Howard Blake – Howard Blake: Orchestral Works (2023) [FLAC 24bit/44,1kHz]

Howard Blake – Howard Blake: Orchestral Works (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:01:28 minutes | 589 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © SOMM Recordings

SOMM Recordings is delighted to announce the label debut of the acclaimed British composer Howard Blake with a disc of his orchestral music to mark his 85th birthday.

Blake himself is heard at the piano and conducting the Philharmonia Orchestra, with Paul Daniel also conducting the English Northern Philharmonia.

Internationally recognised as the composer of The Snowman’s ‘Walking on Air’, Blake’s prolific and wide-ranging achievements extend into symphonies, concertos, oratorios and music for solo piano to embrace the concert hall, dance stage and cinema screen.

This focus on his orchestral music which includes four first recordings begins with his single-movement Symphony No. 1 in its 1990 revision, a richly variegated work of vivid images and, as the title has it, Impressions of a City. A work of dazzling, multi-faceted dimensions and execution, it is, writes Robert Matthew-Walker in his authoritative booklet notes, an “organic, truly symphonic, composition from a genuine creative flag.”

Concert Dances, for piano and orchestra, from 1992 and featuring Blake conducting from the keyboard, comprises nine relatively short dance
movements in various styles to vivacious effect.

Alluding to Eleanor of Aquitaine, 1979’s The Court of Love is a ravishing concert suite of three movements drawn from Blake’s ballet score for choreographer Lynn Seymour marking Queen Elizabeth II’s Silver Jubilee two years previously.

The suite taken from his soundtrack to the 1987 film A Month in the Country shows Blake at his most exquisite and expressive in a score, says Matthew-Walker, that “surely belongs in any collection of 20th-century English music for string orchestra”.

Tracklist:

01. Philharmonia Orchestra – Symphony No. 1, Op 42 “Impressions of a City” (14:33)
02. Philharmonia Orchestra – Concert Dances, Op. 432: I. Parade (00:54)
03. Philharmonia Orchestra – Concert Dances, Op. 432: II. Slow Ragtime (01:39)
04. Philharmonia Orchestra – Concert Dances, Op. 432: III. Jump (00:53)
05. Philharmonia Orchestra – Concert Dances, Op. 432: IV. Medium Rock (01:48)
06. Philharmonia Orchestra – Concert Dances, Op. 432: V. Folk Ballad (02:24)
07. Philharmonia Orchestra – Concert Dances, Op. 432: VI. Boogie (01:00)
08. Philharmonia Orchestra – Concert Dances, Op. 432: VII. Slow Waltz (02:34)
09. Philharmonia Orchestra – Concert Dances, Op. 432: VIII. Cha-Cha (01:54)
10. Philharmonia Orchestra – Concert Dances, Op. 432: IX. Galop (00:53)
11. Philharmonia Orchestra – The Court of Love Suite, Op. 286: I. Theme & Variations “The Enchantress” (06:16)
12. Philharmonia Orchestra – The Court of Love Suite, Op. 286: II. Scherzo “The Maiden and the Troubador” (07:07)
13. Philharmonia Orchestra – The Court of Love Suite, Op. 286: III. Theme – Finale “The Queen” (06:21)
14. English Northern Philharmonia – A Month in the Country, Op. 446: I. Larghetto (03:04)
15. English Northern Philharmonia – A Month in the Country, Op. 446: II. Alla marcia (01:21)
16. English Northern Philharmonia – A Month in the Country, Op. 446: III. Adagio (03:55)
17. English Northern Philharmonia – A Month in the Country, Op. 446: IV. Scherzando (01:35)
18. English Northern Philharmonia – A Month in the Country, Op. 446: V. Andante espressivo (03:11)

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