Bbc

SOMM Recordings is delighted to present a revelatory collection of orchestral songs by Sir Edward Elgar (on double slimline selling as a single disc), performed by two of today’s most exciting young singers – mezzo-soprano Kathryn Rudge and baritone Henk Neven – accompanied by the BBC Concert Orchestra conducted by Barry Wordsworth. The Hills of Dreamland takes its title from a line in Elgar’s well-known setting, beautifully still and beseeching, of Arthur L Salmon’s Pleading. Historically the least regarded part of Elgar’s output, his songs contain a treasure-trove of vocal gems and here receive performances of insight, imagination and emotional directness.

The seminal output of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop has delighted fans of electronic music and soundtracks over the decades. BBC Radiophonic Music (known as “The Pink album”), The Radiophonic Workshop, Fourth Dimension and Through A Glass Darkly have been released extensively on vinyl, but only the first two of these have been released commercially on a CD format. They include works from composers Delia Derbyshire, David Cain, John Baker, Dick Mills, Roger Limb, Paddy Kingsland and Peter Howell amongst others. The bonus discs of The Changes (Paddy Kingsland, 1975) and The Stone Tape (Desmond Briscoe/Glynis Jones, 1972), TV soundtracks to BBC series of the same names, make their debut on CD to complete the set, which represents the legacy of one of the UK’s most respected and ground-breaking musical institutions.

Originally intended as an opera for television, Malcolm Arnold’s collaboration with film-maker and librettist Joe Mendoza, The Dancing Master, Op. 34, was considered too racy for viewers in the 1950s and subsequently rejected for broadcast and largely forgotten. Conductor John Andrews, with the BBC Concert Orchestra and a stellar cast, breathes new life into this operatic gem, here receiving its first recording. With its cast of larger-than life Restoration caricatures – the trapped heiress, the scheming maid, the over-protective guardian, and the handsome rake – the opera showcases Arnold’s taste for exuberant satire and tender Romanticism in equal measure.