TOCCATA-A CELEBRATION OF THE ORCHESTRA op.386 (May 1988) Listen to this Work

Instrumentation: 3(III=picc+bfl).2.ca.2.bcl.2.cbsn - 4331 - timp - perc(3): xyl/glsp/crot/SD/TD/BD/cyms/susp.cym/tgl/claves/tamb/mark tree- cel- pno- harp- strings
[Key to Abbreviations]
Duration: 22 mins
First Performance: Recording by The Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by the composer November 1991 Sony Studios Whitfield Street London
CBS/Sony CD HB3 The Philharmonia conducted by the composer

Movements

• 1: Theme - Woodwind
  
• 2: Horns
  
• 3: Trumpets, Trombones, Tuba
  
• 4: Strings
  
• 5: Celeste and Percussion
  
• 6: Fugue
  
• 7: Theme - Finale
  

Notes

Originally commissioned by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra for their 30th Anniversary, conducted by Hans Vonk at the Fairfield Hall, September 1976, but extensively revised in Feb-May 1988 in preparation for the recording with The Philharmonia

Performances

May 2004	Philharmonisches Orchester des Staatstheaters Mainz, conductor Sebastian Hernandes-Laverny, Mainz Opera House, Germany A concert with a birthday theme, with works by John Adams, Stravinsky, Handel and Howard Blake
September 2003	Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Nicholas Cleobury, St John's Smith Square London
November 1991	Recording by The Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by the composer Sony Studios Whitfield Street London, Sony Studios, Whitfield Street, London

Reviews

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'...but the orchestra did not quite succeed in conveying the subtleties of the composition in the areas which are partly film-music influenced, and also failed to point up the dynamic contrasts in this richly motivic and well-constructed arch of excitement.'

Mainzer Rhein Zeitung, 25/4/2004

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..the composer Howard Blake from London, who travelled over for the concert, charmingly explained in German his 'Birthday Toccata', which he wrote as a commission for the 30th anniversary of the Royal Philharmonic in 1976. Blake showed a supreme craftsmanship in tone-painting. His Toccata began with with music as sweet as the elf-music of Purcell, but then broadened out into the delicious late-romantic sonorities of an Elgar...

Allgemeine Zeitung, 24/4/2004