George Butterworth: Orchestral Works

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[Russman] brings out the poignant lyricism with exceptional freshness and strength…to the AE Housman settings James Rutherford brings characteristic mellow-toned vigour and expressive delivery…congratulations... — BBC Music Magazine, September 2016, 5 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 1st Jul 2016
Catalogue No: BIS2195
Label: BIS
Length: 75 minutes

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Butterworth, G: The Banks of Green Willow

Work length6:04

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

BBC National Orchestra of Wales
Kriss Russman
Recorded: January 2015
Recording Venue: Hoddinott Hall, Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom

Butterworth, G: A Shropshire Lad - six songs

Work length13:21

$6.00

$7.80

$10.50

James Rutherford (baritone)
BBC National Orchestra of Wales
Kriss Russman
Recorded: September 2015
Recording Venue: Hoddinott Hall, Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom

No. 1. Loveliest of trees

Track length2:47

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

No. 2. When I was one-and-twenty

Track length1:23

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

No. 3. Look not in my eyes

Track length2:11

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

No. 4. Think no more, lad

Track length1:18

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

No. 5. The lads in their hundreds

Track length2:07

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

No. 6. Is my team ploughing?

Track length3:35

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

Butterworth, G: A Shropshire Lad - Rhapsody

Work length9:44

$2.00

$2.60

$5.25

BBC National Orchestra of Wales
Kriss Russman
Recorded: January 2015
Recording Venue: Hoddinott Hall, Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom

Butterworth, G: Two English Idylls

Work length8:52

$2.00

$2.60

$3.50

BBC National Orchestra of Wales
Kriss Russman
Recorded: January 2015
Recording Venue: Hoddinott Hall, Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom

No. 1. English Idyll

Track length4:26

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

No. 2. English Idyll

Track length4:26

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

Butterworth, G: Suite for String Quartette

Work length18:27

$5.00

$6.50

$8.75

BBC National Orchestra of Wales
Kriss Russman
Recorded: January 2015
Recording Venue: Hoddinott Hall, Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom

I. Andante con moto, molto espressivo

Track length3:42

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

II. Scherzando, non allegro

Track length0:56

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

III. Allegro molto

Track length4:29

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

IV. Molto moderato ed espressivo

Track length4:41

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

V. Moderato

Track length4:39

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

Butterworth, G: Love Blows As The Wind Blows

Work length8:56

$3.00

$3.90

$5.25

James Rutherford (baritone)
BBC National Orchestra of Wales
Kriss Russman
Recorded: September 2015
Recording Venue: Hoddinott Hall, Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom

No. 1. In the year that's come and gone, love, his flying feather

Track length3:07

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

No. 2. Life in her Creaking Shoes

Track length1:58

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

No. 4. On the way to Kew

Track length3:51

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

Butterworth, G: Fantasia for Orchestra

Work length8:45

$2.00

$2.60

$3.50

BBC National Orchestra of Wales
Kriss Russman
Recorded: January 2015
Recording Venue: Hoddinott Hall, Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom

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When George Butterworth joined the army in 1914, his most recent works included the song cycle Six Songs from 'A Shropshire Lad' as well as the Rhapsody 'A Shropshire Lad', which he called 'an orchestral epilogue' to his settings of A. E. Housman's poems. The Rhapsody has since been described as 'one of the greatest of all English orchestral works' and when Butterworth left England to fight in the First World War, he was seen as one of the bright hopes of British music a hope that in August 1916 was extinguished in the trenches at the Somme. When Butterworth joined up he stopped composing and also destroyed several manuscripts that he felt were inferior. An exception was an Orchestral Fantasia which he had started just before the war broke out: a 92-bar full score manuscript lasting some three-and-a-half minutes has been preserved. On the first page Butterworth wrote 'see short score' which implies that the work may have been completed but if so, the score in question has been lost. The composer and conductor Kriss Russman has therefore taken up where the manuscript breaks off, adding some 5 minutes of music through a process which he describes in his liner notes as 'developing Butterworth's original ideas and combining them with additional material derived from an analysis of his other music'. Performed by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales under Russman himself, the world première recording of the Fantasia closes the present disc which also includes some of Butterworth's best loved pieces, such as The Banks of Green Willow. Russman has also made orchestral arrangements of the five-movement Suite for String Quartette and the Six Songs from 'A Shropshire Lad', both of which are recorded here for the first time. The soloist in the song cycle, and in the three songs that make up Love Blows as the Wind Blows, is James Rutherford.

Reviews

September 2016

[Russman] brings out the poignant lyricism with exceptional freshness and strength…to the AE Housman settings James Rutherford brings characteristic mellow-toned vigour and expressive delivery…congratulations are due to Russman and BIS…on such powerful advocacy for one of British music’s most grievous losses

12th August 2016

The elegiac tone is nicely caught by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales

August 2016

It’s impossible not to sympathise with Russman’s motives, and his accounts of Butterworth’s four completed orchestral works are fresh and passionate, with a wide dynamic range captured in crystal-clear BIS sound. And Rutherford gives an ardent reading of [Love Blows as the Wind Blows]. Butterworth’s admirers will want to hear this disc

1st August 2016

A very fine collection of well-known and lesser-known works by one of Britain's most promising composers.

10th July 2016

This is a beautiful look at the all too exiguous oeuvre of a composer killed at the Somme aged 31...Russman’s completion of the 1914 Orchestral Fantasia fragment is impressive.

7th July 2016

A Shropshire Lad [is] sung with typical care and sensitivity by James Rutherford

Offer,George Butterworth: Orchestral Works

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