COMPOSERS: Grace Williams
LABELS: Lyrita
WORKS: Symphony No. 2; Ballads for Orchestra; Fairest of Stars
PERFORMER: Janet Price (soprano); BBC Welsh SO/Vernon Handley, LSO/Charles Groves
CATALOGUE NO: SRCD 327 ADD (1980/74)
Grace Williams wrote commandingly for orchestra, and the opening of the first Ballad has a magnificent sweep which sets the tone for the whole work. The BBC Welsh orchestra plays well under Handley’s direction, as it does also in the imaginative and cogent Symphony No. 2. The recording is faithful, if rather lacking in bloom. Fairest of Stars, which sets lines from Milton’s Paradise Lost, was composed for this recording, and Janet Price sings the taxing solo part with distinction. Terry Barfoot
Grace Williams
Grace Williams wrote commandingly for orchestra, and the opening of the first Ballad has a magnificent sweep which sets the tone for the whole work. The BBC Welsh orchestra plays well under Handley’s direction, as it does also in the imaginative and cogent Symphony No. 2. The recording is faithful, if rather lacking in bloom. Fairest of Stars, which sets lines from Milton’s Paradise Lost, was composed for this recording, and Janet Price sings the taxing solo part with distinction. Terry Barfoot
Our rating
4
Published: January 20, 2012 at 3:08 pm