Vaughan Williams: Five Tudor Portraits; Benedicite; Five Variants of Dives and Lazarus
Published:
COMPOSERS: Vaughan Williams
LABELS: EMI
WORKS: Five Tudor Portraits; Benedicite; Five Variants of Dives and Lazarus
PERFORMER: Heather Harper, Elizabeth Bainbridge, John Carol Case; Bach Choir, New Philharmonia Orchestra, LSO, Jacques Orchestra/David Willcocks
CATALOGUE NO: CDM 7 64722 2 ADD (1969/68/70)
This generous selection offers contrasting aspects of Vaughan Williams’s art, all in splendid performances. The Five Tudor Portraits (1936) were contemporary with Orff’s Carmina Burana, and both works offer a lively response to earthy texts. It is hard to imagine the brief Benedicite better sung than it is here by the Bach Choir and Heather Harper, while the Trinity College acoustic suits the string music of Dives and Lazarus admirably, and Willcocks directs a lyrical performance. Terry Barfoot