Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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5.0 out of 5 stars
How obscure can you get?, 21 Jan 2009
William Crotch (b Norwich, 5 July 1775; d Taunton, 29 Dec 1847). English composer. A child prodigy, he toured Britain as an organist from 1778, also playing the piano and violin and composing. He was an organist in Cambridge, 1786-8, then studied in Oxford, becoming organist of Christ Church in 1790. In 1797 he became professor of music; his lectures on the history of music (given at Oxford in 1800-04 and later at the Royal Institution) were the first of their kind. In 1806-7 he settled in London, where his Palestine (1812) was the first successful oratorio since Handel's day. As an organist he championed Bach's music. He was active as a conductor (from the piano), and famous as a teacher.
When Crotch received his doctorate in music, he composed Ode to Fancy, which was subsequently published. From this point on, his career becomes one of solid teaching and lecturing, but with relatively few enduring compositions. The summit of his career as a much-revered educator came with the establishment of the Royal Academy of Music in 1822, at which time he was installed as its principal. He remained in this post for ten years, resigning in June 1832. His final public appearance as a performer was just two years later, on June 28, 1834.
Among Crotch's compositions are the 1810 installation Ode for Lord Grenville, the 1812 oratorio Palestine, an 1820 Ode on the Accession of George IV, a funeral anthem for the Duke of York in 1827, and The Lord Is King, an anthem for voices and orchestra written near the end of his life in 1843. There were also several other works, including ten anthems, some chants and a motet, several glees, fugues and concertos for organ, and an assortment of pieces for piano. Aside from his musical compositions, Crotch wrote several significant literary works that were mostly based upon his lectures on music at Oxford and London.
Although Crotch did not fulfil his early promise, he wrote skilfully in a wide range of styles, especially in his three oratorios and his organ concertos. His finest work, Palestine, follows the Handelian model but has many modern and original touches. He also wrote odes, anthems, psalm tunes and chants, hymn tunes, songs and piano music, as well as the influential "Specimens of Various Styles of Music" (c 1808-15) and manuals on harmony, composition and piano playing. He wrote on many scientific subjects and was a gifted painter.
The quintessentially "Regency" music on this disc is perfectly entertaining and shows the influence of Haydn along with a few touches that remind us that Beethoven had moved the symphony into new sound worlds, it remains the work of an academic rather than a gifted musician. However the decision to end with an unfinished piece does give the disc a rather unsatisfactory programme and the recorded sound is a little boxy/muddy.
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