Catalogue Connection: 25119

Born in Liverpool in 1933,David Ellis was a prize-winning composition student of Thomas Pitfield at Manchester’s Royal College of Music (where fellow incumbents included Birtwistle, Maxwell Davies, John Ogdon and his wife-to-be, Patricia Cunliffe). He joined the BBC’s Music Department in Manchester as a producer in 1964, eventually rising to the position of Head of Music, BBC North. After leaving the Corporation in 1986, he took up posts first with the Northern Chamber Orchestra (as Artistic Director and Composer-in-Residence) and then, in 1994, with the Portuguese SO in Lisbon (where he served as Assistant to the Chief Conductor, Alvaro Cassuto).

The works on this valuable compilation span some 52 years, from the agreeably rugged and rigorous Concert Music for strings from 1959 (premiered by Bryden Thomson and the BBC Welsh Orchestra 13 years later) to the powerfully affecting September Threnody (completed in 2011 and written in memory of his wife). Both Solus (1973) and Diversions (1974) were first given by the Manchester Camerata under Frank Cliff and are cast as sets of compact and inventive variations – the latter comprises an especially nourishing and witty specimen – while the exuberant and impeccably crafted Celebration was a 1980s commission from Sir John Manduell for the RNCM’s newly founded postgraduate orchestra. That just leaves the winsome, five-movement Vale Royal Suite, fashioned for a Cheshire-based amateur string group under its then chief, Richard Howarth. Suffice it to say, performances are uniformly excellent and recordings of varying vintage have all come up freshly. Do investigate this very likeable collection.

Divine Art has here produced a fine retrospective of the music of David Ellis. According to the composer’s website, it is only the second CD to be devoted entirely to his work. Although many other pieces have appeared on compilations from Campion Cameo, Dutton and Meridian, this is the first major exploration of the orchestral works.

It is not a grave confession to admit that I have not heard any of the works on this present CD before: I rely heavily on the liner-notes provided by the composer for my review. My only mild criticism of these excellent notes is the statement that ‘the least problematical work in this collection [is the Vale Royal Suite ]. I find that all the works are approachable, occasionally a bit challenging, but always expressive and extremely well written – never problematic. This is exciting, fresh and imaginative music.

The notes give a brief biography. The website presents considerably more detail: three or four sentences may give some context to his music. Ellis was born in Liverpool in 1933 and studied at the Royal Manchester College of Music (1953-57). His fellow students included Peter Maxwell Davies, Harrison Birtwistle, Elgar Howarth, Alexander Goehr and John Ogdon. In 1964 he was employed by the BBC as a music producer latterly becoming Head of Music, BBC North in 1977. In 1986 he was appointed Artistic Director and Composer-in-Residence to the Northern Chamber Orchestra. After a period of working in Portugal he returned to the United Kingdom to devote himself to composition and work on CD production. His compositions include three symphonies, concertos for violin and piano, and a wide variety of chamber and instrumental music.

The earliest work here is the Concert Music dating from 1959 which was not premiered until 1972. Ellis notes that the string writing ‘did not conform to the avant-garde tendencies prevalent elsewhere in the UK at the time of its completion.’ The work is in four movements and explores a variety of moods. The important thing is that this ‘neo-romantic’ music is consistent, balanced and ultimately satisfying. For me, it should take its place in the repertoire of ‘string orchestra’ music alongside music by Berkeley, Tippett and Leighton.

I was impressed by Solus composed in 1973. It was at this time that I had started attending concerts and recitals in Glasgow and suffered from hearing a number of ‘premieres’ which were typically unmemorable and sometimes virtually unlistenable. If only I had heard Ellis’s work it might have restored my faith in ‘modern music’! Solus was a commission from the Manchester Camerata for their inaugural concert at the Royal Northern College of Music on 2 June 1973. The title reminds the listener that some 400 years previously, Copernicus had ‘made the discovery that confirmed the relationship between the Sun and planet Earth.’ David Ellis wrote a set of variations that reflected the progress of a typical day from ‘dawn to dusk’. The theme heard at the start, is presented in a number of guises, with a wide range of emotions ranging from warmth to death and even desolation. Yet it is piece that can be enjoyed apart from its programme. It is possibly the most vital piece on this CD.

Diversions (1974) had a strange genesis. It was commissioned by Warrington New Town Development Corporation. This group had been set up to ensure that the then new M6 motorway did not isolate the town. A concert to celebrate the success of the initiative was given by the Manchester Camerata under Frank Cliff: it included Diversions . This is an immediately enjoyable set of ‘continuous variations’. The title alludes to a perennial hazard of road travel – being ‘Diverted’.

Although the liner notes do not state it, ‘Celebrations’ is the last movement of a work called Trilogy . The first and second are titled ‘Circles’ (strings) and ‘Centerings’ (woodwind). It is difficult to know whether Trilogy was conceived as a ‘symphonic’ work or was created from three diverse pieces. Certainly, the composer considers that ‘Celebrations’ works as a standalone piece. It was commissioned by Sir John Manduell for the Royal Northern College of Music and makes use of an 18 th century-sized classical orchestra. In spite of the title, there is much reflective music in this score that contrasts with the lively opening and closing measures.

The undated Vale Royal Suite is a delight. Based on a day’s ‘journey’ the music gives expression to moods associated with ‘A leisurely morning’, ‘Afternoon Activity’, ‘Early Evening at Rest’, ‘A Midnight Waltz’ and finally after a very late night, ‘Tomorrow’s Sunrise’. I guess that if I was the composer, I would ditch the movements’ ‘character piece’ titles and go for the tempo directions only. This is basically ‘light’ music that is moving towards something more serious.

The latest work on this CD is September Threnody for string orchestra, completed in 2011 and premiered by the Northern Chamber Orchestra under Nicholas Ward in 2013. The word ‘threnody’ can be defined as ‘an ode, song or speech of lamentation, especially for the dead.’ This is highly appropriate as the work is dedicated to the composer’s wife who died in 2009. However, the emotion of this four movement work does have many positive moments and the listener feels challenged at the end of the piece rather than depressed. September Threnody is written in four short sections.

As noted above the liner-notes are first-rate: they are clear and informative. The recording is excellent. The performances are all completely convincing.

David Ellis has presented here a wide range of approachable, absorbing, enjoyable and sometimes thought-provoking (but not problematic) music. I have heard nothing by Ellis, on this CD or elsewhere, that has not impressed me. He is a composer who deserves all success and I can only hope that this present exploration of a selection of his orchestral music will lead to greater attention in the world of recording and concerts.

David Ellis studied at the Royal Manchester College of Music in the 1950s where his fellow students included Harrison Birtwistle, Peter Maxwell Davies and Alexander Goehr. This new CD of his works includes pieces written over a period of 50 years and the recordings span 40 years.

For those unfamiliar with Ellis’ music here is an ideal opportunity to discover a contemporary composer whose music, while not as modernist as much of the work of those above, deserves a place in the repertoire with its own focused and distinctive musical voice.

There are six works on the CD, all performed by Manchester-based ensembles, with an emphasis on the sound of the string orchestra. The first piece, Vale Royal Suite , is perfectly pitched at amateur ensembles: if there are echoes of Britten in the practicality and clarity of the writing (although the scurrying pizzicato of the second movement certainly sounds virtuosic) these are secondary to a musical personality that clearly makes its presence felt right from the start.

Ellis has a particular knack for striking openings in his work. The pounding pedal ostinato that starts Diversions for chamber orchestra (1974) allows a clear structure to emerge, where not a note is wasted and an ending of considerable energy complements the opening. Whilst Concert Music in the composer’s words ‘ did not conform to the avant-garde tendencies prevalent elsewhere in the UK at the time of its completion’ (in 1959) it is nevertheless at its outset somewhat grittier in its harmonic language than most of the other pieces on the disc, allowing for a most moving relaxing of tension in its final movement.

The real surprise comes in the final work in this collection, Solus (1973), where a complexity and denseness in the string writing exhilaratingly contextualized shows that the composer was well aware of the sound worlds of Ligeti and Penderecki without in any way following their aesthetics. Perhaps the most moving work of all on the CD is the most recent: September Threnody (2011): written in memory of his wife, four short studies in mod, of which the second, a brief fugato dissolving into something more tranquil, is especially poignant.

The performances are uniformly excellent bringing out the harmonic richness and rhythmic poise and subtlety abundant in all the pieces. All in all this CD is an outstanding portrait of a composer whose works deserve to be known far more widely.

I originally intended to include some brief words about this recording in Download News as a pendant to John France’s review. However I couldn’t let it go at that, if only for the sake of congratulating Divine Art yet again on rescuing a composer whose music is so undeserving of neglect.

Why is David Ellis’s music less well-known than that of his contemporaries at the Manchester Royal College of Music, which he left laden with prizes: Harrison Birtwistle, John Ogdon, Peter Maxwell Davies, Elgar Howarth and Alexander Goehr? As far as I can judge from this recording, solely because he didn’t fit the orthodoxy of the late 1950s and 1960s. Apart from this typically enterprising release from Divine Art, I can locate only one other recording even partly including his music: three of his piano pieces feature on Prima Facie PFCD013. He’s not to be confused with John Ellis, whose music Divine Art have also recorded.

David Ellis’s music actually contains tunes, but that doesn’t mean that it sounds facile. The recording breaks us in gently with Vale Royal Suite , a times-of-day composition – as is Solus – composed for a Cheshire amateur string orchestra. The following Diversions , despite its easy-going title, is made of stronger stuff, as befits its commission, which was to mark Warrington’s connections with the nearby M6 motorway.

Concert Music is the earliest work here. Although it didn’t conform to the avant garde fashion of the time, it’s no pushover: the notes in the booklet speak of ‘neo-romantic tensions’ and it’s the tensions that predominate for much of the time. John France mentions Tippett, Leighton and Lennox Berkeley, but there’s also some of the same kind of thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears that I experience in Richard Strauss’s Metamorphosen .

September Threnody , written soon after the death of his wife, is the toughest nut to crack but also the most profound and most rewarding. It opens with a very brief exultation, as if recalling their happiness together, but grief bursts in soon after, alternating with wistfulness. The music doesn’t seek to batter the listener into depression and my overall response was very positive.

Though performed by a variety of orchestras on a number of different occasions over a period of forty years, playing and recording do full justice to Ellis’s music. This album deserves to receive the widest possible publicity in advancing the cause of this neglected composer. Now, perhaps, we can have more, including the other two pieces of the trilogy from which Celebration is taken.

The information in the booklet is short but to the point. There’s more about the composer at his website.

David Ellis (b.1933) was born in Liverpool, England and studied at the Liverpool Institute before going on to the Royal Manchester College of Music where his fellow students included Peter Maxwell Davies, Harrison Birtwistle, Elgar Howarth, Alexander Goehr and John Ogdon.

It was whilst studying at the Royal Manchester College of Music that his compositions first received attention with performances and commissions and awards including the Royal Philharmonic Prize, the Royal College of Music Patrons’ Award, the Theodore Holland Award, the Royal Manchester Institution Silver Medal, the Ricordi Prize and a Gulbenkian Award.

From 1964 he worked as a music producer at the BBC, later becoming Head of Music, BBC North only leaving to take up the post of Artistic Director and Composer-in-Residence to the Northern Chamber Orchestra. He later moved to Portugal working with the Orquestra Sinfonica Portuguesa in Lisbon as Assistant to the Director of Music and Chief Conductor, Alvaro Cassuto.

Ellis returned to the UK in order to devote himself exclusively to composition. His compositions have been performed in the U.K and have been played and broadcast in Canada, the U.S.A., Israel, Portugal, Denmark, Brazil, Australia, China, and throughout Europe. His sizeable output includes choral and vocal works, orchestral works including concertos and three symphonies, instrumental and chamber works, works for brass band and piano works.

Divine Art Recordings have now brought together a number of recordings of David Ellis’ music on a new release entitled Concert Music.

Vale Royal Suite for string orchestra, Op.77 was written for Richard Howarth and the Vale Royal Orchestra and first performed by them on 17 May 2009. Here Richard Howarth conducts the Manchester Sinfonia. The work is in five movements commencing with A leisurely morning that opens in the basses before a fine melody rises up through the orchestra bringing many fine sonorities as the music freely weaves its way. Pizzicato strings open Afternoon activity, a lovely vibrant movement where a fine melody flows over the rhythmic pizzicato theme.

Early evening rest brings a solo violin theme that flows over a more hesitant orchestral accompaniment with a melancholy feel. A midnight waltz has a dark opening with rich deep sounds in the bass before the music lightens and finds its waltz rhythm that is much varied. Tomorrow’s sunrise has a hushed, still opening with some exquisite playing from the strings of the Manchester Sinfonia that slowly rise in dynamics as well as emotional thrust. Towards the end the solo violin intones a lovely theme before the music sinks to a hushed coda.

This is heart-warming music beautifully played.

Diversions, Op.39 for chamber orchestra (1974) was commissioned by the Warrington New Town Development Corporation in North West England. The Northern Chamber Orchestra is conducted by Nicholas Ward in this performance.

Diversions opens with a steady, slow beat in the orchestra over which a theme winds its way, shared by various sections of the orchestra, slowly building in strength. Soon a sprightly wind theme is heard leading to a more animated section. David Ellis’ use of the orchestra is extremely skilful as the music moves quickly ahead, many sections of the orchestra having their say. Later the music slows with a punctuated counterpoint to a more flowing theme. There are many little surges of energy as well as fine wind passages before the music heads to its decisive coda.

This is a particularly fine work. This is a very fine performance as one would expect from this fine chamber orchestra under their accomplished conductor.

Concert Music for strings, op.24 (1959) was first performed in 1972 in a radio broadcast by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales conducted by Bryden Thomson. Here it is performed by the Manchester Sinfonia under Richard Howarth.

Movement I brings a rising melody underpinned by pizzicato basses, before easing back to a quiet flowing section. However, the music soon rises up again full of energy with some very fine incisive string playing before easing back in the coda. Movement II opens with incisive playing before more flowing melody appears. Soon a quiet, slower theme appears giving a chamber quality to the music before rising in dynamics and moving to the coda. Movement III is a slow, thoughtful movement with some beautifully free tonal harmonies. There are increases in drama during the work, the second rising to more of a pitch before suddenly sinking to a hush in a particularly lovely moment. A final rise in drama occurs before a solo cello appears and the orchestra leads to the hushed coda.

Movement IV moves forward fluently swirling, rising and falling with a lovely ebb and flow adding to the drama in this bright and breezy conclusion, expertly written for strings

There is nothing lightweight about this music. It has an inner strength and vitality, well brought out by Richard Howarth and the Manchester Sinfonia.

Celebration was commissioned by Sir John Manduell for the Royal Northern College of Music as part of a 1980’s initiative involving an 18 th century sized classical orchestra for post graduate student players. It was first performed at the orchestra’s inaugural concert conducted by Michel Brandt and later recorded by the BBC with Sir Edward Downes conducting the RNCM Sinfonia. It is this recording that is featured here.

Celebration opens with the woodwind leading a rising theme before the music falls and slows only for it to pick up again in a dramatic, weighty passage. The music soon speeds up in a lithe, faster section that really skips along. Brass points up the music before arriving at a short, quiet pause. The music then surges ahead with occasional little quiet moments. Centrally there is a fine passage when the theme is slowly built to a passionate crescendo before falling just as slowly with quiet timpani joining as the strings gently swirl around. Soon the music rises again, skipping along before eventually rising in dynamics to a terrific peak. The music falls again before leading to a dynamic coda.

There is always an interest and depth to Ellis’ compositions and no less here in this fine performance.

September Threnody, Op.91 for string orchestra (2011) was premiered on 9 March 2013 by the Northern Chamber Orchestra conducted by Nicholas Ward.

A solo violin with a wistful melody opens Movement I immediately joined by the orchestra revealing some lovely harmonies, gently played. The music slowly builds in weight and volume before falling back to a quiet end. Movement II has an animated theme that moves with agility, underpinned by the lower strings before a hushed coda.

Movement III has a purposeful opening as the music quickly and gently moves ahead before picking up in dynamics with some beautifully free flowing, rich string sounds. The opening quieter music returns before rising up for the coda. The lower strings of the orchestra open Movement IV before the music rises through the orchestra with a lovely, heartfelt theme before a gentle conclusion.

This is finely constructed music full of captivating ideas expertly orchestrated and, indeed, performed.

Solus, for string orchestra Op.37 was commissioned by BBC Radio Manchester and first performed in 1973 at the Royal Northern College of Music with the Manchester Camerata conducted by Frank Cliff. It is that performance that is included here.

The music rises slowly through the orchestra, building in dynamics before a quiet and gentle theme is introduced. The music slowly rises in dynamics again with a rather insistent quality soon becoming more incisive with some terrific string passages. There are strange string sounds out of which sudden flourishes appear before fast and furious strings lead the music on before fading to a hushed coda.

The 1973 recording is showing its age a little giving a rather veiled quality, though perfectly acceptable. The performance, however, is excellent.

This is a very enjoyable disc of music from a composer whose music should be more widely recorded. The recordings overall are extremely good and there are excellent booklet notes by the composer.

David Ellis was born in Liverpool in 1933 and studied at the Liverpool Institute and Royal Manchester College of Music alongside Peter Maxwell Davies, Harrison Birtwistle, and John Ogdon. His music is reserved and fairly tonal, often with long, meditative stretches.

The Vale Royal Suite (2007) was written for an amateur string orchestra; and while it isn’t technically challenging, the writing is intelligent and evocative. The movement titles (‘A Leisurely Morning’, ‘Early Evening at Rest’) are a little cheesy, but the music is superb.

Diversions (1974) and Concert Music (1959) are more serious in mood —though still sunny—and more adventurous in tonality. There’s more polyphony and gentle dissonance. Vale Royal Suite interests me more, but there’s enough personality and humanity in the others to keep my attention most of the time. Celebration, from the 1980s, resembles Hindemith a lot and isn’t as absorbing. Other than being scored for strings, September Threnody bears no resemblance to Penderecki’s famed opus. Ellis composed it in 2011; like Celebration, it’s angular but still has Ellis’s proclivity toward calmness. Solus is a commission from 1973, and it is darker and tauter than the other pieces.

The playing and sound aren’t the final word in polish, but they’re satisfactory. Notes are in English.

This is as niche as they come, especially to the average American listener, I would imagine. Trained in Liverpool and Manchester, David Ellis’s career remained remarkably loyal to the north of Britain, aside from a stint in Portugal helping to run an orchestra, with a career at the BBC leading to him becoming head of music at BBC North. As a snapshot of the contemporary culture scene in Northern England this has some interest, not least as Ellis studied at the same time at the Royal Manchester College of Music as Peter Maxwell Davies and Harrison Birtwistle, and along with the likes of Alexander Goehr and John Ogden forming the New Music Manchester Music Group. Nevertheless, anyone expecting a radical, atonal voice like Birtwistle in this present collection of short orchestral works will be taken back by the gentle neo-Romanticism of Ellis’s writing. Given the avant-garde dogmatism of much contemporary composing in the 1950s and 1960s, one could maybe argue that Ellis was the true radical of his time in defying any Modernist trends.

It is a pity this disc does not include his four pieces for orchestra (later reworked as a sinfonietta), a breakthrough for him that was premiered by no less than John Pritchard. Instead we open with the Vale Royal Suite, a pleasant enough five-movement work, condensing the hours of a day into 12 minutes. It is as unthreatening and forgettably likeable as its movement titles, such as “A leisurely morning” and “A midnight waltz.”

If that work was written deftly for an amateur string orchestra, the following Diversions stems from a more unlikely and unromantic source of commissions: The Warrington New Town Development Corporation, in relation to its completion of the M6 motorway. A composer’s gotta eat….There is humor and skill at work in this bustling, propulsive piece with its restlessness and abrupt ending, so Diversions is very true to its title. It definitely adds a welcome note of energy in a rather placid album of academic forms.

Concert Music, the title piece which follows, is a four-movement suite of mournful strings and glimpses of feverish tension. The third movement is the most interesting with its repeated motifs and phrasing, but otherwise there is a rather faceless, meandering structure to the work, directionless and rather tepid. By contrast, Celebration, conducted here in a BBC recording by the late Edward Downes, was written for the Royal Northern College of Music and, as a later work than others, it stands out for its dark, brooding, Bergian drama, and passages of eerie beauty. This is arguably the best work on the album.

Written in memory of his wife in 2011, September Threnody is a fine, contemplative work for strings with spare textures and a sincere feeling of bleak loss. Yet it too lacks focus and a sense of arc throughout the work, although I very much like the short, spare little coda as a final movement. We conclude with Solus, recorded here at its premiere in 1973. As a flip side to the gentle day of the Royal Vale Suite, this is a tense tone poem of the journey from dawn till dusk. It is a shame a better recording couldn’t be found (it is mono and very murky) as there are flashes of real inspiration in the edgy, shivery lines.

Throughout the playing of the various ensembles is generally very tidy. This album has been decently produced too, with good concise notes and bios. Given the variety of sources and vintages, the sound is also remarkably consistent and full-bodied, with the exception of the muffled-sounding Solus. Whether this will help find David Ellis an audience is another matter. His music is never less than perfectly pleasant, with many a charming evocation of place and landscape, but it lacks face or an opinion, especially in his earlier work. A little mundane for Manchester, I think.