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FREDERIC AUSTIN
(1872-1952)
1.
The Sea Venturers (1934)
11:07
Concert Overture
To Charles Kennedy Scott
Allegro vivo - Poco meno mosso - Tempo I - Poco meno mosso - Tranquillo - Lento -
SIR CHARLES VILLIERS STANFORD
(1852-1924)
2.
Prelude to 'Oedipus tyrannus', Op. 29 (1887, revised 1888)
8:27
from incidental music to the play by Sophocles (c. 496 BC – c. 406 BC)
Adagio molto - Più mosso - Tempo I (Adagio molto)
SAMUEL COLERIDGE-TAYLOR
(1875-1912)
3.
Overture to 'The Song of Hiawatha', Op. 30 No. 3 (1899)
11:21
from Scenes from The Song of Hiawatha
Larghetto - Allegro ma non troppo - Animato - Più mosso - Tranquillo -
SIR FREDERIC HYMEN COWEN
(1852-1935)
4.
The Butterfly's Ball (1901)
11:48
(Le Bal des Papillons)
Concert Overture for Full Orchestra
Dedicated to Robert Newman's Queen's Hall Orchestra
Molto vivace - Poco tranquillo - Animato come prima - Più animato - Tempo I - Poco tranquillo -
SIR GRANVILLE BANTOCK
(1868-1946)
5.
The Frogs (1935)
8:26
(of Aristophanes)
Comedy Overture for Orchestra
To Werner Janssen
Vivace - L'istesso tempo - Poco cantabile - Cantabile sostenuto - Liberamente -
SIR ALEXANDER CAMPBELL MACKENZIE
(1847-1935)
6.
Overture to 'The Little Minister' (1897)
8:12
from incidental music to the play by Sir James Matthew (J.M.) Barrie (1860-1937)
Allegro marcato - Allegretto moderato - Molto più animato - Tranquillo - Un poco animato -
SIR ARTHUR SULLIVAN
(1842-1900)
7.
Overture to 'Macbeth' (1888)
8:13
from incidental music to the play by William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
Allegro non troppo vivace
HENRY BALFOUR GARDINER
(1877-1950)
8.
Overture to a Comedy (1906, revised 1911)
8:29
for Orchestra
To York Bowen
Allegro - Meno mosso, più tranquillo - Ancora meno mosso - Allegro (Tempo I) - Con fuoco -
77:06
Orchestra: BBC National Orchestra of Wales
Conductor:Rumon Gamba
24-26 April 2013
Notes
Rumon Gamba and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales present a collection of rarely heard overtures from the British Isles. Among these is Sir Frederic Cowen’s Overture to The Butterfly’s Ball (1901), illustrating a popular children’s poem by William Roscoe. All is vividly evoked by Cowen’s pleasing melodic lines and delicate instrumental colour. It is easy to see why, in its day, the piece was a firm favourite, being played 26 times at the Proms between 1900 and 1940. Samuel Coleridge-Taylor achieved immediate success early in his career with his four-part cantata Scenes from The Song of Hiawatha. The Overture, composed in 1899, was intended as a prelude to the complete cycle but is now rarely heard in this context. Indeed, very little of the material in this Overture comes from the other Hiawatha pieces, the principal theme being the spiritual ‘Nobody knows the trouble I see, Lord’. Perhaps better known as a leading baritone of his generation, Frederic Austin was also a composer of some achievement. In his tuneful and exciting concert overture The Sea Venturers, from 1936, he wanted to evoke ‘something of the lives and character of English seamen who… took peril and pleasure as it came’.
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Reviews
“… having these eight colourful, engaging, and rarely heard works in one place is recommendation in itself. Sound on the new disc is full and rich, and the presentation is excellent with notes on the composers and works. Chandos Records continues to earn respect for the quality and imagination of their offerings, and I hope they will, as Gamba hints, continue to explore this repertoire… I encourage the acquisition of this release …”
Ronald E Grames – Fanfare – September/October 2014
"...Many of these charming pieces were written for the theatre, like MacKenzie’sOverture to The Little Minister, Gardiner’s Overture to a Comedy and Bantok’s TheFrogs. All this music is robust and sparkling with inventive orchestration, far fromthe self-effacing image we often have of this repertoire. The playing and recordingthroughout are first class. There is a special place in my heart for conductors suchas Rumon Gamba, who till the fields of some lesser-known and very worthwhilecomposers." ****
James McCarthy - Limelight magazine.com.au - 11 June 2014
IRR Outstanding
Andrew Parker – International Record Review – February 2014
"...This lively sequence shakes the archive dust from eight overtures by British composers None of the items is familiar in today’s concert hall he [Sullivan] is represented not by an operetta potpourri, but by the serious, if never ponderous, altogether fetching overture to Macbeth. Coleridge-Taylor’s overture to The Song of Hiawatha has a memorable, post-Dvorakian has a memorable eloquence; and Austin’s The Sea Venturers a genuine maritime evocativeness; blustery on the outside wistful in the middle. Standford’s Prelude to Oedipus Tyrannus is a striking lyrical piece."
Paul Driver - The Times (Culture magazine) - 27 January 2014
“… as Rumon Gamba’s nicely slick performances with BBCNOW show, these are all nicely proportioned pieces … they don’t deserve the total neglect they’ve suffered for the last three-quarters of a century.” ***
Andrew Clements – The Guardian – 24 January 2014
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