S2.E85 Edwin York Bowen ‘Tom Bowling Fantasy Overture’, Henry Wood, Haydn 2nd Cello Concerto in full.

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Transcript

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Welcome back to Perfect Pitch with Nick Healy Hutchinson and his fresh approach to the world of classical music. Whether you're an expert or a beginner, old or young, Perfect Pitch has something for everyone.

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The Entente Cordiale between England and France was formally signed in 1904. But a little gesture was made in the previous year by the French composer Camille Sanson, who declared the English composer Edwin York Bone, what a fabulous name, as the finest of English composers. Henry Wood, the founder of the Promenade Concerts in the UK in 1895, also expresses surprise at York Bone's neglect. Despite his conducting instrumental and compositional talent, enjoying decent notoriety during his life between 1884 and 1961. Such is the fickleness of trends in classical music. And unless you've got something more than a concise version of Grove's dictionary music, it's unlikely you will find his name in any reference book. The truth is, there was far too much experimentation going on in the early 20th century already, for his overwhelmingly romantic style to cut through and endure maybe the powers of the bee, whoever those anonymous powers of the bee may be, which I suppose just comes down to audiences in the end, decided the English canon was already served sufficiently well by the likes of Helius, Butterworth, Walton, Holder, and Vaughn Williams, who named us a handful of the famous ones. But almost every last night of the prompt has included Henry Wood's Fantasia on British Eastern Songs. And amongst the nine excerpts is one titled Tom Bowling, performed on a solo cello whose theme has its roots in Yorkbones' fantasy overture of Tom Bowling. So, in a very indirect way, I suppose a legacy of some sort remains. Although, of course, he doesn't get the credit Henry Wood does. Maybe I'll turn attention to his music in a future podcast, because as well as four piano concerters, he also wrote a concerto with a much maligned viola. For the moment, here is your bone's fantasy overture Tom Boning, played by the BBC National Orchestra conducted by Roman Gamba. And yes, we'll listen to Henry Wood's use of its principal theme immediately afterwards. In recent years, the camera would always drift towards some melodramatic promenade, blubbing uncontrollably into a handkerchief. And that's now stopped. With the camera rightly being focused on the chest. Unfortunately, this year's rendition was replaced by a loud wailing sound by one individual, and only stopped when nobody else joined in. I know that makes me feel the time so rightly sentenced. Rather than just one movement. So that's enough talking for me. Except to say that it's played here by Stephen Isless, accompanied by the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra and conducted by Richard Eagle, I'm not sure.

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