8.572818-19 • 2 CDs

Giuseppe VERDI (1813-1901)
Complete Ballet Music from the Operas
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra
José Serebrier

Repertoire • Ballet Music from Otello, Macbeth, Jérusalem, Don Carlo, Aida, Il trovatore and
I vespri siciliani

This unique programme is the first time that all the ballet music from Verdi’s operas has been brought together in a single recording. Although The Four Seasons from I vespri siciliani (The Sicilian Vespers) and the ballet scenes from

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Aida and Otello have survived, substantial pieces from Il trovatore and Don Carlo are more often cut, while the ballet from Jérusalem is all but unknown. José Serebrier’s recordings with the Bournemouth Symphony have resulted in some great successes with unusual repertoire. This release will be of interest both to opera enthusiasts and to those eager to explore Verdi’s neglected and relatively small body of concert music.

8.572348

Peter MAXWELL DAVIES (b 1934)
Symphony No 1 • Mavis in Las Vegas
BBC Philharmonic
Peter Maxwell Davies

Peter Maxwell Davies’s visionary music has gained him a knighthood, the prestigious position of Master of the Queen’s Music and a leading position among the foremost composers of our time. The two works on this disc, authoritatively conducted by the composer, show two sides of his remarkable musical imagination. The First Symphony is permeated by the presence of the sea and the haunting landscape of his home in the Orkney Islands, while the vibrant theme and variations Mavis in Las Vegas is an exuberant ‘tribute’ to the glitzy gambling capital of the world, in all its hyper-reality.

8.570893

Pablo SARASATE (1844-1908)
Music for Violin and Piano, Vol 3
Tianwa Yang, violin • Markus Hadulla, piano

Repertoire • Boléro, Op 30 • Zortzico d’Iparraguirre, Op 39 • Sérénade andalouse, Op 10 • Adiós montañas mias – Danse espagnole, Op 37 • Le Sommeil, Op 11 • Rêverie, Op 4 • Introduction et fandango, Op 40 • Fantaisie-Caprice • Prière et berceuse, Op 17 • Confidences – Romance sans paroles, Op 7 • Caprice sur Mireille de Gounod, Op 6 • Airs écossais, Op 34 • Los pájaros de Chile • Les Adieux, Op 9

Tianwa Yang’s admired and revelatory Sarasate series continues with a volume of captivatingly melodic compositions. Given Sarasate’s prodigious status in the violin pantheon, technical demands on the performer are often – but not universally – constant. But so too is his unfailing gift for lyricism, whether in the elegant Boléro, the balletic Sérénade andalouse or the aria-like Rêverie. The dazzling bowing difficulties in the Fantaisie-Caprice are thrilling, and so are the bird call harmonics of Los pájaros de Chile, written during a South American tour and only very recently published.

8.572747

William ALWYN (1905-85) • Film Music
Royal Northern College of Music Wind Orchestra
Clark Rundell* • Mark Heron^†

Repertoire • The Crimson Pirate – Overture^† • The History of Mr Polly – Suite* • The Way Ahead – March* • State Secret – Suite* • The Million Pound Note – Waltz^† • Swiss Family Robinson – Suite^† • The True Glory – March^† • Geordie – Suite* • In Search of the Castaways – Suite^† • Desert Victory – Suite^†
All arrangements by Martin Ellerby

William Alwyn was a consummate film composer, as capable of creating powerful marches as he was atmospheric waltzes. In these exciting arrangements by Martin Ellerby for wind band, the full variety of Alwyn’s inspiration can be appreciated. There is the romantic allure of the overture to The Crimson Pirate, the compact, brilliant characterisation of The History of Mr Polly and the suite from Geordie, with its seductive use of familiar Scottish melodies. The scores for The Way Ahead and Desert Victory convey action with superb and stirring effectiveness.