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EM Records is delighted and proud to announce the release of a new disc featuring World Première Recordings of important works by one of Britain’s finest composers, Gustav Holst. As well as composing, Holst held several significant teaching posts, the most important and longest-lasting of which was at St Paul’s Girls’ School. This Musical Directorship brought him joy and delight; it also provided solace in the form of his sound-proofed room in the Music Wing, into which he was able to retreat and gain the peace and quiet he required for composition. Holst — who threw himself wholeheartedly into the life of the school — gratefully composed a number of works specifically for the school and its pupils, including all the works presented on this disc.
These works perfectly demonstrate how uncompromising Holst was in his pursuit of quality — the pieces on this disc are no less carefully textured and well-crafted than his works for professional ensembles and they highlight Holst’s integrity as a composer, along with his love for and appreciation of St Paul’s Girls’ School.
As well as the much-loved St Paul’s Suite and Brook Green Suite (the latter performed at the last concert that Holst ever attended), this disc features the World Première Recordings of the Gavotte — originally part of the Brook Green Suite — the “Playground Song”; and the Seven Choruses from “Alcestis”, with its heart-felt words by Euripides.
We are also delighted to enable music-lovers to hear “The Vision of Dame Christian”, a deeply-engaging Masque composed for the four-hundredth anniversary of St Paul’s School to celebrate its founder, John Colet, and his mother, with words by the then-High Mistress of the Girls’ School, Frances Gray. This important and beautiful work here receives its first professional recording. Holst stipulated that the Masque should not be taken out of the school, so we are even more pleased to have been able to honour his wishes by recording it in the beautiful wooden-panelled Great Hall, with the choir formed by current pupils. Also featured are the BBC Concert Orchestra conducted by Leigh O’Hara (Director of Music at the school at the time of recording) and the Director of EM Records, Em Marshall-Luck — herself an Old Paulina — as the reciter.
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Gustav Holst (1874–1934) ST PAUL’S SUITE |
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| 1. | I. Jig | ||
| 2. | II. Ostinato | ||
| 3. | III. Intermezzo | ||
| 4. | IV. Finale (“The Dargason”) | ||
| BROOK GREEN SUITE | |||
| 5. | I. Prelude | ||
| 6. | II. Air | ||
| 7. | III. Dance | ||
| 8. | GAVOTTE (World Première recording) | ||
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SEVEN CHORUSES FROM “ALCESTIS” OF EURIPEDES (World Première recording) |
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| 9. | I. ‘What escape and where …” | ||
| 10. | II. “Daughter of Phelias, fare thee well …” | ||
| 11. | III. “Oh, a house that loves the stranger …” | ||
| 12. | IV. “Ah me! Farewell, unfalteringly brave …” | ||
| 13. | V. “Advance, advance …” | ||
| 14. | VI. “I have sojourned in the Muse’s land …” | ||
| 15. | VII. “There be many shapes of mystery …” | ||
| 16. | PLAYGROUND SONG (World Première recording) | ||
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THE VISION OF DAME CHRISTIAN (First professional recording) |
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| 17. | I. Prelude | ||
| 18. | II. Chorus | ||
| 19. | III. Hymn | ||
| 20. | IV. Interlude | ||
| 21. | V. Choral Dance | ||
| 22. | VI. Finale | ||
EMR CD028 | INTERNATIONAL
RECORD REVIEW