Percy Grainger News
Australian-born composer, arranger and pianist (1882–1961)
- saxophone, piano
- classical music
- Australia, United States of America
- pianist, composer, saxophonist, conductor, musicologist, ethnomusicologist, university teacher
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2024-03-15
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2024-02-05 07:32:00
Late romantic at Wigmore Hall: Simon Callaghan in Cyril Scott's sonata
Percy Grainger and Cyril Scott, photographed in Frankfurt-am-Main, c. 1900 by Theod Bänder (Photo from Grainger Museum, University of Melbourne)Debussy, Stravinsky, Grainger, Cyril Scott: Piano Sonata No. 1 Op. 66; Simon Callaghan; Wigmore HallReviewed 3 February 2024Viewed as ground-breaking by contemporaries, Scott's style languished in the later 20th-century but Simon Callaghan revived the piano sonata in a masterly performanceIt is often forgotten that Percy Grainger, for all his personal eccentricities, was a major pianistic talent [just try his 1925 recording of Chopin's Piano Sonata No. 3 on YouTube] and Grainger highly rated Cyril Scott's Piano Sonata No. 1. Scott is a fascinating figure, an important presence in English music during the first quarter of the 20th century, his late-romantic style gradually went out of fashion and his own eccentricities including a fondness for mysticism and the occult, did not help.Possibly for the first time since Scott premiered it there in 1909, […]
2024-01-19 10:14:00
An evening of bold & adventurous programming: wind & brass from Southbank Sinfonia & Britten Sinfonia combine under Nicholas Daniel at St John's Smith Square
Percy Grainger in the uniform of a US Army bandsman, 1917Copland, Mozart, Lindberg, Stravinsky, Alberga, Grainger; Southbank Sinfonia, Britten Sinfonia, Nicholas Daniel; St John's Smith SquareReviewed by Florence Anna Maunders, 18 January 2024An enormously successful collaboration between two leading chamber orchestrasCombining the wind, brass and percussion players from two fantastic orchestras together into one ensemble, this was an evening of bold and adventurous programming featuring the combined forces from two different exciting and engaging ensembles. At St John's Smith Square on 18 January 2024, members of Southbank Sinfonia and Britten Sinfonia combined under conductor Nicholas Daniel to present a kaleidoscopic and vibrant selection of music originally written for, or specially arranged for, wind and brass (with a sprinkle of percussion too), with music by Copland, Mozart, Magnus Lindberg, Stravinsky, Eleanor Alberga and Percy Grainger.Things began with a strikingly lyrical performance of Copland's Fanfare For The Common Man, in which the legato, open statements […]
2023-11-14 08:54:00
Engagement, exploration & discovery: London Handel Players return to Handel at Home for Total Eclipse
[…] two further printings were made during the four month run of performances. Thus everyone who was anyone would be able to hear the music in approachable versions. We hear the overture and arias 'Cara sposa' and 'Il vostro maggio' in versions for flute, violin and ensemble. But though these are chamber versions, it is important to remember that publications would often have the words added as well and there would be an element of Percy Grainger's elastic scoring here.As soon as we launch into the first notes of the overture we are in a distinct world, with the players giving us a beautifully realised chamber version and it certainly does not feel in any way cut down, and we remember how Handel's own chamber music would often relate to his larger scale works. In the arias, Rachel Brown makes a lovely protagonist, and yet again we don't think so much […]
2022-09-30 04:00:00
Lyrita Classics (Nicholas Braithwaite, Imogen Holst, Adrian Boult, Myer Fredman, Vernon Handley & Andrew Davis)
Lyrita Classics: 01 Michael Balfe: Galop from 'The Bohemian Girl' [1'26]02 Edward Elgar: Variations on an Original Theme, op.36 'Enigma' - Variation 10. Intermezzo: Dorabella [2'41]03 Edward Elgar: Pomp and Circumstance March No. 5 in C major, op.39 no.5 [5'41]04 Frederick Delius: The Walk to the Paradise Garden from 'A Village Romeo and Juliet' [10'49]05 Percy Grainger: Shepherd's Hey [2'11]06 Percy Grainger: The Immovable Do 'The Ciphering C' [5'04]07 Hamilton Harty: An Irish Symphony - II. The Fair Day [3'01]08 - 13 Peter Warlock: Capriol Suite [9'47]14 Lord Berners (Gerald Hugh Tyrwhitt-Wilson): The Triumph of Neptune - Hornpipe [1'50]15 - 18 Gustav Holst: St. Paul's Suite, op.29 no.2 [13'28]19 Ralph Vaughan Williams: Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis [16'08]Philharmonia Orchestra [01], London Philharmonic Orchestra [05, 06&14], London Symphony Orchestra [08-13] conducted by Nicholas Braithwaite; New Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Andrew Davis [02&03] and Vernon Handley [07]; London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted […]
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