Amazon.co.uk allows you to pay for your items in your local currency. Restrictions apply. Learn More. |
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
Listen to Samples and Buy MP3s
View the MP3 Album.
|
Product Description
Review
John Foulds? British composer, son of a bassoonist in the Hallé Orchestra, born in Manchester in 1880...and he died suddenly less than 60 years later in Calcutta, where he was in charge of music on an Indian radio station.
Foulds lived a fascinating life which incorporated a career as a professional cellist, a conductor, a successful composer of light music and music for the troops in the First World War. He worked as a cinema pianist, and he became fascinated by modes, microtones, and the ragas of Indian music.
Foulds was a radical composer in Paris in the late 20s, when he wrote the main work on this disc: Dynamic Triptych, a bravura re-interpretation of the piano concerto. Each movement focuses on a different aspect of Foulds' musical language. 'Dynamic Mode' is first, an energetic virtuosic display based only on seven pitches of a South Indian raag. The second movement, 'Dynamic Timbre', is an exercise in subtle orchestral colour, quarter-tones included...and the finale is a rhythmic toccata based on a sequence of time signatures that allow it to morph into a waltz and a march as it romps along.
Peter Donohoe is a powerfully committed soloist, and there'll be moments in the second movement particularly which will have you catching your breath, when you realise that Foulds is already beginning to occupy an orchestral soundworld that still feels modern.
Alongside the main work, the rest of the disc feels charming but inconsequential: April-England could be Percy Grainger does Vaughan Williams. The notes equate Foulds' 'Music Pictures Group III' to Mussorgsky's 'Pictures at an Exhibition', but they lack the originality of Mussorgsky, or of the Dynamic Triptych for that matter. 'The Song of Ram Dass' is an evocative oriental miniature, and the 'Keltic Lament' (sic) is one of Foulds' most famous melodies.
Playing and recording are first class, and this is a worthy successor to Warner Classics' first volume of Foulds, restoring a lost voice in British music to its proper place.
Like This? Try These:
Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition (Evgeny Kissin)
Griffes: Orchestral Music (Buffalo Philharmonic)
Clifford/Bainton: Epithalamion (BBC Philharmonic) --Andrew McGregor
Find more music at the BBC This link will take you off Amazon in a new window
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
23 of 23 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
I was delighted to discover the music of John Foulds, the now almost forgotten English composer, through the CBSO and Sakari Oramo's first disc of his music which was released on Warner Classics in 2004. Foulds (1880-1939)was, like Holst, fascinated by Indian music and, like his other contemporary Vaughan Williams, by modal music. Combine this with his use of whole-tone scales (a la Debussy) and quarter tones and you get an idea of what a rich musical brew he cooks up in his works. They are colourful, dramatic and full of energy. This is romantic music but with a cutting edge due to that unsual musical pallette he uses. The "Dynamic Triptych" is a piano concerto that crackles with energy. The first movement sounds a little like Prokofiev with its pounding rhythms and whirling dervish final movement. The lyrical middle movement has one of Foulds' musical thumbprints - the use of a quarter tone scale that makes the music sound like an old fashioned gramophone slowly winding down. A weird effect the first time you hear it! "The Song of Ram Dass" is a glittering orchestral miniature using exotic eastern sounds which so fascinated Foulds and which, indirectly, cost him his life: he died of cholera in India where he went to work for Indian radio. "April England" was one of the few works by Foulds that were performed in his own lifetime. It's a real dazzler: the musial equivalent of one of those speeded-up BBC nature films where a whole season is shown in just a minute: where flowers bud and burst into flower and then germinate and shed their petals as we watch. Like Dylan Thomas's "The Force that through the green fuse drives the flower" Foulds' captures the endless energy of creative nature. The whole disc is brilliantly played and the engineering captures the large warm acoustic of Birmingham's Symphony Hall. Another musical triumph - do try to listen to it. Or better still take a chance and buy it (and the first CBSO / Foulds disc) you won't be disappointed.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
I agree totally with the first reviewer. For the many who don't know his work he is an almost criminally neglected composer. The conductor Sakari Oramo remarked that when taking the CBSO post he was asked whether he would be playing any John Foulds, by a German critic - he being the most original british composer of his time. That perhaps shows how Foulds has been let down by his own country because others appreciate his gifts.
The Dynamic triptych is a major concerto and now there is a choice on disc. This recording represents the preferred version, not that Howard Shelley's version on Lyrita is at all bad. The concerto does have plenty of Prokofiev muscle combined with some Ravellian impressionism and those trademark microtones in the slow movement. There aren't many great British piano concertos but this is certainly one of them.
The real gem on this disc, however, is April-England. It does indeed seem to represent a speeded up film of growth in Spring. The chaconne like base that sets in after the introduction so effectively sets up an increasingly ecstatic syncopated march. In terms of english pastorale it is nearer to Grainger than Vaughan Williams. At under 8 minutes it packs a lot in. Why this isn't a popular classic is a complete mystery. I've played this piece over and over again. This music evokes April with the freshness of Spring combined with the increasing virility coming with the first strong hints of Summer sun.
The rest are a bit of a mixed bag, I admit. The Musical pictures are completely forgettable but Ram Dass is a short and effective evocation of India. He did indeed perish in India, unable to find work in England. Many tantalising pieces perished such as an east meets west symphony with traditional western and eastern instruments.
The Keltic Lament is classic FM stuff really; pleasant enough and it earned him some easy cash at the time but as a catchy and attractive miniature it is knocked for six by April-England; a true miniature masterpiece.
I can only agree with both reviewers about the high standard of this recording and applaud Sakari Oramo for bringing a forgotten master back to our attention. Five stars all round.
The Dynamic triptych is a major concerto and now there is a choice on disc. This recording represents the preferred version, not that Howard Shelley's version on Lyrita is at all bad. The concerto does have plenty of Prokofiev muscle combined with some Ravellian impressionism and those trademark microtones in the slow movement. There aren't many great British piano concertos but this is certainly one of them.
The real gem on this disc, however, is April-England. It does indeed seem to represent a speeded up film of growth in Spring. The chaconne like base that sets in after the introduction so effectively sets up an increasingly ecstatic syncopated march. In terms of english pastorale it is nearer to Grainger than Vaughan Williams. At under 8 minutes it packs a lot in. Why this isn't a popular classic is a complete mystery. I've played this piece over and over again. This music evokes April with the freshness of Spring combined with the increasing virility coming with the first strong hints of Summer sun.
The rest are a bit of a mixed bag, I admit. The Musical pictures are completely forgettable but Ram Dass is a short and effective evocation of India. He did indeed perish in India, unable to find work in England. Many tantalising pieces perished such as an east meets west symphony with traditional western and eastern instruments.
The Keltic Lament is classic FM stuff really; pleasant enough and it earned him some easy cash at the time but as a catchy and attractive miniature it is knocked for six by April-England; a true miniature masterpiece.
I can only agree with both reviewers about the high standard of this recording and applaud Sakari Oramo for bringing a forgotten master back to our attention. Five stars all round.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
I have to agree with the previous reviewer...this CD album of collected pieces of John Foulds' music, is really fine.
I heard the 'Keltic lament' - (part of the Keltic suite, the last track on this cd) being played on Classic fm only yesterday and I just had to hunt it down.
At first I thought the piece must have been lifted from a film soundtrack, such was its classic-yet-contemporary feel. I was very surprised to find this CD was released 3 years ago!
Foulds' 'Keltic Suite' is a beautifully affecting piece, string-laden but with a hint of melancholy. Similar to the kind of loveliness Adrian Munsey might compose. Needless to say, it's been on constant repeat on my ipod since.
Although Keltic lament rermains a favourite, the whole album is quite a surprise. 'Ram Dass' with its echoes of the orient, is beautiful, and 'England in April' is a picture of late springtime set to music. Imagine Vaughan Williams crossed with Jon Lord and you get the idea. (sort of...)
Apparently, John Faulds was a cellist who was convinced to give up playing to return to his first love of composition. Thankfully he did just that, and the musical world is richer for Foulds' contribution to it. Here's hoping Music as beautiful as the Keltic Lament, gets to be more widely heard. Foulds certainly deserves it.
I heard the 'Keltic lament' - (part of the Keltic suite, the last track on this cd) being played on Classic fm only yesterday and I just had to hunt it down.
At first I thought the piece must have been lifted from a film soundtrack, such was its classic-yet-contemporary feel. I was very surprised to find this CD was released 3 years ago!
Foulds' 'Keltic Suite' is a beautifully affecting piece, string-laden but with a hint of melancholy. Similar to the kind of loveliness Adrian Munsey might compose. Needless to say, it's been on constant repeat on my ipod since.
Although Keltic lament rermains a favourite, the whole album is quite a surprise. 'Ram Dass' with its echoes of the orient, is beautiful, and 'England in April' is a picture of late springtime set to music. Imagine Vaughan Williams crossed with Jon Lord and you get the idea. (sort of...)
Apparently, John Faulds was a cellist who was convinced to give up playing to return to his first love of composition. Thankfully he did just that, and the musical world is richer for Foulds' contribution to it. Here's hoping Music as beautiful as the Keltic Lament, gets to be more widely heard. Foulds certainly deserves it.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Listmania!
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
