Vernon Handley - Go in the name of Angels

Vernon Handley died today at his home in Wales. He was born in 1930, and in his lifetime probably recorded more British music than any conductor, living or dead. He was an acclaimed interpreter of Elgar, Bax, Vaughan Williams, Finzi, and many other composers and worked as assistant to Sir Adrian Boult. I can remember a Dream of Gerontius conducted by Tod with his Guildford orchestra and choir in 1976 that was as good as any I have ever heard.

But Tod Handley wasn't just a specialist in the English pastoralists. His cycle of the Robert Simpson symphonies (except No 11) for Hyperion is one of the great achievements of the gramophone. He has recorded Elizabeth Maconchy's music, and his cycle of the Malcolm Arnold symphonies for Conifer (now re-issued on Decca) is another great recording landmark.

But his major achievements with British music were also a source of frustration to him as they resulted in his being pigeon-holed as a specialist in the field. Tod was also magnificent in Brahms and other mainstream repertoire and he held conducting appointments in the Netherlands and Australia. His championing of contemporary music should not be overlooked and he was very disappointed that he had to stop studying new scores in his later years due to failing eyesight.

Vernon Handley was a fine musician and a larger than life personality. His contribution to British music never received the recognition it truly deserved, but we are fortunate that he has left such a rich recorded legacy.

Thank you for the music Tod, and I am sure you will soon be working your magic on those celestial choirs.

* View just some of that rich recorded legacy here, and read the Times obituary here.
Photo credit Clarion Seven Muses. 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

Hindemith the painter

Paul Hindemith is not an obvious candidate for my recent thread on musicians as artists. But the sleeve above is from Hyperion's recording of Hindemith's Ludus Tonalis played by John McCabe and the illustration is adapted from a special edition of the work illustrated by the composer.

Hindemith's twenty-five 'Studies in counterpoint, tonal organisation and piano playing' were composed in 1942 and their true importance is obscured by an unjustified reputation as dry academic studies. As amazon.com says; if you like The Art of Fugue, or Bach's 48 and Shostakovich's 24 Preludes and Fugues, or Kurtág's Játékok, you should try Hindemith's 'tone games' or Ludus Tonalis.

Hindemith was, of course, no stranger to the world of artists. His 1934 Symphony Mathis der Maler was drawn from material from his banned opera of the same name. Mathis der Maler (Mathis the Painter) is based on the life and ideals of the early-sixteenth century artist Matthias Grunewald. It was the 1973 Unicorn LP of the symphony shown in my lower photo that made me realise that record covers could be an art form; the painting is The Temptation of St Anthony by Max Ernst from 1945, which is also the title of the finale of Hindemith's Symphony.

The Bob Auger engineered Unicorn LP plays as I write and still sounds magnificent. The sleeve notes remind me that the great conductor Jascha Horenstein also recorded Robert Simpson's Symphony No. 3 and a selection of Andrzej Panufnik's music for Unicorn.

The pairing of Strauss and Hindemith on that LP allows me to retell two delicious stories from Geoffrey Skelton's excellent biography of Hindemith (Gollancz ISBN 0575019883 out of print). There was a healthy creative tension between Strauss, the traditionalist, and Hindemith the prolific progressive, and both were fixtures at the Donaueschingen modern music festival in the 1920s. After Hindemith's new string quartet was enthusiastically received at one festival Strauss asked the composer in his broad Bavarian dialect: "Why do you compose atonal music? You have plenty of talent." Hindemith replied in his equally broad Frankfurt dialect: "Herr Professor, you make your music, and I'll make mine."

The return match took place at a later festival when Strauss attended one of Hindemith's concerts. Afterwards Strauss asked Hindemith how long he had taken to compose the work he had just performed. "Four days," Hindemith replied. Strauss drily remarked: "That's just what I thought."


More adventurous music making from John McCabe 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

Great music making doesn't need surtitles

"I completely agree with you, but can't say so publicly because I depend on work from the BBC" is a message I am receiving with increasing frequency. And the confidential messages are coming from some surprisingly high profile personalities.

Monday's post about the knighthood for former BBC Radio 3 controller and Proms director Nicholas Kenyon generated a record number of private messages of support. As well as dismay over the knighthood for the creator of BBC Radio 2.5 there was also widespread outrage that there was no similar award for one of the greatest ever champions of British music.

Vernon (Tod) Handley was born in 1930, and has probably recorded more British music than any conductor, living or dead. He is an acclaimed interpreter of Elgar, Bax, Vaughan Williams, Finzi, and many other composers. I can remember a Gerontius with his Guildford orchestra and choir in 1976 that was as good as any I have ever heard.

But Tod isn't just a specialist in the English pastoralists. His cycle of the Robert Simpson symphonies (except No 11) for Hyperion is one of the great achievements of the gramophone. He has recorded Elizabeth Maconchy, and his cycle of the Malcolm Arnold symphonies for Conifer (now re-issued on Decca) is another great recording landmark. Despite these achievements, and despite a proliferation of musical knights, Tod Handley was only given the lower honour of a CBE in 2004, an award usually made to businessmen and local government officials.

But is it really surprising? Robert Simpson's music was famously black-listed by the BBC. And under Sir Nicholas Kenyon there have been no BBC Proms performances of Arnold's symphonies for more than a decade, since the Second in 1994 in fact. And, quite scandalously, the acclaimed Ninth has never been performed at the Proms.

Great music music making doesn't need surtitles. But Tod Handley should receive the award he so richly deserves.

Not surprisingly I didn't get a Christmas card from the BBC this year. But one of their orchestras still loves me. And it is the right one. Now read about another forgotten maestro.
Photo credit Clarion Seven Muses. 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

Music and chance

Mention music and chance and John Cage comes to mind. But there are some other interesting examples of music and chance. If, like me, you arrange your CDs (or LPs even) in alphabetical order you will have experienced another example of music and chance. Why do so many composers' surnames begin with the letter B? Only last week my heart sunk when I ordered a CD by another composer involved with music and chance, Gavin Bryars' Oi Me Lasso. How would I find space on the shelf for the CD when it arrived?

This week brings yet another example of music and chance. Why do so many composer anniversaries fall within a few days? Tomorrow, November 22, is the big one. But yesterday I marked the death of Wilhelm Stenhammar, and today, among other anniversaries, we note the deaths of Henry Purcell (1695), Frank Martin (1974) and Robert Simpson ( 1997).

Henry Purcell should need no introduction; although the anniversary of his death falling the day before Benjamin Britten's birthday is another fascinating example of music and chance. Perhaps chance also dictated that Robert Simpson was born at the wrong time? The last of his eleven symphonies was composed in 1990, and takes the soundworld of his beloved Nielsen and Bruckner into the late-twentieth century. His music found little favour with BBC programmers of the time. Some may have judged his music to be written too late, but time has shown his thinking was well ahead of its time. Robert Simpson resigned from the BBC in 1980 because, and I quote, he could 'no longer work for an institution whose views he no longer respected'. More on an under-rated composer and thinker here.

Chance dictated that Frank Martin was born in Switzerland in 1890. Frank Martin's musical language, like the culture of Switzerland, steers a middle course. He assimilated elements of serialism into his own unique musical language, but retained firm links with tonality. Martin is remembered today mainly as a choral composer, and his magnificent Mass for double choir is probably his most enduring work. But there is also fine orchestral music, including a Violin Concerto and Passacaglia for String Orchestra. A recommended budget priced Decca double CD contains five of his orchestral works plus the oratorio In terra pax.

For some reason chance has meant that a late masterpiece by Frank Martin remains unknown. His Requiem for choir, soloists, organ, harpsichord and oboe d'amore was completed in 1972. It sets the Latin Mass using a finely honed and mature version of his unique musical language. Although concert performances are rarer than the proverbial hen's teeth there is a CD available. It is on the Musikszene Schwieitz label, and is difficult to get hold of. But if you find a copy you will realise that chance is a fine thing.

More chance when the audience composes the music.
Image credit CindyKroth. 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

Music-like-water

A world where music is available via the latest technologies for a single monthly subscription charge. A world with unlimited access to a huge range of music. A world where the music business will explode and reinvent itself. A world where listeners are empowered, and the reach of new music is limited only by your own imagination. A world where the major record companies aren’t invited to the party. A world where music becomes a utility on tap, just like gas and electricity. A world where music is like water.

No, Pliable hasn’t been on the wacky backy again. Music-like-water is the title of a really thought provoking paper from Gerd Leonhard published on New Music Box, the web magazine of the American Music Center. (And many thanks to Garth Trinkl who blogs at Renaissance Research for bringing it to my attention). Leonhard is the founder of ThinkAndLink, a consultancy working in the area of convergence between the entertainment and technology sectors. When he is not future-gazing Leonhard is a pretty mean guitarist and composer, and winner of a Quincy Jones Award. His blog is also worth a visit.

The main thrust of Leonhard’s paper is that consumers are now taking charge of their own entertainment, and the borders between performance and copy, and access and ownership have been crossed. He says the music business is rapidly moving towards a flat charge for access, and away from the historic, and clumsy, pay per performance model. A flat charge for access is how utility providers operate, and is where his catchy music-like-water moniker comes from. Leonhard predicts that once distribution is no longer a barrier to entry, the music market will explode. And the traditional record companies will be left for dead as new players control the flow of music-like-water.

Fanciful? Unlikely to happen in our lifetime? Harmless crystal ball gazing? I don’t think so. Music-like-water has already arrived. Just last week mobile (cell) phone operator T-Mobile announced an 18 month deal with Robbie Williams, which will make some of his songs and concert footage available exclusively over the phone network - presumably music will follow.

I have already written about Naxos Radio. This subscription service is pure music-like-water. It has 60 channels of different classical music genres, with each offering 100 hours of unduplicated music at 64Kpbs, which is pretty close to CD quality. All channels are commercial free, and new recordings are added at around 50 per month. And now Naxos are starting to loan recordings through public libraries. They are already a global force with a dominant share of classical CD sales in most major markets worldwide as the following figures show: UK - 15%, Finland - 40%, Sweden - 50%, Norway - 50%, Denmark -30%, Canada - 25%, Greece - 45%, South Africa - 45%, Spain - 20% and Germany - 20%. In the United States, Soundscan lists Naxos as the leading independent classical music label. Naxos’ business model is music-like-water, and it is here today.

The BBC has one of the three best known brand names in the world. They have a guaranteed war-chest from a poll tax on UK residents (disguised as a license fee) of nearly £3 billion ($5.5 billion) a year. The BBC will have an increasing impact outside the UK as music-like-water flows uninterrupted across geographic boundaries. Inside information leaked from the BBC in the last few days indicates that more than half of the much-trumpeted 1.4 million Beethoven MP3 files went to US downloaders. (Personally I am not convinced that this music giveaway was the best possible use of the £126.50 ($230US) annual license fee I have to pay the BBC. Particularly when 3780 of their staff are being cut to save costs, and domestic programming is full of cost saving repeats.)

The BBC has complete control, including broadcasts, public performances, touring, and programmes, of five leading orchestras, plus the BBC Singers. They also have total control over the world's largest music festival, the BBC Promenade Concerts. This employs musicians ranging from the Berlin Philharmonic to Ravi Shankar.

The BBC has one of the largest commissioning budgets for new music, with an annual spend in excess of £350,000 ($630,000). This commissioning budget is larger than the turnover of many independent record companies. It is quite wonderful that the BBC is able to fund the creation of so much new music, and this year's new music feast at the Proms is an excellent example of money very well spent. But conversely, misuse of their commissioning budget and programming authority can stifle new talent. This allegedly happened to tonal composer Robert Simpson, and others, in the 1970's under the regime of progressive Director of Music William Glock and modernist Principal Conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra Pierre Boulez. The BBC is already supplying every channel through which music can flow - live music making, CDs, DVD’s, satellite, FM, AM, web and on-demand broadcasts, music book and magazine publishing and MP3 files. The BBC’s business model is music-like-water, and it is here today.

Gerd Leonhard says that in the new music-like-water order “all music, all artists will be in those pipelines.” And this is where we start to differ. Dream on Gerd. Music-like-water won’t bring a utopia where every recording, of every work, by every composer from Evaristo Abaco to Johann Zumsteeg, is available via the technology of your choice. What will happen, no what is happening, is the new utility companies become gate keepers. And Pliable’s first sonata for prepared piano and vihuela won’t get through the gate unless I cut a deal with the keeper. And financially that means I am better off clearing tables in a fast food joint than composing music. Pessimism on my part? No, fact. Amazon.com, with their world-wide operating companies, are a global gatekeeper in the brave new books-like-water world. Which means if you are a small specialist book publisher they will surcharge your book before they list it. (Believe me I know, I am also a small publisher). And the global gatekeepers are already flexing their muscles in the music-like-water world. I wonder what role Naxos played in Marin Alsop’s appointment in Baltimore?

Music-like-water is here to stay. And I don’t particularly like the taste of it. But the good news is Pliable doesn’t have to exist on water alone. I prefer music-like-Château Latour. And that also is here today. Volume 24 of the John Elliot Gardiner Bach Cantata Pilgrimage has just arrived chez Pliable. This remarkable project was conceived to bypass a global gatekeeper (Universal Music) who wanted to restrict the flow of music-like-water by shelving Gardiner's visionary Bach Cantata project.

I wrote a very positive post about John Eliot Gardiner’s Soli Deo Gloria record company when their first releases came out. Suffice to say their new double CD of the cantatas for the Third and Fourth Sundays after Easter is a work of art in every respect, and even surpasses the outstanding vintage of the first volumes. Exquisite and tactile packaging that revives the long lost art of sleeve design. Informative and entertaining sleeve notes. Perfect bound slip cases. And the music, the music…..the sinfonia from this recording of BWV 146, recorded in the Schlosskirche Altenburg, with its mighty Trost Organ, is music to die for.

Yea, music-like-water is the way to go. And I’ll keep writing about it while I sip my music-like-Château Latour thanks very much.

And here, courtesy of SDG, is your chance to taste some premier cru music making from Volume 24 of the Bach Cantata Pilgrimage. These are decent length extracts, not the Amazon type snippets. My first paragraph talked about music by subscription. And in a wonderful example of the overgrown path coming full circle the complete cycle of SDG's Bach Cantatas is available by subscription. Which just goes to show that, despite what the futurologists may tell us, there is nothing new under the musical sun - cheers!

Freue Dich Erloste Schar BWV 30 - no. 1 chorus.....
Freue Dich Erloste Schar BWV 30 - no 5 aria (Wilke te Brummelstroete, alto)....
O Ewigkeit du Donnerwort BWV 20 - no.1 chorus....
Die Elenden sollen essen BWV 75 - no 7 chorale....

Was Robert Simpson's music unfairly neglected in the Glock/Boulez era at the BBC? Judge for yourself with these two samples from Hyperion's excellent cycle of his complete symphonies:
Robert Simpson, Symphony no.1 (1951), 1st movement (opening) [4'48]...
Robert Simpson, Symphony no.2 (1956), 3rd movement Allegro grazioso (opening) [3'51]...

Do you think music-like-water is the future? Or will the independent specialists like Soli Deo Gloria continue to set the benchmark? Was Robert Simpson's neglect by the BBC justified?Add your views to this post using the comments feature at the foot.

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