SKU: FP.FSR01
ISBN 9790570504152.
Robin Steven’s Balmoral Suite is an affectionate tribute to the Royal Family in the late reign of Queen Elizabeth II. Featuring musical sketches of imagined family life during summers at their Scottish home, the work is a pastiche of well known Scottish folk tunes, delivered with the occasional modernist twist and plenty of humour.A version a version for string orchestra and harp accompaniment is also available and can be heard recorded by John Turner with the Manchester Sinfonia conducted by Richard Howarth, on the album Balmoral Suite and Other Recorder Favourites.
SKU: FP.FDD02
ISBN 9790570503834.
Vernon Park, Stockport’s oldest park, was created on land donated by Lord Vernon (George John Warren). It was built by poor mill workers who called it pinch-belly park and opened on 20th September 1858. Comprising twenty-one acres, it houses a museum, a bandstand, ornamental fountains, a fernery, rockery, borders and sunken rose garden as well terraced walkways that overlook the river and weir. The piece depicts a solitary walker engrossed in his own thoughts on a winter’s day, the landscape, and the park’s Victorian past.At the very end of the piece a reminder of the park’s Victorian origins can be detected in a quote from Elgar’s Salut d’amour of 1899, which may well have been played by a band in the bandstand. Stockport market celebrated its 750th anniversary in 2010. It dated back to September 1260 when a Royal Charter allowed Robert de Stokeport, the Mayor, to hold a weekly market within the defensive walls of the Norman Castle on the present site of Castle Yard.The Glass Umbrella was a popular name given to the 1861 covered market built of timber, glass and iron - nine bays with open sides and a glass canopy. In 1912, one bay was removed to enable electric trams and trolley buses to turn a sharp corner.The piece depicts a lively market day, the multiculturalism of the present day and the old cries of pick and pay without delay. The bells of St Mary’s Church are depicted by a cascading peel tuned to the ten bells of the church tower, and a fleeting reference to John Wainwright’s famous Christmas hymn Christians Awake, and the Westminster chimes striking the hour from St Mary’s, bring to piece to a conclusion. Separate parts are provided for recorder and oboe.
