Prima Facie Records

Flights of Fancy (PFCD011)

A Celebration of the music of David Beck

OUT OF STOCK

Flights of Fancy, for recorder and harpsichord (2008)
Duets, for violin and viola (2004)
Petite Suite, for recorder and string quartet (2005)
String Quartet No. 1 (1962)
Salford Keys, for four clarinets (2008)
Carol Variations, for recorder and string quartet (2011)
A Dunham Pastorale, for recorder and piano (2004)
A Christmas Vocalise for JM, for soprano voice, recorder, oboe, violin and cello (2008)
Vocalise No. 2 for JM (Wordsworthy), for soprano voice, recorder, oboe, violin and cello (2009)

Lesley-Jane Rogers soprano | Richard Simpson oboe | Richard Howarth violin | Jonathan Price cello
Ian Thompson harpsichord | Keith Swallow piano | Richard Baker narrator | John Turner recorder
The New World Ensemble:
Violin 1 Andrew Long | Violin 2 Katie New (in Petite Suite and Carol Variations) and Susie Gibbon (in String Quartet No. 1)
Viola David Aspin (in Duets, Petite Suite and Carol Variations) and Rachel Jones (in String Quartet No. 1)
Cello Zöe Long

For further details please see the CD booklet and inlay files.

David Beck (1941-2021) was born in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, and spent most of his schooldays in East Kent. As a young viola player in The National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain his interest in composition was greatly stimulated by contact with Herbert Howells. He was a Music Scholar at Gonville and Caius College Cambridge, where his teachers included Patrick Hadley and Peter Tranchell. After graduating, he stayed on at Cambridge to take the degree of Mus B. in composition and performance. For many years he was an orchestral violinist in the North-West of England, being a member of both the Hallé and BBC Northern (later Philharmonic) Orchestras, as well as the Manchester Camerata, in addition to freelance work. In his compositions he reacted strongly against the avant-gardism of the 1960s and later, but without quite embracing the tenets of the minimalists. He wrote works for the Hallé Brass Quintet, the Hallé Wind Quintet, the Warwickshire Schools String Orchestra, and the Northern Chamber Orchestra. He composed much chamber music, including two string quartets and two wind quintets. His many compositions for the recorder include Flights of Fancy for recorder and harpsichord, a sonata for solo recorder, two quintets for recorder and strings, as well as two substantial concertos for the instrument, the first of which, subtitled Flûte-à-Beck, was recorded by John Turner with the Camerata Ensemble, conducted by Philip Mackenzie, on Dutton CDLX 7154 (British Recorder Concertos).