James Ross – Ralph Vaughan Williams: Royal Throne of Kings (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:12:13 minutes | 1,23 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Albion
Ralph Vaughan Williams loved Shakespeare, and it inspired his music throughout his long composing career. This album is a collection of some of that music, much of it now heard for the first time.
In 1912 and 1913 Vaughan Williams composed and conducted music for Shakespeare plays in the Memorial Theatre at Stratford-upon-Avon, where Sir Frank Benson presented plays for many years. He composed some new music, but preferred to use music of Shakespeare’s own time whenever possible. The album includes a Henry IV Suite assembled from the surviving cues by Malcolm Riley, and a Stratford Suite, put together from a number of plays by Nathaniel Lew.
Vaughan Williams wrote a Henry V Overture in 1913, but the full score has long since been lost. Twenty years later, he wrote an overture for brass with the same title, based on that 1913 overture, but it was developed in a completely different way. Some of the orchestral parts have survived at Stratford, and David Owen Norris was able to put the original version together for this recording. The comparison between the two versions is very interesting -the later version may be heard on ALBCD052 Vaughan Williams on Brass.
Nathaniel Lew has arranged a Richard II Concert Fantasy, using incidental music commissioned from Vaughan Williams by the BBC in 1944 but not used at the time.
Tracklist:
1-1. James Ross – Richard II: My Kingdom For a Horse (00:47)
1-2. James Ross – Richard II Concert Fantasy (17:12)
1-3. Eloise Irving – The Willow Song (03:06)
1-4. James Ross – Henry IV Suite: I. Induction (02:00)
1-5. James Ross – Henry IV Suite: II. Falstaff and Prince Hal (01:00)
1-6. James Ross – Henry IV Suite: III. Interlude – Princess Royal (00:41)
1-7. James Ross – Henry IV Suite: IV. Music to My Weary Spirit (04:14)
1-8. James Ross – Henry IV Suite: V. Arrest (01:17)
1-9. James Ross – Henry IV Suite: VI. Gloria Tibi Domine (01:22)
1-10. James Ross – Henry IV Suite: VII. Happy Life (01:36)
1-11. Eloise Irving – Orpheus With His Lute (1903) (02:35)
1-12. James Ross – Henry V Overture (07:00)
1-13. Eloise Irving – Three Songs from Shakespeare: No. 1, Take, O Take Those Lips Away (00:59)
1-14. Eloise Irving – Three Songs from Shakespeare: No. 2, When Icicles Hang by the Wall (01:09)
1-15. Eloise Irving – Three Songs from Shakespeare: No. 3, Orpheus with His Lute (01:42)
1-16. James Ross – Stratford Suite: I. Royal March (04:24)
1-17. James Ross – Stratford Suite: II. Greensleeves (03:00)
1-18. James Ross – Stratford Suite: III. Dances (04:09)
1-19. James Ross – Stratford Suite: IV. Intermezzo (02:18)
1-20. James Ross – Stratford Suite: V. Solemn March (01:20)
1-21. James Ross – Stratford Suite: VI. Finale (03:24)
1-22. James Ross – Dirge for Fidele (03:44)
1-23. James Ross – Two Shakespeare Sketches from The England of Elizabeth: No. 1, The Wind and the Rain (01:24)
1-24. James Ross – Two Shakespeare Sketches from The England of Elizabeth: No. 2, It Was a Lover and His Lass (01:40)
