Philharmonia Orchestra, English Northern Philharmonia, Paul Daniel & Howard Blake - Howard Blake: Orchestral Works (2023)

SOMM Recordings is delighted to announce the label debut of the acclaimed British composer Howard Blake with a disc of his orchestral music to mark his 85th birthday.

Blake himself is heard at the piano and conducting the Philharmonia Orchestra, with Paul Daniel also conducting the English Northern Philharmonia.

Internationally recognised as the composer of The Snowman’s ‘Walking on Air’, Blake’s prolific and wide-ranging achievements extend into symphonies, concertos, oratorios and music for solo piano to embrace the concert hall, dance stage and cinema screen.

This focus on his orchestral music which includes four first recordings begins with his single-movement Symphony No. 1 in its 1990 revision, a richly variegated work of vivid images and, as the title has it, Impressions of a City. A work of dazzling, multi-faceted dimensions and execution, it is, writes Robert Matthew-Walker in his authoritative booklet notes, an “organic, truly symphonic, composition from a genuine creative flag.”

Concert Dances, for piano and orchestra, from 1992 and featuring Blake conducting from the keyboard, comprises nine relatively short dance
movements in various styles to vivacious effect.

Alluding to Eleanor of Aquitaine, 1979’s The Court of Love is a ravishing concert suite of three movements drawn from Blake’s ballet score for choreographer Lynn Seymour marking Queen Elizabeth II’s Silver Jubilee two years previously.

The suite taken from his soundtrack to the 1987 film A Month in the Country shows Blake at his most exquisite and expressive in a score, says Matthew-Walker, that “surely belongs in any collection of 20th-century English music for string orchestra”.

Tracklist
01. Symphony No. 1, Op 42 "Impressions of a City"
02. Concert Dances, Op. 432: I. Parade
03. Concert Dances, Op. 432: II. Slow Ragtime
04. Concert Dances, Op. 432: III. Jump
05. Concert Dances, Op. 432: IV. Medium Rock
06. Concert Dances, Op. 432: V. Folk Ballad
07. Concert Dances, Op. 432: VI. Boogie
08. Concert Dances, Op. 432: VII. Slow Waltz
09. Concert Dances, Op. 432: VIII. Cha-Cha
10. Concert Dances, Op. 432: IX. Galop
11. The Court of Love Suite, Op. 286: I. Theme & Variations "The Enchantress"
12. The Court of Love Suite, Op. 286: II. Scherzo "The Maiden and the Troubador"
13. The Court of Love Suite, Op. 286: III. Theme - Finale "The Queen"
14. A Month in the Country, Op. 446: I. Larghetto
15. A Month in the Country, Op. 446: II. Alla marcia
16. A Month in the Country, Op. 446: III. Adagio
17. A Month in the Country, Op. 446: IV. Scherzando
18. A Month in the Country, Op. 446: V. Andante espressivo