[ Decca Australian Eloquence / CD ]
Release Date: Wednesday 10 November 2010
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"As for the performance, it stands above all others since … must remain a classic to the end of time" Gramophone Magazine
"Astonishingly successful, clear and atmospheric … The performance [is] still the finest ever recorded … miraculously deft" Penguin Guide ***
"As for the performance, it stands above all others since … must remain a classic to the end of time" Gramophone Magazine
Recording locations: Decca Studios, West Hampstead, London, UK, July & August 1954 (Façade); Kingsway Hall, London, UK, April 1953 (Orb and Sceptre, Bax), October 1954 (Siesta, Scapino, Portsmouth Point); Walthamstow Assembly Hall, London, UK, May 1957 (Bliss)
Returning Decca's pioneering recording of Façade to the catalogue, this generous collection of English music includes further gems from the Decca catalogue of orchestral pieces by Walton and two marches, by Bax and Bliss, respectively, to mark royal occasions in connection with Queen Elizabeth II. The liner notes include one written by Dame Edith Sitwell herself for the first LP issue of Façade and the cover illustration, especially commissioned for this reissue, takes its title from one of Façade's numbers: "Something lies beyond the scene".
Bax:
Coronation March
(London Symphony Orchestra, Sir Malcolm Sargent)
Bliss:
Welcome the Queen
(London Symphony Orchestra, Sir Arthur Bliss)
Walton:
Façade
(Dame Edith Sitwell and Sir Peter Pears, narrators,
English Opera Group Ensemble, Anthony Collins)
Siesta
Scapino: A Comedy Overture
Portsmouth Point Overture
(London Philharmonic Orchestra, Sir Adrian Boult)
Orb and Sceptre
(London Symphony Orchestra, Sir Malcolm Sargent)