Thirteen Strings Chamber Orchestra - Sinfonia Antiqua / One Sail / Forgotten Dreams - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Following their Linn debut, a 'breathtaking album of songs by Gustav and Alma Mahler' (The Herald), Karen Cargill and Simon Lepper return to fin-de-siècle Europe for a recital of songs by the 'crème de la crème' of late nineteenth-century French speaking composers. Entitled Fleur de mon âme, the album embraces the sensual soundworld of Hahn, Debussy, Chausson, Jongen and Duparc. The album opens with À Chloris which recalls the elegance of the seventeenth century before borrowing from the poetry of Ancient Greece in Chansons de Bilitis and setting sail on a calm sea with Chausson's Sérénade italienne. Guest soloists from the Royal Scottish National Orchestra add orchestral colour to Chausson's Chanson perpétuelle and Calmes, aux quais déserts by lesser-known Belgian composer Joseph Jongen. The compelling romanticism of Duparc's songs complete this bouquet of soul-searching French mélodies. Album Tracks 1. À Chloris 2. Le Rossignol Des Lilas 3. L'énamourée 4. Infidélité 5. Les Fontaines 6. Chansons de Bilitis 7. Calmes, Aux Quais Déserts, Op. 54 8. Chanson Perpétuelle, Op. 37 9. 7 Mélodies, Op. 2 10. L'inviatation Au Voyage 11. Chanson Triste 12. Extase 13. Phidylé

Few symphonies can have been the subject of so many reservations as the 20-year-old Grieg's 'forbidden' Symphony in C minor of which the composer himself wrote, on the score, 'must never be performed'. Album Tracks 1. I Allegro Molto 2. II Adagio Espressivo 3. III Intermezzo 4. IV Finale Allegro Molto Vivace 5. Poco Tranquillo 6. Tema Andantino Espressivo 7. Poco Allegro, Ma Tranquillo 8. Energico 9. Allegro Leggiero 10. Poco Andante 11. Maestoso 12. Allegro Scherzando E Leggiero 13. Andante 14. Andante Molto Tranquillo 15. Presto 16. Tempo Di Menuetto 17. Allegro Marcato 18. Tempo Di Valse 19. Adagio Molto Espressivo 20. Finale Allegro Molto Marcato 21. Pomposo 22. Prestissimo 23. Andante Molto Tranquillo 24. I Prelude (In the King's Hall) 25. II Intermezzo (Borghild's Dream) 26. III Homage March

For three decades the English composer Nigel Clarke (b. 1960) has worked in close collaboration with the violinist Peter Sheppard Skærved and Longbow, Sheppard Skærved's virtuoso thirteen-member string ensemble. Clarke's engaging and energetic music often takes it's cue from a dramatic or poetic impulse. Here it features two tributes to Edith Cavell, the British nurse shot in the First World War, one for solo violin, the other for the unusual combination of flugelhorn and strings; two of the other works here are musical portraits of the town of Dover, in the south-east of England, with white cliffs made famous in Vera Lynn's wartime song. Nigel Clarke is Visiting Composer to Middle Tennessee State University Bands and has a long engagement with the symphonic wind-band movement in American universities. Album Tracks 1. Parnassus for Thirteen Solo Strings - Longbow 2. The Scarlet Flower for Flugel Horn and Thirteen Solo Strings - Sebastien Rousseau/Longbow 3. Dogger, Fisher, German, Bight, Humber, Thames, Dover, Wight - Various Performers 4. Pulp and Rags - Longbow 5. Epitaph for Edith Cavell - Peter Sheppard Skaerved