William

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REAM.2106 REAM.2106
Michael Tippett, Iain Hamilton, William Wordsworth - Works for Piano
Margaret Kitchin, piano


Pianist Margaret Kitchin (1914-2008) was a child prodigy who later specialised in modern and contemporary music, making BBC broadcasts of this repertoire for over 20 years. She championed many British composers, including Peter Racine Fricker, Iain Hamilton, Elizabeth Lutyens, Thea Musgrave, Alexander Goehr, Priaulx Rainier, Humphrey Searle, Alan Bush, Richard Rodney Bennett and Michael Tippett, whose Second Piano Sonata is dedicated to her. The first of her few commercial recordings consisted of the Tippett and Hamilton sonatas presented here, originally released on a Lyrita LP in 1959.
SRCD.204 SRCD.204
William Sterndale Bennett - Piano Concerto Nos. 1 & 3 etc.
Malcolm Binns, piano, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Nicholas Braithwaite, conductor


SRCD.205 SRCD.205
William Sterndale Bennett - Piano Concerto Nos. 2 & 5 etc.
Malcolm Binns, piano, Philharmonia Orchestra, Nicholas Braithwaite, conductor


SRCD.206 SRCD.206
William Sterndale Bennett - Symphony in G minor, Overtures
London Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, Nicholas Braithwaite, conductor


Schumann, with whom Bennett would often "drink a bottle of porter", noted the "remarkable family resemblance" in Bennett's music to that of Mendelssohn's – "the same beauty of form, poetic depth yet clearness, and ideal purity, the same outwardly satisfying impression, – but with a difference."
SRCD.207 SRCD.207
William Wordsworth - Symphony Nos. 2 & 3
London Philharmonic Orchestra, Nicholas Braithwaite, conductor


SRCD.208 SRCD.208
William Hurlstone - Variations on an Original Theme, The Magic Mirror etc.
London Philharmonic Orchestra, Nicholas Braithwaite, conductor


SRCD.209 SRCD.209
Gustav Holst - The Cotswolds Symphony, Indra, Dances from The Morning of the Year etc.
Lorraine McAslan, violin, Alexander Baillie, cello, London Philharmonic Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, David Atherton, conductor


SRCD.211 SRCD.211
Vaughan Williams - Piano Concerto
John Foulds - Dynamic Triptych

Howard Shelley, piano, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Vernon Handley, conductor


SRCD.224 SRCD.224
William Walton - The Quest, Sinfonia Concertante etc.
London Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Sir William Walton, conductor


SRCD.227 SRCD.227
William Alwyn - Symphony Nos. 1 & 4
London Philharmonic Orchestra, William Alwyn, conductor


SRCD.228 SRCD.228
William Alwyn - Symphony Nos. 2, 3 & 5
London Philharmonic Orchestra, William Alwyn, conductor


SRCD.229 SRCD.229
William Alwyn - The Magic Island, Sinfonietta for Strings etc.
London Philharmonic Orchestra, William Alwyn, conductor


SRCD.230 SRCD.230
William Alwyn - Concerto Grosso No.2, Autumn Legend, Lyra Angelica
Osian Ellis, harp, Geoffrey Browne, cor anglais, London Philharmonic Orchestra, William Alwyn, conductor


SRCD.246 SRCD.246
Eric Coates - Suites: Summer Days, From Meadow to Mayfair, Three Elizabeths etc. & Marches by Grainger, Delius, Holst etc.
New Philharmonia Orchestra , London Philharmonic Orchestra , Sir Adrian Boult, conductor


SRCD.266 SRCD.266
William Baines, E. J. Moeran - Piano Music
Eric Parkin, piano


Although Baines tried his hand at most forms of composition, producing in his teens a massive symphony and copious chamber and vocal works, the piano being always accessible remained his natural medium of expression. He wrote to please himself, happily free of that need to feel justified in the eyes of critics, public and posterity which is the bane of young composers. His music can verge on banality and then as effortlessly touch the sublime with a candour some contemporaries found hard to accept: nobody else, save perhaps Alkan, could have written such disparate pieces as the First and Third Preludes on the very same day ...
SRCD.270 SRCD.270
Ralph Vaughan Williams, Gustav Holst, Hubert Parry - Works for Chorus and Orchestra
Teresa Cahill, soprano, The Bach Choir / Royal College of Music Chorus, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Sir David Willcocks, conductor, Sheila Armstrong, soprano, London Symphony Orchestra, David Atherton, conductor


The Sons of Light was commissioned for The Schools Music Association. Bernard Shore, the great viola player who had become one of Her Majesty’s Inspectors of Schools, approached RVW early in 1950, asking him to write a choral work for young singers who would have, at the first performance, the excitement and pleasure of being accompanied by the London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Sir Adrian Boult.
SRCD.280 SRCD.280
Malcolm Williamson - Concerto for Organ and Orchestra, Piano Concerto No. 3, Sonata for Two Pianos
Malcolm Williamson, organ (The Rushworth & Dreaper organ of Guildford Cathedral), London Philharmonic Orchestra, Sir Adrian Boult, conductor, Malcolm Williamson, piano, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Leonard Dommett, conductor, Malcolm Williamson & Richard Rodney Bennett, pianos


My first piano concerto appeared at Cheltenham in 1958 and travelled to the Albert Hall for the 1959 Proms. The critical censure that it received caused me to draw into myself and to write a Sinfonia Concertante with solo piano, trumpet trio and string orchestra. This 12-minute work was fully two years in the writing and the problems of the concerto style were at the front of my mind during that period. By chance I heard of a competition in Western Australia at the end of 1960 for a concerto for piano and strings, and the labour pains of the Sinfonia Concertante generated the impulse to write in some eight days a work which won this competition and came to be my second piano concerto. The next year I had to set aside the Sinfonia Concertante once again. Sir William Glock had invited me to write an organ concerto for the Proms and the Australian Broadcasting Commission asked for a full-scale piano concerto, the third. The organ concerto was a labour of love. It was written in honour of Sir Adrian Boult, who conducted the first performance. The first performance of the third piano concerto was given by John Ogdon with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra under Joseph Post, and I decided to dedicate the work to this astonishing and fine pianist. Sir Adrian Boult in Europe and Leonard Dommett in Australia have guided me as soloist through performances of both concerti.
SRCD.281 SRCD.281
Malcolm Williamson - Elevamini, Symphony No. 1, Sinfonia Concertante etc.
Martin Jones, piano (Sinfonia Concertante), Malcolm Williamson, piano (Sonata), Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Sir Charles Groves, conductor


Though Malcolm Williamson lived in London for fifty years, many of the titles and first performance venues of his works confirm that he was at heart an Australian: as well as his pieces for Australian Bicentennial Year, 1988, his last two symphonies are both rooted in Australian culture. In 1965, he spoke about his nationality at the Conference on Music and Education in the Commonwealth held at the University of Liverpool, "... when I think about it I am certain that my music is characteristically Australian although I have never tried to make it so. We Australians have to offer the world a persona compounded of forcefulness, brashness, a direct warmth of approach, sincerity which is not ashamed, and more of what the Americans call 'get-up-and-go' than the Americans themselves possess." Indeed, the vigorous ebullience and emotional candour of his writing sets him apart from most other composers active in Britain in the second half of the twentieth century.
SRCD.293 SRCD.293
William Alwyn - Mirages, Fantasy-Waltzes etc.
Benjamin Luxon, baritone, David Willison, piano, Christopher Hyde-Smith, flute, Marisa Robles, harp, Sheila Randell, piano


SRCD.320 SRCD.320
William Busch - Cello Concerto, Piano Concerto
Raphael Wallfisch, cello, Piers Lane, piano, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Vernon Handley, conductor


"My first impression of William Busch the composer was of sinewy toughness, the piece I heard at Morley College in wartime was his NicholasVariations for piano (1942) named after his infant son - his likeness was not mirrored in the craggy, spare music.The next music I heard of Busch’s counterbalanced this first impression - songs that were gentle and tender although the music was still sinewy and avoiding rich harmony, settings with the voice and words predominant, with easy intervals for the listener to grasp the sense of the music ..." John Amis
SRCD.323 SRCD.323
Grace Williams - Carillons for Oboe & Orchestra, Sea Sketches for string orchestra etc.
Anthony Camden, oboe, Howard Snell, trumpet, London Symphony Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, English Chamber Orchestra, Sir Charles Groves, conductor, David Atherton, conductor


SRCD.324 SRCD.324
William Mathias - Ave Rex, Elegy for a Prince, This Worlde’s Joie
Sir Geraint Evans, bass-baritone, Janet Price, soprano, Kenneth Bowen, tenor, Michael Rippon, baritone, Welsh National Opera Chorus, The Bach Choir, St George’s Choristers, London Symphony Orchestra, New Philharmonia Orchestra, David Atherton, conductor, Sir David Willcocks, conductor


SRCD.325 SRCD.325
William Mathias - Clarinet Concerto, Harp Concerto, Piano Concerto No.3
Gervase de Peyer, clarinet, Osian Ellis, harp, Peter Katin, piano, New Philharmonia Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, David Atherton, conductor


SRCD.327 SRCD.327
Grace Williams - Ballads for Orchestra, Fairest of Stars, Symphony No.2
Janet Price, soprano, BBC Welsh Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Vernon Handley, conductor, Sir Charles Groves, conductor


SRCD.328 SRCD.328
William Mathias - Invocation and Dance, Laudi, Vistas etc.
London Symphony Orchestra, English Chamber Orchestra, 1975 National Youth Orchestra of Wales, New Philharmonia Orchestra, David Atherton, conductor, Arthur Davison, conductor


SRCD.336 SRCD.336
Lyrita Classics - Elgar, Delius, Vaughan Williams, Grainger, Holst, Warlock, Harty, Berners, Balfe
Philharmonia Orchestra, Nicholas Braithwaite, conductor, New Philharmonia Orchestra, Andrew Davis, conductor, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Myer Fredman, conductor, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Nicholas Braithwaite, conductor, New Philharmonia Orchestra, Vernon Handley, conductor, London Symphony Orchestra, Nicholas Braithwaite, conductor, ‡ English Chamber Orchestra, Imogen Holst, conductor, ‡‡ London Philharmonic Orchestra, Sir Adrian Boult, conductor


SRCD.340 SRCD.340
John Joubert - William Mathias, First Symphonies
London Philharmonic Orchestra, Vernon Handley - Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Charles Groves


SRCD.2218 SRCD.2218
William Alwyn - Miss Julie
Jill Gomez, soprano, Benjamin Luxon, baritone, Della Jones, mezzo-soprano, John Mitchinson, tenor, Philharmonia Orchestra, Vilem Tausky, conductor


SRCD.2286 SRCD.2286
William Hurlstone - Piano Concerto, Swedish Air Variations, Piano Trio, Piano Quartet
Eric Parkin, piano, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Nicholas Braithwaite, conductor, Tunnell Piano Quartet


William Yeates Hurlstone was born in West Kensington on January 7th 1876. His musical talent was early manifested to sympathetic parents, and at eighteen William won a maintenance scholarship for three years to the Royal College of Music. His promise there was sufficient for it to be extended to four years. He studied piano with Algernon Ashton — himself one of the most shamefully ignored of English composers, with a long list of what, for me, are unqualified masterpieces to his credit — and composition with Stanford, who spoke of him as his best student; Stanford’s other students at the time included John Ireland, Frank Bridge, Coleridge-Taylor and Thomas Dunhill, with all of whom, especially Coleridge-Taylor, Hurlstone was always on very friendly terms ...