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 its 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 figure”. 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”.

Trackslist
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
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