Search - Alan Rawsthorne, John Pritchard, Nicholas Braithwaite :: Rawsthorne: Overture Street Corner: Piano concertos 1 & 2; Symphonic Studies

Alan Rawsthorne (1905-1971) is perhaps the only notable composer who started a career as a dentist. Tiring of teeth, he turned to music and had an unusually long gestation as a composer, not achieving any recognition until age thirty-three. His twenty-six film scores eventually made him wealthy, but he wrote also a fine body of concert works. He died relatively young at age sixty-six, never fully accepted by the music establishment in England. Rawsthorne is often referred to as a "composer's composer" and perhaps this is why his music is rather undervalued. He was not a typical English composer and his idiosyncratic style owes more to Hindemith and Roussel than to any native models.