Latest TPO Digital Concerthall Release Takes Critics By Surprise
By no means a stranger to innovation the Thrupiece Philharmonic Orchestra's award-winning "TPO Digital Concerthall" platform has today released a teaser from the forthcoming recording of Eric Fishwick's Yorkshire Symphony and in so doing has added yet another first to its glittering array of breakthrough achievements.
The new release (in partnership with German recording giant Deutsche Grammofon Gesellschaft and Hornimint Records) is the first recording issued by the TPO of a non-Dorset-born British composer. It follows hot on the heels of the pioneering TPO|русский series in which Principle Conductor and Artistic Director Irina Legova has championed - to no great effect - the music of unknown Russian women composers.
Little is known of Eric Fishwick (1895-1962) except that he was born near Sheffield and is the younger sibling of Sissy Fishwick who moved to Lancashire and was never spoken of by the family again. Eric wrote no more than a handful of works, suffering from "composer's block" in the aftermath of the First World War during which he served first as a local grammar school boy and later as a butcher's delivery assistant (2nd Class). His "Yorkshire Symphony" is perhaps his best known work though it has remained unrecognised and unperformed until taken up by Ms Legova who discovered the manuscript in a secondhand bookshop in Compton Valence during a fact-finding tour. Grove lists three other works by Eric Fishwick: Wortley Hall, a Tone Poem for large orchestra (included in the present recording); a Concert Overture "Jolly Ronald McDonald" (sub-tilted A Late-night Nocturne) and a set of variations on the folksong "Yorkshire Tea makes a grand old cuppa but it's far too strong for them in't south". The last of these is thought to be lost and/or destroyed.
The new recording will be available in late August as a digital download through the TPO Digital Concerthall web-based portal, though an intriguing "sampler" - an extract from "Wortley Hall" - is available now."
TPO Digital Concert Hall HERE
Wortley Hall" Sampler HERE
The latest release from the TPO Digital Concerthall feature music by little-regarded composer Eric Fishwick