Brian Brockless: An English Elegy: Vocal and Instrumental Music
Brian Brockless (1926–95), London-born and -bred, was a conductor, organist, teacher and composer whose career embraced orchestral performance, sacred music, musical education and the revival of Renaissance polyphony. After studying with Herbert Howells, Mátyás Seiber and Sergiu Celibidache, he taught harmony and orchestration at the Royal Academy of Music and served for many years as Director of Music at a City of London church. This album – the first recorded survey of his music – ranges from works for string orchestra and piano to songs, sacred vocal music and music for organ, most of them prepared from unpublished manuscripts. The music as a whole is marked by an essential Englishness, one which looks to earlier traditions and also reflects the modernity of the second half of the twentieth century.
Henry McGray, treble
Naomi Kilby, soprano
Brockless Centenary Strings
Brockless Centenary Vocal Quartet
David Smith, piano
Adrian Brockless, piano and organ
Listen To This Recording:
- Toccata for an Occasion (1981, arr. strings 2006 Adrian Brockless) (8:10)
- May the Grace (before 1955) (2:31)
- Prayer for a Choir Boy (date unknown, rev. 1987) (1:22)
Adrian Brockless (b. 1980)
- Berceuse (2007) (4:28)
Brian Brockless
French Suite for Piano (1951) (14:03)
- I. Allemande (3:40)
- II. Courante (3:49)
- III. Sarabande (3:30)
- IV. Gigue (3:04)
- Three Young Rats (A Nonsense Song) (date unknown) (1:04)
- An English Elegy for String Orchestra (c. 1946) (8:22)
Three Poems of Shelley (c. 1948, rev 1980s) (6:44)
- No. 1 Music, When Soft Voices Die (2:34)
- No. 2 To the Moon (1:32)
- No. 3 The Widow Bird (2:38)
- Prayers (date unknown) (3:31)
Thomas Tallis (c. 1505–1585)
- 9th Tune (date unknown) (0:35)
Brian Brockless
- Toccata upon Tallis’ 9th Tune (1989) (4:09)
Adrian Brockless
- Looking for a Sunset Bird in Winter (2026) (2:55)
Brian Brockless
- Missa brevis (1955) (8:41)
- Orion (1989) (2:19)
First Recordings
Reviews
There are no reviews yet.