British Orchestral Music

British Orchestral Music
A Discography Of CDs And LPs
Prepared by Michael Herman

National Discographies Home Page

Last Updated: August 2020

Introduction

The companions to the discography at hand were initially compiled in 2007 and had the titles British and Commonwealth Symphonies (from the 19^th Century to the Present) and British and Commonwealth Concertos (from the 19^th Century to the Present). The current work was originally meant to fill in what its two predecessors had omitted namely the remaining orchestral music that did not fit in those two main categories. However, as often happens in the writing of a book, initial plans become altered so this discography did not end up paralleling the other two in several important respects. First of all, as it became quite apparent that the material that needed to be documented was far more voluminous than originally thought, it was necessary to change the parameters for inclusion. Thus in this work the composers were limited to those born between the years 1800 and 1910 in most cases in the British Isles with the exceptions of several born in Australia (Kelly, Grainger and Benjamin) who became part of British musical life.

As the title implies the contents of this discography consists of recordings of British orchestral music that have appeared on LPs and CDs. The definition of “orchestral music” used herein is quite broad and includes works written for the concert hall as well as for the theater such as overtures and other orchestral excerpts from operas, ballets and ballet suites, incidental music and film scores. Music written for band is included selectively and is confined to a number of composers whose works for military and/or brass band are important works in those composers catalogues and constitute almost a standard repertoire in their particular medium. A similar selectivity has been used for the inclusion of composers of “light” classical music as those selected are as representative of British orchestral music as any of their more “serious” counterparts.

As in the previous discographies in this series, no attempt has been made to list every release of every recording of each work. There have just been too many reissues, especially from the major labels, to make this feasible for many recordings. Instead what is listed is the most recent release and the earliest release (if any on LP or CD) of that particular recording. In general, multidisc compendium releases are omitted unless they contain the sole modern release of a performance. Due to the material covered, the emphasis is usually on British releases except when there has been no traceable U.K. release or if a recording was initially released many years earlier only in the U.S. Finally, most incomplete recordings of a work have been omitted such as only one Variation from Elgar’s “Enigma Variations” or one of his “Pomp and Circumstance” Marches or one planet from Holst’s “The Planets.” However, exceptions are made when an excerpt has taken on a life of its own and the complete work is rarely or never recorded such as the Minuet from Elgar’s “Beau Brummel” incidental music.

Music has been written for orchestral groups in Britain for several centuries. However, this work concentrates on the music written for the so-called “modern orchestra” that took shape in the nineteenth century. Starting in the previous century as musicians from the Continent imported a new symphonic tradition and the instrumental practices that accompanied it, orchestral concerts began to blossom in the British Isles and native composers began to supply works for these events. In addition, the establishment of conservatories such as the Royal Academy of Music would assure a steady supply of new composers and performers to greatly strengthen and expand this development.

For the greater part of the nineteenth century, the orchestral works of British composers were essentially derivative of German models with Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Schumann and Brahms being the most obvious paradigms. National references began to appear in the titles of a number of works in the latter part of the century such as Sullivan’s “Irish” Symphony, Parry’s “Cambridge” and “English” Symphonies, Stanford’s “Irish” Symphony and Mackenzie’s “Scottish” Piano Concerto but the works were stylistically not very different from their Continental counterparts. However these very composers ushered in the “English Musical Renaissance” and their students and successors, strongly influenced by the folk song movement, studies of the music of the Tudor Age, Russian romanticism as well as an infusion of impressionism from across the English Channel would produce orchestral music in the early years of the twentieth century that would have an unmistakeable British accent.

Please note that all recordings listed are CDs unless specifically designated as LPs (and in a few very rare instances EPs).

Acknowledgements
I have received a lot of help in preparing this discography. First of all, Rob Barnett of MusicWeb International has been a constant source and conduit of information as well as helping eliminate a lot of errors by proofreading the entire work. I am very grateful to him as well as to Len Mullenger who has kindly hosted and prepared my Discographies for the MusicWeb International website and has always been amenable to my frequent updates of the material. I was also very lucky to come into contact with John Knowles whose expertise on the recordings of Sir Edward Elgar has greatly enhanced my section on that composer. Finally, the following people have given me some important information that I could not find on my own and I just want to express my sincere gratitude: Chris Bennett of The Elgar Birthplace Museum, Paul Brooks of the Barbirolli Society, Sue Creasey of Pavilion Records Ltd., John France, Gilles Gouset, Rod Hamilton at The British Library Sound Archives, David Russell Hulme, Lyndon Jenkins, Stephen Lloyd, Walter Simmons and Douglas Smith.

Composer List