Percy Grainger - Works for Large Chorus and Orchestra (Andrew Davis)

Information

Composer: Percy Grainger

1. King Solomon's Espousals
2. Danny Deever
3. Marching Song of Democracy
4. The Wraith of Odin
5. The Hunter in his Career
6. Sir Eglamore
7. The Lads of Wamphray
8. The Bride's Tragedy
9. Tribute to Foster
10. Thanksgiving Song

Sydney Chamber Choir
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Chorus
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra
Andrew Davis, conductor

Date: 2013
Label: Chandos
https://www.chandos.net/products/catalogue/CHAN%205121

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Review

Australian cities united for Davis’s Grainger tribute

A handful of items we’ve had before – that unforgettable treatment of Kipling’s execution ballad Danny Deever, the exuberant and prodigally inventive Tribute to Foster and the darkly compelling setting of Swinburne’s The Bride’s Tragedy – but for the most part these are premiere recordings. Some remarkable discoveries there are, too. Take the giddily imaginative Thanksgiving Song from 1947, a paean to the fairer sex of which Grainger only managed to complete the third and final movement (he preferred the term ‘last tone-bout’). The first half builds up a tremendous head of steam before a daringly protracted pause ushers in a ravishing postlude (symbolising, as Grainger himself put it, ‘womankind’s contribution to terrestrial immortality’) which fades to nothingness. In the extraordinary Marching Song of Democracy (inspired by the humanist message of Walt Whitman and composed between 1900 and 1917), wordless vocal parts (or ‘a freely-moving many-voicedness’) combine with orchestral colours of intoxicating yet never cloying opulence (the piece also shares at least one thematic idea with the ballet The Warriors). The Lads of Wamphray is another treat, a splendidly lusty treatment of the folk-poem from Sir Walter Scott’s Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border (1802-03) evincing a penetrating harmonic scope that always keeps you listening, and the same goes for King Solomon’s Espousals (from the Song of Solomon), The Wraith of Odin (to words from Longfellow’s The Saga of King Olaf), the boisterous The Hunter in his Career and comparably breezy Sir Eglamore.

Performances throughout are pretty much exemplary, these combined Melbourne and Sydney forces straining every sinew under Sir Andrew Davis’s lucid lead, and they have been accorded sound of splendiferous realism and at times almost startling physical impact. Barry Peter Ould’s annotation carries the requisite authority.

-- Andrew Achenbach, Gramophone

More reviews:
BBC Music Magazine  PERFORMANCE: *** / RECORDING: ****
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2013/Apr13/Grainger_choral_CHSA5121.htm
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2013/June13/Grainger_choral_CHSA5121.htm
https://www.allmusic.com/album/percy-grainger-works-for-large-chorus-and-orchestra-mw0002498691
https://www.amazon.com/Percy-Grainger-Works-Chorus-Orchestra/dp/B00BK6HQPU

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Percy Grainger (8 July 1882 – 20 February 1961) was an Australian-born composer, arranger and pianist. In the course of a long and innovative career, he played a prominent role in the revival of interest in British folk music in the early years of the 20th century. He also made many adaptations of other composers' works. Despite his conservatory training, Grainger rebelled against the disciplines of the central European tradition, largely rejecting conventional forms such as symphony, sonata, concerto and opera. The piece with which he is most generally associated is his piano arrangement of the folk-dance tune "Country Gardens".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percy_Grainger

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Andrew Davis (born 2 February 1944 in Ashridge, Hertfordshire) is a British conductor. Davis was music director of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra (1975-1988) and chief conductor the BBC Symphony Orchestra (1989-2000). He is currently music director and principal conductor of Lyric Opera of Chicago (since 2000), and chief conductor of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (since 2012). Davis has performed a wide range of repertoire, with a particular focus on contemporary British music. Davis has recorded for a number of labels, including Chandos, NMC Recordings, Teldec and Deutsche Grammophon.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Davis_(conductor)

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