Sir Billi

Composed in 1803, while Beethoven was also writing the ‘Eroica’ Symphony, Christ on the Mount of Olives (Christus am Ölberge) is the composer’s only oratorio and combines the emotive force of his later Missa Solemnis with the theatre of a Bach Passion. With orchestra, chorus and soloists, it tells the story of Jesus’ prayer and arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane and also reflects the emotional pressure Beethoven was under at the time.

Bliss: The Decca Originals: a new collection of Decca recordings of Blisss music, including tracks previously unreleased on Decca CD as well as the complete version of the Violin Concerto with Alfredo Campoli. The career of Arthur Bliss was launched in London in the 1920s with provocative ensemble pieces such as Rout, but it was established by the Colour Symphony which Sir Edward Elgar invited him to write for the Three Choirs Festival. Bliss gradually became an establishment figure, appointed Master of the Queens Music in 1953 and a fluent maker of music celebrating Englishness (such as Welcome the Queen, 1954) at a time when notions of national identity were coming under scrutiny as never before.

All of Strauss' symphonic poems tell a story, but in Ein Heldenleben the subject is his own life. Casting himself as the Hero, the hostile music critics as Adversaries, his compositions as Works of Peace, his Flight from the World as Consummation, the 34-year-old composer seems to succumb to unabashed egotism and grandiosity. However, his self-indulgence is redeemed by his music, which abounds with soaring, rapturous melodies, breath-taking modulations and gorgeous, scintillating orchestral colors. A solo violin represents the Hero's Companion, Strauss' beloved but famously difficult wife; their love scene contains some of his most ravishing, ecstatic music. Equally striking is his mordantly satirical depiction of the cacophonously bickering Adversaries, who rear their malicious heads even during moments of triumphant fulfillment. Toward the end, Strauss slyly tempts listeners to "Name that tune!" with almost 30 quotes from his own works.

Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. Anyone who loves twentieth century music, who loves English music, or who just plain loves music will love this collection of the music of Michael Tippett. Culled from previously issued but long out-of-print Philips, London, Argo, and l'Oiseau-Lyre LPs, most of these recordings were world premieres made in close consultation with the composer and in the hands of conductors Colin Davis, Georg Solti, Neville Marriner, pianist Paul Crossley, and the Lindsay String Quartet, they receive what can fairly be described as definitive performances. From the ecstatic lyricism of the Suite for Double String Orchestra of 1939 through the luminous vitality of the First Symphony of 1945, the radiant sensuality of the Ritual Dances of 1955, the blues-based modernism of the Third Symphony of 1972, to the glistening transcendentalism of the Fourth Symphony of 1977, Tippett's unique fusion of line, drive, color, and form is performed throughout with passionate dedication and absolute faith in the music's greatness.

There's no lack of glorious melody in Sir Johnin Love, and not just folksong cunningly interwoven. Musically, what comes over strongly, more richly than ever before in this magnificent recording from Richard Hickox, is the way that the writing anticipates later Vaughan Williams, not just the radiant composer of the Fifth Symphony and Serenade to Music, with keychanges of heartstopping beauty, but the composer's darker side, with sharply rhythmic writing.