Richard Rodney Bennett: Jazz Calendar / Symphony 1 / Aubade ..... John McCabe: Symphony 3

Jazz Calendar  (1964)   London Jazz Ensemble - John Lanchbery. Philips 6500 301. 1971 matrix: 1Y -1  http://www.mediafire.com/?c5engrcyqb38cc8

Aubade for Orchestra  (1964)    Philharmonia Orchestra - David Atherton.  Argo ZRG 907.  1979 Decca matrix: ZRG 4896 -1Y       http://www.megaupload.com/?d=CTRRRLK9

Symphony no.1  (1965)   Royal Philharmonic Orchestra - Igor Buketoff.   RCA SB-6730.   1967 Decca matrix: T2PY 9348 -1K         http://www.megaupload.com/?d=OIVD3ZH9

John McCabe:  Symphony no.3  "Hommages"  (1978)   BBC Concert Orchestra - Barry Wordsworth             http://www.megaupload.com/?d=F3SMO452
BBC Radio 3 DAB  (192 kbps).  Broadcast 3 October 2005.   Live recording: 27 September 2005 - Watford Colosseum.   (Sony ST SDB900 tuner  -optical > MiniDisc)
The Philips / Argo couplings are issued on LYRITA / NMC CD's.   McCabe's Symphony no.3  has not been commercially recorded.
'Aubade'  (15 Aug 1978 - Kingsway Hall). Symphony (1st. pressing) recorded by Bob Auger/ PYE.  STEREO FLAC  files   Philips / RCA Sleeve-note scans + 'Aubade' sleeve-note >>>
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 Aubade for orchestra

This short orchestral work was commissioned by the BBC for performance at the 1964 Henry Wood Promenade Concerts; it is dedicated to the memory of John Hollingsworth - a conductor who was a familiar figure to Prom audiences until his untimely death shortly before, and who had conducted many of Bennett's early film scores.

 Aubade (Morning Song) is prefaced by the following quotation from John Donne: ". . . And all the powerfull Kings, and all the beautifull Queens of this world were but as a bed of flowers, some gathered at six, some at seven, some at eight, all in one Morning, in respect of this Day". The piece is cast as a single slow movement in which the form of each of the outer sections reflects the A-B-A form of the work as a whole. The opening statement on horns and woodwind of a slow to unfold and mostly tranquil melody soon develops a more passionate curve. It then rises to a quickly reached climax on woodwind and strings, pulsed by a repeated-note figure on the brass, before gradually subsiding back to the gentler mood of the opening bars with the scoring now reversed between wind and strings. In the central section, the ascending horn phrase with which the piece began is transformed into a shimmer of woodwind arabesques, while the strings explore a new and more dance-like theme evidently associated with the repeated-note brass figure heard earlier. The dance episode is then restated a tone higher, this time with the woodwind arabesques failing instead of rising, in preparation for the altered return of the opening section of the piece. This return overlaps with the continuing arabesques, which now alternate descending and ascending versions of the initial melodic shapes. Thereafter, as the arabesques die away, the music resumes its original course, ending the piece as at the close of the first section, with the addition of a more prolonged and hushed cadence.

SUSAN BRADSHAW