John Foulds' Piano Concerto

[Rach3]

From A BBC review of pianist Peter Donohoe's 2006 Warner Classics cd of the concerto :


"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."

Hannes Minnaar,a young Dutch pianist I follow, here live Sept.22,2018 at the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, with the Netherlands Radio Phil under Wayne Marshall. Sound on my ISP is a bit murky which is a pity for such a richly textured work, but ticket price good (!).Kudos to Minnaar for taking on this attractive work, my first hearing:

https://www.nporadio4.nl/concerten/8301 ... ohn-foulds

[absinthe]

Lyrita in the UK issues a fair bit of his music. I think the concerto is included in their set of "British Piano Concertos". I keep up with this label. Richard Itter the recordist and publisher was passionate about quality and Lyrita LPs were pressed by Decca using half-speed mastering.

[Rach3]

Thank you, absinthe,for the info.

[THEHORN]

Several years ago, Chandos released the world premiere recording of the "World Requiem" by Foulds, a large scale work written to commemorate the terrible effects of the first world war . It does not use the traditional text of the Latin Requiem used by so many other great composers , but the English text paraphrases parts of it .
It's an interesting work, well worth hearing , and the conductor is Leon Botstein with the BBC symphony and extended choral forces and soloists .

[Lance]

I have some recordings by Foulds, including the Lyrita set [2345] of British piano concertos. Hyperion issued a CD, "British Light Music 4" [67400], and Warner a couple of CDs [61525 and 62999], the first of which contains a Concerto for Voice and Orchestra. The other features Peter Donohoe at the piano in Foulds' Dynamic Triptych with a number of other works thereon. Thank you for reminding me of this composer!