Royal Throne Of Kings: RaLPh Vaughan Williams And Shakespeare

James Ross, Kent Sinfonia, Eloise Irving, Malcolm Riley

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Cat No: ALBCD062

Release Date: 01 November 2024

Label: Albion Records

Packaging Type: Jewel Case

No of Units: 1

Barcode: 5060158190621

Genres: Classical Orchestral

Description

Ralph Vaughan Williams loved Shakespeare, and it inspired his music throughout his long composing career. This album is a collection of some of that music, much of it now heard for the first time.

In 1912 and 1913 Vaughan Williams composed and conducted music for Shakespeare plays in the Memorial Theatre at Stratford-upon-Avon, where Sir Frank Benson presented plays for many years. He composed some new music, but preferred to use music of Shakespeare's own time whenever possible. The album includes a Henry IV Suite assembled from the surviving cues by Malcolm Riley, and a Stratford Suite, put together from a number of plays by Nathaniel Lew.
Vaughan Williams wrote a Henry V Overture in 1913, but the full score has long since been lost. Twenty years later, he wrote an overture for brass with the same title, based on that 1913 overture, but it was developed in a completely different way. Some of the orchestral parts have survived at Stratford, and David Owen Norris was able to put the original version together for this recording. The comparison between the two versions is very interesting -the later version may be heard on ALBCD052 Vaughan Williams on Brass.

Nathaniel Lew has arranged a Richard II Concert Fantasy, using incidental music commissioned from Vaughan Williams by the BBC in 1944, but not used at the time.

'Unfailingly sympathetic performances, one and all, with top notch production values and exemplary presentation to match.' – Gramophone

'As a stand-alone 'new' work, it is actually rather impressive and well played by the fify-or-so-strong Kent Sinfonia. Lew has skilfully arranged the music to create a dramatic logic and arc independent of the original play's narrative.' – Music Web International

'This is the most intriguing disc I have reviewed so far this year. Virtually all the works are heard here for the first time. Often, they have been arranged or realised by hands other than Ralph Vaughan Williams. This explores a corner of his catalogue which I know but never imagined I would hear.' – Music Web International

'The disc enables us to hear the composer's varied responses to these dramatic stimuli, but of as much interest is the knowledge that the mine of unrecorded, unplayed Vaughan Williams is running out and this may well be one of the last major discs of his undiscovered orchestral music.' – Planet Hugill

'The collection of music takes Shakespeare as its link, but the vision of Ralph Vaughan Williams always drives it.' –Interlude

'This immensely rewarding collection is distinguished on many counts, beginning with sterling performances by the James Ross-conducted Kent Sinfonia, soprano Eloise Irving, and pianist Malcolm Riley.' – Textura

'The performances throughout are consistently very good indeed, and it is good to hear the first-class Kent Sinfonia on disc in this repertoire.' – Musical Opinion (5 stars)

'The Three Shakespeare Songs from 1925 are rather lovely […] and Eloise Iving's sweet, nicely enunciated performances may well persuade other singers to take them up.' – BBC Music Magazine (3 stars)

"This latest release presents an engaging overview of Vaughan Williams' musings on the great Shakespearian era." - Classical Music Sentinel
Tracklisting