BARBER Adagio for Strings

Adagio for Strings is a work by Samuel Barber, arguably his best known, arranged for string orchestra from the second movement of his String Quartet, Op. 11. Barber finished the arrangement in 1936, the same year that he wrote the quartet. It was performed for the first time on November 5, 1938, in a radio broadcast from a New York studio attended by an invited audience, conducted by Arturo Toscanini, who also took the piece on tour to Europe and South America. WIKIPEDIA VIDEO: Adagio for Strings by Samuel Barber Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra Leonard Bernstein, conductor

York Bowen - Violin Concerto (1913)

Edwin York Bowen (22 February 1884 - 23 November 1961) was an English composer and pianist. Bowen's musical career spanned more than fifty years during which time he wrote over 160 works. As well as being a pianist and composer, Bowen was a talented conductor, organist, violist and horn player. Despite achieving considerable success during his lifetime, many of the composer's works remained unpublished and unperformed until after his death in 1961. Bowen's compositional style is widely considered as 'Romantic' and his works are often characterized by their rich harmonic language. He was one of the most notable English composers of piano music of his time. The violin concerto was completed in 1913...when the composer was 29, but was not performed until 1920. WIKIPEDIA Bio 

VIDEO: Lorraine McAslan, violin with Vernon Handley conducting the BBC Concert Orchestra

William Boyce (composer) (1711–1779), English-born composer and Master of the King's Musick

William Boyce (baptised 11 September 1711 – d. 7 February 1779) was an English composer and organist. Boyce is known for his set of eight symphonies, his anthems and his odes. Boyce was largely forgotten after his death and he remains a little-performed composer today, although a number of his pieces were rediscovered in the 1930s and Constant Lambert edited and sometimes conducted his works. His only son, also William Boyce (25 March 1764 – 1824), was a professional double bass player.[4] On the 7 February 1779 Boyce died from an attack of gout. He was buried under the dome of St Paul's cathedral. WIKIPEDIA

 VIDEO: William Boyce - 8 Symphonies (The English Concert, Trevor Pinnock, 1987)
 

William Baines - Symphony in C-minor, Op.10 (1917)

William Baines (26 March 1899 - 6 November 1922) was an English pianist and composer. He wrote more than 150 works for solo piano and a number of larger orchestral works before his premature death from tuberculosis at the age of 23. His Seven Preludes from 1919 are considered to be amongst his finest compositions. His Symphony in C Minor was premiered by the Airedale Symphony Orchestra at the Grassington Festival in 1991. WIKIPEDIA Bio

 VIDEO: Work: Symphony in C-minor, Op.10 (1917) Mov.I 00:00 Mov.II 09:44 Mov.III 20:17 Mov.IV 28:29 Orchestra: Airdale Symphony Orchestra Conductor: George Kennaway.

Lord Berners music for Luna Park, a ‘fantastic ballet in one act’

Gerald Hugh Tyrwhitt-Wilson, 14th Baron Berners (18 September 1883 – 19 April 1950), also known as Gerald Tyrwhitt, was a British composer of classical music, novelist, painter and aesthete. He is usually referred to as Lord Berners. Berners' musical works included Trois morceaux, Fantaisie espagnole (1919), Fugue in C minor (1924), and several ballets, including The Triumph of Neptune (1926) (based on a story by Sacheverell Sitwell) and Luna Park (1930). Luna Park, a ‘fantastic ballet in one act’ was commissioned for CB Cochran’s London revue of 1930, and first performed at the London Pavilion in March of that year, with scenery and costumes by Christopher Wood, book by Boris Kochno, and choreography by George Balanchine. The scene is set in a freak pavilion in Luna Park. A showman enters and bows to the audience. He raises the curtain of the first four niches revealing a man with three heads; in the second stands a three-legged juggler, complete with billiard balls, while in the third a one-legged ballerina is posing, and in the fourth, a man with six arms. All the freaks dance in the respective niches, after which the showman bows to the audience, turning down the lights as he retires. WIKIPEDIA

VIDEO: Lord Berners (Gerald Hugh Tyrwhitt-Wilson) (1883-1950): Luna Park, A Fantastic Ballet in One Act (1930) -- RTE Sinfonietta diretta da Kenneth Alwyn -- I. The Four Niches II. Adagio 

Lord Berners: The Triumph of Neptune (1926)

Gerald Hugh Tyrwhitt-Wilson, 14th Baron Berners (18 September 1883 – 19 April 1950), also known as Gerald Tyrwhitt, was a British composer of classical music, novelist, painter and aesthete. He is usually referred to as Lord Berners. WIKIPEDIA 

The Triumph of Neptune was written for Diaghilev’s Russian ballet to a harlequinade scenario by Sacheverell Sitwell. The choreography was by Balanchine, later director of the New York City Ballet. The cast included Danilova, Soklova, Lifar and Balanchine himself. There were waltzes, hornpipes, classical dances and spectacular scenes called ‘Cloudland’ or ‘The Frozen Forest’ (the latter known to the Lyceum stage hands as ‘Wigan by Night’). © Ronald Crighton 

The Triumph of Neptune (10 tableaux; composed for Sergei Diaghilev, scenario Sacheverell Sitwell, choreography George Balanchine; 3 December 1926, Lyceum Theatre, London) 

VIDEO: Lord Berners (Gerald Hugh Tyrwhitt-Wilson) (1883-1950): The Triumph of Neptune, balletto (1926) -- Clive Bayley, basso -- English Northern Philharmonia diretta da David Lloyd-Jones --

Don Banks (1923-1980) : Coney Island, for orchestra (c. 1960)

Donald (Don) Oscar Banks (1923-1980) was an Australian composer who is probably best known for his ‘serious’ compositions However, his career included considerable contributions to the worlds of jazz, commercial recordings and film music. His musical mentors included Milton Babbitt, Luigi Dallapiccola and Luigi Nono. When in London, he studied with the exiled Hungarian composer, Mátyás Seiber. It was through Seiber that he was introduced to the world of film music – specialising in cartoons and Hammer Horror films. Many folk will have heard Don Banks’ music without recognising the name or his wider interests. Don Banks’ vision of Coney Island suggests all the romance of a day at Coney Island -probably in the nineteen-fifties. John France 

VIDEO: Don Banks (1923-1980) (Australie) Coney Island, for orchestra (c. 1960) Dir : Douglas Gamley

Alan Bush: Fantasia on Soviet Themes Op. 24 (1943)

Alan Dudley Bush (22 December 1900 – 31 October 1995) was a British composer and pianist. He was a committed communist, and politics sometimes provided central themes in his music. Alan Bush belongs to a generation-class of composers that unfortunately fell into neglect for their adherence to romantic musical values, in an age where experimentation was primeval in academic music. His political allegiances did few to help him, as he supported USSR socialist regime. During WW2 he composed this Fantasia on popular Soviet themes as a gift to the heroism of the Soviet Nation. The compositional career of the British composer Alan Bush extended from the early 1920s to the mid 1980s. He died aged 94 in 1995. His oeuvre includes large-scale orchestral and/or choral works, operas and other theatrical music, chamber music, piano works. songs and brass band arrangements. First performance details are given where known; many of Bush's works have been published.

  WIKIPEDIA BIO

  WORKS OF ALAN BUSH 

VIDEO: Royal Scottish National Orchestra conducted by/ Real Orquesta Nacional Escocesa dirigida por Martin Yates. 

Symphony No. 5 (Bax)

The Symphony No. 5 by Arnold Bax was completed in 1932 and dedicated to Jean Sibelius. It is in many ways heavily influenced by Sibelius.

  WIKIPEDIA | BAX Bio

Sir Arnold Edward Trevor Bax KCVO (8 November 1883 – 3 October 1953) was an English composer, poet, and author. His prolific output includes songs, choral music, chamber pieces, and solo piano works, but he is best known for his orchestral music. In addition to a series of symphonic poems he wrote seven symphonies and was for a time widely regarded as the leading British symphonist. Bax was born in the London suburb of Streatham.

 VIDEO: Bryden Thomson, London Philharmonic Orchestra

Arthur Butterworth (1923-2014) : Symphony No. 6 (2006)

Arthur Eckersley Butterworth, MBE (4 August 1923, New Moston – 20 November 2014, Embsay)

Butterworth was an English composer, conductor, trumpeter and teacher. The Symphony number 6 was completed in 2006 and premiered at the St Petersburg British Music Festival in 2009 by the St. Petersburg State Academic Capella Orchestra conducted by Matthew Taylor.

  WIKIPEDIA

 VIDEO:

 

Lennox Berkeley: Divertimento in B Flat Major, Op. 18

Sir Lennox Randal Francis Berkeley (12 May 1903 – 26 December 1989) was an English composer. The Divertimento for orchestra in B Flat Major Op 18 of Lennox Berkeley was commissioned by the BBC and dedicated to Nadia Boulanger. First performance was on October 1st in 1943 by the BBC Orchestra conducted by Clarence Raybould.

  WIKIPEDIA

VIDEO: Lennox Berkeley: Divertimento in B Flat Major, Op. 18 [Igor Buketoff-Royal Philharmonic Orchestra]. LP

Sir Arnold Bax - Symphony No. 7 (1939)

The Symphony No. 7 in A-flat major by Arnold Bax was completed in 1939 and dedicated to "The People of America". The work received its first performance in Carnegie Hall, New York City, by the New York Philharmonic on 10 June 1939 under the baton of Sir Adrian Boult. It was commissioned by the British Council to be played at the 1939 New York World's Fair, along with Arthur Bliss's Piano Concerto in B-flat, and Ralph Vaughan Williams' Five Variants of Dives and Lazarus.
  WIKIPEDIA

  BAX BIO

  VIDEO: London Philharmonic, Raymond Leppard

Arthur Butterworth "Symphony No.1"

Arthur Eckersley Butterworth's Symphony No. 1, Op. 15 was completed in 1957. Manchester-born Butterworth enjoyed a stint as an orchestral musician, playing the trumpet in both the Scottish National and Halle orchestras. The First of his four symphonies was first heard at the 1957 Cheltenham Festival under Sir John Barbirolli, though the composer traces its origins back to 1947 when he heard a radio broadcast of Sibelius’s Sixth Symphony. Butterworth candidly admits that the latter piece’s magical opening bars are echoed at the outset of his own symphony. WIKIPEDIA

 VIDEO: Munich Symphony Orchestra, Douglas Bostock (Conductor) This is a hard-to-obtain Classico recording by Douglas Bostock and the Munich Symphony Orchestra of Butterworth's Symphony No.1

Arthur Bliss: Christopher Columbus Suite arr: Adriano

Sir Arthur Edward Drummond Bliss, photo left. (2 August 1891 – 27 March 1975) was an English composer and conductor. BLISS BIO WIKIPEDIA Arthur Bliss' Christopher Columbus, Suite from film score (1949) (arr. Swiss-born conductor-composer Adriano, photo above.  BIO) Christopher Columbus (Suite): Overture 2. Christopher Columbus (Suite):

The Commission 3. Christopher Columbus (Suite): Do€a Beatriz 4. Christopher Columbus (Suite): Struggles 5. Christopher Columbus (Suite): The Messenger 6. Christopher Columbus (Suite): The Voyage begins 7. Christopher Columbus (Suite): Mutiny 8. Christopher Columbus (Suite): Land at last! 9. Christopher Columbus (Suite): Columbus put into chains 10. Christopher Columbus (Suite): Return to Spain

 In the November/December 1949 issue of Film Music, the composer revealed in a more serious vein that he found the film extremely interesting from the musical standpoint, but that it was "difficult with American and English actors to suggest the atmosphere of Spain - that is what the music has to do - so I have tried using Spanish idioms, and tunes akin to those of Spain which convey the feeling and atmosphere of the age in which Columbus set forth from Spain". Bliss himself never made a suite of Columbus, though he allowed the Rank Organisation to issue a promotional 10" 78 rpm disc of The Voyage Begins and Return to Spain.

VIDEO: "Christopher Columbus - Suite: I. Alla polacca" by City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra/Marcus Dods
 

Lennox Berkeley: Symphony No.2 (1958)

Lennox Berkeley composed his Symphony No. 2 in 1958. The work was commissioned by the City of Birmingham Symphony, who premiered it under Andrzej Panufnik in February 1959. Berkeley revised the symphony in 1976 for its first recording, by the London Philharmonic under Nicholas Braithwaite.

 VIDEO: BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Richard Hickox

.

Bax - Symphony No. 1

The Symphony No. 1 by Arnold Bax was completed in 1922 and dedicated to John Ireland. Its outer movements were based on a Piano Sonata in E-flat that Bax subsequently orchestrated, while the central movement was newly composed for the symphony. The work is in many ways autobiographical with some music critics suggesting they could find references within the work to the Great War.

  WIKIPEDIA | BAX BIO

VIDEO: Royal Scottish National Orchestra - David-Lloyd Jones conductor

Arthur Butterworth (1923-2014) : Symphony No. 4 (1986)

Arthur Butterworth was born in Manchester, UK, in 1923. From early on he was attracted to the sound of the brass band and later entered the Royal Manchester College of Music to study both trumpet and composition. On leaving the college in 1949 he joined the Scottish National Orchestra where he doubled as trumpeter and unofficial assistant conductor. In 1955 he joined the Hallé Orchestra, and in 1962 finally gave up professional playing. His next move was to Skipton in the Yorkshire Dales where he got involved in local musical life. From 1964 to 1993 he conducted the Huddersfield Philharmonic Society, and also forged relationships with some of the BBC orchestras. He died in November 2014. The initial sketches for the Symphony No. 4 Op. 72 were made as early as 1970, but it was a decade before Butterworth got down to serious work on it. Completed in 1986, the performance here with the BBC Northern Symphony Orchestra and Bryden Thomson was the premiere. The Dutton release I mentioned above contains the recording premiere made in 2008 with Butterworth himself conducting the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. Interestingly, MusicWeb International arranged for a public performance of the work at Warwick Arts Centre in 1998 at the suggestion of Len Mullenger to celebrate the composer’s 75th birthday; the conductor was Colin Touchin (review). ---Stephen Greenbank 


 VIDEO: Symphony No. 4 (1986) Dir : Bryden Thomson BBC Philharmonic Orchestra

Arnold Bax - Symphony No. 2 (1926)

Sir Arnold Edward Trevor Bax 

(8 November 1883 - 3 October 1953) 

....was an English composer, poet, and author. His prolific output includes songs, choral music, chamber pieces, and solo piano works, but he is best known for his orchestral music. In addition to a series of symphonic poems he wrote seven symphonies and was for a time widely regarded as the leading British symphonist. Bax completed his Symphony No. 2 in E minor and C major in 1926, after intermittent work for the previous two years. It was dedicated to Sergey Koussevitzky who, after protracted negotiations with Bax, conducted the first two performances in Boston with the Boston Symphony Orchestra on 13th and 14th December 1929. Eugene Gooseens conducted the first London performance with the Queen's Hall Orchestra on 20th May 1930. WIKIPEDIA

VIDEO: Conducted by David Lloyd-Jones with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra.
 

Arthur Bliss: Cello Concerto (1970)

Sir Arthur Edward Drummond Bliss CH KCVO (2 August 1891 – 27 March 1975) was an English composer and conductor. Bliss's musical training was cut short by the First World War, in which he served with distinction in the army. In the post-war years he quickly became known as an unconventional and modernist composer, but within the decade he began to display a more traditional and romantic side in his music. In the 1920s and 1930s he composed extensively not only for the concert hall, but also for films and ballet. Bliss continued to compose into his eighth and ninth decades, in which his works included the Cello Concerto (1970) for Mstislav Rostropovich.

 VIDEO: Tim Hugh, violoncello English Northern Philharmonia diretta da David Lloyd Jones.

 

Lennox Berkeley Sonatina for guitar op.52

Sir Lennox Randal Francis Berkeley (12 May 1903 – 26 December 1989) was an English composer. This Sonatina op 52 is a work which is highly regarded by guitarists, and has become one of the most recorded of Berkeley’s works. Composed in 1957, the Sonatina was dedicated to Julian Bream, who gave its first performance at Morley College, London, on March 9 1958.

  WIKIPEDIA

VIDEO: From a recording session in the studio of Mozarteum University Salzburg, 21.9.2012 Tal Hurwitz, guitarist