Lesley-Jane Rogers, John Turner, Emma McGrath, Heather Bills, Harvey Davies, Tom Winpenny
Release Date: 21 April 2023
Label: Prima Facie
Packaging Type: Digipak
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 7141148054333
Genres: Classical
Description
A selection of works from the generous output of the composer Colin Hand (1929 - 2015).
After qualification he spent fifteen years as a lecturer in further education and another fifteen years (part-time) as an examiner for Trinity College of Music, London. He composed steadily throughout his career and his works, exceeding 260 opus numbers, include choral, orchestral, organ, chamber music and songs. He also composed and arranged a significant amount of music for teaching purposes. In the 1970s he carried out extensive research on the composer John Taverner (c 1490 - 1545) and Renaissance music, for which he was awarded a PhD. His subsequent book John Taverner his Life and Music was published by Eulenburg Books, London, in 1978.
After retirement from official posts, he continued as a freelance composer and lived in Sibsey, near Boston in Lincolnshire, where he had close connections with the music at St Botolph's church - the famous Boston 'stump'. In his letter to Carl Dolmetsch with which Hand enclosed the score of Concerto Cantico, he observed, "the trouble with employing eclectic composers is that the end product can assume almost any form or style ..." His considerable output exhibits a wide range of both (267 opus numbers, including arrangements) but is consistently imaginative and well-crafted. Hand's comments in connection with the Three Lieder, in which he noted his evolving compositional style, are certainly revealing. Although of necessity only a small selection of his works is presented on this CD, hopefully it will be sufficient to be reasonably representative. Some of the pieces were dedicated to and / or first performed by the musicians recorded here, and the direct link between composer and performers is significant. Andrew Mayes
Tracklisting
Xuefei Yang, Johannes Moser, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Or
Kenneth Hamilton
Michael Cretu
Laura Serra
Vladimir Miller, Neil Latchman, Keri Farish
Terence Charlston, Julian Perkins
John Turner & Neil Smith
I Solisti Di Londra & Aleksander Szram
Karina Gauvin; Quatuor Molinari; Pentaedre
Stephane Tetreault; Olivier Hebert-Bouchard
Uusinta Ensemble, Eija Kankaanranta, Maria Puusaari, Olga Heikkila, Kamus Quartet
Elizabeth Knatt, David Clements, Rachel Barnes, Scott Taylor
Klaus Haidl
Robert M. Helmschrott
Robert M. Helmschrott
Kevin Juillerat (electronics), Cedric Pecia (prepared piano)
