British Composers

Edward Elgar -The Spirit Of England, Op. 80 - (1917)
Lyrics by  Laurence Binyon
"The Fourth of August" – Moderato e maestoso – 
"To Women" – Moderato – 
"For the Fallen" – Solenne – 
Soprano Susana Gaspar
Coro do Teatro Nacional de São Carlos
Orquestra Sinfónica Portuguesa
Conductor - João Paulo Santos
Live recording - Teatro Nacional de São Carlos, Lisboa, Portugal - November 15 2014
Illustration - Graham Sutherland

Edward Elgar -The Spirit Of England - Gaspar - Santos - Lisboa - 2014

Edward Elgar - Cello Concerto in E minor, Op. 85 (1919)
Adagio – Moderato 
Lento – Allegro molto 
Adagio 
Allegro – Moderato – Allegro, ma non-troppo – Poco più lento – Adagio
Soloist - Antonio Meneses
Conductor - Neil Thomson
Orquestra Filarmônica de Goiás
Live recording - Sala São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil , JUne 11, 2016
Illustration - Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Edward Elgar - Cello Concerto -  Antonio Meneses - Neil Thomson - São Paulo - 2015

Edward Elgar - Variations on an Original Theme, Op. 36, "Enigma Variations" - 1899
Conductor - Jamil Maluf
Orquestra Sinfônica de Piracicaba
Live recording - Teatro Municipal Erotides de Campos, Parque do Engenho Central, Piracicaba, Brazil August 08 2015
Illustration - Graham Sutherland

Edward Elgar - Enigma Variations - Maluf - Piracicaba - 2015

Ralph Vaughan Williams - Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis (Tallis Fantasia)(1910)
Conductor - Robert Spano
Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo
Live recording - Sala São Paulo - São Paulo - Brazil - June 16 2016
Illustration - Jorge Coli

Ralph Vaughan Williams - Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis - Spano - São Paulo

Edward Elgar - Cello Concerto in E minor, op. 65 (1919)
Cello - Antonio Menezes
Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo
Conductor - Roberto Minczuk
Live recording - Theatro São Pedro - 1998 May 28
Illustration -Sir John Lavery

Edward Elgar - Cello Concerto in E minor - Live - Antonio Meneses - São Paulo - 1998

Benjamin Britten - Sinfonietta op 1 (1932)for  five winds and five strings: flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn, two violins, viola, cello and double bass.

Poco presto ed agitato
Variations, andante lento
Tarantella
Live Recording - Cité du Livre - Aix-en-Provence - July 27 1998
Soloists of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra
Conductor - Daniel Harding
Illustration - Henry Moore

Benjamin Britten - Sinfonietta - Live - 1998 - Daniel Harding - Mahler Chamber Orchestra

Benjamin Britten - A Midsummer Night's Dream. op. 64 (1960)
Opera in three acts
Libreto by Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears
Live recording - The Juilliard Opera Theater - January 18, 2000
Oberon, King of the Fairies	countertenor	Michael Maniaci
Tytania, Queen of the Fairies	coloratura soprano	Greta Feeney
Puck	speaking role	Michael Smallwood
Cobweb	soprano Dana Bhatnagar
Mustardseed	soprano	Mustardseed
Moth	soprano	Sara Wolfson
Peaseblossom	treble	Erika Wueschner
Lysander	tenor	Shieh-Yih Lim
Demetrius	baritone	Shannon Devine
Hermia, in love with Lysander	mezzo-soprano	Bo Chang
Helena, in love with Demetrius	soprano	Melissa Brezinsky
Theseus, Duke of Athens	bass	Kevin Burdette
Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons	contralto	Brenda Petterson
Bottom, a weaver	bass-baritone	Owen Brannigan
Quince, a carpenter	bass	Eic Lodal
Flute, a bellows-mender	tenor	Michael Slattery
Snug, a joiner	bass	Ricardo Lugo
Snout, a tinker	tenor	Albert Lee
Starveling, a tailor	baritone	Graham Fandrei
Chorus of Fairies
Milissa Citro
Elizabeth Ann Pizzi
Leonardo Capalbo
Jason Zammit
Conductor - Grant Gershon
Illustration - Johann Heinrich Füssli
Libretto here: www.teatrolafenice.it/media/libretti…dsummer_bb.pdf

Benjamin Britten - A Midsummer Night's Dream - Live - Maniaci - Juilliard - New York 2000

Sir Peter Maxwell Davies - Spinning Jenny: A Portrait of Leigh, Lancashire, circa 1948 - (1998) - USA Première
Live recording at the Juilliard Theater, New York, January 28, 2000
New Juilliard Ensemble
Conductor - Joel Sachs
Festival "Focus! 2000" - Toward the Millenium - Wrapping Up - Music at the Century's End
Illustration - Lucian Freud

Sir Peter Maxwell Davies - Spinning Jenny - Live - New Juilliard Ensemble - NY - 2000 - USA Première

Michael Head - The Singer (1939)
Lyrics by Bronnie Taylor
Solo - Rebecca Evans (soprano)
Live recording - Walter Reade Theater - Lincoln Center - New York - USA - January 25, 1999
Illustration - Phil Rogers

Michael Head - The Singer - Evans - Live - New York - 1999

Donald Swann - A Word on My Ear
Lyrics by  Michael Flanders
Solo - Rebecca Evans (soprano)
Piano - Craig Rutemberg
Live recording - Walter Reade Theater - Lincoln Center - New York - USA - January 25, 1999
Lyrics:
(Intro)
A prisoner to rapture by arduous duty pressed
A slave to the longing which lingers in my breast
Farewell, my friends, adieu
I cannot stay with you
Farewell, farewell, farewell

(Verse 1)
Before I deliver my seventh encore
There's something I'd like to make clear
They say I've brought pleasure to millions or more
They say that my singing half won the last war
When I sang to the troops in the rear
I'm a dame with a name
At the peak of my fame
I'm known as the Empress of Song
The critics bravo
And the critics should know
But I cannot help feeling they're wrong
I'm lauded, applauded, recorded, but list!
I've a musical flaw that they seem to have missed
That they seem to have missed
That they seem to have missed

(Chorus 1)
I'm tone deaf
Music means nothing to me
It's only the way
My accompanists play
That makes it appear I'm in key
Stone tone deaf
Can't tell a key from a clef
I stand by the pianist watching his face
For he's told me to start when he comes to the place
Where he'll give me a whacking great (*discordant crash in the piano*) in the bass
Because I'm tone deaf

(Chorus 2)
I'm tone deaf
Never could understand pitch
Some people I know
Will sing sol-fa-ti-do
And claim they can tell which is which
Stone tone deaf
Can't tell a B from an F
Colin Davis once said, "Now I don't want to carp
But if that's a B natural played on the harp
Then you're either B-flat, dear, or bloody B-sharp!"
But then I'm tone deaf

(Verse 2)
My technique is perfect (aah!) and likewise my larynx
Paolozzi once sculpted a bust of my pharynx
While lovers of music all praise with conviction
My phrasing, my timbre, my perfection of diction
Made trilling made Klemperer swoon (aah!)
But I just can't remember the tune

(Chorus 3)
I'm tone deaf
But in most modern works for the voice
The note that I hit
Doesn't matter a bit
So it's purely a personal choice
Stone tone deaf
Musically D-E-A-F
Perhaps Covent Garden can do without me
But while I live on an Equity fee
I'll always get work from the dear BBC
Because I'm tone deaf
Yes I'm tone deaf

Flanders And Swann - A Word On My Ear - Live - Evans - New York - 1999

Dilys Elwyn-Edwards - Caneuon Natur (Nature Songs) - (1977)
Y Mynydd (The Mountain)
Deilen (Leaves)
Noson o Haf (Night of Summer)
Solo - Rebecca Evans (soprano)
Piano - Craig Rutemberg
Live recording - Walter Reade Theater - Lincoln Center - New York - USA - January 25, 1999
Illustration - Kyffin Williams

Dilys Elwyn-Edwards - Caneuon Natur (Nature Songs) - Evans - New York - 1999

Henry Purcell -  "Sweater Than Roses" from incidental music to Richard Norton's play Pausanias, the Betrayer of His Country (1695)(Tippett/Bergmann edition)
Solo - Rebecca Evans (soprano)
Piano - Craig Rutemberg
Live recording - Walter Reade Theater - Lincoln Center - New York - USA - January 25, 1999
Illustration - Peter Lely
Lyrics
ACT III.
SCENE I. Pandora in her Apartment.
SONGS. After which Argilius enters.
SWeeter than Roses, or cool Evening's breeze,
On a warm Flowery Shore,
Was the dear Kiss, first trembling made me freeze,
Then shot like Fire all o're;
What Magick has Victorious love!
For all I touch, or see,
Since that dear kiss, I hourly prove,
All, all is Love to me.

Henry Purcell -  Sweater Than Roses -  Evans - New York - 1999

Benjamin Britten - War Requiem, Op. 66 (1962)
Libretto - Requiem and poems by Wilfred Owen
1 Requiem aeternam (10 minutes)
Requiem aeternam (chorus and boys' choir)
"What passing bells" (tenor solo) – Owen's "Anthem for Doomed Youth"
Kyrie eleison (chorus)
2 Dies irae (27 minutes)
Dies irae (chorus)
"Bugles sang" (baritone solo) – Owen's "But I was Looking at the Permanent Stars"
Liber scriptus (soprano solo and semi-chorus)
"Out there, we walked quite friendly up to death" (tenor and baritone soli) – Owen's "The Next War"
Recordare (women's chorus)
Confutatis (men's chorus)
"Be slowly lifted up" (baritone solo) – Owen's "Sonnet On Seeing a Piece of our Heavy Artillery Brought into Action"
Reprise of Dies irae (chorus)
Lacrimosa (soprano and chorus) interspersed with "Move him, move him" (tenor solo) - Owen's "Futility"
3 Offertorium (10 minutes)
Domine Jesu Christe (boys' choir)
Sed signifer sanctus (chorus)
Quam olim Abrahae (chorus)
Isaac and Abram (tenor and baritone soli) – Owen's "The Parable of the Old Man and the Young"
Hostias et preces tibi (boys' choir)
Reprise of Quam olim Abrahae (chorus)
4 Sanctus (10 minutes)
Sanctus and Benedictus (soprano solo and chorus)
"After the blast of lightning" (baritone solo) – Owen's "The End"
5 Agnus Dei (4 minutes)
Agnus Dei (chorus) interspersed with "One ever hangs" (chorus; tenor solo) – Owen's "At a Calvary near the Ancre"
6 Libera me (23 minutes)
Libera me (soprano solo and chorus)
Strange Meeting ("It seemed that out of battle I escaped") (tenor and baritone soli) – Owen's "Strange Meeting"
In paradisum (organ, boys' chorus, soprano and mixed chorus)
Conclusion – Requiem Aeternam and Requiescant in Pace (organ, boys' choir and mixed chorus)
Conductor - John Neschling
Cláudia Riccitelli - Soprano
Barry Bamks - Tenor
Garry Magee - bass
Children Chorus
Coral Sinfônico do Estado de São Paulo
Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo
Live recording - Sala São Paulo - São Paulo - Brazil - December 09, 2000
Illustration - Graham Sutherland

Benjamin Britten - War Requiem - Live - Sinfônica do Estado - Neschling - São Paulo - 2000

Jim Parker - Three movements fromA Londoner in New York - Just Brass nº 58 (1983) -
1. Echoes of Harlem
As the title implies, this is a piece about Harlem as it was in the heyday of Fats Waller, Duke Ellington and other jazzmen. The style of playing should be relaxed but rhythmic.

2. The Chrysler Building
The Chrysler Building is one of the world's most elegant skyscrapers and until the completion of the Empire State Building it was the tallest in the world. The playing of the piece should be symphonic in style and should reflect the grandeur and decorative brilliance of this superb monument to Art Deco Architecture.

3. Grand Central
Although this movement is named after the station which features in many black and white films, the music is that of a steam locomotive. Once the piece is under way it should have a momentum which keeps its impetus regardless of dynamics, and it should at all times be as rhythmic as possible. (Comments by the author).
Conductor - Wagner Polistchuk
Orquestra Sinfônica de Campinas
Live recording - Centro de Convivência - Campinas - SP - Brazil - April 29 2005
Illustration - Red Grooms

Jim Parker - 3 movements from A Londoner In New York - Polistchuk - Campinas - 2005

Edward Elgar  - Serenade for Strings in E minor, Op. 20(1892)
Conductor - Tiago Flores
Live recording - Centro de Convivência - Campinas - São Paulo - Brazil - July 1, 2005
Illustration - Ethel Sands

Edward Elgar -  Serenade for Strings - Flores - Sinfônica de Campinas - 2005

David Ashbridge - Adagio drom cello Sonata nº 2
Cello - Hugo Pilger
Live recording - Centro de Convivência - Campinas - SP - Brazil - August 1, 2009
Illustration - Henri Moore

David Ashbridge - Adagio from cello Sonata nº 2

Benjamin Britten = Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes (1946)
‘Dawn’
‘Sunday Morning’
‘Moonlight’
‘Storm’
Orquestra Sinfônica Municipal de São Paulo
Conductor - John Neschling
Live recording - Theatro Municipal de São Paulo - São Paulo - Brazil - June 1st 2013
Illustration - William Turner

Benjamin Britten = Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes -  Neschling - São Paulo - 2013

Benjamin Britten -The Turn Of The Screw - opera in a Prologue and two Acts (1954)
Prologue	tenor	Juremir Vieira
Governess	soprano	Luísa Kurtz
Miles	treble	Ivan Marinho
Flora	soprano	Mariana Silveira
Mrs. Grose, the housekeeper	soprano	Céline Imbert
Miss Jessel, the former governess	mezzo-soprano	Luciana Bueno
Peter Quint, the former manservant	Tenor	Juremir Vieira
Orquestra do Teatro São Pedro
Conductor - Steven Mercurio
Live recording - Theatro São Pedro, São Paulo - May 16 2013
Illustration - Jack Clayton / The Innocents
Libretto here - https://www.eclassical.com/shop/17115/art81/4929881-06bccd-822231171928.pdf

Benjamin Britten -The Turn Of The Screw - Kurtz - Vieira - Imbert - Mercurio - São Paulo - 2013

Benjamin Britten - Piano Concerto op 13 (1938/45)
2.	Toccata: Allegro molto e con brio
3.	Waltz: Allegretto
4.	Impromptu: Andante lento
5.	March: Allegro moderato sempre a la marcia 
Soloist - Conrad Tao
Orquestra Filarmônica de Minas Gerais
Conductor - Fabio Mechetti
Live recording - Sala São Paulo - São Paulo - Brazil - October 18, 2013
Illustration -  David Hockney

Benjamin Britten - Piano Concerto - Tao - Mechetti - Filarmônica de Minas - 2013

Benjamin Britten - Curlew River, – A Parable for Church Performance (Op. 71) - 1964
Libretto by William Plomer
Madwoman	tenor Michael Bennet	
Ferryman	baritone	Jussy Järvan
Traveller	baritone	Andrew Rupp
Spirit of the boy	treble	Jachi Yang
Abbot	bass	Ulas Inan Inac
Conductor - David Stern
Soloists of the European Music Academy
Live recording - Cour de l'Hôtel Maynier d'Oppède - Aix-en-Provence -  July 23. 1998
Illustration - Jean-Pancrace Chastel