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Tibor Paul
Posted by Robert on December 17, 2023, 12:28 pm
I would like to thank Christopher Howell for his very informative, thoroughly-researched, enjoyable and extensive article on this forgotten conductor. As a Dubliner I read this article with particular interest as Paul was principal conductor of, what was then, the Radio Éireann (soon to become the RTÉ) Symphony Orchestra from 1961 to 1967.
For what it is worth I have a tape recording of Paul conducting Gerard Victory's Favola di Notte. As this piece was composed in 1966, it is probably a world premiere, or an Irish premiere at least. I have not seen a score of this piece but I do not hear anything cautious in Paul's tempi. It seems like a very tricky piece to bring off effectively and for me Paul does a most admirable job of it.
Regarding his issues with A.J. Potter, (and everything I say here is pure personal speculation) I take no exception to what Paul said about Irish audiences (indeed I can well believe what he said was correct) and have no problem in believing that Paul's issue with Potter was nothing to do with him being an Irish composer or from the old school but rather that he just didn't rate him as a composer, full stop. Potter unable to take this blow to his ego tried to dress up Paul's objections or lack of interest in his music in some ideological garb, much in the way many British composers who felt they were snubbed by the BBC in the 1960s invented the baseless and erroneous notion of Glock's blacklist rather than accept the possibility that maybe Glock and many of the BBC producers at the time just didn't think they were up to much compared to tonal composers of real talent like Britten and Tippett. A point I raised here before in connection with Ruth Gipps.
I wish to emphasise that my conjecture is not a reflection of my opinion of Potter's music but just an opinion on Paul's possible standpoint.
Re: Tibor Paul
Posted by Chris Howell on December 20, 2023, 9:26 am, in reply to "Tibor Paul"
Thank you Robert for these kind words.
However thoroughly I try to research these articles, new information continually comes to light. The performance of Victory's Favola di Notte is available on Internet Archive and I agree it sounds effective, though I haven't got a score either. Also on IA is the Potter Concerto for Orchestra. The writer of a thesis on Potter thought it a fiasco of a performance and I admit that he has a score and I have not, but it doesn't come across as lukewarm or cautious to my ears. Doubtless the Chicago SO would have played it better, but other European radio orchestras of the 1960s would have produced similar results, I ventire to suggest. Some of Paul's operatic work in Dublin can now be heard on internet. I suppose I should revise this article, but the trouble is, I should probably revise all the articles in the series at least once a year and I would end up by doing nothing else.
Previous Message
I would like to thank Christopher Howell for his very informative, thoroughly-researched, enjoyable and extensive article on this forgotten conductor. As a Dubliner I read this article with particular interest as Paul was principal conductor of, what was then, the Radio Éireann (soon to become the RTÉ) Symphony Orchestra from 1961 to 1967.
For what it is worth I have a tape recording of Paul conducting Gerard Victory's Favola di Notte. As this piece was composed in 1966, it is probably a world premiere, or an Irish premiere at least. I have not seen a score of this piece but I do not hear anything cautious in Paul's tempi. It seems like a very tricky piece to bring off effectively and for me Paul does a most admirable job of it.
Regarding his issues with A.J. Potter, (and everything I say here is pure personal speculation) I take no exception to what Paul said about Irish audiences (indeed I can well believe what he said was correct) and have no problem in believing that Paul's issue with Potter was nothing to do with him being an Irish composer or from the old school but rather that he just didn't rate him as a composer, full stop. Potter unable to take this blow to his ego tried to dress up Paul's objections or lack of interest in his music in some ideological garb, much in the way many British composers who felt they were snubbed by the BBC in the 1960s invented the baseless and erroneous notion of Glock's blacklist rather than accept the possibility that maybe Glock and many of the BBC producers at the time just didn't think they were up to much compared to tonal composers of real talent like Britten and Tippett. A point I raised here before in connection with Ruth Gipps.
I wish to emphasise that my conjecture is not a reflection of my opinion of Potter's music but just an opinion on Paul's possible standpoint.
Re: Tibor Paul
Posted by Rob Maynard on December 20, 2023, 4:39 pm, in reply to "Re: Tibor Paul"
Chris’s series on Forgotten Artists must surely be one of the most thoroughly researched and informative on the MusicWeb site. It has certainly inspired me to check out more than one of its subjects in more detail and I have almost always found the author’s assessments to be spot on. Each article must be amazingly time-consuming to produce but I, for one, would love to read more of them if Chris can spare the time.
Re: Tibor Paul
Posted by Chris Howell on December 22, 2023, 8:09 am, in reply to "Re: Tibor Paul"
Thank you Rob, for these encouraging comments. I have never looked on the series as closed even though there have been no new additions recently. As you rightly imagine, they take time and I have to admit that some articles got stuck about half way through, sometimes for the sheer mass of material, sometimes because I failed to find information or recordings that seemed fundamental to a fair assessment. It's amazing how much some of these artists who, by reputation, made few records, actually did record for rare labels, or whose live work survives in large quantities and even circulates on the net. But, as I say, the series is theoretically ongoing and I'll try to add something during 2024.
Previous Message
Chris’s series on Forgotten Artists must surely be one of the most thoroughly researched and informative on the MusicWeb site. It has certainly inspired me to check out more than one of its subjects in more detail and I have almost always found the author’s assessments to be spot on. Each article must be amazingly time-consuming to produce but I, for one, would love to read more of them if Chris can spare the time.