Description
Prompted and supported by the leading Dylan Thomas expert John Goodby, this recording brings together several exciting compositional voices in British music in a re-visiting and re-presentation of the poetry of Dylan Thomas through the medium of song. The Deaths and Entrances project began in 2021 when John Goodby suggested to the composer David Lancaster that he might like to consider setting a Thomas poem to mark the seventieth anniversary of the poet's death, in 2023. Work was delayed by Covid, but it was given a new boost and an extra dimension when David and John mentioned it to David's fellow composer, Philip Grange. Soon he and David had been joined by another three other composers - Rhian Samuel, Hayley Jenkins and Sadie Harrison. By 2023 all five were producing settings and Chris O'Gorman (tenor) and David Pipe (piano) had been engaged as performers. The first performance of the suite of songs was at a recital of November 2023, as part of York's prestigious Late Music concert series.