Bantock - Celtic Symphony [Handley-Royal Philharmonic Orchestra] 

A nice little regular in my Blog [2 September 2011 & 26th May 2010], and The Witch Of Atlas is great too, it's good that both Vernon Handley and Hyperion are searching enough to put little known music like this out, the only gripe about the disc is that at 35 minutes, i don't think that the last item the Hebridean Symphony is quite good enough, i would seriously liked to have heard some more medium length pieces from Bantock, but what we have here is marvellous music that should be well recorded, instead we get another Franck or Gorecki Symphony, come on!, be more creative than that people, this disc is my fourth most favourite disc of all time, and that's really saying something, e 

Vernon Handley was a British Conductor, born in 1930 and died in 2008, he recorded this disc in 1990, the front cover is a painting by Johan Dahl called 'Morning After A Stormy Night', a nice painting, look at that orange sky!.

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Here's Bantock's Celtic Symphony being performed on YouTube, notice the emphasis on the six harps.

Bantock - Celtic Symphony [Handley-Royal Philharmonic Orchestra]

Now this was such a wonderful experience today, a Symphony for just strings [plus six harps], it has a wonderful glow to it, lasts nearly 20 minutes, is divided into five sections, however it's really in one long movement, in my mind 'symphony' is a misnomer, really it's more of a fantasia akin to Vaughan Williams Tallis Fantasia, which it's most similar to, i played this same work last year, and wrote about it in my Blog [26th May 2010], again i have to say that it's in the top five all time favourite discs of mine, a phenomenal achievement for an 'off the beaten track' composer, it's a shame all his other works aren't of the same calibre. 

Vernon Handley passed away almost three years ago, a great loss to the Classical world, he championed British works, and many works had their recording premiere under him, he recorded this disc in 1990, the front cover shows the painting 'Morning after a stormy night' by Johan Christian Clausen Dahl. 

Well all of this Symphony is so inspired, non more so than the opening, which keeps coming back again and again, it's beauty is indescribable, it really transports me away to a better world, the start is soft pulsating high strings [0:00-0:20], like floating out of some strange mist, truly beautiful, the harps strum in as the strings continue their song [0:20-0:39], and it's when the beginning repeats itself in a hushed manner [1:20-1:57] that the magic is complete, what a phenomenal beginning to a musical work!.

Bantock - Tone Poem 5 'The Witch Of Atlas' [Handley-Royal Philharmonic Orchestra] 

This is the second time this work appears in my Blog [15th March 2010], i got to play this disc walking through the park on the way to Church, the first two works are heavenly, why have they been so obscure for so long?, thanks to Vernon Handley, his efforts to get them better known have paid off in this recording, this is now my 4th best disc of all time, that's a phenomenal achievement for a Composer that's on the fringes!.

Vernon Handley is British, born in 1930, and died recently in 2008, he was a great champion of British music, and recorded a lot that others wouldn't touch, he made this recording in 1990, the front cover is a nice painting by Johan Dahl, called Morning After A Stormy Night.

As far as i'm concerned, this is the best work on the disc, it's tremendous, i don't know why it isn't recorded more often, and why it isn't famous, Hyperion have supposedly helped us in giving the work 9 cuing points, but for a 14 minute work, it would have been better to have given timings within the work in the booklet, these tracks just get in the way for me, it starts off very quiet and sparse, with barely audible tremolo strings whimpering, and a solo violin beseeching us [0:04+ track 6], with an oboe as a duet partner [0:20+ track 6], and later a bass clarinet [1:01+ track 6], it's a very atmospheric opening, conjuring up the scene nicely, the music swells [0:00 track 7], with a lovely note on the soft brass, with rippling harp, the lower woodwind are wonderfully mysterious [0:41+ track 7], the chattering piccolos / flutes are exciting [0:05-0:21 track 8], and right after comes the very best bit of the Tone Poem, the music swells into a full blooded string serenade [0:21+ track 8], it's just simply stunning and gorgeous!, chattering woodwinds / flute return [0:00+ track 9], after a more tempestuous section, the woodwinds have a marvellous decrescendo [0:43-1:11 track 12], starting at the piccolos, and moving down through the woodwinds to the bassoon, right at the end there's excellent use of the glockenspiel [1:25+ track 13], it's a work that is on the whole sparse and restrained, but full of atmosphere and effect.

Here's Vernon Handley conducting The Witch Of Atlas on YouTube, it's a fairly quiet level of volume, plus it starts very quiet too!.

Bantock - Celtic Symphony [Handley-Royal Philharmonic Orchestra]

Here's the phenomenally underestimated Granville Bantock in what he calls his Celtic Symphony, for String Orchestra only [plus 6 harps!], it's in one movement, and lasts about 20 minutes, in my own mind it just doesn't fit the 'Symphony' mold, it's more like a Tone Poem, or a Fantasia, and its nearest cousin would be Vaughan Williams's Tallis Fantasia, it's gorgeous and should be just as well known as the VW work.

Vernon Handley died a couple of years ago, he was a staunch promoter of English Composers, and we have him to thank for this disc.

It opens with the most enchanting and astonishing string melisma [track 1, 0:00-0:38], which is repeated again so delicately and raptly [track 1, 1:20-1:56], if this doesn't tug your heart, then you ain't got one, track 2 is a more lively section, but it's built on variations of the opening, the opening comes back to wonderfully haunt us [track 2, 5:19-6:15], a solo violin and delicate strings play on our hearts in a slow section [track 3], the opening theme comes back in forte glory towards the end [track 5, 0:00-0:43], but it's the opening that you keep wanting to hear again and again, it's something very beautiful and special.

Here's excerpts of this Symphony played on YouTube.

Bantock - Tone Poem 5 'The Witch Of Atlas' [Handley-Royal Philharmonic Orchestra]

Granville Bantock seems to have been a forgotten composer, until the early nineties, when Hyperion Records started to record his works, and it's a wonder that he has remained unearthed for so long, because he should be much better known, and surprisingly he has a wonderful way with a tune, deft at using the orchestra to paint literary works with lovely tone colours.

I bought this disc in the early nineties, because everyone was raving about it, i quickly learned what all the fuss was about, i have nearly 1600 discs now, and this gets in my all-time top five!, yes it's that good, i haven't heard a lot of Bantock, but i would urge anyone to acquire this disc.

Bantock wrote six Tone Poems, this is the fifth, and it's gloriously rich in the most exquisite musical sonorities, Bantock has a thing about creating a soundworld to immediately fall in love with, it starts off with a solo violin, pleading [track 6 0:03-0:22], and then an oboe mirroring the tune [track 6 0:20-0:56], and then what sounds like a bass clarinet also mirroring the tune [track 6 1:01-1:37], this is the wonderful intro, really sets the scene, the music changes with horn calls, and Bantock begins to weave his magic with some very atmospheric woodwind & strings [track 7 0:41-2:17], mysterious and ghostly in places, again with a soft clash of the cymbal, it changes with some chattering piccolos [track 8 0:05-0:20], readying for the surge of the strings, who enter with such heartwrenching passion [track 8 0:21-0:49], this is the very best moment of the piece, it sounds like a Tchaikovsky waltz, it quietens down but becomes more impassioned again, a truly breathtaking moment, towards the end there's this short section where the piccolos chatter like birds, and then the chattering ripples down through all the woodwinds to the bassoons [track 12 0:38-1:11], a nice touch!, in the coda the opening is reprised [track 13 1:08-2:43], with some glockenspiel & harp tinkling to end things, if this was a Tchaikovsky or Sibelius Tone Poem it would justly be world famous, do yourself a favour and acquaint yourself with a masterpiece of mood.

Here's the piece played on YouTube.