Grace Williams - Ballads for Orchestra • Fairest of Stars for soprano & orchestra* • Symphony No.2
Janet Price, soprano
Label: Lyrita
No recording information available for this CD |
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"[The Second Symphony is] an absorbing work whose mix of styles and models serves as a reminder that pluralism in music is not just a phenomenon of the years since 1980. The symphony begins by evoking Shostakovich and Vaughan Williams but, by the finale, it is late-romanticism recalling both Wagner and Mahler that provides the source for William’s most powerful utterances. The orchestral compositions reveal a distinctive personality, but Williams is still more impressive in the neo-Straussian opulence of Fairest Stars, a setting of Milton whose vocal line seems to reflect the wonder and ecstasy of Ariadne auf Naxos … here projected with admirable sensitivity by Janet Price" Arnold Wittall, Gramophone |
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