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Wetton, Dawson - Holst: Choral Symphony, Choral Fantasia (1993)

Posted By: peotuvave
Wetton, Dawson - Holst: Choral Symphony, Choral Fantasia (1993)

Wetton, Dawson - Holst: Choral Symphony, Choral Fantasia (1993)
EAC Rip | Flac (Image + cue + log) | 1 CD | Full Scans | 264 MB
Genre: Classical | Label: Hyperion | Catalog Number: 55104

Ever been curious to hear a musical setting of Keats's "Ode on a Grecian Urn"? Well here's your chance. It's the second movement of Holst's First Choral Symphony (although he called it "First," there was never a second). You know the poem: "Beauty is truth and truth, beauty…." This is a highly enjoyable piece, and in sections of the first and third movement, the composer of The Planets makes some sounds that recall his most popular work. But there's much more to Holst than space music. He was a master at writing for chorus, his word setting always highly colorful and never stiff or "Victorian" sounding. This performance is the best available, so if you're intrigued, go for it.

Composer: Gustav Holst
Performer: Lynne Dawson, John Birch
Conductor: Hilary Davan Wetton
Orchestra/Ensemble: Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Guildford Choral Society

Reviews: Gustav Holst today is well known for his symphonic work The Planets and his military band suites, as well as a host of other instrumental works. His choral music has not fared so well, and this disk presents two large choral/orchestral works that the public at the time couldn't quite grasp on to: The Choral Fantasia and the First Choral Symphony.

The 18-minute Choral Fantasia is a setting of Robert Bridge's Ode to Music, a tribute to the awakened man and his great deeds of the past. Written for the 200th anniversary of the death of Henry Purcell, the work is scored for solo soprano, chorus, organ (which Holst himself played and plays a major role), strings, brass, and percussion. The organ opens as if creeping out of the primordial ooze, and the soprano soloist introduces the opening of the poem. A long and involved organ solo prevails, with a monstrous march supported by timpani, carries the music to the first choral statement. The general feeling is one of a subdued nature, with occasional outbursts; Holst here isn't afraid to use dissonance either. The music isn't outwardly celebratory, but a quiet respect is paid. Interesting compared to the popular Holst.

Holst's First Choral Symphony, is more diversified and longer, about 50 minutes, and uses the poetry of John Keats. In five movements, he titles them Invocation to Pan, Song and Bacchanale, Ode on a Grecian Urn, Scherzo, and Finale. The work begins with some un-Earthly chanting, an Invocation to the God Pan; the creepy chanting builds into a quick, yet glorious climax. A solo viola follows with a lament, taken up by the soprano Lynn Dawson, a heartfelt, almost folksy lament. The mood changes as the merry-making and licentiousness of the Bacchus worshipers enter, and a spright 7/8 time dance moves the music into festivities, echoed by playful woodwinds and brass fanfares. It all erupts with the chorus in praises of Bacchus with orchestral and percussive revelry. The third movement begins as the text changes to Keats' Ode on a Grecian Urn. The lyric beauty is maintained with occasional modal leaps by chorus or woodwinds. The fourth movement is a fleet-footed scherzo, a patter-song for chorus, often men's and women's voices taking turns. Toward the end, the song takes on the guise of a Scottish reel, with pealing chimes and choral cacophony, shouting "Hazzah!". The finale begins with the a cappella soprano soloist intoning, followed by the chorus praising the multi-faceted gifts God grants. The nearly 18-minute Finale is one big rejoicing and praising, an exultant and breath-taking movement. The work on the whole succeeds and fails; the music is pleasant, and even worthwhile, but the obscure texts and inconsistent form will forsake these pieces to relative obscurity, including the more-oft performed Choral Fantasia.

The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the Guilford Choral Society are not first-class ensembles, and it shows; but nothing is terrible about the execution of the performance, it is good. The orchestra succeeds except occasionally in sparsely orchestrated sections. The choir suffers the most with tuning issues, but more correctly, vocal production issues, but again, they do better than the average semi-professional ensemble. The soprano soloist is actually a delight to listen to; she fares well and gives a moving performance. If you want to investigate Holst's choral music, I would actually suggest starting with his more mainstream works (some good Holst choral CD's have been released on Chandos). Only die-hard Holst fans will probably want this CD, in that case, this is probably the only First Choral Symphony available to get, and it is a fine CD.

Tracklisting:

1. A Choral Fantasia, Op 51: Man Born Of Desire
2. A Choral Fantasia, Op 51: Organ Solo
3. A Choral Fantasia, Op 51: Rejoice, Ye Dead, Where'er Your Spirits Dwell
4. A Choral Fantasia, Op 51: Man Born Of Desire…
5. A Choral Fantasia, Op 51: Rejoice, Ye Dead, Where'er Your Spirits Dwell
6. First Choral Symphony, Op 41: Prelude: Invocation To Pan
7. First Choral Symphony, Op 41: Song And Bacchanal
8. First Choral Symphony, Op 41: Chorus
9. First Choral Symphony, Op 41: Solo
10. First Choral Symphony, Op 41: Chorus
11. First Choral Symphony, Op 41: Solo
12. First Choral Symphony, Op 41: Chorus
13. First Choral Symphony, Op 41: Ode On A Grecian Urn
14. First Choral Symphony, Op 41: Scherzo
15. First Choral Symphony, Op 41: Folly's Song
16. First Choral Symphony, Op 41: Solo
17. First Choral Symphony, Op 41: Chorus
18. First Choral Symphony, Op 41: Solo
19. First Choral Symphony, Op 41: Chorus
20. First Choral Symphony, Op 41: Solo
21. First Choral Symphony, Op 41: Chorus
22. First Choral Symphony, Op 41: Finale: Solo

Exact Audio Copy V1.0 beta 3 from 29. August 2011

EAC extraction logfile from 26. January 2015, 2:05

Guildford Choral Society, Royal PO, Hilary Davan Wetton / Holst - Choral Fantasia; First Choral Symphony

Used drive : HL-DT-STDVDRAM GU70N Adapter: 0 ID: 0

Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No

Read offset correction : 48
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes
Used interface : Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000

Used output format : User Defined Encoder
Selected bitrate : 128 kBit/s
Quality : High
Add ID3 tag : No
Command line compressor : C:\Program Files (x86)\Exact Audio Copy\Flac\flac.exe
Additional command line options : -V -8 -T "Date=%year%" -T "Genre=%genre%" %source%


TOC of the extracted CD

Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––-
1 | 0:00.00 | 2:46.33 | 0 | 12482
2 | 2:46.33 | 3:59.60 | 12483 | 30467
3 | 6:46.18 | 4:10.62 | 30468 | 49279
4 | 10:57.05 | 6:19.45 | 49280 | 77749
5 | 17:16.50 | 1:15.63 | 77750 | 83437
6 | 18:32.38 | 3:29.50 | 83438 | 99162
7 | 22:02.13 | 6:08.17 | 99163 | 126779
8 | 28:10.30 | 0:41.25 | 126780 | 129879
9 | 28:51.55 | 0:50.30 | 129880 | 133659
10 | 29:42.10 | 0:45.08 | 133660 | 137042
11 | 30:27.18 | 0:56.57 | 137043 | 141299
12 | 31:24.00 | 1:16.65 | 141300 | 147064
13 | 32:40.65 | 10:41.38 | 147065 | 195177
14 | 43:22.28 | 2:50.10 | 195178 | 207937
15 | 46:12.38 | 2:42.32 | 207938 | 220119
16 | 48:54.70 | 1:04.30 | 220120 | 224949
17 | 49:59.25 | 2:16.23 | 224950 | 235172
18 | 52:15.48 | 1:07.67 | 235173 | 240264
19 | 53:23.40 | 4:29.15 | 240265 | 260454
20 | 57:52.55 | 1:24.10 | 260455 | 266764
21 | 59:16.65 | 6:33.48 | 266765 | 296287
22 | 65:50.38 | 1:47.25 | 296288 | 304337


Range status and errors

Selected range

Filename C:\temp\CDH55104 - Holst - Choral Symphony; Choral Fantasia\Holst - Choral Fantasia; First Choral Symphony.wav

Peak level 100.0 %
Extraction speed 2.2 X
Range quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 13CE5EE2
Copy CRC 13CE5EE2
Copy OK

No errors occurred


AccurateRip summary

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All tracks accurately ripped

End of status report

==== Log checksum 4B21066677534E5517C6A262D302748D07B33C6A35B951EAA8000ABA519B1102 ====



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