Vaughan Williams - Beyond My Dream: Music for Greek Plays | Albion Records ALBCD033

Vaughan Williams - Beyond My Dream: Music for Greek Plays

£13.25

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Label: Albion Records

Cat No: ALBCD033

Format: CD

Number of Discs: 1

Release Date: 12th January 2018

Contents

Works

Vaughan Williams, Ralph

Electra
» O for the ships of Troy
» Onward O labouring tread
Iphigenia in Tauris (realised by Alan Tongue)
» 1. Prelude
» 2. Dark of the sea
» 3. Bird of the sea rocks
» 4. Oh, fair the fruits of Leto blow
» 5. Go forth in bliss
The Bacchae
» Thou immaculate on high

Artists

Heather Lowe (mezzo soprano)
The Joyful Company of Singers
Britten Sinfonia

Conductor

Alan Tongue

Works

Vaughan Williams, Ralph

Electra
» O for the ships of Troy
» Onward O labouring tread
Iphigenia in Tauris (realised by Alan Tongue)
» 1. Prelude
» 2. Dark of the sea
» 3. Bird of the sea rocks
» 4. Oh, fair the fruits of Leto blow
» 5. Go forth in bliss
The Bacchae
» Thou immaculate on high

Artists

Heather Lowe (mezzo soprano)
The Joyful Company of Singers
Britten Sinfonia

Conductor

Alan Tongue

About

Albion Records is proud to present more than an hour of unknown music from the early maturity of Ralph Vaughan Williams.

In 1911, RVW wrote music for three plays by Euripides, then newly translated into English verse by Gilbert Murray. He wrote music that he considered worthy of the plays, while also satisfying the requirements of Isadora Duncan (for dancing) and Gilbert Murray (who was anxious that the music should not overwhelm the poetry). Whether experimental or not, Murray finally concluded that he liked it very much.

There was a single public performance, of which we know very little, but none of the music was ever performed with the plays for which it had been written. This beautiful music, for mezzo-soprano, female chorus and orchestra, has been transcribed from the scores and parts, and is recorded for the first time.

Reviews

As has often been the case with so many of these comparatively early RVW discoveries, they make absolutely fascinating listening, not least for those countless fleeting premonitions of the towering masterpieces to come. ...  Indeed, these dedicated and scrupulously prepared performances featuring the mezzo-soprano Heather Lowe, Joyful Company of Singers and Britten Sinfonia under Tongue’s watchful lead, Andrew Walton’s top-notch production and Albion’s copiously detailed presentation are all absolutely beyond reproach, and the disc as a whole must be deemed an essential acquisition for every true RVW aficionado.  Andrew Achenbach
Gramophone February 2018
Gramophone Editor's Choice

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