Dyson: Quo Vadis

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Like so many British composers Dyson, even before he died in 1962, suffered neglect through writing in a conservative idiom that critics were all too ready to label 'out of date'. Originally... — Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010 More…

Release Date: 18th Apr 2003
Catalogue No: CHAN10061(2)
Label: Chandos
Length: 1 hour 41 minutes

Gramophone Magazine

June 2003

Editor's Choice

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Dyson: Quo Vadis

Work length1:41:18

$25.00

$32.20

$43.75

Richard Hickox, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Jean Rigby, Roderick Williams, Philip Langridge, BBC National Chorus of Wales, Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama Chamber Choir, Steven Burnard, Cheryl Barker

I. Our birth is but a sleep (Chorus)

Track length11:33

$3.00

$3.85

$5.25

II. Rise, O my soul (Contralto, Semi-chorus)

Track length8:20

$2.00

$2.60

$3.50

III. O whither shall my troubled muse incline (Bass, Chorus)

Track length10:55

$3.00

$3.85

$5.25

IV. Night hath no wings (Tenor, Semi-chorus)

Track length10:30

$3.00

$3.85

$5.25

V. O timely happy, timely wise (Quartet, Chorus, Semi-chorus)

Track length13:21

$3.00

$3.85

$5.25

VI. Dear stream! dear bank! (Soprano)

Track length9:51

$2.00

$2.60

$3.50

VII. Come to me, God (Bass, Chorus)

Track length10:12

$3.00

$3.85

$5.25

VIII. They are at rest (Contralto, Quartet)

Track length8:01

$2.00

$2.60

$3.50

IX. To find the western path (Tenor, Quartet, Chorus)

Track length18:35

$4.00

$5.15

$7.00

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Reviews

2010

Like so many British composers Dyson, even before he died in 1962, suffered neglect through writing in a conservative idiom that critics were all too ready to label 'out of date'. Originally written for the Three Choirs Festival in Hereford in 1939, its first performance was-cancelled because of the outbreak of war, and it was only given its premiere in Hereford a decade later.
Dyson draws on the widest array of sources, boldly picking out passages from such poets as Campion, Vaughan, Herrick, Shelley, Newman and Bridges in an elaborate kaleidoscope, mixing them together in all but one of the nine substantial movements, even rearranging individual lines from Wordsworth's Intimations ofImmortality. He also includes such well-known hymns as God be in my head and New every morning without hinting at the respective hymn tunes. Such a scheme might be expected to sound disjointed or bitty, but Dyson's response to each section of his text gives a seamless quality to each movement, with ecstatic choral climaxes designed to exploit the all-embracing acoustics of a great cathedral. The warm but well-defined recording helps to heighten the impact of the singing of the Welsh choristers. All four soloists are in superb voice, each of them strong, firm and characterful; and both choruses sing with fresh, incandescent tone. Dyson's idiom may not be as distinctive as that of those other 'agnostics at prayer', but with its lyrical warmth and fine control of texture, the result will delight all devotees of the English choral tradition.

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