Cyril Scott - Orchestral Works Vol. 3 (Martyn Brabbins)

Information

Composer: Cyril Scott

• Festival Overture
• Violin Concerto
• Aubade, Op. 77
• Three Symphonic Dances, Op. 22

Olivier Charlier, violin

Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus

BBC Philharmonic Orchestra

Martyn Brabbins, conductor

Date: 2007

Label: Chandos

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Review

More Cyril Scott from Chandos (see 6/04; 7/06), following Lyrita reissues as well (5/07) – and I understand the revival on CD isn’t stopping here. Scott’s Violin Concerto (c1925) inhabits some of the same territory as the Delius a decade earlier. Delius wrote his concerto for Albert Sammons: Scott sent Sammons an inscribed copy but he didn’t play it – May Harrison did. Both composers employ a rhapsodic continuity based on melodic arabesque coloured by luscious chords. Not many violin concertos open with a bassoon solo; then the soloist creeps in and there’s a lot of slow music. For all his apparent waywardness, Delius was better at melodic relevance. But Scott sprawls languorously in his seductive orchestral textures.

The purely orchestral works stem initially from the first few years of the 20th century, when Scott’s reputation was growing, but they reveal insecurities in their various revisions. The Festival Overture started as an overture to a play by Maeterlinck – Lewis Foreman (again providing informative notes) finds the work still saturated by symbolism – but then Scott added a chorus and organ and it ended up as Festival Overture. The Three Symphonic Dances started life as a second symphony given at the Proms in 1903; then it was dismembered and performed piecemeal at various stages including a two-piano arrangement by Grainger. Finally it became this brilliant orchestral triptych where the ecstatic Straussian sostenuto of the second dance is effortlessly sustained throughout. Scott’s command of the orchestra still sounds astonishing – no wonder film composers such as Bernard Herrmann admired him decades later. These are again fine performances and recordings.

— Peter Dickinson

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Cyril Scott (27 September 1879 – 31 December 1970) was an English composer and writer born in Oxton. He studied at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt under Iwan Knorr. Scott produced around 400 musical works, including concertos, symphonies, operas and piano compositions. His innovative use of free rhythm, particularly in his First Piano Sonata (1909), is believed to have influenced Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring. Beyond music, Scott authored about 20 books and pamphlets on occultism and natural health, advocating dietary and alternative medical approaches, including alternative treatments for cancer.

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Martyn Brabbins (born 13 August 1959) is a British conductor. He studied composition at Goldsmiths, University of London, and conducting with Ilya Musin at the Leningrad Conservatory. Between 1994 and 2005, Brabbins was Associate Principal Conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. He made a significant mark through recordings not in standard repertory and as one of the main conductors involved in Hyperion's extensive Romantic Piano Concerto series. Brabbins has conducted commercial recordings of music for such labels as Warner, Chandos, Hyperion, NMC, Nimbus, and Deutsche Grammophon.

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