British Composers: Vaughan Williams, Finzi & Holst

A 5CD set containing titles from the acclaimed EMI British Composers series, based around the music of Ralph Vaughan Williams and his contemporaries - Gerald Finzi, Arnold Bax and Gustav Holst.

Contents:
CD 1 [77.25]
Ralph Vaughan Williams
An Oxford Elegy for speaker, small chorus and small orchestra
1. (Lento)
2. Go, for they call you, Shepherd
3. Here will I sit and wait
4. Screen’d is this nook
5. That sweet city
6. Come, let me read
7. Or in my boat I lie
8. And once, in winter
9. But what—I dream!
10. No, no, thou hast not felt
11. Runs it not here
12. Needs must I, with heavy heart
13. Soon will the high Midsummer pomps
14. He hearkens not!
15. Never more
16. Yes, thou art gone!
17. Despair I will not
18. Why faintest thou?
John Westbrook (speaker) • Jacques Orchestra

19. Whitsunday Hymn (No.3 of Three Choral Hymns)
Robin Doveton (tenor)

Flos campi: Suite for solo viola, small chorus and small orchestra
20. 1.Sicut Lilium inter spinas (Lento)
21. 2.Jam enim hiems transiit (Andante con moto)
22. 3.Quaesivi quem diligit anima mea (Lento—Allegro moderato)
23. 4.En lectulum Salomonis (Moderato alla marcia)
24. 5.Revertere, revertere Sulamitis! (Andante quasi lento)
25. 6.Pone me ut signaculum (Moderato tranquillo)
Cecil Aronowitz (viola) • Jacques Orchestra

Sancta Civitas (The Holy City)
An oratorio for tenor and baritone soli, semi-chorus, distant chorus, chorus and orchestra
26. I was in the spirit (Lento)
27. And I saw Heaven opened (Allegro)
28. And I saw an angel standing in the sun (Meno mosso)
29. Babylon the great is fallen (Lento)
30. Rejoice over her O Heavens (Allegro moderato)
31. And I saw a new heaven (Adagio)
32. Therefore are they before the throne of God (Poco meno largo)
33. And I saw a pure river
34. Holy, Holy, Holy (Andante sostenuto)
35. Heaven and earth are full of Thy glory (Poco animato)
Ian Partridge (tenor) • John Shirley-Quirk (baritone)
Bach Choir • London Symphony Orchestra
Choir of King’s College, Cambridge / Sir David Willcocks

Recorded in the Chapel of Trinity College, Cambridge, 30 & 31 July 1968 and Kingsway Hall, London, 18 & 19 January 1968

CD 2 [71.29]
Ralph Vaughan Williams
Five Mystical Songs
1. 1.Easter
2. 2.I got me flowers
3. 3.Love bade me welcome
4. 4.The Call
5. 5.Antiphon
John Shirley-Quirk (baritone)

6. O clap your hands
Choir of King’s College, Cambridge • English Chamber Orchestra / Sir David Willcocks

Gustav Holst
7. A Choral Fantasia H177 (Op.51)
Dame Janet Baker (mezzo-soprano)

8. Psalm 86 H117 No.1
Ian Partridge (tenor)

Purcell Singers • English Chamber Orchestra (Ralph Downes, organ) / Imogen Holst

Gerald Finzi
Dies natalis Op.8
9. 1.Intrada
10. 2.Rhapsody (Recitativo stromentato)
11. 3.The Rapture (Danza)
12. 4.Wonder (Arioso)
13. 5.The Salutation (Aria)
Wilfred Brown (tenor) • English Chamber Orchestra / Christopher Finzi

Recorded in the Chapel of King’s College, Cambridge, 3 & 4 August 1966, St Augustine’s, Kilburn, 23 September 1963 and No.1 Studio, Abbey Road, London, 26 September 1963

CD 3 [72.55]
Ralph Vaughan Williams
Mass in G minor
1. Kyrie
2. Gloria
3. Credo
4. Sanctus—Osanna I—Benedictus—Osanna II
5. Agnus Dei
John Eaton (treble) • Nigel Perrin (alto) • Robin Doveton (tenor) • David van Asch (bass)

Gerald Finzi • Arnold Bax
6. Lo, the full, final Sacrifice Op.26 (Finzi)
John Bowen (tenor) • Roland Robertson (bass)
7. Mater ora filium (Bax)
8. God is gone up Op.27 No.2 (Finzi)
9. I sing of a maiden that is makeless (Bax)
10. This Worldes Joie (Bax)
11. Magnificat Op.36 (Finzi)
Graham Green & Bruce Blyth (trebles)
Choir of King’s College, Cambridge
Sir David Willcocks • Stephen Cleobury

CD 4 [60.58]
Gerald Finzi
Intimations of Immortality
Ode for tenor solo, mixed chorus and orchestra Op.29 (words by William Wordsworth)
1. There was a time when meadow, grove, and stream
2. The rainbow comes and goes
3. Now, while the birds thus sing a joyous song
4. Ye blessèd Creatures, I have heard the call
5. Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting
6. Earth fills her lap with pleasures of her own
7. O joy! that in our embers
8. Then sing, ye Birds, sing, sing a joyous song!
9. And O, ye Fountains, Meadows, Hills, and Groves

Philip Langridge (tenor) • Liverpool Philharmonic Choir

Grand Fantasia and Toccata for piano and orchestra Op.38
10. Molto grave
11. Allegro vigoroso
Philip Fowke (piano)
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra / Richard Hickox

Recorded in the Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool, 27 & 28 November 1988

CD 5 [76.47]
Gustav Holst
The ballet from The Perfect Fool Op.39
1. Andante—0.57
2. Dance of Spirits of Earth (Moderato—Andante)
3. Dance of Spirits of Water (Allegretto)
4. Dance of Spirits of Fire (Allegro moderato)

5. Egdon Heath—Homage to Hardy Op.47
London Symphony Orchestra / André Previn

The Planets—Suite Op.32
6. 1.Mars, the Bringer of War (Allegro)
7. 2.Venus, the Bringer of Peace (Adagio)
8. 3.Mercury, the Winged Messenger (Vivace)
9. 4.Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity (Allegro giocoso)
10. 5.Saturn, the Bringer of Old Age (Adagio)
11. 6.Uranus, the Magician (Allegro)
12. 7.Neptune, the Mystic (Andante) (with the women’s voices of the Ambrosian Singers)
New Philharmonia Orchestra / Sir Adrian Boult

Recorded in No.1 Studio, Abbey Road, London, 3 & 4 August 1974, and Kingsway Hall, London, 21 & 22 July 1966