16 Mar 2014

Reclaimed Irish Composers

From Composer of the Week, 9:00 am on 16 March 2014
Charles Villiers Stanford

Charles Villiers Stanford by Spy Photo: Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons

Presenter Cynthia Morahan has spent some time living in Ireland, but when she hadn't been there long, she made the mistake of thinking Stanford was English.

As she describes in this programme, she was quickly corrected. Stanford was born in Dublin. 

This got Morahan thinking: Was Stanford an isolated case?

Were there other composers once considered British, English or even Australian, who were actually Irish?

It turned out that there were. 

Charles Villiers Stanford and William Vincent Wallace are the two we focus on in this programme, but there are others:  Michael William Balfe and Hamilton Harty for instance.

William Vincent Wallace

William Vincent Wallace Photo: Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons

A combination of politics and fame in other countries left Stanford and Wallace for a time unrecognised as Irish.

But that has changed.

Music Details

STANFORD: The Blue Bird - Anúna/ Michael McGlynn (Danu 022)
STANFORD: Irish Rhapsody No 6 - Lydia Mordkovitch (vln), Ulster Orch/ Vernon Handley (Chandos CHAN 8884)
STANFORD: Cello Concerto in D minor - Gemma Rosefield (cello), BBC Scottish SO/ Andrew Manze (Hyperion CDA 67859)
STANFORD: Cello Concerto in D minor - Gemma Rosefield (cello), BBC Scottish SO/ Andrew Manze (Hyperion CDA 67859)
STANFORD: Irish Rhapsody No 3 - Ulster Orch/ Vernon Handley (Chandos CHAN 7002/3)
STANFORD: Irish Rhapsody No 4 - Ulster Orch/ Vernon Handley (Chandos CHAN 7002/3)
WALLACE: Overture, Maritana - RTE Concert Orch/ Proinnsísa O Duinn (Naxos 8.660308)
WALLACE: There is a flow’r that bloometh, from Maritana - RTE Concert Orch/ Proinnsísa O Duinn (Naxos 8.660308)
WALLACE: Yes, let me like a soldier fall, from Maritana - RTE Concert Orch/ Proinnsísa O Duinn (Naxos 8.660308)
STANFORD: The Blue Bird  - Anúna/ Michael McGlynn (Danu 022)