Phillip Sear plays a 1918 piece by the British composer, conductor, and pianist Julian (Seymour) Clifford (1877–1921).
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Clifford was born in London, and studied at the Leipzig Conservatory and the Royal College of Music.
He began his career as a pianist, but soon turned to conducting. He held positions with the Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and the Yorkshire Permanent Orchestra in Leeds, before being appointed Musical Director to the Corporations of Harrogate and Hastings in 1906 (Clifford’s Harrogate orchestra would visit Hastings for the winter season).
Clifford was a highly respected conductor, and his orchestras were known for their high standards of performance. He was also a champion of new music, and gave the first provincial performances of many works by English composers, including Elgar, Vaughan Williams, and Holst. He was a close friend of another short-lived English composer, Ernest Farrar, who was killed in World War 1.
Clifford’s works as a composer are now largely forgotten. He wrote a piano concerto, a song cycle, and a tone poem, as well as smaller pieces. I have referred to him in the titles as “senior” to avoid confusion with his son, also Julian (1903–66), likewise a conductor, pianist, and composer (of light music). You can read more about both Cliffords here: https://tinyurl.com/2dcpl7pj
This is quite a grand meditation—maybe a person awed by the scale and spaciousness of a cathedral.
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#britishmusic #cathedral #meditationmusic
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Played by Phillip Sear
http://www.psear.co.uk (Email: piano4@psear.33mail.com
WhatsApp: http://wa.me/441444483794 )
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6 Comments
Very nice!
Beautiful Majestic piece, excellent interpretation. Thanks for sharing, Mr. Sear! Awilda
Love those deep melodious sounds.
Belle méditation qui progresse crescendo en intensité majestueuse et solennelle. Je pense à Notre-Dame de Paris qui a retrouvé une nouvelle flèche le 8 décembre. A présent on cherche des artistes pour des vitraux.
Una preziosa composizione che esprime positività! Complimenti per l’esecuzione magistrale!
It has to be a cathedral in which you can feel comfortable and which also has to have something reverent about it. These hints of a chorale and wandering in the halls of the nave are interesting. But the religious attitude of a kneeling flowerbed person also comes across in the minor key part. At the end there are sounds that remind you of an entry of the clergy. And at the very end, it seems, the cathedral bells are rung.