Sunday 15 December 2013

A Long Forgotten Record Company: A Catalogue of Revolution LPs

Catalogue of Revolution Records
 Many years ago (c.1972) I discovered a recording of Arnold Bax’s ‘The Tale the Pine Trees Knew’ in Symphony One, a small record shop in Glasgow. This was the first piece of Bax that I had consciously heard.  It had been released on the short lived Revolution record label. The coupling was equally interesting in its presentation of E.J. Moeran’s rare ‘Serenade’ in G major. This was also was a ‘first’ for me. Over the next year or so I bough a handful of other Revolution LPs including the English Clarinet Music (RCF.009) and the John Ireland Violin Sonata in D minor (RCB.5) However, for me the desideratum was Bax’s ‘Symphonic Variations’ and the Symphony No. 4. Try as he could, the proprietor was unable to order these for me. It was the days before Amazon.
I present the catalogue of Revolution records as I have been able to construct it. There may be some errors; however I do not believe there are any omissions. It was a short-lived project that had promised so much.

Budget Label 19/10 (99p) 
RCB.1 Arnold Bax/Arthur Bliss: Sonatas for Viola & piano
Herbert Downs (viola) Leonard Cassini (piano)
RCB.2 Liszt: Annees de Pelerinage (Suisse)
Sergio Fiorentino (piano)
RCB.3 Handel: Flute Sonatas Op.1 Nos. 1,2,3,4
William Bennett (flute) Harold Lester (harpsichord) Denis Nesbitt (viola de gamba)
RCB.4 Handel: Flute Sonatas Op.1 Nos. 5, 6, 7, ‘Halle’ Sonata in B minor, ‘Fitzwilliam’ Sonata on B flat.
William Bennett (flute) Harold Lester (harpsichord) Denis Nesbitt (viola de gamba)
RCB.5 John Ireland: Violin Sonata No.1 in D minor, Cello Sonata in G minor
Alan Loveday (violin) Leonard Cassini (piano) Derek Simpson (cello)
RCB.6 (Listed but never issued) Liszt: Piano Concerto No.2 in A Major, Weber: Polonaise brillante,  Op. 72
Sergio Fiorentino (piano) Guildford Philharmonic Orchestra/Vernon Handley
RCB.7 Concert of Part Songs Finzi: Seven Unaccompanied Part Songs for Mixed Voices, Op. 17, Holst: ‘Six Choral Folk Songs’ for mixed voices, Op. 36, E.J. Moeran: Songs of Springtime for mixed voices
Proteus Choir conducted by Vernon Handley
RCB.8 Elgar: Piano Quintet in A minor, Op.84 Bax, Legend for viola & piano
Aeolian String Quartet, Leonard Cassini (piano)
RCB.9 Beethoven: ‘Kreutzer’ & ‘Spring’ Sonatas
Alan Loveday (violin) Leonard Cassini (piano)
RCB.10 Chopin: Polish Fantasy, Op.13, Scherzi Op.20 & 31, Polonaise-Fantasie op.61, Ballade No.3
Sergio Fiorentino (piano) Guildford Philharmonic Orchestra/Vernon Handley
RCB.11/12 Rachmaninov: The 24 Preludes & ‘Liebesfreud’ (Kreisler)
Sergio Fiorentino (piano)
RCB.13 Liszt: ‘The Dante Symphony’
Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra & Chorus/Boris Khaikin
RCB.14/15 (available individually) Mahler: Symphony No.3 in D minor
Vienna Orchestra/ Charles Adler
RCB.16 Brahms: The Three Violin Sonatas
Alan Loveday (violin) Leonard Cassini (piano)
RCB.17 Bach: Flute Sonatas & Partita
William Bennett (flute) & Harold Lester (harpsichord)
RCB.18/19 (available individually) Chopin: The 16 Polonaises       
Sergio Fiorentino (piano)
RCB. 20 Vaughan Williams: String Quartet in G minor, Bax Violin Sonata No.1
Aeolian Quartet, Henry Holst (violin) Frank Merrick (piano)
RCB.21 Lilli Lehmann Historical Recital: Arias from Saraglio, Figaro, Don Giovanni, Cosi fan Tutte, Walkure, Fidelio, Norma & Traviata.
RCB.23 Schumann: Carnival, Bach: Organ Prelude & Fugue in D Major, BWV 532 (Busoni/Fiorentino) Mendelssohn: ‘Spinning Song’, Op. 67 No.4, Etude in B flat Major, Op. 104 No.1 Borodin: Scherzo in A flat Major, Liszt: Concert Etude No.2 ‘Gnomenreigen’, Liszt: Grande Etude de Paganini No.2 ‘Octaves’
Sergio Fiorentino (piano)

Full Price Label (£2.30p) (46/-)
RCF.001 Arnold Bax: ‘Symphonic Variations’ for piano & orchestra
Joyce Hatto (piano) Guildford Philharmonic Orchestra/Vernon Handley
RCF.002 Arnold Bax: Symphony No.4
Guildford Philharmonic Orchestra/Vernon Handley
RCF.003 Arnold Bax: The Tale the Pine Trees Knew, E.J. Moeran: Serenade in G major
Guildford Philharmonic Orchestra/Vernon Handley
RCF.004 Ignaz Moscheles: Sonata Mélancolique, Op.49, Gigue, Op.58, ‘La Tenerezza’, ‘La Leggerezza’, ‘La Petite Babillarde’, Op.66, Three Characteristic Studies Op.95
Philip Challis (piano)
RCF.005 Liszt Recorded Edition:  ‘Diabelli’ Variation (1822) ‘8 Variations’ (1824) Scherzo (1827) ‘Lucia & Parisina,’ Valse, a capriccio (1842) Fantasia on Beethoven’s ‘Ruins of Athens’, Divertissement on Pacini’s ‘Niobe’.
Gail Buckingham (piano)
RCF.006 Liszt Recorded Edition: The Mephisto Music
Philip Challis (piano)
RCF.007 Liszt Recorded Edition: Beethoven Transcriptions
Philip Challis (piano)
RCF.008 Liszt Recorded Edition: Lyon (Album d'un voyageur) & Early Works
Gail Buckingham (piano)
RCF.009 English Music Clarinet Sonatas by Arnold Bax, Charles Villiers Stanford, John Ireland & Eric Hughes
John Denman (clarinet) Hazel Vivienne (piano)
RCF.010 Arnold Bax: Piano Sonata 1 & 4, Water Music & Toccata
Joyce Hatto (piano)
RCF.011 Chopin ‘Oda Slobodskaya Memorial Album’ 17 Polish Songs, Czary, Dumka
Oda Slobodskaya (soprano) Frederick Stone (piano)
RCF.012 (announced but not released) Rachmaninov: Etudes tableaux, Op. 33 nos 1 - 8 Moments Musicaux, Op. 16 nos 1 - 6 
Sergio Fiorentino (piano)
RCF.013 (announced but not released) Rachmaninov: Etudes tableaux, Op. 39 nos. 1 – 9, Polka de W. R , Vocalise, Op. 34 No.14 
Sergio Fiorentino (piano)

Children’s Series (75p)
REVK.10 ‘The Count of Monte Cristo’ adapted from the novel by Dumas
Paul Daneman with the London Theatre Company
REVK.12 ‘Don Quixote’ adapted from the stories by Cervantes
Alec McCowen with the London Theatre Company
REVK.13 ‘The Story of Mozart’ narrated in words and music
Alec McCowen with the London Theatre Company
REVK.14 ‘The Story of Bach’
Derek Hart with the London Theatre Company

John France December 201©





4 comments:

Paul Brownsey said...

Did you notice Joyce Hatto's name in the list? I think that may have been one of her real recordings...

Anonymous said...

Was this company one of the ones that was set up by William Barrington-Coupe? Some of these disks look similar to some of his Saga LPs. I wonder if these Fiorentino recordings are legitimate?

p.f.r.

John Abbott said...

Hi John, very interesting post, but just wanted to point out that Eric Hughes and Spike Hughes are different composers. The Sonata Capriccio of 1963-4 that appears on RCF.009 (which I admit I've never seen) is by Eric Hughes, not Patrick Cairns "Spike" Hughes, who wrote his handful of "classical" instrumental works in the 1920s, then turned to jazz band composition and arranging, and then theatre and radio music, journalism and writing. By 1950 he had pretty much given up composing altogether

I haven't been able to dig much up on Eric Hughes, but six of his works are listed at the British Music Collection, here - https://britishmusiccollection.org.uk/composer/eric-hughes

It's possible the original error comes from the notes of another release, BMS 009, which Rob Barnett reviewed in 2001. He mentions the notes are "splattered with errors" but quite possible took the misattribution as fact from those notes. but he does say in that review that Eric Hughes studied with Alan Bush and Franz Reizenstein. They were both of much the same generation as Spike Hughes, whose main teacher (from 1923) was Egon Wellesz in Vienna.

http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2001/may01/clarinet.htm

all the best,

John Abbott
Hampstead Norreys, Berkshire.

John France said...

John
Mea culpa! All sorted out now...
Many thanks
J