Time has dealt cruelly with Samuel Coleridge-Taylor. A century ago (November 1898), his setting of Longfellow's Hiawatha's Wedding Feast began its progress round the musical world, making its composer as famous a figure as Sullivan and, at the time, more so than Delius, Vaughan Williams or Holst. But after his death at the early age of thirty-seven, his music suffered a decline in popularity, relieved only by the dramatised performances of Hiawatha given each year in the 1920s and 1930s by the Royal Choral Society …
December 2007
*****
“Lorraine McAslan plays with easy virtuosity and an almost Heifetz-like intensity of focus, while the London Philharmonic, with occasionally audible encouragement from Nicholas Braithwaite, provides characterful support.”
December 2007
“The Coleridge-Taylor revival continues in fine style with this red-blooded reading. Lorraine McAslan plays with unfailing sensitivity and silky refinement throughout, nowhere more tellingly than in the sultry central Andante semplice (which brings the most melting tone from the LPO strings). Be in no doubt, this is a very good disc indeed, and I warmly recommend it.”
2011 edition
“Coleridge-Taylor's beautiful Violin Concerto was one of the great discoveries of the Lyrita catalogue...Lorraine McAslan's warmly lyrical performance is fully worthy of it and Nicholas Braithwaite and the LPO give passionate support.”
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