Bantock: Orchestral Music [Box Set]

• Main performer: Vernon Handley
• Booklet languages: English, French, German
• Libretto languages: English
• Time: 452:11
• Release Date: 2007

Review

If one imagined a more sensuous Elgar, a more vigorous Delius, a less rigorous Wagner, or a less morbid Mahler, one would have imagined the music of Granville Bantock, the fin de siècle English composer who contrived to continue composing late Romantic music straight through to his death in 1946. But if these admittedly invidious comparisons don't suffice, you can always listen to this magnificently played and conducted six-disc set of Bantock's major orchestral works recorded for Hyperion by Vernon Handley and the Royal Philharmonic. Many of his best-known works are included: A Celtic Symphony, A Herbidean Symphony, and the Pagan Symphony, as well as excerpts from his mammoth setting of the complete The Song of Songs and his even more mammoth setting of the complete Omar Khayyám. Sumptuous, salacious, superficially chromatic but fundamentally tonal, easily roused, and just as easily distracted, Bantock's music is not for the prim, the pedantic, or the faint of heart. But in these dedicated performances, at least, they are compelling. From start to finish, Hyperion's sound is spectacular -- bringing Handley and the Royal Philharmonic right into your living room. ~ James Leonard, Rovi

Performances

Composer	Title	Time
Granville Bantock	A Celtic Symphony, for string orchestra & 6 harps	20:01
Granville Bantock	The Witch of Atlas (Tone Poem for Orchestra, No. 5)	14:48
Granville Bantock	The Sea Reivers, Hebridean Sea Poem, No. 2	3:52
Granville Bantock	Hebridean Symphony	35:03
Granville Bantock	Pagan Symphony	35:42
Granville Bantock	Fifine at the Fair, tone poem	35:32
Granville Bantock	Heroic Ballads (2) for orchestra	8:18
Granville Bantock	Symphony No. 3 "The Cyprian Goddess"	24:31
Granville Bantock	Variations for orchestra on the theme HFB "Helena Variations"	19:27
Granville Bantock	Dante and Beatrice, poem for orchestra	25:15
Granville Bantock	Sappho, prelude & 9 fragments for mezzo-soprano and orchestra	60:20
Granville Bantock	Sapphic Poem for cello and orchestra	14:59
Granville Bantock	The Song of Songs, for soloists, chorus & orchestra (Prelude)	11:43
Granville Bantock	Omar Khayyam, for soloists, chorus & orchestra (Prelude)	6:36
Granville Bantock	Omar Khayyam, for soloists, chorus & orchestra (Camel Caravan)	8:01
Granville Bantock	Caristiona, Hebridean sea poem for orchestra	9:35
Granville Bantock	Orchestral Scenes (2) (No. 1. Processional)	14:46
Granville Bantock	Thalaba the Destroyer, tone poem	25:59
Granville Bantock	Overture to a Greek Tragedy	17:58
Granville Bantock	Festival Symphony in 10 parts (The Wilderness and the Solitary Place)	6:24
Granville Bantock	Pierrot of the Minute, comedy overture for orchestra	12:18
Granville Bantock	The Song of Songs, for soloists, chorus & orchestra (The Second Day: ‘The voice of my beloved!’)	2:25
Granville Bantock	The Song of Songs, for soloists, chorus & orchestra (The Second Day: ‘My beloved spake’)	1:56
Granville Bantock	The Song of Songs, for soloists, chorus & orchestra (The Second Day: ‘Arise, my love’)	2:54
Granville Bantock	The Song of Songs, for soloists, chorus & orchestra (The Second Day: ‘Take us the foxes’)	3:15
Granville Bantock	The Song of Songs, for soloists, chorus & orchestra (The Second Day: She flings herself upon a divan in an ecstasy of passionate rapture)	2:30
Granville Bantock	The Song of Songs, for soloists, chorus & orchestra (The Second Day: ‘By night in my dream I sought him’)	3:11
Granville Bantock	The Song of Songs, for soloists, chorus & orchestra (The Second Day: ‘But I found him whom my soul loveth’)	3:25
Granville Bantock	The Song of Songs, for soloists, chorus & orchestra (The Third Day: The King’s gifts)	1:05
Granville Bantock	The Song of Songs, for soloists, chorus & orchestra (The Third Day: The Shulamite)	2:17
Granville Bantock	The Song of Songs, for soloists, chorus & orchestra (The Third Day: The Shulamite is left alone)	1:00
Granville Bantock	The Song of Songs, for soloists, chorus & orchestra (The Third Day: The Shulamite reflects upon her absent shepherd-lover)	1:09
Granville Bantock	The Song of Songs, for soloists, chorus & orchestra (The Third Day: ...and sees him in a vision on the mountainside)	1:34
Granville Bantock	The Song of Songs, for soloists, chorus & orchestra (The Fifth Day: ‘Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness?’)	2:00
Granville Bantock	The Song of Songs, for soloists, chorus & orchestra (The Fifth Day: ‘Set me as a seal upon thy heart’)	1:43
Granville Bantock	The Song of Songs, for soloists, chorus & orchestra (The Fifth Day: ‘Many waters cannot quench love’)	1:03
Granville Bantock	The Song of Songs, for soloists, chorus & orchestra (The Fifth Day: ‘For love is strong as death’)	2:32
Granville Bantock	The Song of Songs, for soloists, chorus & orchestra (The Fifth Day: ‘We have a little sister’)	3:56
Granville Bantock	The Song of Songs, for soloists, chorus & orchestra (The Fifth Day: ‘Make haste, my beloved’)	3:08

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