PHILIP Cannon
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REAM.1132 STEREO*/MONO ADD PHILIP PHILIP CANNON (1929-2016) Cannon 1 Lord of Light (1980) A Gloucester Requiem * 37’35” I Domine Jesu Christe II Requiem æternam dona eis [01’23”] III Libera me, Domine [03’11”] LORD OF LIGHT IV Dies irae, dies illa [04’48”] A Gloucester Requiem V Rex tremendæ maiestatis [10’18”] VI Recordare, Jesu pie [13’13”] VII My groans, a culprit’s heart declare [14’53”] Iris Dell’Acqua VIII Confutatis maledictis [17’26”] Kenneth Bowen IX Lacrimosa dies illa [19’28”] Graham Titus X Amen - Agnus Dei [23’36”] Three Choirs Festival Chorus XI Sanctus, sanctus [27’01”] XII Christe, Redemptor omnium [32’22”] Royal Philharmonic Orchestra John Sanders Iris Dell’Acqua, soprano · Kenneth Bowen, tenor · Graham Titus, bass Three Cathedral Choirs Festival Chorus Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (leader Barry Griffiths) conducted by John Sanders STRING QUARTET From the first performance, given at the Three Choirs Festival, August 1980 Parrenin Quartet BBC Broadcast 6 January 1981 The BBC wordmark and the BBC logo are trade marks of the CINQ CHANSONS British Broadcasting Corporation and are used under licence. BBC logo © BBC c DE FEMME © Margaret Price Maria Korchinska REAM1132 24 REAM1132 1 Cinq chansons de femme 12’18” for soprano and harp (1952) Words selected and translated by Jacqueline Laidlaw 2 La mal mariée (The angry wife) 1’20” 3 L’amoureuse (A girl in love) 3’07” 4 La veuve (The widow) 4’00” 5 La bien mariée (The merry wife) 1’23” 6 La bien aimée (A girl whose love shines fair) 2’28” Margaret Price, soprano Maria Korchinska, harp BBC Broadcast 15 December 1966 String Quartet (1964) 19’54” 7 I II [10’00”] III [12’13”] IV [14’24”] Parrenin Quartet Jacques Parrenin, violin Marcel Charpentier, violin Denes Marton, viola Pierre Penassou, cello BBC Broadcast 8 July 1966 Playing time : 69’47” Lord of Light and String Quartet marked by a single track at the composer’s request Approximate section start times are shown in square brackets Cover Image : Ion Theodorescu-Sion (1882-1939) ‘Lux in tenebris lucet’ (1909) Photograph of the composer courtesy Philip Cannon and Jane, Baroness Buijs van Schouwenburg REAM1132 2 REAM1132 23 ‘A composer’s duty is to communicate … musicians today are so busy chasing up techniques THE LYRITA RECORDED EDITION TRUST and comparing systems that we forget that music is a social art and a spiritual art: it is ITTER BROADCAST COLLECTION described by Bach’s simple dictum: “Music exists for the glory of God and the delight of men”’.1 Philip Cannon remained true to this artistic credo throughout a creative life Richard Itter had a life-long fascination with recording and he habitually acquired professional spanning seven decades. equipment for disc and tape recording even for solely private use. From his home in Burnham he was able to receive a good signal from the BBC Wrotham transmitter, which was constructed in He was born in Paris on 21 December 1929. His mother was Burgundian and his father a 1951 and began broadcasting VHF/FM on 2 May 1955. His domestic recordings from BBC Cornish sailor. He returned to England with his parents when he was six. Most of his transmissions (including Proms, premieres, operas, symphonies and chamber music – more than childhood was spent in Cornwall where he developed a love of the sea and the beautiful 1500 works in total), date from 1952-1996. Everything was initially recorded on magnetic tape, but Cornish coast. At Falmouth Grammar School he began learning the violin and piano. His up to 1955 particularly important performances were transferred to acetate disc. These fragile discs earliest compositions, mainly piano pieces, date from his twelfth year. In 1944 he won the were never played and have remained in excellent condition, as have the majority of the tapes which senior prize for violin at the Cornwall Music Festival and a year later wrote a string quartet make up the bulk of the collection. In 2014 the Lyrita Recorded Edition Trust begun to transfer this which so impressed Imogen Holst that she invited him to study with her at Dartington Hall priceless archive and has put in place formal agreements with the BBC and the Musicians Union to in Devon. She instilled in her young pupil what he later described as ‘a tough and steely enable the release of items from it to the public. self-awareness of my powers and limitations which proved a constant revelation’.2 At the age of 18 he gained a composition scholarship to the Royal College of Music and studied there with Gordon Jacob from 1948 to 1951. Cannon’s other teachers included Ralph Vaughan Williams (at the RCM) and Paul Hindemith, with whom he had a few CHORAL WORKS FROM THE ITTER BROADCAST COLLECTION independent lessons. In 1951 he won the Octavia Travelling Scholarship, which enabled him to tour Europe with his wife, the librettist and writer Jacqueline Laidlaw. During this Lennox Berkeley extensive journey they listened to music and discussed musical issues with performers and Stabat Mater, Magnificat, Batter My Heart REAM.1129 critics, as well as composers such as Hans Werner Henze. From 1957 to 1959 Cannon was Lecturer in Music at Sydney University and in 1960 he was Sir Arthur Bliss appointed a professor of composition at the RCM, a post he held until his retirement in 1995. The Beatitudes, The Enchantress, Madame Noy, Rout REAM.1115 Composer, keyboard player and songwriter Rick Wakeman paid this warm tribute to his former tutor in the college’s magazine: ‘My absolute favourite teacher was Philip Cannon. Peter Racine Fricker He was an incredibly eccentric teacher, and you never knew what he was going to say next, The Vision of Judgement, Symphony No. 5 REAM.1124 but he taught me everything I know about orchestration’.3 Personal tragedy struck in the early 1980s when Cannon’s wife Jacqueline developed Alzheimer’s disease. Her death in Anthony Milner 1984 affected Cannon deeply and impaired his creativity for some considerable time. He The Water and the Fire, The Song of Akhenaten REAM.1125 recovered sufficiently from this traumatic experience to resume composition in the early 1 ‘A Composer Discusses His First Opera’, , 30 June 1964, p.13. Full track details http://www.wyastone.co.uk/all-labels/lyrita.html 2 Philip Cannon, ‘Life as a Student Nearly Fifty Years Ago …’, 1993. 3 ‘Rick Wakeman’, , Summer 2011, p.10 REAM1132 22 REAM1132 3 1990s and enjoyed an active retirement in Buckinghamshire with his second wife, the artist Jane, Baroness Buijs van Schouwenburg. He died in Florence Nightingale Hospice at Stoke 5. La bien aimée A girl whose love shines fair Mandeville Hospital, Aylesbury on 24 December 2016. Suis sous bonne étoile née, Born ’neath Fortune’s star am I, Philip Cannon’s catalogue embraces a broad range of genres from operas and symphonies to Car j’ai bel ami. For my love is fair. songs and keyboard works. His first significant pieces were written whilst he was still a student at the RCM. The Symphonic Study: Spring (1949) established his reputation as a J’aime bien et suis aimée Loved am I and sweetly love composer. It received several performances and broadcasts in the UK and in Australia and Et j’ai mon amour donnée Him to whom my heart is driven; Malcolm Sargent conducted it at a Prom with the BBC Symphony Orchestra on 20 August À celui qui beaucoup m’agrée, Happiness to me he has given 1954. This early score already shows a mastery of form, a gift for counterpoint and a natural Je lui dois merci. My love I shall prove. feeling for orchestral colour. The Concertino for piano and strings (1951) is another key Suis sous, etc. Born ’neath Fortune’s star, etc. work from Cannon’s formative years. Written for the Petersfield Festival where it was premiered by Joseph Cooper, this lively neo-classical piece has achieved over a thousand Toujours m’a sa foi portée Loyal and so courteous he performances internationally. Et servie et honorée; Honours and upholds me ever, Chief among his works for string orchestra is Oraison Funèbre de l’Âme Humaine (‘Funeral Et bien sais que folle pensée And a shameful thought would never, Orison of the Human Soul’) (1971). Described by the composer as ‘a cry of anguish for peace N’a jamais nourri. Never hold for me. and humanity’,4 this passionate score for 24 solo strings was the first piece by a British Suis sous, etc. Born ’neath Fortune’s star, etc. composer to be commissioned by the ORTF. At its Paris premiere conducted by Cannon himself it was enthusiastically received by the press, a leading French critic memorably Sauve mon honneur gardée, Honour binds me to deny describing it in Le Figaro as ‘avant-garde romantique’. Lui sera abondonnée All the love he so desires, His first opera, Morvoren (1963), was commissioned by the South Western Arts Association Mon amour, qu’il a desirée; Love that my whole heart inspires and premiered at the Royal College of Music on 15 July 1964. The composer drew upon his Mon coeur est à lui. His true love am I. childhood memories of Cornwall in the scoring and Cornish-inflected recitatives of this Suis sous, etc. Born ’neath Fortune’s star, etc. dramatic two-act opera based on the romantic local legend of the Mermaid of Zennor. In (Anon) contrast, his next stage work was a one-act opera bouffe, The Man from Venus (1967), which the Arts Council’s ‘Opera for All’ group performed around the UK.