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TOCCATA-A CELEBRATION OF THE ORCHESTRA op.386 (May 1988)


Concerto for orchestra, revised version of 'Toccata'
Published by: Highbridge Music Ltd
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
Sheet Music Available
Full score for hire
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Orchestral parts for hire
Recordings Available

1. CD COLOMBIA/SONY CLASSICS CD ORIGINALLY RELEASED IN MAY 1991: THE PHILHARMONIA ORCHESTRA CONDUCTED BY HOWARD BLAKE SONY HB3 23

2. SONY CLASSICS: RE-RELEASE OF THE ORIGINAL ALBUM (AS ABOVE) ON OCTOBER 28TH 2008 WITH NEW BOOKLET AND  ARTWORK (COPYRIGHT SONY BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT (UK LTD) 8697376972

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

'...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

..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


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