BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Kriss Russman – Butterworth: Orchestral Works (2016) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Kriss Russman – Butterworth: Orchestral Works (2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:15:32 minutes | 1,27 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © BIS

When George Butterworth joined the army in 1914, his most recent works included the song cycle Six Songs from ‘A Shropshire Lad’ as well as the Rhapsody ‘A Shropshire Lad’, which he called ‘an orchestral epilogue’ to his settings of A. E. Housman’s poems. The Rhapsody has since been described as ‘one of the greatest of all English orchestral works’ and when Butterworth left England to fight in the First World War, he was seen as one of the bright hopes of British music – a hope that in August 1916 was extinguished in the trenches at the Somme. When Butterworth joined up he stopped composing and also destroyed several manuscripts that he felt were inferior. An exception was an Orchestral Fantasia which he had started just before the war broke out: a 92-bar full score manuscript lasting some three-and-a-half minutes has been preserved. On the first page Butterworth wrote ‘see short score’ which implies that the work may have been completed – but if so, the score in question has been lost. The composer and conductor Kriss Russman has therefore taken up where the manuscript breaks off, adding some 5 minutes of music through a process which he describes in his liner notes as ‘developing Butterworth’s original ideas and combining them with additional material derived from an analysis of his other music.’ Performed by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales under Russman himself, the world première recording of the Fantasia closes the present disc which also includes some of Butterworth’s best loved pieces, such as The Banks of Green Willow. Russman has also made orchestral arrangements of the five-movement Suite for String Quartette and the Six Songs from ‘A Shropshire Lad’, both of which are recorded here for the first time. The soloist in the song cycle, and in the three songs that make up Love Blows as the Wind Blows, is James Rutherford, who has previously recorded the Shropshire Lad songs for BIS in the original version with piano accompaniment.

Tracklist:

01. BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Kriss Russman – Idyll: ‘The Banks of Green Willow’ (06:04)
02. James Rutherford, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Kriss Russman – Six Songs from ‘A Shropshire Lad’: I. Loveliest of trees (02:47)
03. James Rutherford, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Kriss Russman – Six Songs from ‘A Shropshire Lad’: II. When I was one-and-twenty (01:23)
04. James Rutherford, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Kriss Russman – Six Songs from ‘A Shropshire Lad’: III. Look not in my eyes (02:11)
05. James Rutherford, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Kriss Russman – Six Songs from ‘A Shropshire Lad’: IV. Think no more, lad (01:18)
06. James Rutherford, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Kriss Russman – Six Songs from ‘A Shropshire Lad’: V. The lads in their hundreds (02:07)
07. James Rutherford, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Kriss Russman – Six Songs from ‘A Shropshire Lad’: VI. Is my team ploughing (03:44)
08. BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Kriss Russman – Rhapsody ‘A Shropshire Lad’ (10:06)
09. BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Kriss Russman – Two English Idylls: I. Allegro scherzando (04:26)
10. BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Kriss Russman – Two English Idylls: II. Adagio non troppo (04:33)
11. BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Kriss Russman – Suite for String Quartette: I. Andante con moto, molto espressivo (03:42)
12. BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Kriss Russman – Suite for String Quartette: II. Scherzando – non allegro (00:56)
13. BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Kriss Russman – Suite for String Quartette: III. Allegro molto (04:29)
14. BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Kriss Russman – Suite for String Quartette: IV. Molto moderato ed espressivo (04:41)
15. BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Kriss Russman – Suite for String Quartette: V. Moderato (04:47)
16. James Rutherford, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Kriss Russman – Love Blows as the Wind Blows: I. In the year thats come and gone (03:07)
17. James Rutherford, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Kriss Russman – Love Blows as the Wind Blows: II. Life in her creaking shoes (01:58)
18. James Rutherford, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Kriss Russman – Love Blows as the Wind Blows: III. On the way to Kew (03:56)
19. BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Kriss Russman – Orchestral Fantasia (09:08)

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