Christopher Wright

Momentum (2008)

Concerto for Violin & Orchestra (And then there was silence...) (2010)
i. Larghetto molto espressivo Presipitoso Larghetto
ii. Allegro con brio e energico Meno mosso con anima Allegro
iii. Adagio con anima e dolente Dolore con molto mesto Lento e lacrimoso*
Fenella Humphreys (violin)
*Christopher Watson (tenor)

Royal Scottish National Orchestra
Recorded at RSNO Centre, Henry Wood Hall, Glasgow, 24 May 2011 & Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, 2 August 2011

World Premiere Recordings

Ralph Vaughan Williams
Symphony no.5 in D major (1938-43) New Edition (2008)
Edited by Peter Horton
i. Preludio (Moderato)
ii. Scherzo (Presto misterioso)
iii. Romanza (Lento)
iv. Passacaglia (Moderato)

Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra
Lighthouse, Poole, Dorset, 1 July 2011

Martin Yates (conductor)

World Premiere Recording (in this version)

This world premiere recording of Peter Horton's new edition of Vaughan Williams' Fifth Symphony edited from the manuscript is the first time a recording addresses all the textural problems left in the published score. Peter Horton writes: The composer's notoriously hard-to-read handwriting caused further problems, as the copyist assigned to make a fair copy of the score introduced a large number of mistakes, principally (but not exclusively) in the phrasing and articulation. To compound matters, these subsequently made their way into the orchestral parts and the published score. The most significant was the delay by one bar of a timpani entry in the Romanza. The coupling is Christopher Wright's deeply felt Violin Concerto sensitively played by Fenella Humphreys. Christopher Wright's affecting Concerto was written in memory of his wife, and looks perhaps to Walton for its stylistic roots, especially in the scherzando elements of the middle movement. Composer Elis Pehkonen writes how, Words cannot convey the beauty and emotional content of this music.

... to all Vaughan Williams collectors, I warmly recommend this beautifully recorded disc.
William Hedley, International Record Review, July 2012