Henry Cotter Nixon: Orchestral Music, Volume Three
The English composer-conductor Henry Cotter Nixon (1842–1907) had entirely disappeared from music history until this series – presenting all his surviving orchestral music in its first recordings – revealed him to have been one of the most accomplished English composers of his generation, with a style that takes in elements of Mendelssohn, Schumann, Weber, Brahms and Sullivan. This third and final volume mixes music for the concert hall and the stage and adds the Coronation March for Edward VII that turned out to be Nixon’s last composition. Most of the pieces here were left incomplete, but thanks to Paul Mann’s orchestrations they now confirm Nixon’s position as one of the superior tunesmiths of Victorian England.
Ana Török, violin (Track 2)
Kodály Philharmonic Orchestra (Tracks 1 – 5, 7)
Ferenc Nagy, euphonium (Track 5)
Liepāja Symphony Orchestra (Track 6)
Paul Mann, conductor
FIRST RECORDINGS
Listen To This Recording:
-
Aslauga: Dramatic Cantata (1890–93)
- Overture
- Fantasia for Violin and Orchestra
- Titania
- Gavotte in E flat
- Prelude
- Act Two: No. 18, Ballet Music
- Coronation March
Fantasia No. 2 for Violin and Orchestra (undated)
Concert Overture No. 1 (1880)
Gavotte in E flat (undated)
The Gay Typewriters: Operatic Farce in Two Acts (1895)
Coronation March (1902)
MusicWeb International :
‘This is a series that has done the very best it could for Henry Cotter Nixon. The fine booklet notes are by David J Brown and Mann himself and the performers sound to have done more than merely sight-read their way through these scores; they bring their very best to them – predominantly the Kodály Philharmonic but, in the case of the Ballet Music from The Gay Typewriters (only), the Liepāja Symphony.’
—Jonathan Woolf, MusicWeb International
Fanfare :
‘It didn’t take long for Nixon’s memorable tunes, imaginative harmonies, and general compositional skill to win me over as a new convert to his long-forgotten cause..This splendid disc… will aid considerably in the restoration of the very worthwhile music of one Henry Cotter Nixon to the consciousness of the music-loving public.’
—Fanfare
WTJU :
‘Comparing the music across the volumes I didn’t hear anything uncharacteristic in Mann’s realizations. And the works he rescued are wonderful.’
—Ralph Graves, WTJU