DOUGLAS LILBURN – Sym. No. 2, Drysdale Overture, Forest – BBC Phil 2015

DOUGLAS LILBURN
Drysdale Overture
Forest
Symphony No. 2 #

BBC Philharmonic
conducted by
Michael Seal
Tecwyn Evans #

Recorded live at BBC MediaCityUK, Salford on Wednesday 1st April # and Tuesday 8th September 2015.

SolidFiles: http://www.solidfiles.com/d/2a73c22cfc/
MEGA: https://mega.nz/#!E0pDlJ6A!ywbQbRHQAh5E2IBOEIHH9N9wqQMV_gv8Brdkip_vIP0

To say that Douglas Lilburn is but a mere footnote in the history of classical music would be generous; he is almost all but forgotten. Though though Naxos have recorded some of his orchestral music (including the pieces included here) with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, he remains obscure.

This hour-long album is made up from recordings from two separate concerts this year which featured Lilburn’s music – Drysdale Overture and Forest were performed on Tuesday 8th September, conducted by Michael Seal. The symphony was performed on Wednesday 1st April, conducted by Tecwyn Evans. Both feature the BBC Philharmonic and were recorded at MediaCityUK in Salford, the BBC’s new state-of-the-art multimedia complex in the city of Manchester.

Lilburn studied composition with Ralph Vaughan Williams between 1937 and 1939 at the Royal College of Music in London. His music is very tonal, highly approachable, and perhaps ultimately more Nordic in character than English or New Zealander – it’s well worth a listen, despite George Dyson’s harsh criticism!

I find the symphony in particular to be very filmic.

FLAC audio, derived from BBC Radio 3’s AAC 320kbps broadcast. Re-encoding was unavoidable in order to resample and edit the raw audio for album presentation.

———- Post added at 10:05 PM ———- Previous post was at 09:37 PM ———-

Upload complete. 🙂

Edit again: Mega link fixed.

It’s great to have Lilburn in updated sound.
Thanks!

Lilburn isn’t really forgotten, in fact he’s considered to be New Zealand’s most important composer – and by a wide margin too. In New Zealand, of course, and mostly for his later, more adventurous electronic experiments and not for his attractive, but obviously derivative (mostly of Sibelius) orchestral works. 🙂

Thanks for these alternative versions to Judd and Hopkins Would have missed them otherwise.

Thanks!!

Super share, many thanks for this live performance. I think Ralph Vaughan Williams is also audible in this music.

Particularly in stuff like the wonderful Aotearoa Overture (The Land of the White Clouds), New Zealand’s "signature" orchestral work:

https://mega.nz/#!fdFzlL4Q!STLkSQDvTLC_mIiWRsOf4QFrhEY1zV4fCol7DN8zFLE
New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, John Hopkins

Thank you very much, tango.