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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 January 2016
‘Gloriana’ and ‘The Beggar's Opera’ Robin Holloway
‘The Rape of Lucretia’ Michael Oliver
Goldschmidt's ‘Der gewaltige Hahnrei’ Ronald Weitzman
Malipiero's Symphonies Bret Johnson
Havergal Brian's Violin Concerto John Pickard
Two new Allan Pettersson series Guy Rickards
Morton Feldman Nicolas Hodges
Nancarrow for live performers John Warnaby
Irving Fine and other Americans Bret Johnson
Stefan Wolpe Nicolas Hodges
Philip Glass Mike Seabrook
Icelandic orchestral music Guy Rickards
Korngold Martin Anderson
Koechlin Calum MacDonald
1 Before tackling these, however, there are a few corrections to and observations on my survey of Icelandic music on record (cf. Tempo 181) which I pass on here and for which I am indebted to the doyen of living Icelandic composers, Jon Thórarinsson (b.1917). Firstly, the ‘catastrophic eruption of 1783 came from a volcanic area named Laki, about 40 miles east from the much more famous Mt. Hekla’. I had erroneously stated in my original article that Páll Ísolfsson's Introduction and Passacaglia had been orchestrated by Jón Thorarinsson ‘along with the Chaconne, in 1948’. It would seem that the Chaconne was not so arranged until much later, during the 1960s. I had also made reference to Thorkell Sigurbjömsson (b. 1938) as having been a pupil of Thorarinsson's, as I understood him to have been; Jón Thórarinsson has confirmed that he was not. Conversely, both Leifur Thórarinsson (no relation) and Gunnar Reynir Sveinsson (b.1933) did study with him. Also, Magnus Blöndal Jóhannsson was born in 1925 not 1926. Further comments concerning Icelandic folk and vocal music I will leave until a later review of recent releases of vocal, choral and chamber music in a future issue. Alas, none of Jón Thorarinsson's considerable output is available on CD for review, some folksong arrangements aside. He has been working for several years on a large-scale history of music in Iceland, almost retiring – hopefully only for the present – from composition. The points mentioned in the text were detailed in a letter to the present writer dated 8 September 1993.
2 Twin-songs; an indigenous form of parallel and simple contrapuntal vocal music, inspired by and perhaps also inspiring European church music in the medieval period.