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.

Shostakovich: Symphony No. 11, 'The Year 1905'

The Symphony No. 11 in G minor (Opus 103; subtitled The Year 1905) by Dmitri Shostakovich was written in 1957 and premiered, by the USSR Symphony Orchestra under Natan Rakhlin, on 30 October 1957. The subtitle of the symphony refers to the events of the Russian Revolution of 1905. The symphony was conceived as a popular piece and proved an instant success in Russia—his greatest, in fact, since the Leningrad Symphony fifteen years earlier. The work's popular success, as well as its earning him a Lenin Prize in April 1958, marked the composer's formal rehabilitation from the Zhdanov Doctrine of 1948. A month after the composer had received the Lenin Prize, a Central Committee resolution "correcting the errors" of the 1948 decree restored all those affected by it to official favor, blaming their treatment on "J.V. Stalin's subjective attitude to certain works of art and the very adverse influence exercised on Stalin by Molotov, Malenkov and Beria.
  WIKIPEDIA

VIDEO: Moscow Philarmonic conductor, Kirill Kondrashin

Shostakovich: Symphony No. 5

The Symphony No. 5 in D minor, Op. 47, by Dmitri Shostakovich is a work for orchestra composed between April and July 1937. Its first performance was on November 21, 1937, in Leningrad by the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra under Yevgeny Mravinsky. The premiere was a huge success, and received an ovation that lasted well over half an hour. WIKIPEDIA UCLA

VIDEO: Leonard Bernstein with the New York Philharmonic, playing the Symphony No. 5 of Dmitri Shostakovich at a 1979 live perfomance on Bunka Kainan, Tokyo, Japan.
 

Dmitri Shostakovich: Symphony No.10

The Symphony No. 10 in E minor (Op. 93) by Dmitri Shostakovich was premiered by the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra under Yevgeny Mravinsky on 17 December 1953, following the death of Joseph Stalin in March of that year. It is not clear when it was written: according to the composer's letters composition was between July and October 1953, but Tatiana Nikolayeva stated that it was completed in 1951. Sketches for some of the material date from 1946. This symphony was Shostakovich's first symphonic work since his second denunciation in 1948. It thus has a significance somewhat comparable to that of the Fifth Symphony in relation to the 1936 first denunciation.
WIKIPEDIA

VIDEO: The Orchestra from Theatre Mariinsky Conductor: Valery Gergiev Salle Pleyel, Paris, 2013
 

Dmitri Shostakovich: Symphony No. 7 Op. 60 "Leningrad" (1942)

Dmitri Shostakovich's Symphony No. 7 in C major, Op. 60 (titled Leningrad), was written c. 1939–40. Initially dedicated to the life and deeds of Vladimir Lenin, Shostakovich decided instead to dedicate the symphony to the city of Leningrad on its completion in December 1941. The work remains one of Shostakovich's best-known compositions. The piece soon became very popular in both the Soviet Union and the West as a symbol of resistance to Nazi totalitarianism and militarism. It is still regarded as the major musical testament of the estimated 25 million Soviet citizens who lost their lives in World War II. The symphony is played frequently at the Leningrad Cemetery, where half a million victims of the 900-day Siege of Leningrad are buried. As a condemnation of the German invasion of the Soviet Union, the work is particularly representative of the political responsibilities that Shostakovich felt he had for the state, regardless of the conflicts and criticisms he faced throughout his career with Soviet censors and Joseph Stalin. WIKIPEDIA

VIDEO: Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by/Orquesta Filarmónica Real de Liverpool dirigida por Vasily Petrenko... Shostakovich’s Seventh is the best known art music piece of WWII, considering half of it was composed through the siege of Leningrad. It is a work that reflects not only the factual actions of the conflict, but also many of its philosophical principles, if there were any. Likely, these are the reasons for its everlasting place in history.
 

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:

 

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

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.
 

Sir Arnold Bax - Spring Fire (1913)

Written in 1913 for the 1914 Norwich Festival, Spring Fire is one of the first real program works from Bax's pen. It was dedicated to Henry Wood and although the première was postponed mainly because of the extreme technical difficulty of the piece, it was rescheduled for 1916, only to be cancelled due to a certain unpleasantness then taking place in Europe. Eventually, it was December 1970 before the first performance took place, under the auspices of the Bax Society. It is scored for a typically large orchestra and in the words of the composer's own program note is intended to evoke "...the first uprush and impulse of Spring in the woods."---Description by Tim Mahon

VIDEO: Royal Philharmonic Orchestra & Vernon Handley
 I. The Forest Before Dawn - 00:00 II. Daybreak and Sunrise - 3:28 III. Full Day - 7:12 IV. Woodland Love - Romance - 14:37 V. Maenads - 22:57

Lennox Berkeley: Symphony No.4

British composer Lennox Berkeley was born in 1903 and died in 1989. A contemporary of Walton and Tippett, Lennox Berkeley initially studied modern languages at Oxford University before studying composition with Nadia Boulanger in Paris. There he met and was influenced by Ravel, Poulenc and Stravinsky, and much of his work has a refinement and precision that is distinctly French in flavour. In 1928 he joined the Roman Catholic Church which was to inspire much of his vocal music. He enjoyed a long association with Benjamin Britten, with whom he collaborated on a number of works. In later years, his adoption of serialism marked a darker and more brooding style. His fourth symphony, composed in 1978, was commissioned by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

  WIKIPEDIA                             

VIDEO: BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Richard Hickox.
 

Arthur Butterworth Symphony No 2

Arthur Eckersley Butterworth, MBE (4 August 1923, New Moston – 20 November 2014, Embsay) was an English composer, conductor, trumpeter and teacher. Butterworth was born in New Moston, near Manchester. His father was secretary of the local church choir. His mother played the piano and Butterworth himself sang in the choir. For the grand entrance fee of sixpence, young Butterworth attended Hallé concerts and volunteered for the village brass band who allocated him the trombone. While still a teenager he played with the noted band at Besses o' th' Barn and started taking conducting lessons. While playing with the band, he caught his trombone in tram tracks and, discouraged by the accident, changed to the trumpet. WIKIPEDIA When Hallé Orchestra and was planning the celebration of its centenary he was to write a new Symphony for that centenary. Butterworth had almost eight years, 1957 to 1965, to write this work. He noted, I had not realised at that time that the forthcoming 100th season would begin in October 1964 (not 1965!) so I had to get a move on and make sure it was ready in time. The premiere of his Second Symphony was given at Bradford’s St. George’s Hall on Friday October 30 1964. VIDEO: Arthur Butterworth (1923-2014) (GB) Symphony No. 2 (1964) Dir : Arthur Butterworth BBC Scottish Orchestra

Franz Ignaz Beck (Mannheim, February 20, 1734 – Bordeaux, December 31, 1809) Symphonies, Op 1

Franz Ignaz Beck was a German violinist, composer, conductor and music teacher who spent the greater part of his life in France, where he became director of the Bordeaux Grand Théâtre. Possibly the most talented pupil of Johann Stamitz, Beck is an important representative of the second generation of the so-called Mannheim school. His fame rests on his 24 symphonies that are among the most original and striking of the pre-Classical period. He was one of the first composers to introduce the regular use of wind instruments in slow movements and put an increasing emphasis on thematic development. His taut, dramatic style is also remarkable for its employment of bold harmonic progressions, flexible rhythms and highly independent part writing. Six Symphonies Op. 1 (Callen 1-6; publ. Paris 1758) WIKIPEDIA BIO

 VIDEO: Franz Ignaz Beck (1734~1809) Sinfonia in E-flat major, Op. 1 No. 4 00:00 I. Allegro assai 02:49 II. Andante 07:02 III. Presto New Zealand Chamber Orchestra / Donald Armstrong 

MOZART Symphony No 34, K 338

Symphony No. 34 in C major, K. 338, was written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in 1780, and completed on 29 August. The work is scored for 2 oboes, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani and strings. Composed in Salzburg and dated August 29, 1780. A second movement - Minuet - was torn from the manuscript.Alfred Einstein advanced a theory in the third edition of the Köchel catalogue that the Minuet K. 409 was written at a later date by the composer for this work. However, there is no proof in the sources to support his thesis

WIKIPEDIA

VIDEO: Performers: The Academy of Ancient Music, conducted by Christopher Hogwood. 

W. A. Mozart - KV 199 (161b/162a) - Symphony No. 27 in G major ...

Symphony No. 27 in G major, K. 199/161b, is a symphony composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in April, 1773 at the age of 17. The symphony is scored for 2 flutes, 2 horns, and strings. Mozart and his father returned from their last stay in Italy in March, 1773...during the time of this composition. 

 VIDEO: National Chamber Orchestra of Moldova Silvia Tabor, conductor.