91Èȱ¬

The search for a "new sound" is illustrated in a walk along the Thames and a lurid tale of revenge.

A close friend of Vaughan Williams, George Butterworth was killed at the age of 31, during the battle of the Somme as dawn broke on the 5th August 1916. A war hero, he was awarded the Military Cross twice. Butterworth's legacy rests on a handful of pieces, notably his much loved English Idylls and folk-song arrangements. He belongs to a generation of composers who showed great promise early on, only to be denied the chance to reach musical maturity. Over the course of the week, we'll also hear the work of four contemporaries of Butterworth: fellow Englishmen Ernest Farrar and W Denis Browne, the Scottish composer Cecil Coles and the Australian composer Frederick Septimus Kelly. All of them, like Butterworth, died on active service during the Great War. Among the musical gems, there's the first ever recording of Denis Browne's ballet "The Comic Spirit", made for the series by the 91Èȱ¬ Philharmonic. Their musical trajectory may be short, but this lost generation of composers nonetheless has made an indelible mark on the face of British music.

In today's instalment, Donald Macleod is joined once more by Dr Kate Kennedy, an authority on this period. While Butterworth's popular English Idylls reflect the popularity of pastoral and folk idioms, in fact the musical language of these composers draws on a broad net of influences.

George Butterworth
English Idyll No.2
Hallé Orchestra
Mark Elder, conductor

W Denis Browne
Arabia
Martyn Hill, tenor
Clifford Benson, piano

George Butterworth
Love Blows as the Wind Blows
Jonathan Lemalu, bass-baritone
Belcea Quartet

Ernest Farrar
Variations for Piano and Orchestra
Howard Shelley, piano
Philharmonia Orchestra
Alasdair Mitchell, conductor

Cecil Coles
Fra Giacomo, scena for baritone and orchestra
Paul Whelan, baritone
91Èȱ¬ Scottish Symphony Orchestra
Martyn Brabbins, conductor.