Vaughan Williams: The Wasps Overture

Now rightfully acknowledged as a towering figure, Vaughan Williams was the first composer to write in the English language, using folksong in the Norfolk Rhapsody, a Tudor hymn in the Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis, and absorbing and transforming his influences in the stunningly beautiful Serenade to Music.

During the 16th and 17th centuries England had been a leading participant in the delevopment of European music, but after the early death of Purcell in 1695, music in England came to be dominated by musicians of foreign origin: notably Handel and Mendelssohn. Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958) is the best-known of a new generation of composers that came after Elgar and made up what became known as the English Musical Renaissance. Along with Gustav Holst, Vaughan Williams travelled the country collecting and preserving English folksong traditions, and was largely responsible for the revival of interest in folksong. So strong was his interest in the subject that, like Holst, folksong was absorbed into his compositional style and was to influence his concert music, giving it a uniquely English quality. Starting with the evocative Thomas Tallis Fantasia, (RVW's look back at his great 16th-century predecessor) this set contains some of the composer's best-known and most-loved music, including the popular Fantasia on Greensleeves and the beautiful Lark Ascending.

Even among the wide-ranging and singularly American talents of the past sixty years, André Previn stands out for his career as a celebrated film composer, incomparable jazz pianist and respected conductor and concert music composer. On the occasion of his 80th birthday, Sony Masterworks celebrates a lifetime of achievement with the release of André Previn: An 80th Birthday Celebration.

A showcase of the composer and performer at his most varied and inspired, the pieces in this collection belong to a variety of genres and highlight his musical personality- lightly playful, keenly smart and elegantly precise.

The release features Previn playing piano in jazz band renditions of Ray Henderson’s “Bye Bye Blackbird,” Gershwin’s “A Foggy Day,” and Weill’s “Mack the Knife” and “Bilbao Song.” Previn’s film compositions are represented by the theme from The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and The Subterraneans. He conducts Vaughan Williams’s The Wasps: Overture and his own Concerto for Guitar and Orchestra, in a recording with guitarist John Williams, available for the first time on CD. Also included is “Vocalise,” with soprano Sylvia McNair and cellist Yo-Yo Ma.

The Glenn Gould Foundation awarded its Glenn Gould Prize 2005 to André Previn: "This award exemplifies the musical excellence of a rare few, and Maestro Previn’s remarkable body of work and wide range of talents certainly make him a member of this exclusive club," said Foundation President Merle Kriss. Past laureates include Pierre Boulez (2002); Yo-Yo Ma (1999); Toru Takemitsu (1996); Oscar Peterson C.C. (1993); Lord Yehudi Menuhin (1990); and R. Murray Schafer (1987). Previn was also given the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2008 Gramophone Awards.

Sir Neville Marriner and his Academy made some of the most priceless recordings of Vaughan Williams for Decca and Philips, and this collection restores to circulation his Philips traversal of music by this composer, with the addition of five pieces made for Decca - the Romance for harmonica (with Tommy Reilly), possibly the best version of The Lark Ascending ever recorded (with the late Iona Brown), his second recording of Fantasia on Greensleeves, the Concerto Grosso and the English Folk Song Suite. The collection is filled out with the nine perky folk song arrangements he recorded, receiving their first international release on CD.