Benjamin Britten - "Virtuoso: Britten: Young Person's Guide To The Orchestra" Decca presents six new titles in the VIRTUOSO series. With stellar recordings, famous artists, strong visuals, b innovative booklet notes and best-selling composers, all offered at an excellent price, the Virtuoso series makes serious classical music approachable without compromise. This album includes Britten's Four Sea Interludes, performed by the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, conducted by Benjamin Britten.

Chandos features a varied selection of orchestral works by Benjamin Britten, performed by the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra under Richard Hickox, to mark the great composer's centenary year on this re-release. Included works are the Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra, Suite on English Folk Tunes, the Suite from Johnson over Jordan, and Four Sea Interludes.

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*** This title is a reissue of a Japanese release with liner notes in Japanese. ***

Okay, you're not going to find the insane intensity of Rostropovich/Vishnevskaya/Reshetin in Ormandy's Fourteenth symphony, but as you might expect, this Western premiere recording is really well played, and surprisingly well sung. Simon Estes has a rich, dark bass sound, and Phyllis Curtin is, in her own way, practically as intense as Vishnevskaya. Ormandy's conducting could be more volatile, particularly in the quicker songs, but he was always an excellent interpreter of this composer, and it's good to see this disc reappearing in Japanese RCA's Ormandy edition. The Britten pieces are also surprisingly effective given their late date in Ormandy's career. Again, the "Storm" could be a bit wilder, but the Passacaglia is terrific. Sonically this really is pretty good for its 1970s RCA vintage. Available from Arkivmusic.com, on-demand.

--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

George Benjamin and Martin Crimp's second full-length opera - following the acclaimed Written on Skin - draws on the real-life relationship between Edward II and Piers Gaveston to explore how personal relationships can have fatal political consequences. The King lives in a close but uneasy relationship with his wife Isabel, their two children and his lover Gaveston. When the King banishes his military advisor Mortimer, he sets off a chain of devastating events. Benjamin's richly-orchestrated score perfectly captures the drama's intense emotions, while director Katie Mitchell provides a visually stunning contemporary staging, highlighting the timelessness of the opera's main themes. The composer himself conducts a superb international cast. "... The music, written and compellingly conducted by Mr. Benjamin, is unapologetically modernist, while the libretto, by Mr. Crimp, is often cryptic. Without pandering, they've made another significant contribution to the art form. In the queen, Mr. Benjamin has created another remarkable role for Ms. Hannigan's immense vocal gifts and comprehensive musicianship. He writes lines that shift from earthy emotionalism to angelic purity, knowing that this artist can handle those pivots. He takes advantage of her focused intonation and rhythmic precision to lend even anguished passages structural strength. But it's Mr. Benjamin's remarkable music that gives the work it's charge: The writing is so lush, haunting and detailed - radiant one moment, piercingly dissonant the next - that you are continuously enveloped by the raucous beauty of the sounds." (New York Times)

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The Washington National Cathedral Choir (comprised of the Choir of Men and Boys, and the Choir of Men and Girls) is one of the few cathedral choirs in the United States with an affiliated school in the English Tradition—and this is their first recording on Gothic with their new director, Michael McCarthy. Appointed in 2003, McCarthy was the founding director of the London Oratory School Schola. The Schola recorded for the film scores of both The Lord of the Rings film trilogy and the Harry Potter film series. McCarthy brings a fresh approach to Benjamin Britten's Ceremony of Carols, and delightful readings of many other Christmas carols. One of America's finest Anglican choirs! - Gothic Records

Benjamin Britten: A Ceremony of Carols, Op. 28
Britten: A Hymn to the Virgin
Richard Rodney Bennett: Suanni
arr. Robert Lucas de Pearsall: In dulci jubilo
arr. John Stainer: What child is this
Kenneth Leighton: Lully lulla
arr. Sandys, Bramley & Stainer: I saw three ships
Morten Lauridsen: O magnum mysterium
John Rutter: There is a flower
Peter Warlock: Bethlehem Down
Peter Wishart: Alleluya! A new work is come on hand

Anibal Dos Santos performs with Orquesta Filarmonica de Bogota in this 2009 performance. Dos Santos also dances the tango during the concert alongside award-winning Colombian dancer Gina Medina.

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The Grace Cathedral Choir of Men and Boys, San Francisco, under the direction of conductor Benjamin Bachmann, present a program spotlighting 20th century composers and choral arrangers in the Anglican choral tradition. The voice of a cathedral choir soaring upward like the great building it fills is a thrill and an inspiration to even the most unmusical listener. Grace Cathedral has had a men’s choir since its founding in 1906, but it was not until 1913 that boy’s voices were added. The centuries-old Anglican tradition of a men and boys choir has since blossomed here, as one of a handful of such choirs in the US. The Cathedral music staff oversees an extensive program of choir rehearsals (including mixed-voice volunteer choirs), music classroom work with the choristers, education for the cathedral congregation, concerts, choir tours, and a wide variety of other musical activities in the life of this cathedral and beyond. The choir tradition continues to flourish into Grace Cathedral’s second hundred years, inspiring those who are privileged to hear it, and bringing back fond memories to old choristers.

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(Previously available on CHAN8983/4, now discontinued) Recorded in: St Jude on the Hill, Hampstead, London 24-28 February 1991 Producer(s) Brian Couzens Sound Engineer(s) Ralph Couzens Ben Connellan (Assistant

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