Bull, J: The King's Hunt

This BARBIROLLI ENGLISH MUSIC ALBUM contains something of a scoop in that the recording of Elgar’s Enigma Variations was made on 12 May 1947, the first time Barbirolli recorded the work. For some undiscoverable reason, the discs were never issued and the work was re-recorded on 23 October of the same year (also issued on CD by the Barbirolli Society on SJB1017). His affection for this inexhaustible masterpiece shone through every performance of it he gave as he gloried in the piquancy of the illustration of Elgar’s “friends pictured within” — and he liked to remind Michael Kennedy that the Variations and JB were born in the same year, 1899. Elgar’s genius was to weld his series of vignettes into a large-scale composite portrait — of himself. This gift for writing a miniature which was a microcosm of a big work is illustrated also in the second (the exquisite Lullaby) of the Three Bavarian Dances, a previously unpublished take, recorded on 30 May 1947.

Rediscovered gems recorded by the “First Lady of the Harpsichord”.

Keyboard music of the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries from Spain and Portugal (Cabezon, Carvalho, Seixas, Soler) and England (Byrd, Bull, Croft, Morley, Dowland, Farnaby, Munday, Peerson, Richardson, Purcell) Recorded in Prague at the Domovina studio, April 1966 (CD1) and at the Rudolfinum, October 1983 (CD2) To celebrate the 85th birthday of the “First Lady of the Harpsichord”, Supraphon is once more returning toZuzana Růžičková’s extensive discography.

Hot on the heels of the previous release (SU 4117-2), dedicated to Bach, Scarlatti and 20th-century works, this CD is focused on the very beginnings of the history of the harpsichord and the music intended for this instrument. The period spanning the 16th-18th centuries delimitates (disregarding modern music) the entire epoch of the harpsichord’s pre-eminence. Juxtaposing the harpsichord repertoire from the Iberian Peninsula with that hailing from the British Isles gives rise to interesting comparisons. Spain and England had bitter long-term political tensions, yet when it comes to the beginnings of music for keyboards we can find strong similarities between the two countries, including the influence of the powerful organ and lute traditions. Zuzana Růžičková’s supreme musicality makes these recordings more than a document; her accounts allow this precious music to dazzle in fine shades of colour and light. These sublime recordings are being released on CD for the very first time.

The first volume of the Complete Edition of the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book.

This remarkable collection of works for the virginal, or small harpsichord, is found in the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge. It is the largest collection of Elizabethan and Jacobean keyboard music, all handwritten and totalling nearly 300 compositions, and all of which predate the first keyboard music published in England by about 50 years. The identity of the copyist of these works is uncertain, although a fascinating riddle.

The manuscript is a role call of the leading composers of the era - John Bull, Giles Farnaby, William Byrd, Peter Philips, Orlando Gibbons, Thomas Tomkins and a number of unknown composers all feature. The copyist was, therefore, immersed in the world of keyboard music, with connections to the great composers of the day. Research seems to point to one Francis Tregian from Cornwall, who may have copied the music whilst in Fleet prison from 1608 until his death in 1619. He certainly had time on his hands, but how he obtained the materials and original music is far from clear. His connection to Cornwall is important - William Cornyshe (whose surname probably indicated his birthplace) was a significant composer during the reign of Henry VII and Henry VIII, while Farnaby and Tomkins also came from Cornwall.

Tregian’s remarkable work – which extends to four volumes and 2000 pieces – ensured the survival of music by many of the most important composers of this era.

This CD, the first in a series, includes a number of rare but intriguing keyboard works, performed by harpsichordist Pieter-Jan Belder.

This collection features some of the greatest composers ever to record, along with disciples playing pieces by their masters.

The disciples fall largely into two main ‘schools’: the Chopin/Schumann axis and the Liszt/Leschetizky group, offering piquant contrast in the piano styles that survived in the playing of Artur Rubinstein and Vladimir Horowitz, respectively.

The recordings were selected for performance quality as well as historical and sonic considerations.

Audio conservation: Ward Marston

A newly discovered manuscript revealed to be the music of Antoine Selosse is given its premiere recording on disc by keyboard virtuoso, Terence Charlston.

This exciting and historically important new CD, entitled ‘La Chasse Royale’ presents a newly discovered manuscript of music by Antoine Selosse.

Although it seems possible that Antoine Selosse (the Jesuit musician Antonio Mason alias Selosse, 1621-87, who was active at the English Jesuit College of Saint Omer in the 1680s) is the ‘Selos’ to whom the contents of the manuscript were attributed in the first flyleaf inscription, various factors mitigate against his authorship of the whole collection. The repertoire chosen for inclusion in Selosse’s remarkable book covers a broad spectrum of the genres popular in seventeenth century Europe and reveals a wide range of national influences and styles. It consists of mainly dance pieces (often with variations of their own) and these are grouped by key. Few pieces have a specific title and no composers are named but the authorship of only one piece can be stated with confidence: Bull’s popular The King’s Hunt 3 and the suites in G major (13-14) and D major (16-19) are strikingly similar, on stylistic grounds, to works by John Roberts.

No conductor can aspire to greatness unless the works of Beethoven are firmly in his repertory. Sir John Barbirolli may be best known as an interpreter of Elgar, Sibelius, Mahler, Brahms, Vaughan Williams and others, but the symphonies and concertos of Beethoven were never absent from his Hallé programmes and he brought a keen temperamental interpretative skill to their performance. Although he declared that if he could choose the last music he was destined to conduct it would be Elgar’s Second Symphony, fate decreed that the last symphony he conducted in public, at King’s Lynn in July 1970, was Beethoven’s Seventh. No elegiac coda, then, but a joyous, frenetic outburst of rhythmical fervour. Strangely, it was also the last work conducted by the man who gave J.B. his first professional job in an orchestra, Sir Henry Wood. Although Sir John rejected the 1948 offer of the conductorship of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, he remained one of its guest conductors whenever engagements allowed. He took it to Eastern Europe and Russia in 1967. Two years earlier he had conducted it in a performance of the Eroica Symphony which excited the players enormously and led to a recording in May 1967. If this lacks the extra frisson of the ‘live’ performance, it is still a remarkable performance. Barbirolli’s An Elizabethan Suite was the result of the time he spent, happily, in Vancouver in 1942. His friend, the composer Arthur Benjamin, drew his attention to certain examples from the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book, a remarkable collection of 297 early 17th century English keyboard compositions preserved in the Fitzwilliam Library of Cambridge University. Some would say that today’s passion for ‘authenticity’ and period instruments renders arrangements such as these redundant. But the tasteful scoring and musical sensitivity, comparable with Sir Hamilton Harty’s and Elgar’s Handel transcriptions, surely guarantees them a sympathetic hearing from all but the bigoted purists. Sir John recorded the suite with the BBC Symphony Orchestra also in May 1967.