MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Bantock: Sappho / Sapphic Poem
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SIR GRANVILLE BANTOCK
MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Bantock: Sappho / Sapphic Poem
Susan Bickley (mezzo) Julian Lloyd Webber (cello) / Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Vernon Handley (conductor)
[ Hyperion / CD ]
Release Date: Monday 10 May 1999
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This first recording of Bantock's Sappho, written in 1906, reveals it to be a gorgeous song cycle of almost an hour's duration. The 'fragments' are all that remain of the work of the Greek poetess Sappho who lived c700BC, and Bantock has given her erotic and beautiful poetry a luscious late-romantic score for a vast orchestra. The piece is ravishingly sung by Susan Bickley.
The fifteen-minute Sapphic Poem, also written in 1906, is for cello and orchestra. Julian Lloyd Webber was given special permission to record it for us by Polygram, to whom he is exclusively contracted and to whom we are grateful.
'This really is most welcome … an intoxicating celebration of love in all its guises … Sappho held me pretty spellbound, even on first acquaintance. No praise can be too high for Susan Bickley … [and] Tony Faulkner's stunningly natural engineering complements what is another triumphant addition to Hyperion's ongoing Bantock series' (Gramophone)
'Susan Bickley sings this erotic and exotic music with intense fervour. The Sapphic Poem is a companion piece and equally luscious' (The Sunday Telegraph)
'Boy, do I like this disc. What a delight Bantock's music is-so full of vivid emotions, exotic flair, and elegant, lushly melodic writing' (American Record Guide)
'Luscious washes of sensual colour … ravishing harmonies' (The Strad)
Tracks:
THE CYPRIAN GODDESS
(Symphony No 3, 1938/39) [24'23]
Maestoso e sforzato - Lentamente - Poco largamente Con più moto [5'53] -
Liberamente Affrettando - Tranquillo molto sostenuto [2'37] -
Animando - Con fuoco - Con moto agitato [3'26] -
Lentamente - Lento sostenuto - Poco lentando - Allegretto grazioso - Con fuoco - Con anima [9'20] -
Più moto, affrettando - Tranquillo, e molto sostenuto [3'05]
HELENA
(Orchestral variations on the theme HFB, 1899) [19'25]
Theme: Lento molto [1'51]
Variation I: Allegro molto con fuoco [0'45]
Variation II: Poco tranquillo [0'52]
Variation III: Allegretto scherzando [1'56]
Variation IV: Molto moderato quasi religioso [0'42]
Variation V: Capriccioso [1'17]
Variation VI: Poco agitate [1'01]
Variation VII: Lento molto e sostenuto [1'44]
Variation VIII: Con moto affettuoso [1'27]
Variation IX: Allegro impetuoso [1'01]
Variation X: Non più Allegro [1'32]
Variation XI: Andante doloroso [2'01]
Variation XII Finale: Allegro appassionato [3'09]
DANTE AND BEATRICE
(Poem for orchestra, 1901, revised 1910) [25'00]
Maestoso - Poco largamente - Vivo - Lento - Allegro con fuoco - Appassionato - Sostenuto cantabile - Andante tranquillo, poco rubato
