Henry Cotter Nixon's Palamon and Arcite, a five-movement orchestral epic, was composed in 1882, predating William Wallace's The Passing of Beatrice by a decade.
Critical Reception
Nixon's Concert Overture No. 1, Titania, premiered in 1880, received a dismissive review from The Musical Times, calling him a 'provincial professor'.
Compositional Technique
Nixon's orchestral magnum opus, Palamon and Arcite, is a five-movement symphonic poem that entirely avoids strict sonata structures, taking its narrative from John Dryden's retelling of Chaucer's A Knight's Tale.
Performer Biography
Paul Mann, the conductor, gained international attention as first prizewinner in the 1998 Donatella Flick Conducting Competition, leading to his appointment as assistant conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra.
Recording & Production
The recording project involved extensive editing and reconstruction of Nixon's manuscripts, some of which were incomplete or poorly preserved, to create new performance material.
Composer Biography
Henry Cotter Nixon, the composer, was born in 1842 into a musical family; his father, Henry George Nixon, was also a composer and organist.
Recording & Production
Most of the works in this three-album series are first recordings, and those previously performed have not been heard since the composer's lifetime.
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