Brian: The Cenci / Kelleher, Millennium Sinfonia

$26.99
Label
Toccata
Release Date
May 17, 2024
Format
Added to Cart! View cart or continue shopping.


    Featuring ⌄
    • COMPOSER
      Havergal Brian, Percy Bysshe Shelley
    • PERFORMER
      Helen Field, David Wilson-Johnson, Ingveldur Yr Jonsdottir, Stuart Kale, Justin Lavender, Jeffrey Ca
    Product Details ⌄
    • RELEASE DATE
      May 17, 2024
    • UPC
      5060113440945
    • CATALOG NUMBER
      TOCC0094
    • LABEL
      Toccata
    • NUMBER OF DISCS
      2
    • GENRE
      Orchestral & Symphonic
    Works ⌄

    1. Overture (Preludio tragico)

      Composer: Havergal Brian

      Ensemble: Millenium Sinfonia

      Conductor: James Kelleher

    2. Scene 1: An Apartment in the Cenci Palace, Rome (Camillo, Count Cenci)

      Composer: Havergal Brian

      Ensemble: Millenium Sinfonia

      Performer: Stuart Kale, David Wilson-Johnson

      Conductor: James Kelleher

    3. Scene 2: A Garden of the Cenci Palace, Rome (Beatrice, Orsino)

      Composer: Havergal Brian

      Ensemble: Millenium Sinfonia

      Performer: Helen Field, Justin Lavender

      Conductor: James Kelleher

    4. Scene 3: A Magnificent Hall in the Cenci Palace, Rome: A Banquet (Count Cenci, Beatrice, First Guest, Second Guest, Third Guest, Camillo, A Guest, Colonna, A Cardinal)

      Composer: Havergal Brian

      Ensemble: Millenium Sinfonia

      Performer: David Wilson-Johnson, Helen Field, Serena Kay, Nicholas Buxton, Stuart Kale, Devon Harrison

      Conductor: James Kelleher

    5. Scene 4: An Apartment in the Castle of Petrella (Among the Apulian Appenines) (Count Cenci, Lucretia)

      Composer: Havergal Brian

      Ensemble: Millenium Sinfonia

      Performer: David Wilson-Johnson, Ingveldur Ýr Jónsdóttir

      Conductor: James Kelleher

    6. Scene 5: Before the Castle of Petrella (Beatrice, Lucretia, Olimpio, Marzio, Savella, Bernardo, An Officer)

      Composer: Havergal Brian

      Ensemble: Millenium Sinfonia

      Performer: Helen Field, Ingveldur Ýr Jónsdóttir, Devon Harrison, Nicholas Buxton, Jeffrey Carl, Justin Lavender, Stuart Kale

      Conductor: James Kelleher

    7. Scene 6: An Apartment in Orsino's Palace, Rome (Orsino, Giacomo)

      Composer: Havergal Brian

      Ensemble: Millenium Sinfonia

      Performer: Justin Lavender, Jeffrey Carl

      Conductor: James Kelleher

    8. Scene 7: The Hall of Justice, Rome (First Judge, Marzio, Second Judge, Beatrice, Camillo, An Officer)

      Composer: Havergal Brian

      Ensemble: Millenium Sinfonia

      Performer: Jeffrey Carl, Nicholas Buxton, Helen Field, Stuart Kale

      Conductor: James Kelleher

    9. Scene 8: A Hall of the Prison (Camillo, Bernardo, Beatrice, Lucretia, Giacomo)

      Composer: Havergal Brian

      Ensemble: Millenium Sinfonia

      Performer: Stuart Kale, Justin Lavender, Helen Field, Ingveldur Ýr Jónsdóttir, Jeffrey Carl

      Conductor: James Kelleher


The Cenci (1951–52) is Havergal Brian’s operatic realisation of Shelley’s gruesome tale of incest and parricide in Renaissance Italy. The score calls it simply an ‘Opera in Eight Scenes’, but it rarely goes in for grand tunes; instead, its dark colours reflect Shelley’s fascination with the struggle between good and evil. Stylistically, it is an unusual but highly effective hybrid: a music-drama focused on the intense delivery of Shelley’s text, with the declamatory style of the vocal lines echoing such recent oratorios as Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex and Honegger’s Jeanne d’Arc au bûcher, and the freewheeling orchestral writing producing something of a vocal symphony.