Rob Barnett, b. 1953, Birmingham,
UK. Solicitor in UK local government. Brought
up in Torquay, Devon. After eight years in
Plymouth (1978-1986) moved to Western Isles,
Scotland (1986-1998). Now lives with his wife
Chris in the North-West of England. Works
for local authority there. Two grown-up children
both away from home now; one living in Brighton;
the other in Widnes. One dog.
Rob does not come from a
musical family, has no technical musical training
and cannot play an instrument. Such knowledge
as he has comes from a questing attitude and
many formative years of fanatically exchanging
cassettes with friends in the USA, Scandinavia
and the UK, from reading Records and Recordings
(long defunct), Gramophone (now a very different
voice from its glory days in the 1960s and
1970s) and Fanfare (still going strong and
still well worth reading) and listening to
BBC Radio 3. His disorganised collection of
LPs and CDs continues to be a source of pleasure,
frustration, stimulation and knowledge. Editing
all the classical CD and DVD reviews for MusicWeb
International makes substantial inroads into
his own reviewing and listening time. This
also provides further opportunities to learn
from, agree and disagree with the site's reviewers
whose reviews come in to his mailbox every
day. Laments the passing of Robert Simpson's
1970s and 1980s radio series ‘The Innocent
Ear’ when Simpson would play recordings of
pieces and only identify them after the music
had ended. Recalls the pleasure of discovering
Rubbra Symphony 1 and the symphonies of contemporaries
of Beethoven in this way.
Has spent far too little
time attending real concerts - perhaps a feature
of living in the South-West and then in the
far North-West of Scotland. With the profusion
of fine unusual repertoire covered here in
the North-West of England often by highly
skilled community orchestras and by the BBCPO
and RLPO he has attended more concerts since
1998 than in all the previous two decades.
Memorable among these are the Stockport Symphony
Orchestra's Malcolm Arnold Symphony 5 (extremely
moving); RLPO/Pešek's Asrael in Symphony Hall,
Mark Elder's Bax Spring Fire at the RAH, Finzi's
Clarinet Concerto at Buxton and then Stockport
with the redoubtable Geoffrey Smith, Moeran's
Symphony with the Sheffield Symphony Orchestra
and John Longstaff – a conductor who should
be on the international stage - and Bax Symphonies
1 and 6 (Handley/BBCPO, Manchester).
Rob
came to classical music not via Beethoven,
Brahms and Bach. Introduced during his technical
college years in 1969-71 via a friend's record
collection of Janáček, Stravinsky, Sibelius,
Tchaikovsky, Martinů, Bax and Vaughan
Williams. Key works from that era included:
Janáček Sinfonietta and Glagolytic Mass;
Stravinsky The Rite and Firebird; Sibelius
Tapiola, Symphony No. 5, Martinů Symphony
No. 4; Bax Symphony No. 5; RVW Tallis Fantasia
and Symphonies 5 and 6, Brahms Symphony 3
and Piano Concerto 2, Rachmaninov Symphonic
Dances (Kondrashin, of course), Tchaikovsky
Symphony 4, Manfred and Francesca da Rimini.
Believes that people with the spark of interest
in or curiosity about classical music should
not be afraid of going direct to the more
unusual repertoire rather than feeling they
must start with Bach, Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven.
The site should play its part in making recommendations
both of performances and repertoire. Unusual
linkages between works can often lead to welcome
discoveries.
Rob has been a member of
British Music Society (BMS) since 1981 shortly
after the Society was founded. He agreed to
become editor of the quarterly BMS newsletter
in 1995 after a one year stint as editor of
the annual BMS journal. The newsletter has
grown since 1995 from 24 to 32+ pages and
often features challenging and informative
articles alongside reviews, concert notices
and news about the Society and British music
generally.
He has been an enthusiast
for fine neglected music since the early 1970s.
Special interests: 20th century orchestral
romantics: USA, Scandinavia (just listen to
the magically poised opening bars of Madetoja's
Symphony No. 3), Europe and Australasia, USSR/Russia,
British.
Rates the wildly imaginative
music of Arnold Bax very highly on an international
stage. Bax's best works (Piano Quintet, Symphony
No. 6, November Woods, Winter Legends) have
a desperate beauty and crushing emotional
impact paralleled by that of very few composers
of any era.
Granville Bantock is also
a special interest (among many others). Bantock's
Omar Khayyam (soli, chorus, orchestra) is
a magnificent tapestry of music and philosophy.
Bantock's similarly-specified Song of Songs
is also likely to yield great rewards. Both
Bantock's red-blooded fantasy and lyrical
style leaves the staid, lachrymose and somewhat
mournful glories of Gerontius in the gloomiest
of shades. There is a 1979 BBC tape of the
complete Omar conducted by Norman Del Mar
and more recently Chandos have issued the
work almost complete.
Cannot understand why BBC
Radio 3 ignores (or largely ignores) so much
fine orchestral music (Hovhaness, Braga Santos,
Pettersson, Nystroem, Schuman, Marx, Goossens)
but nevertheless cherishes the service. The
BBC Proms programme remains a history of missed
opportunities: when for example will we get
Havergal Brian's Gothic Symphony, a Roy Harris
Symphony other than No. 3 or Franz Schmidt's
Second Symphony instead of the standard fare?
Other musical pleasures include
the operas and musicals of Stephen Sondheim
(outstanding among these are Sweeney Todd,
Into the Woods and Passion), the film music
of Herrmann, Waxman, Friedhofer and Korngold,
the music of Capercaillie, Granuaile by Shaun
Davey, The Chieftains (do try to hear their
Mná na h Éireann - The Women
of Ireland) and the modern popular Celtic
revivals in the Gaelic periphery. One of these
days he hopes to see issued a recording of
Eddie McGuire's magical arrangements for soprano
and orchestra of five Gaelic folk-songs. Already
enthralled by Canteloube's Songs of the Auvergne?
- then the McGuire is a delight in waiting
and (thank God!) not a hint of tartan, kilts
or shortcake about it.
Enjoys attempting reviews
of CDs ignored or treated with scant attention
by the major review magazines. Still learning.
Still wanting to learn.
Particularly welcomes reviews
written in a style accessible to the beginner
yet with enough insight and comparative knowledge
to inform, entertain and encourage the practised
hand.
Rob recommends the following
pieces of music and would be happy to make
and receive other recommendations if you contact
him:-
Marx: Castelli Romana (piano
and orchestra) and the extravagantly luxuriant
HerbstSymphonie – the latter awaiting its
first recording
Karol Szymanowski's Harnasie
(full version) - best heard in the version
by Rowicki
Joseph Holbrooke's tone poem
Ulalume, Violin Concerto and the other Poe-based
tone poems of the 1930s. Rob has spent years
researching this composer.
Rutland Boughton's Hardy
opera The Queen of Cornwall - The Immortal
Hour is low-key by comparison - this is a
blazing masterpiece and might be seen as the
an example of Boughton as the British-Celtic
Puccini.
Othmar Schoeck's Violin Concerto
and the superbly moonlit Sommernacht for strings.
I do wish that Jecklin would issue their 12
CD set of his songs in a single box and the
Christopher Walton would have his biography
of Schoeck translated and published in English.
Josef Suk's Asrael Symphony
and War Triptych (Talich for Asrael and Klima
for the ‘War Triptych’ on Supraphon)
Arthur Benjamin's Symphony
(probably best heard in the now-issued Lyrita
version) and the Romantic Fantasy for violin,
viola and orchestra – if only someone would
get permission to issue the PBS broadcast
Philadelphia version of the Fantasy with the
Pasquale brothers as soloists! Truly awesome!
Janis Ivanovs Violin Concerto
(Campion CD)
Karlowicz Violin Concerto
(various versions)
Prokofiev Violin Concerto
No. 1 (Szigeti/Beecham)
Sibelius Symphony No. 7 (Mravinsky)
Prokofiev Symphony No. 7,
Romeo and Juliet
Uuno Klami: Psalmus (Finlandia)
Janáček
Sinfonietta (Serebrier - Reference Recordings)
Joly Braga Santos Symphony
No. 4 (Portusom and Marco Polo CDs); the first
three symphonies are pretty good too.
Edgar Bainton's Third Symphony
- a glimmeringly visionary work once recorded
by the Australian BROLGA label and now issued
in a new recording by Dutton
Allan Pettersson Symphony
No. 7 (Dorati) and Symphony No. 9.
Leevi Madetoja Symphony No.
3 (Warner Apex - the best version - conducted
by Paavo Rautio)
Valentin Silvestrov Symphony
No 5 (BMG Melodiya)
Miaskovsky Symphonies (all
of them really but start with 5 then move
on to 24 and 25 and 21), and Violin Concerto
Kurt Atterburg: Three Interludes
from Fanal; Symphony 3, Concertos for cello,
violin and piano
Gosta Nystroem Sinfonia del
Mare (Swedish Society Discofil) and the opera
Herr Arnes Penningar
Roy Harris Symphony 7 (Ormandy
version on Albany)
William Schuman Symphony
No. 3 (CBS Bernstein) and Violin Concerto
(Zukofsky DG)
Eugene Goossens Symphonies
1 and 2 (ABC Classics) – we also need recordings
of the fascinating but lower key Phantasy
Concertos – one each for piano and for violin
Louis Glass Symphony No.
5 - you must hear this! (not the Marco Polo
version) – a wonderful Danish Radio broadcast
conducted by Schønwandt won me around.
The Danacord version is better but still without
the inner light projected by Schønwandt.
Constant Lambert’s Music
for Orchestra - now available on Dutton with
the composer and on Lyrita with Norman Del
Mar. You need to look past the pasty-faced
title to compactly expressed music that has
a glorious symphonic-romantic tread.
Maurice Jacobson's The Hound
of Heaven, for tenor, chorus and orchestra
- one of the masterpieces of the British musical
renaissance yet still unrecorded and very
rarely performed
Robert Nathaniel Dett's 1930s
oratorio The Ordering of Moses - this I have
heard
Maurice Johnstone's Dover
Beach and the superb orchestral rhapsody Tarn
Howes.
And - Eric Fogg's gorgeous
Sea-Sheen (on Dutton).
Rob Barnett
May 2008
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