George Butterworth - A Shropshire Lad (1912)

Another replacement for my original upload (Boult/LPO) which was removed by Lyrita/Nimbus. Almost the same photographs, in the same order (a few new ones to accommodate the longer performance here). Like the others I've re-uploaded recently, we have instead Sir Neville Marriner and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields.

Lt. George Butterworth MC numbered among many promising young British composers whose lives were snuffed out in the First World War (shot by a German sniper, his body never recovered amongst the carnage, hence the poppies in the first slide). He died in 1916 during the Battle of the Somme. An immense loss to his family and friends, and to British music, his compositions were of the first rank.

His "Shropshire Lad" Rhapsody - a sort of orchestral postlude to his earlier song cycle "A Shropshire Lad" – employs a normal sized symphony orchestra, and was first performed on 2 October 1913 at the Leeds Festival, conducted by Arthur Nikisch. It was influential upon Vaughan Williams (A Pastoral Symphony), Gerald Finzi (A Severn Rhapsody) and Ernest Moeran (First Rhapsody).

I love Shropshire a great deal, but alas I have no photographs of my own of that beautiful English County. As an alternative, I chose photographs I took in various parts of the Peak District (Derbyshire, and Staffordhire) England - not dissimilar places in their bucolic appeal.

Academy of St. Martin in the Fields
Conductor: Sir Neville Marriner
(c) DECCA 1975 468-802-2

[AntPDC]

Correction: the opening slide should have stated "1916" as the date of his death.

[stevetaylor]

My grandfather served in the army during the Great War. He was gassed and like the great majority, survived the ordeal but with terrible internal injuries. Unfortunately, his records were destroyed during the bombing campaign in London and so we are unable to glean details. He never recovered from his trauma and died a young man in 1926. RIP

[Timmmmartin]

Much is made of the war poets who died in WW1, but not so much is made of the composers who never returned. Butterworth was a wonderful composer, whose tragically young death was compounded by his certainty that that would be his fate, and which caused him to destroy some of his earlier compositions, including some piano music, deeming it unworthy of later publication. We'll never know what treasures have been lost as a result of this destruction nor what masterpieces he would have composed in later years.

[stephenburgess]

As some one who was born in Shrewsbury and has never been away from North Shropshire more than two weeks in the fifty eight years of my life i feel this music sums up the county that i love so much.

[rogerwells]

My paternal grandfather joined the army in 1914 at the age of 15 to get out of the pit. He was shot and wounded at Ovillers La Boiselle on the first day of the Battle of the Somme. On his recovery, he was to be transferred to the Royal Scots, and sent to Ireland.
Fortunately, being still underage, he was honourably discharged — and sent down the pit! Work of national importance.

[steveladds]

Listening to Butterworth and Vaughn Williams I'm immediately reminded that they could only be Englishmen! Irrespective of who we are, where and when we were born, their 'folk' inspired music captures the very essence of the country idyll like no other music that I can think of. I, for one, am plunged straight back to my childhood in the early 1960's in the Lincolnshire countryside where some of the old 'die hard' farmers were still holding out against the tractor and using magnificent shire horses to pull their lincolnshire tip carts full of potatoes, kicking up dust in the fields and meandering along the lanes in the warm sunshine...ah! my halcyon days! For those who are not aware! There is an outstanding DVD called "All My Life Is Buried Here" The Story of George Butterworth. Directed by Stewart Morgan Hajdukiewicz. which is a very good watch and highly recommended! I am not associated with that production in the slightest.

[jonathanjensen]

I’ve been an orchestral musician for 50 years, and have never played a piece by Butterworth. So glad to discover this evocative masterpiece.

[alkmi]

Really a beautiful piece. I wish he hadn't died and could have written more.

[LukeFaulkner]

I actually am a Shropshire Lad. Housman (& Butterworth, VW) put us on the map... prior to that the only other time I can think of Shropshire being mentioned is an angry chap in Bleak House who hailed from there. Anyhow, Butterworth is an underplayed composer - his music is exquisite!

[gordonscott]

An incredible piece of music, and so very moving, amazing how someone born in paddington, london, can portray such a beautiful image of the english landscape, to perish in such horrific circumstance at the tender age of 31, is so very sad, sometimes wonder what more he would have achieved had he lived.

[jongooch]

Hearing this, it is too painful to consider the terrible loss of such a soul when framed in the gorgeous beauty of the English landscape. We can not reason away the tragedy of the human condition for all it's good and evil. Let us be as thankful as the rabbit who unknowingly avoids death by fox due to happenstance or the policeman who cheats death on night watch as his number isn't called.... and just listen to this piece of heaven on Earth, while we can.

[jackwmith]

The late Richard Holmes uses this music in his brilliant documentary "War Walks - Mons." The last minutes are breathtaking.

[swanner]

Into my heart, an air that kills
From yon far country blows:
what are those blue remembered hills,
what spires, what farms are those?

It is the land of lost content,
I see it shining plain,
Those happy highways where I went
And cannot come again.

AE Housman, A Shropshire Lad, No 40

[lauradavidson]

An exquisite and beautifully expressed symphony for a place in the country that we all long to see and, once there, will never leave.

[hectorbarrionuevo]

Gorgeous, calming, pastoral, populist, lyrical, noble, ... love Butterworth's music !!!

[rafiqadarr]

A masterpiece, and I didn't even know it existed until I bought a CD of English Music (so-called). I know the poem exists obviously, it has been my favourite for years and is unrivalled, but I did not know of Rhapsody (1912). My favourite piece of music, with the Naxos CD of Roderick Williams singing Six Songs From a Shropshire Lad (2010). Roderick Williams was born to sing those verses, he has exquisite understanding of Butterworth's interpretations of Housman's epic poem. It really speaks to my heart, Rhapsody, it is so evocative. I love George Butterworth's music, but it is, because of the subject matter, melancholic.

[roberthiggins]

I only discovered Shropshire Lad a couple of years ago and it has been my favourite piece since. It is beautiful and stirring and so powerful. He had so much talent. What a waste of life .

[tangle]

.
My heart breaks .... He wrote this masterpiece at 26, he was killed in the industrial slaughter at 31

[evanofelipe]

Wonderful music, admirably accompanied by evocative country scenes. I read somewhere inexplicably that someone’s complaining the scenes herein are not from Shropshire? Irrelevant as the countryside speaks for itself, therein lies its beauty and creatures dwell, not bound by county lines. Anthony please continue with your work, your choice of music interlaced with your ‘special take’ on the world around you continues to give us great joy and remains a pleasure to see and hear. Thanks.

[ginajackson]

Beautiful photos to match the equally beautiful music. Thank you for uploading.