- Performer: Wilfred Brown, Dame Janet Baker, Ian Partridge, John Shirley-Quirk
- Orchestra: English Chamber Orchestra, Purcell Singers
- Conductor: Christopher Finzi, Imogen Holst, Sir David Willcocks
- Composer: Gerald Finzi, Gustav Holst, Ralph Vaughan Williams
- Audio CD (1 April 1996)
- Number of Discs: 1
- Label: EMI Classics
- ASIN: B000005GSD
- Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
88,117 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
- #47 in Music > Opera & Vocal > Song > Baritone
- #63 in Music > Opera & Vocal > Song > Tenor
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Product details |
Track Listings
| 1. Five Mystical Songs: Easter - John Shirley-Quirk |
| 2. Five Mystical Songs: I Got Me Flowers - John Shirley-Quirk |
| 3. Five Mystical Songs: Love Bade Me Welcome - John Shirley-Quirk |
| 4. Five Mystical Songs: The Call - John Shirley-Quirk |
| 5. Five Mystical Songs: Antiphon - John Shirley-Quirk |
| 6. O Clap Your Hands - Chor Of King's College, Cambridge |
| 7. A Choral Fant, H177 - Dame Janet Baker |
| 8. Psalm 86, No.1 H117 - Ian Partridge/Purcell Singers |
| 9. Dies Natalis, Op.8: Intrada - Wilfred Brown |
| 10. Dies Natalis, Op.8: Rhap (Recitativo Stromentato) - Wilfred Brown |
| 11. Dies Natalis, Op.8: The Rapture (Danza) - Wilfred Brown |
| 12. Dies Natalis, Op.8: Wonder (Arioso) - Wilfred Brown |
| 13. Dies Natalis, Op.8: The Salutation (Aria) - Wilfred Brown |
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Holst's Choral Fantasia is one of his late, austere works scored for soprano soloist (performed here by the mezzo Janet Baker in stirringly oracular form), chorus, organ, timpani, brass and strings. It is, in effect, a requiem for artists, and became a requiem for the poet whose words Holst set, Robert Bridges. The music is uncompromising and direct at first, with only organ and brass in evidence for the first six minutes or so of the work; warmth finally appears with the chorus singing 'Rejoice ye dead...that yet on earth your fame is bright, and that your names remembered day and night live on the lips of those who love you well'. Strings add further to this warmth, reaching a climax with the words 'Now ye are starry names', leading to a chilling denoument with the return of the opening music. It is as if we are here confronted with the bleakness of death, and the rest of the work seems to be addressing how to find reconciliation with that implacable fate; it ends poignantly with a final soprano solo drifting into silence as if in farewell.
This, and the simple yet moving setting of Psalm 86, were the original coupling to the classic Finzi recording already eloquently written about by 'Olfreda'. These alone would make this disc an essential purchase for fans of these composers, but EMI has added some sweet icing in the form of Vaughan Williams's Five Mystical Songs, beautifully performed by John Shirley-Quirk with the Choir of King's College Cambridge. A real treasure of a disc.
This, and the simple yet moving setting of Psalm 86, were the original coupling to the classic Finzi recording already eloquently written about by 'Olfreda'. These alone would make this disc an essential purchase for fans of these composers, but EMI has added some sweet icing in the form of Vaughan Williams's Five Mystical Songs, beautifully performed by John Shirley-Quirk with the Choir of King's College Cambridge. A real treasure of a disc.
19 of 20 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
The Wilfred Brown/Christopher Finzi performance of Finzi's Dies Natalis is for me the only performance. I first bought it on LP about thirty-five years ago and played it to death. During the intervening years I have bought other recordings, and many of these are fine, but no one touches Wilfred Brown for the innocence and freshness which, I believe, is essential for ths work.
John Shirley Quirk's Mystical Songs is also magnificent, capturing a fervour that is often lacking elsewhere.
If you love this repertoire, you cannot be without these revelatory performances. Age seems not to touch them. You are left only with vision and wonder.
John Shirley Quirk's Mystical Songs is also magnificent, capturing a fervour that is often lacking elsewhere.
If you love this repertoire, you cannot be without these revelatory performances. Age seems not to touch them. You are left only with vision and wonder.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
No need to go into great detail. The Mystical songs do seem more forcefully presented than usual. It often seems to be mellower in tone. The Choral Fantasia is wonderfully dramatic and atmospheric, with the wonderful Janet Baker in fine form, as always. But Wilfred Brown's rendering of the Finzi Dies Natalis is absolutely sublime - for me, no other tenor comes close (not that several of them can be faulted particularly themselves)- it's his incomparable diction, the purity of the voice, the sensitivity to the text - together with the fabulous playing and recording of the English Chamber Orchestra. It's the reason I purchased the CD, having been aware of the performance since the 1960s. So tragic that he died so young.
The other numbers are fine, too, contributing to a genuinely memorable collection of 20th century English vocal and choral music.
The other numbers are fine, too, contributing to a genuinely memorable collection of 20th century English vocal and choral music.
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