Englishman Joseph (or Josef) Holbrooke was an odd duck in 20th century music, an industrious, working-class composer whose ambitious and extensive oeuvre betrays his equally considerable obscurity. Regarded as one of the top young composers in England in 1900, by 1920 he was struggling for attention and by his death in 1958, completely forgotten. Holbrooke's obscurity and eccentricity, however, gained a sort of legendary status among British musicians, which may have been what Tony Oxley, Gavin Bryars, and Derek Bailey had ...
Read More
Englishman Joseph (or Josef) Holbrooke was an odd duck in 20th century music, an industrious, working-class composer whose ambitious and extensive oeuvre betrays his equally considerable obscurity. Regarded as one of the top young composers in England in 1900, by 1920 he was struggling for attention and by his death in 1958, completely forgotten. Holbrooke's obscurity and eccentricity, however, gained a sort of legendary status among British musicians, which may have been what Tony Oxley, Gavin Bryars, and Derek Bailey had in mind when they named their free-improvisation trio Joseph Holbrooke upon its inception in 1963. His original work, nevertheless, remains only sparsely represented on CD, and of the three works represented on CPO's Josef Holbrooke: Symphonic Poems, Ulalume has been recorded once before. However, the more the merrier as far as Holbrooke is concerned, as there is so much of his music to catch up with, and one is grateful to have his work as interpreted by Howard Griffiths, here...
Read Less