On An Overgrown Path

Many people think of Peter Maxwell Davies as a Scottish composer, but in fact he was born in Salford in Lancashire. And I'm adding to the confusion by featuring a CD of his music titled A Celebration of Scotland for the simple reason that it contains some of the most beautiful music ever captured on disc. The riches are too many to list. But for starters try the haunting Farewell to Stromness and Yesnaby Ground for solo piano played by Max, the ravishing Lullabye for Lucy sung by the Choir of St. Mary's Music School, Edinburgh, and the extrovert An Orkney Wedding with Sunrise complete with George McIlwham playing the highland bagpipes. Originally released as a Unicorn-Kanchana vinyl LP in 1988, A Celebration of Scotland was captured in stunning sound in the Queen's Hall, Edinburgh by recording engineer Antony Howell. It, thankfully, remains available as a CD , snap it up while you can. And this post brings a neat symmetry to the path as we are off to Scotland (wher...

'The best composer of our times is Ernest Bloch' - Pablo Casals As the string quartets of John Cage , Steve Reich , Philip Glass and Elliott Carter enjoy critical attention one wonders whether Ernest Bloch's main stylistic error was to have been born in Switzerland. With some justification Casals can be criticised for ignoring modern music, and he once unashamedly said 'I have finally come to a definite conclusion: I will have nothing to do with what is called "contemporary music"'. But Casals' opinion of Bloch was shared by another great cellist, Colin Hampton, who, as a member of the famous Griller Quartet, was part of the classic 1954 recording of the Bloch Quartets seen above. Hampton unequivocally endorsed Casals' view writing that ' (Bloch's) string quartet No 1 is to me one of the great works in this world. It was a logical conclusion, as far as I am concerned, to the Beethoven quartets. I would put Bloch in front of Schubert and...

'Whatever people's opinion of David Popper , I will play his music as long as I play the cello, for no other composer wrote better for the instrument' - Pablo Casals on the Bohemian composer and author of High School of Cello Playing David Popper (photo above) who died on August 7, 1913. Now read about a little known gem of a cello concerto written by a composer born in the year that David Popper died. Lone voices showcases music not featured in the 2008 BBC Proms, discover more lone voices here. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

'The harmony can sometimes be simple, but it's very sensual. There's a real French sense of harmony overlaid onto what, in the English music history line, can probably be traced back to John Dowland and all the really great songwriters and musicians of the fifteenth century. There's an innate Englishness [to his work], but Nick was also somebody who listened to an awful lot of music. I mean, he had the Bach Brandenburg Concertos on his turntable the night he died' - pianist Christopher O'Riley on Nick Drake. Those words comes from Pink Moon by Amanda Petrusich , one of fifty-eight books in the iconic 33 1/3 series about classic rock albums. This publishing imprint really hits the spot by combining great writing, fine design and affordable prices. Petrusich's chapter on the award-winning 2000 Volkswagen commercial that introduced the Pink Moon title track to millions is an important insight into the volatile relationship between creative musicians and th...

The oud in my life is joined today by a lute. This instrument has already featured here many times but in this article I want to share with readers two outstanding super-low priced recitals of early music by a master lutenist. Paul O'Dette was born in Columbus, Ohio in 1954 and after dabbling with the electric guitar at high school went on to establish himself as one of the leading players and teachers of the lute. He has made more than one hundred recordings both as soloist as an ensemble member with musicians such as Jordi Savall and Nikolaus Harnoncourt and among O'Dette's many fine solo recordings are the complete lute works of John Dowland. In 2001 Harmonia Mundi reissued several of his CDs at super-budget price. They are still in the catalogue and are quite unmissable both for students of the lute and for readers who want an affordable introduction to this most intimate of instruments. The titles of the two recommended discs on which the lute is the lone voice a...

'It seems to me that Honegger is one of the contemporary composers of greatest musical value. In spite of his "modernism" he refrains from going beyond certain limits. He has been influenced by modern tendencies, but he knows how to select some innovations and not others, while remaining faithful to what he may define as the idea of music - something so many contemporary composers have just abandoned' - Pablo Casals Herbert von Karajan's recordings of Arthur Honegger's Symphonies Nos. 2 & 3 are the definite accounts and rank among the classics of the gramophone. The inlay above is from Alexander Rahbari's performance of the Symphony No. 3 which is committed but, hardly surpisingly, falls short of Karajan's searing account. But I am featuring the CD Rahbari made with the BRTN Philharmonic Orchestra in Brussels for its persuasive advocacy of the little heard Symphony No. 5 " Di Tre Re ". There are links between Rahbari and Karajan as the...

This excellent new Harmonia Mundi release of music for viols played by Fretwork couples the loan voices of Jewish composers of the Tudor and Stuart courts with a distinctive contemporary voice. Although Jews were banished by edict from England in 1290 a presence remained in the form of marranos , or nominally converted 'New Christians', who traded between London, Antwerp and Lisbon. The practice of tolerating covert followers of the Jewish faith was further reinforced when Henry VIII recruited Venetian musicians from the Italian diaspora to form six-part consorts for his Private Music. The Venetian composers of the music on this CD for viols from the Duarte , Lupo and Bassano families are now thought to have been Jewish. Their music from the Tudor and Stuart courts is interspersed in true mixing-it style with the three movements of contemporary composer Orlando Gough's klezmer-based Birds on Fire . Particularly noteworthy are the Two Sinfonias in 5 parts by Leonora Du...

This year, for the first time since I started the blog in 2005, I will not be posting personal previews of the BBC Proms , which start tomorrow evening (18 July). My decision is of no great importance as there is no shortage of coverage of the concerts elsewhere. The reason for dropping the previews is that I write best when I am passionate and enthusiastic about a subject, and, sadly, my passion for the Proms has failed to survive their remorseless corporate marketing as a BBC brand. For me at least, the message has been drowned out by the medium. There are some very fine compositions and very fine performers in this year's Proms and I will be listening to some of them on BBC Radio 3 and maybe posting a few thoughts. But as the promotional hullabaloo reaches fever pitch let's reflect on the fact that the core values of the Proms, which are so celebrated today, date from 1895 when the Promenade concerts were founded by Sir Henry Wood . The BBC did not become involved in the ...