from the British Music Society
News, reviews & features
Obituary: Raymond Warren
Professor Raymond Warren, who has died aged 96, was part of that Interwar generation of British composers that owed a stylistic debt to Tippett and Britten…
British composers featured in new releases
Toccata Classics will launch two new releases of music by British composers including Arnold Cooke and Charles Harford Lloyd…
University seeks applications for British music research
Following the reversal of the decision to close the Music Department at Cardiff University, new PhD Studentships in research have been announced. Two doctoral Studentships are being offered for research relating to any aspect of musicology, composition, research-led...
Finzi biographer Diana McVeagh dies aged 98
Diana McVeagh, author and long-term BMS member, died on 2 July aged 98…
BMS trust to promote Hurd’s music in 2026
Many members will remember the generous grant for the British Music Society left in composer Michael Hurd’s estate…
Review: Opera North – Earth & Sky
A field of butterflies on the Pennine Moors, ethereal poetry and fascinating music in your ears as you explore the wild landscape above Haworth in West Yorkshire…
INCANDESCENT INCANTATIONS: Works for solo violin & reciter
In the field of music for solo violin and speaker, Alan Ridout’s Ferdinand the Bull has roamed, largely unchallenged, for over 50 years. The two commissions here that attempt to rectify the balance are therefore to be commended…
AND THE BLACKBIRD SANG: Choral Music
An invigorating issue of fascinating material, Excalibur Voices are a well-balanced ensemble whose phrasing, if not always the tidiest, is natural and musical…
PIANO QUINTETS: Godfrey, Hodgson, Walthew, McCabe
Percy Godfrey? No, me neither; but this 1900 Piano Quintet is quite the find. The first movement surges with full-bodied invention…
THE BLESSED DAMOZEL: Songs of Arnold Box
It is tempting to reverse the customary credits to read ‘for piano and baritone’ as Mozart and Beethoven used to do with their violin sonatas, since Paula Fan certainly earns the title of ‘collaborative pianist’ here…