Sunday 8 June 2014

Ten British Composers Ripe for Discovery

A very short, but important post: Ten composers that I consider worthy of rediscovery. Odd recordings of their music exist in the catalogues, but typically they have been ignored by concert promoters and record companies:-
  • Francis Chagrin (1905-1972)
  • Peter Racine Fricker (1920-1990)
  • Ian Hamilton (1922-2000)
  • Daniel Jones (1912-1993)
  • Priaulx Rainier (1903-1986)
  • Humphrey Searle (1915-1982)
  • Robert Still (1910-1971)
  • John Veale (1922-2006)
  • Ian Whyte (1901-1961)
  • William Wordsworth (1908-1988)

All of the above are important ‘symphonists’ – except for Priaulx Rainier. I have heard many of these and all demand to be in the catalogue. Why not a cycle of Fricker or Hamilton rather than yet another version of Beethoven or Elgar?  Searle’s symphonies are all available on CPO and they are superb.  I am listening to an old radio broadcast of Francis Chagrin’s First Symphony as I write. It just cries out to be heard. 

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Only Whyte and Still have no items on Spotify, and even they may be hidden by the vagaries of the Spotify indexing, which favours and better describes non-classical music. Symphonies are not heavily represented on the playlists I scanned, but Searle certainly has some and they sampled well, as did several of the others' string quartets.