Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. (Available now to download.)
Granville Bantock: Omar Khayyam
Part I: Prelude
Part I: Wake! For the Sun, who scattered into flight (Chorus)
Part I: Before the phantom of false morning died (Chorus)
Part I: And as the cock crew, those who stood before (Poet)
Part I: Now the new year reviving old desires (Poet)
Part I: Iram indeed is gone with all his rose (Poet)
Part I: Whether at Naishapur or Babylon (Chorus)
Part I: Each morn a thousand roses brings, you say (Beloved)
Part I: With me along the strip of herbage strown (Poet)
Part I: Some for the glories of this world; and some (Chorus)
Part I: Look to the blowing Rose about us - "Lo" (Beloved)
Part I: Think, in this battered caravanserai (Chorus)
Part I: I sometimes think that never blows so red (Poet)
Part I: Ah, my Beloved, fill the cup that clears (Poet)
Part I: Ah, make the most of what we yet may spend (Chorus)
Part I: Alike for those who for To-day prepare (Beloved)
Part I: Myself when young did eagerly frequent (Philosopher)
Part I: What, without asking, hither hurried Whence? (Chorus)
Part I: Up from earth's centre through the seventh gate (Poet)
Part I: Earth could not answer; nor the seas that mourn (Chorus)
Part I: Then of the Thee in Me wo works behind (Poet)
Part I: Then to the lip of this poor earthern urn (Poet)
Part I: I think the vessel, that with fugitive (Philosopher)
Part I: As then the tulip for her morning sup (Beloved)
Part I: So when that Angel of darker drink (Beloved)
Part I: Tis but a tent where takes his one day's rest (Chorus)
Part I: When you and I behind the veil are past (Beloved, Poet)
Part I: Interlude: The Desert
Part I: The Caravan
Part I: A moment's halt - a momentary taste (Chorus)
Part I: Would you that spangle of Existence spend (Philosopher)
Part I: A moment guessed - then back behind the fold (Philosopher)
Part I: Waste not your hour, nor in the vain pursuit - (Chorus)
Part I: Better be jocund with the fruitful grape (Chorus)
Part II: You know, my Friends, with what a brave carouse (Philosopher)
Part II: Ah, but my computations, people say (Chorus)
Part II: and 'twas - the Grape! (Philosopher, Chorus) - The Grape that can with logic absolute (Chorus)
Part II: The mighty Mahmud, Allah-breathing Lord (Chorus)
Part II: Why, be this Juice the growth of God, who dare (Philosopher)
Part II: I must abjure the Balm of Life, I must (Philosopher)
Part II: Oh threats of Hell and hopes of Paradise! (Chorus)
Part II: The Revelations of devout and learn'd (Chorus)
Part II: We are no other that a moving row (Chorus)
Part II: The Moving finger writes; and, having writ (Beloved)
Part II: And that inverted bowl we call the sky (Beloved, Poet)
Part II: With Earth's first clay they did the last man knead (Poet)
Part II: I tell you this - when, started from the goal (Philosopher)
Part II: What! Out of senseless Nothing to provoke (Beloved, Poet, Philosopher)
Part II: Oh Thou, who didst with pitfall and with gin (Chorus, Beloved, Poet, Philosopher)
Part II: Oh Thou, who Man of baser earth didst make (Chorus, Beloved, Poet, Philosopher)
Part III: Introduction: The Fast of Ramazan
Part III: Worshippers in the Mosque
Part III: As under cover of departing day (Philosopher)
Part III: Shapes of all sorts and sizes, great and small (Chorus)
Part III: Said one among them - Surely not in vain (First Pot)
Part III: So while the vessels one by one were speaking (Chorus)
Part III: Ah, with the grape my fading life provide (Philosopher)
Part III: Indeed the idol I have loved so long (Philosopher)
Part III: And much as wine has play'd the infidel (Philosopher)
Part III: Yet ah, that Spring should vanish with the rose! (Poet)
Part III: Would but the desert of the fountain yield (Poet)
Part III: Yon rising moon that looks for us again (Chorus, Beloved, Poet, Philosopher)
Part III: And when like her, oh Saki, you shall pass (Chorus, Beloved, Poet, Philosopher)
November 2007
“This first recording reflects the detail and passion of Vernon Handley's championing of Bantock's kaleidoscopic output, and Stephen Jackson ensures that the choral input is similarly lively and fresh. Toby Spence brings a bright mix of Italianate slancio and English declamation to the Poet, combining well with Catherine Wyn-Rogers's more controlled reading of the Beloved...”
October 2007
*****
“It's a fascinating rediscovery on a huge scale, especially in the detail and depth of SACD surround-sound, seductively performed by Handley's forces, Toby Spence appropriately poetic and Catherine Wyn-Rogers sensuous.”
2010
“The London-born Granville Bantock used his early championship of contemporaries – Strauss, Debussy and especially Sibelius, who became a close friend and correspondent – to enrich his own Wagner-nourished sonorities and dramatic ambitions. Because he was British, he fought shy of opera, channelling his gift for theatre into song-cycles (he wrote 40), symphonic tonepoems (he once planned a 24-work cycle), forward- looking multi-media events (Apollo and theSeaman for film projection and orchestra) and oratorios (a 700-page score of Christus). Writing in the age of Mahler's Eighth and Elgar's three major oratorios, Bantock found 101 quatrains of 12th-century Persian philosophical poetry – in the then widely read (and very free) rendering of Pre-Raphaelite poet Edward Fitzgerald – an irresistible challenge. He set Fitzgerald's work by feeding his natural gift for effective scoring and mood illustration with his own first-hand impressions of the Mid- dle East. It is to his credit that, throughout the nearly three-hour performance span, genuine symphonic interest rarely flags. His large orchestra calls for two complete, antiphonally placed, string sections, as well as the extra wind and brass that his European heroes were deploying. The choral part becomes virtuoso in its frequent use of unaccompanied, tricky-to-pitch passages, while three named soloists, the Beloved (mezzo), the Poet (tenor) and the Philosopher (baritone) are continually 'onstage' in roles of operatic length. This first recording reflects the detail and passion of Vernon Handley's championing of Bantock's kaleidoscopic output, and Stephen Jackson ensures that the choral input is similarly lively and fresh. Toby Spence brings a bright mix of Italianate slancio and English declamation to the Poet, combining well with Catherine Wyn-Rogers's more controlled reading of the Beloved in substantial (and Parsifal-like) duets in Parts 1 and 3 (a highlight and a good startingpoint for samplers). Chandos's sound is suitably lush, occasionally at the expense of the chorus's diction. It's what recordings should be for, and should encourage future festival performances.”