John Wilson conducts a series of orchestral works of his mentor and friend Sir Richard Rodney Bennett, which now reaches Volume 5, featuring three works composed between 1973 and 1989. Son of professional musicians, Bennett demonstrated musical talent from an early age and went on to study with Howard Ferguson, Lennox Berkeley, and later Pierre Boulez. He produced more than 200 works for the concert hall, and fifty scores for film and television. He was also a writer and performer of jazz songs for fifty years. Immersed in the techniques of the European avant-garde via his contact with Boulez, he subsequently developed his own dramatic-abstract style. In later years, he adopted an increasingly tonal idiom. The Concerto for Orchestra was commissioned at the instigation of Brian Priestman, the British chief conductor of the Denver Symphony Orchestra. It’s three-movement structure, closing with a dazzling set of variations, displays the modern orchestra as a virtuoso body of players. His rarely performed cello concerto Sonnets to Orpheus was written for the Edinburgh International Festival, and premiered by Heinrich Schiff. Diversions was a commission from the Haberdashers’ Aske’s Schools, in north London, to celebrate their tercentenary, in 1990. It was first played by the combined orchestras of all seven schools at a celebration concert in the Royal Festival Hall and the finished work is an exuberantly colourful set of symphonic variations based on the Scottish folksong ‘Whistle and I’ll come to you, my lad’.

Tracklist:

1. Concerto for Orchestra~I. Aubade. Vivo – Doppio valore – Quasi cadenza – Scherzando
2. Concerto for Orchestra~II. Adagio – Pochissimo pi mosso – Agitato – Presto spettrale – Tempo I (Doppio valore) – Tranquillo
3. Concerto for Orchestra~III. Variations. Tema. Presto –
4. Concerto for Orchestra~III. Variations. Variazione I. Leggero –
5. Concerto for Orchestra~III. Variations. Variazione II. Molto agitato –
6. Concerto for Orchestra~III. Variations. Variazione III. Misterioso –
7. Concerto for Orchestra~III. Variations. Variazione IV. Strepitoso –
8. Concerto for Orchestra~III. Variations. Variazione V. Quasi campane –
9. Concerto for Orchestra~III. Variations. Variazione VI. Appassionato –
10. Concerto for Orchestra~III. Variations. Variazione VII. Scherzando –
11. Concerto for Orchestra~III. Variations. Variazione VIII. Brillante –
12. Concerto for Orchestra~III. Variations. Finale. Molto ritmico – Maestoso
13. Sonnets to Orpheus for Cello and Orchestra~I. Allegro – A tempo, tranquillo – Con moto – [Cadenza.] A piacere, poco meno, molto
14. Sonnets to Orpheus for Cello and Orchestra~II. Capriccioso – Stesso tempo ma tranquillo – Come prima – Cadenza, quasi stesso tem
15. Sonnets to Orpheus for Cello and Orchestra~III. Arioso – Molto tranquillo
16. Sonnets to Orpheus for Cello and Orchestra~IV. Molto animato – [ ] – Tempol-[ ]- Tempo I – Molto mosso – [ ] – A tempo, molto mo
17. Sonnets to Orpheus for Cello and Orchestra~V. Adagio – Senza misura
18. Diversions for Chamber Orchestra~Theme (‘Whistle and I’ll come to you, my lad’). Vivo –
19. Diversions for Chamber Orchestra~Variation
20. Grazioso –
21. Diversions for Chamber Orchestra~Variation II. Scherzando –
22. Diversions for Chamber Orchestra~Interlude 1 (‘In your [sic] garden’). Allegretto – Scherzando – Largamente –
23. Diversions for Chamber Orchestra~Variation III. Poco lento – A tempo con moto – A tempo poco sostenuto –
24. Diversions for Chamber Orchestra~Variation IV. Con fuoco –
25. Diversions for Chamber Orchestra~Variation V. Tranquillo – A tempo con moto –
26. Diversions for Chamber Orchestra~Variation VI. Con brio –
27. Diversions for Chamber Orchestra~Interlude 2 (‘My love’s in Germanie’). Lento –
28. Diversions for Chamber Orchestra~Finale. Molto allegro – Alla marcia – Giocoso – Molto vivo

UPC > 095115526620

Format > New CD

Label > Chandos

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