Ralph Vaughan Williams

Many composers have been reluctant to set Shakespeare’s words to text, but Vaughan Williams remained undaunted, using his words many times in his compositions. This disc includes RVW’s ‘Orpheus with his lute’ and many other songs of longing of the early baroque. Performed by Swedish soprano Elisabeth Holmertz, the duo of Holmertz and Bock accompany her, along with Poul Hoxbro on low whistle.

The Lamentations of Jeremiah may be unremittingly sad, but they have had a deep resonance for composers throughout the ages. This is a collection that reflects that diversity – from John Mundy’s setting, which highlights the grave concern over schisms in the Catholic Church of the sixteenth century, through to Rudolph Mauersberger’s motet, which mourns the destruction of the city of Dresden in 1945. Two new pieces were commissioned especially for this project, and are recorded here for the first time: John Duggan’s haunting set of three Lamentations for choir, trumpet and solo soprano; and Cecilia McDowall’s exotic and powerful The Lord is Good, which was shortlisted for a BASCA award in 2012.

Sospiri’s CD Requiem on the Gift for Music label was warmly received, the Oxford Times reviewer “captivated by these pieces when I heard them in performance, and they are just as mesmerising on disc.” The Lost City continues Sospiri’s winning combination of repertoire from early music through to the present day, creating their own meditative cutting edge by appealing to audiences both contemporary and conservative, secular and spiritual.

Heddle Nash (1894 - 1961) was an English lyric tenor who appeared in opera and oratorio in the middle decades of the twentieth century whose quality of timbre remains unsurpassed today. This collection captures him in operatic roles for which he was most renowned & features a number of Handel oratorio roles in which he specialised. Three of Vaughan Williams’ songs are also featured.

Sir Adrian Boult was born on 8th April 1889 in Chester and died on 22nd February 1983 in London and hence 2013 marks the 30th anniversary of his death. He was attending concerts first in Liverpool, primarily with Hans Richter, and then in London, whilst a pupil at Westminster School, with Sir Henry Wood, Claude Debussy, Arthur Nikisch and Richard Strauss. He met Elgar for whose music he was to do so much during his life as was another composer he befriended whilst at Christ Church, Oxford, before graduating in 1912, Ralph Vaughan Williams.

He spent a year studying in Leipzig where Arthur Nikisch had the greatest influence on him. He gained experience conducting for both the Royal Opera House, where he assisted in the first production there of Wagner’s Parsifal , and Serge Diaghilev’s ballet company. He was appointed conductor of the City of Birmingham Orchestra in 1924 and six years later the BBC made him director of music where he established the BBC Symphony Orchestra and became its chief conductor. During these years he introduced works by Bartók, Stravinsky and the Second Viennese School composers – Schönberg, Webern and Berg including his opera Wozzeck.

Forced to leave the BBC when he reached their retirement age, he became chief conductor of the LPO retiring in 1957. He became a champion of British music, giving numerous performances of Bliss, Britten, Delius, Tippett, Walton and Holst, whose Planets he had premiered, and the aforementioned Elgar and Vaughan Williams. This set brings together all the recordings he made of the latter starting in 1940 to the early 1950’s.

There was a pause until 1967 when he started to commit this set’s stereo recordings to disc ending in 1975. He continued to give concerts and record for a further three years until retiring just before reaching the age of 90.

CD 13 includes audio footage of Sir Adrian in rehearsal.

Hallé returns with its second volume of works by Vaughan Williams, continuing its award winning survey of British music under its Musical Director, Sir Mark Elder.

Latest release for award winning label in the English repertoire at which it excels

The release combines two highly contrasting works to provide a disc which is both moving and uplifting.

Symphony No.5 is a generally tranquil work with music influenced by Ravel, with whom Vaughan Williams had studied, and is scored for very traditional forces

Symphony No.8 is dedicated to Sir John Barbirolli and was premièred by the Hallé in 1956. It is the shortest and least serious of the symphonies and whilst not being without moments of somber mood, is generally light hearted in tone. It is has a more exotic instrumental colour, with an enhanced percussion section.

These works have long been part of Hallé’s concert repertoire under Sir Mark Elder in performances which have drawn great critical praise:

'I cannot think of another conductor around today better equipped to conduct this score than Sir Mark and he didn’t disappoint.' Michael Cookson, 'Seen and Heard International', Review of performance of Symphony No.5, Nov 2011

Constantin Silvestri was born in Bucharest, Romania on 31st May 1913. His mother had to bring him up as both his father and stepfather had died whilst he was still a teenager. By the age of six he was playing both piano and organ and showed skill as an improviser. Although not in conducting classes at the Conservatoire in Bucharest he was already appearing as a conductor in his teens, making his debut with the Bucharest Radio Symphony Orchestra in 1930 in a concert which included The Rite of Spring and one of his own compositions.

After further success with the National Radio Orchestra of Romania he decided to make conducting his career. In 1935 he started his association with the Romanian National Opera and directed the Bucharest Philharmonic Orchestra for six years. In 1948 he started teaching at the Conservatoire and founded its Conducting Department. Whilst conducting all the main orchestras in Romania he was also able to accept guest appearances in the USSR, Czechoslovakia and Hungary.

In 1957 he also made his debut in the U.K. conducting the London Philharmonic Orchestra in the Royal Albert Hall and started making recordings for EMI in London, Paris and Vienna. Before leaving his home country he had his greatest success there – the premiere of Enesco’s opera Oedipe in 1958.

Settling first in Paris in 1959 and then in England when offered the post of Principal Conductor of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. With his meticulous and lengthy preparation in rehearsals he raised the standard and prestige of the orchestra to one of international standing.

He became a British citizen in 1967 but his growing reputation was cut short by increasing ill-health and he died of cancer in London on 23rd February 1968 at the age of 55.

This set presents the Complete Recordings made by Constantin Silvestri for EMI. The microphones did offer to this “fanatical idealist” the most favourable circumstances to let his particular talent blossom.

In his third programme for Dutton Epoch, the celebrated viola player Roger Chase again presents repertoire associated with the great Lionel Tertis, played on Tertis’s own Montagnana viola. The Bax Phantasy for viola and orchestra is the highlight, and it proves to be a lyrical delight, the slow movement based on a particularly enticing Irish folk song. Vaughan Williams’s lyrical eight-movement Suite for Viola and Orchestra, too, has elements of folksong, this time English, and is virtuosic and catchy by turns. Theodore Holland was a friend of Bax at the Royal Academy of Music, later the composition teacher of John Joubert. A remarkable discovery, his substantial tone poem Ellingham Marshes is a wartime musical picture of the dreamy and wistful atmosphere of the Suffolk marshes in their changing moods. The programme is completed by Richard Harvey’s Reflections, a four-movement score in today’s most approachable idiom.