These recordings of orchestral works by William Wordsworth (1908-1988) are all performed by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra conducted by James Loughran or Stewart Robertson. These three works are original broadcast recordings from the BBC which aired between 1968 and 1979. These outstanding pieces are indicative of Wordsworth’s unique compositional style. He once wrote of his compositions, “I am quite convinced that I have something to say, and an individual way of saying it which the ordinary music-lover is capable is responding to if he is given sufficient opportunities.”

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

This is Lyrita’s second CD of Grace Williams reissues. My review of the first (6/95) revealed that I had forgotten that the Second Symphony had been recorded back in 1979. Now it is reissued here, an absorbing work whose mix of styles and models serves as a reminder that pluralism in music is not just a phenomenon of the years since 1980. The symphony begins by evoking Shostakovich and Vaughan Williams but, by the finale, it is a late-romanticism recalling both Wagner and Mahler that provides the source for Williams’s most powerful utterances, before the final ‘return to earth’ – and to echoes of Vaughan Williams.

Something of the symphony’s stylistic blend, with its inherent and persistent tensions, can also be heard in Ballads. This is music with a strong narrative drive, full of incident and sturdily constructed, but Ballads and the symphony are quite heavily scored, and these performances, though excellent in many ways, now sound rather congested. A wider sonic canvas is needed, to let more light and air into the textures.

These orchestral compositions reveal a distinctive personality, but Williams is still more impressive in the neo-Straussian opulence of Fairest of Stars, a setting of Milton whose vocal line seems to reflect the wonder and ecstasy of Ariadne auf Naxos. At the same time, the composer’s familiarity with Britten’s music is also recalled in certain turns of phrase. Fairest of Stars has a symphonic expansiveness, yet the rich instrumental commentary never impedes the vocal part, here projected with admirable sensitivity by Janet Price.

Arnold Whittall, Gramophone [12/1996]

Thea Musgrave writes of her work “Mary Queen of Scots”: Mary has been a fascinating subject to work with. It was interesting and challenging to find a path through all the well-known facts about her life, in order to be able to envision her with fresh eyes and gradually to shape my own portrait of her. My interest in her as a subject was first aroused by a basic idea of Amalia Elguera, (who had written the libretto for my previous opera The Voice of Ariadne) and on whose play Moray the opera is based. Here the emphasis lies, as the title implies, on Mary’s half brother James Stewart. I soon decided that in the opera, although the chief protagonist would be James, the central character must be Mary herself.” This recording is of a live performance on 2 April, 1978 in Norfolk, Virginia, at the gala performance for the Metropolitan Opera. Lyrita is proud to present this re-issue of Mary, Queen of Scots to coincide with Thea Musgrave’s 90th Birthday celebrations.

Classical Music

This exuberant piece begins with a lively, dancing section, driven by various rhythmic motifs, anchored by a vivid, repeated melodic pattern. An insistent triplet fanfare figure dominates the central section, before the opening gambolling material returns, with even more feverish energy. After a sonorous climax, the music gently ascends the heights before the vigorous final flourish. At several moments and especially at the music's climactic sequence, it feels as though Lloyd is demanding richer, more extensive sonorities than a single performer can produce. So it is not surprising that in 1995 he arranged the piece for two pianos. He remarked pithily, 'I think it sounds better with two pianos' and the greater depth of sound afforded by two instruments and the additional interplay between the two performers enhances the material. On the other hand, the element of striving and struggle present in the version for solo piano better complements the idealism and aspirations of the protagonists in the music's scenario.

Lullaby (Intercom Baby) was originally written for violin and piano in the mid-1970s, but Lloyd arranged it for solo piano in 1987 for the present recording. The composer wrote of the work, 'It is really a lullaby, but the mother does not rock the cradle, she is in another room at the end of an intercom listening for her baby; what she hears is not always as peaceful as it should be'. This gentle berceuse has a lilting warmth, with delightfully puckish central excursions. There is an old-world charm to the piece that belies it's modish title.

The Aggressive Fishes (1972) was inspired by Karl Lorenz's account of experiments with tropical fishes. According to the composer, 'They are wonderfully beautiful creatures, but very vicious and aggressive, so I tried to describe the languor and the laziness and the sudden bursts of violence'. Lloyd creates an aptly fluid, aqueous soundscape, which returns in the closing stages of the piece. In the main, central section, he takes the listener on a colourful journey, full of unexpected flights of fancy, in one of his most impressionistic pieces.