John Scott

Vaughan Williams - Choral Works

from CDA66420, CDA66655, CDA66511 & CDA66569

Issued to mark the fiftieth anniversary of Vaughan Williams’s death, this collection is tantalizing: it starts with one of the best-selling discs in the the catalogue, the Serenade to Music, and includes such favourites as the Five Mystical Songs and The Hundreth Psalm. There are also two intriguing pairings: in Dona nobis pacem, RVW warns of the impending doom of WWII, in A song of thanksgiving we hear his moving response to its successful conclusion; in The shepherds of the delectable mountains we hear an early working of Bunyan’s literary masterpiece, later extensively reworked in the landmark 1942 BBC radio production of The Pilgrim’s Progress featuring Sir John Gielgud and reprised here, this time in condensed form.

Kenneth Leighton - Volume 1

All premiere recordings

One of the most distinguished post-war British composers, and most frequently performed both in the UK and abroad, Kenneth Leighton wrote music that maintains a compelling balance between the romantic tradition and early serialism. His lyrical and colourfully orchestrated works not only suggest a lively if often dark imagination, but demonstrate a scope explored by remarkably few of his countrymen. Richard Hickox and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales here present the first of two CDs devoted to orchestral works by Leighton. The medium of the string orchestra proved significant for Leighton throughout his life, featuring in a number of important works. The three works in this first volume, each scored for string orchestra, represent a fitting resumé of his musical development, complementing one of his earliest student works, the Symphony for Strings, with two of his more mature ones. The Symphony for Strings was taken up and premiered by Gerald Finzi and his Newbury String Players whilst Leighton was still a student. The first major work by the composer for these forces, it proved a considerable success and sparked a friendship between the two composers which was to last until Finzi’s untimely death. The symphony is youthful and fresh in outlook, concerned with the coming of spring. The English music of Ralph Vaughan Williams, William Walton and Finzi himself exert a key influence. Twelve years passed before the composition of the Concerto for String Orchestra. This gap represented a considerable advance in the development of his musical language and style, Leighton becoming exposed to the works of both neoclassical composers and members of the Second Viennese School, but he still retained the lyrical instinct of his earlier years. Completing the disc is one of Leighton’s most enduring orchestral works, the Concerto for Organ, String Orchestra and Timpani. Growing up in the West Yorkshire town of Wakefield, Leighton gained some of his earliest musical inspiration as a chorister at Wakefield Cathedral, where he also discovered the possibilities of the organ. Today Leighton is renowned as a composer of organ and church music, despite writing just eleven works for the instrument. The soloist in this recording is the internationally renowned concert organist John Scott, particularly acclaimed for his performances of works by twentieth-century composers. Scott too began his career as a chorister at Wakefield Cathedral. A former choir director of St Paul’s Cathedral, he now holds the post of Organist and Director of Music at St Thomas Church, Fifth Avenue in New York.

Fauré & Duruflé: Requiem

Mathias: Organ Music

Gershwin: Strike Up the Band

1990 Studio Cast Recording

Steven Ricks - Mild Violence

Steven Ricks is a contemporary composer whose musical style incorporates aspects of modernism, rock and jazz into cohesive energetic works. The American composer makes his debut on Bridge with a program of recent works which blend instrumental and electronic sound into a post-modernist landscape.

Arthur Levering - Still Raining, Still Dreaming

Arthur Levering (b. 1953) has throughout his career written music that stresses clarity and lightness of touch, even when it is dense with information or intense in its sonic impact. There’s a marvelous athleticism to Levering’s music. His rhythmic sense is unerring, and probably does more than anything else to clarify and drive his ideas. Changes of texture, tempo, and harmony all occur just where they should, and keep up the momentum. One thing that makes him exceptional among composers who feel an allegiance to modernism is his transparent orchestration. It’s more than just a glittering surface; his choice of color and texture is as important a structural tool in the music’s development as any other parameter. Still Raining, Still Dreaming (1996, rev. 2001), scored for “Pierrot” sextet, is a memorial tribute to the Japanese master Toru Takemitsu, as the presence of both “rain” and “dream” in the title suggests. Echoi (1999), a three-movement work for violin and piano, is not the expected traditional sonata. The “echoes” of the title seem to exist on multiple levels. One feels cross-references of ideas from one movement to another and the extensive use of repetitive motives is another sort of “reverberance.” Sppooo (2001) is a piece that makes you wonder why there isn’t already a literature for celesta and vibraphone. Tesserae for viola and piano (2002) is a set of variations on a 32-note theme. While a close cousin of Still Raining, Still Dreaming, with its measured tremolo, sharp low thuds, and tolling center section, those similarities in fact demonstrate how a composer can develop a set of devices that s/he then recycles creatively from one work to another. Catena (2000) is a work for piano and a chamber orchestra of sixteen players.

The Essential Vaughan Williams