Bimstein piece is not only celebrating the mystery and greatness of nature, but allows us to smile quite a bit along the way-along with being oddly effective, it's actually quite funny.

The arrangements of the sounds (especially the coyotes and frogs) along with the singing oboe ends up being quite a romp imo, irreverent and nice n silly to my ears :)

This is what Bimstein says of the work: 

"On a summer night several years ago, not far from my home in southern Utah, an unsuspecting group of frogs sang by a slickrock waterhole up a narrow side canyon in Zion National Park. Little did they know their voices would soon be heard on concert stages all across the world and on the internet. And they certainly never expected to share the bill with chirping crickets, howling coyotes, and tuxedoed classical musicians. But I was hiding nearby and had stealthily placed a microphone and a digital recorder at the edge of the waterhole. I also recorded the sounds of coyotes, crickets, rocks, thunder, and the rushing water of the Virgin River. After transferring these natural sounds into my computer, I shaped and arranged them on my synth keyboard. Finally, I orchestrated the sounds into a piece music for tape, and wrote an accompanying score for solo oboe to interact with the natural sounds." 

Explaining his title A Tree in Your Ear, the oboist comments: “Composers use their eyes for hearing. Listen to their music and begin to see with your ears. A Tree in Your Ear celebrates landscapes. Landscapes remembered by sounds (the frogs, crickets and coyotes of 'Half Moon at Checkerboard Mesa'), landscapes heard in songs (the folk music orchestrated by William Grant Still in 'Miniatures'), landscapes felt ('Koke No Niwa' and 'Saltwater Blues'), and landscapes imagined ('Orpheus Singing' and 'Sonic Landscapes'). These landscapes are as distinct as the musical styles that evoke them. This is “art music,” yet each selection ignores boundaries, borrowing liberally from either popular or folk musical idioms. The oboe, a musical instrument made from the mpingo tree, is best known in its symphonic role. But some composers have envisioned the oboe howling with coyotes, 'rappin’ with Diz and Bird', or singing the blues. I hope you enjoy seeing with your ears.”

Along with the Bimstein work, the others that I really enjoy are Still's poignant "Miniatures" which have an unmistakably American folk sound, with Blues and Spirituals. Hovhaness's "Koke No Niwa" (Moss Garden) is full of (his best kind of) mysticism, and it's a gently moving work that suggests time suspension and space, like several other pieces AH penned in the 1960's. The Virko Baley piece is imo okay, the Lateef Blues I'm indifferent about, and "Sonic Landscapes" by Mark Phillips-well, to be honest, after the first movement I just turn it off; there's nothing wrong with incorporating electronic music, but in this case I find the results boring and actually annoying.

Here's the track listing:

Phillip Kent Bimstein

1)Half Moon at Checkerboard Mesa (Fantasy for oboe, frogs, crickets, and coyotes) (8:21)

William Grant Still - "Miniatures" (oboe, flute, piano) 

2)Ride an Old Paint (3:55)

3)Adolorido (1:47)

4)Jesus is a Rock in the Weary Land (2:13)

5)Yaravi (2:19)

6)A Frog Went A-Courtin' (1:27)

Alan Hovhaness

7)Koke No Niwa (Moss Garden, Op. 181) (english horn, percussion & harp) (9:14)

Virko Baley - "Orpheus Singing"

8)Recitative-Aria (7:54)

9)Cabaletta: Kolomyikas

Yusaf Lateef

10)"Saltwater Blues" (piano, bass, drums) (7:07)

Mark Phillips - "Sonic Landscapes"

11)Persistent Memories (3:00)

12)Lost in the Funhouse (2:57)

13)Close Encounters (2:39)

14)Cadenza and Interlude (1:56)

15)Rappin' with Diz and Bird (3:03)

Enjoy!

ATreeInYourEar_MusicForOboe_And_EnglishHorn_Tz.zip

http://www16.zippyshare.com/v/88055855/file.html

Buried Treasure - Francis Poulenc - Randall Thompson - Carl Nielsen - Joaqin Turina - Robert Muczynski - Edouard Lalo - Alan Hovhaness - Clark McAlister - Chamber Music Palm Beach

Sorry for the lil lapse in posting..it had been a busy week, and full of more grief than I would have wished. Here is a quick (and great) offering for now, it's a Klavier Records disc from 2000 called "Buried Treasure" with the ensemble Chamber Music Palm Beach. This is charming music for winds, however there's also some strings (violin, viola, cello, doublebass) in a few of the (equally charming) pieces. It's a nice varied program, the music of Hovhaness following the "Deux Aubades" by Lalo for example. My favorites on the disc are Poulenc's "Mouvments Perpetuels" (I love anything by Poulenc! His chamber music is especially exciting, and he wrote a lot of it thankfully!), as well as Randall Thompson's "Suite" for Oboe, Clarinet and Viola (Randall Thompson is another one of my favorite American composers, I don't understand why it's in fact the "other" American (Virgil) Thompson that gets more attention), and of course the Hovhaness Suite. Not to mention the Nielsen "Serenata.." and Muczynski's "Fragments". (I might as well say I fancy the whole disc, which I do)

I don't have time to write any real info or thoughts about the program right now, however I know that many of you (esp. all you wild and crazy wind addicts out there ;) will truly enjoy listening to all the music presented here. If anyone wishes that I write notes about the disc when I can feel free to let me know. I will try to post other "Buried Treasures" this evening. Enjoy...

Track List:

Francis Poulenc
1. Trois mouvements perp‚tuels, for chamber orchestra (orchestration of piano work, FP 14): Assez Mod‚r
2. Trois mouvements perp‚tuels, for chamber orchestra (orchestration of piano work, FP 14): TrŠs Mod‚r‚
3. Trois mouvements perp‚tuels, for chamber orchestra (orchestration of piano work, FP 14): Alerte

Randall Thompson
4. Suite for oboe, clarinet & viola: Gaio
5. Suite for oboe, clarinet & viola: Adagio Assai
6. Suite for oboe, clarinet & viola: Allegro
7. Suite for oboe, clarinet & viola: Lento Religioso
8. Suite for oboe, clarinet & viola: Grave; Allegretto

Carl Nielsen
9. Serenata in vano, for clarinet, bassoon, horn, cello & double-bass, FS 68: Serenata Invano

Joaquin Turina
10. La Oraci¢n del torero, for lute quartet (or string quartet/string orchestra), Op. 34: La Oraci¢n del

Robert Muczynski
11. Fragments, for flute, clarinet & bassoon: Waltz
12. Fragments, for flute, clarinet & bassoon: Solitude
13. Fragments, for flute, clarinet & bassoon: Holiday
14. Fragments, for flute, clarinet & bassoon: Reverie
15. Fragments, for flute, clarinet & bassoon: Exit

Edouard Lalo
16. Aubades (2), for 10 instruments/small orchestra (from opera "Fiesque"): Andante; Allegretto Non Trop
17. Aubades (2), for 10 instruments/small orchestra (from opera "Fiesque"): Andantino

Alaln Hovhaness
18. Suite for English horn & bassoon in D minor, Op. 21: Adagio Espressivo
19. Suite for English horn & bassoon in D minor, Op. 21: Allegro Grazioso
20. Suite for English horn & bassoon in D minor, Op. 21: Andante Espressivo

Clark McAlister
21. Lou's Mountain Bread, for wind quintet, string quartet & double bass: Energetic
22. Lou's Mountain Bread, for wind quintet, string quartet & double bass: Relaxed but Rhythmic
23. Lou's Mountain Bread, for wind quintet, string quartet & double bass: Lively

Buried_Treasure_ChamberMusicPalmBeach_Tz.zip


http://www63.zippyshare.com/v/73151212/file.html