This Sunday night on “The Lost Chord,” we honor the accomplishments of Gordon Jacob.
Jacob is perhaps best remembered these days as an orchestrator. He did a popular arrangement for full orchestra of Vaughan Williams’ “English Folk Song Suite,” originally composed for symphonic band; he orchestrated Sir Edward Elgar’s Organ Sonata; and his arrangement of the ballet “Les Sylphides” has been eclipsed only by that of Roy Douglas.
But he was also a prolific composer himself. In all, he wrote some 400 works. In fact, when weighing the size of his output against his reputation, it’s tempting to underestimate – as the Angel did his Biblical namesake – Jacob’s tenacity.
We’ll listen to an example of his work as an arranger, the “William Byrd Suite,” in a classic recording on the Mercury label, and his rarely-heard Symphony No. 1, dedicated to the memory of his brother, who died in the First World War, in its world premiere recording on the Lyrita label.
I hope you’ll join me as we grapple with the range of Jacob’s accomplishments, in “Wrestling Jacob,” this Sunday night at 10:00 EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.
In the meantime, follow the link for a witty survey ranking the various depictions of Jacob wrestling the angel in Western Art: