Bantock: Omar Khayyám

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It's a fascinating rediscovery on a huge scale, especially in the detail and depth of SACD surround-sound, seductively performed by Handley's forces, Toby Spence appropriately poetic and Catherine... — BBC Music Magazine, October 2007, 5 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 28th Aug 2007
Catalogue No: CHSA5051(3)
Label: Chandos
Length: 2 hours 50 minutes

BBC Music Magazine

October 2007

Choral & Song Choice
Gramophone Magazine

November 2007

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Bantock: Omar Khayyám

Work length2:50:59

$63.00

$81.90

Catherine Wyn-Rogers (mezzo-soprano), Toby Spence (tenor), Roderick Williams (baritone)
BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony Chorus
Vernon Handley

Part I: Prelude

Track length5:55

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Part I: Wake! For the Sun, who scattered into flight (Chorus)

Track length2:08

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Part I: Before the phantom of false morning died (Chorus)

Track length2:28

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Part I: And as the cock crew, those who stood before (Poet)

Track length2:20

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Part I: Now the new year reviving old desires (Poet)

Track length1:45

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Part I: Iram indeed is gone with all his rose (Poet)

Track length2:25

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Part I: Whether at Naishapur or Babylon (Chorus)

Track length2:14

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Part I: Each morn a thousand roses brings, you say (Beloved)

Track length1:34

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Part I: With me along the strip of herbage strown (Poet)

Track length6:49

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Part I: Some for the glories of this world; and some (Chorus)

Track length2:06

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Part I: Look to the blowing Rose about us - "Lo" (Beloved)

Track length1:32

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Part I: Think, in this battered caravanserai (Chorus)

Track length2:09

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Part I: I sometimes think that never blows so red (Poet)

Track length1:59

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Part I: Ah, my Beloved, fill the cup that clears (Poet)

Track length1:55

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Part I: Ah, make the most of what we yet may spend (Chorus)

Track length2:57

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Part I: Alike for those who for To-day prepare (Beloved)

Track length2:46

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Part I: Myself when young did eagerly frequent (Philosopher)

Track length2:33

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Part I: What, without asking, hither hurried Whence? (Chorus)

Track length1:21

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Part I: Up from earth's centre through the seventh gate (Poet)

Track length2:51

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Part I: Earth could not answer; nor the seas that mourn (Chorus)

Track length2:25

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Part I: Then of the Thee in Me wo works behind (Poet)

Track length0:52

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Part I: Then to the lip of this poor earthern urn (Poet)

Track length2:34

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Part I: I think the vessel, that with fugitive (Philosopher)

Track length2:25

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Part I: As then the tulip for her morning sup (Beloved)

Track length3:39

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Part I: So when that Angel of darker drink (Beloved)

Track length2:18

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Part I: Tis but a tent where takes his one day's rest (Chorus)

Track length2:32

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Part I: When you and I behind the veil are past (Beloved, Poet)

Track length4:01

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Part I: Interlude: The Desert

Track length1:35

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Part I: The Caravan

Track length2:58

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Part I: A moment's halt - a momentary taste (Chorus)

Track length3:35

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Part I: Would you that spangle of Existence spend (Philosopher)

Track length2:37

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Part I: A moment guessed - then back behind the fold (Philosopher)

Track length2:34

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Part I: Waste not your hour, nor in the vain pursuit - (Chorus)

Track length4:09

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Part I: Better be jocund with the fruitful grape (Chorus)

Track length3:08

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Part II: You know, my Friends, with what a brave carouse (Philosopher)

Track length2:11

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Part II: Ah, but my computations, people say (Chorus)

Track length1:40

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Part II: and 'twas - the Grape! (Philosopher, Chorus) - The Grape that can with logic absolute (Chorus)

Track length2:42

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Part II: The mighty Mahmud, Allah-breathing Lord (Chorus)

Track length3:38

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Part II: Why, be this Juice the growth of God, who dare (Philosopher)

Track length1:29

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Part II: I must abjure the Balm of Life, I must (Philosopher)

Track length1:42

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Part II: Oh threats of Hell and hopes of Paradise! (Chorus)

Track length3:17

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Part II: The Revelations of devout and learn'd (Chorus)

Track length1:47

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Part II: We are no other that a moving row (Chorus)

Track length3:19

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Part II: The Moving finger writes; and, having writ (Beloved)

Track length1:41

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Part II: And that inverted bowl we call the sky (Beloved, Poet)

Track length1:36

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Part II: With Earth's first clay they did the last man knead (Poet)

Track length2:10

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Part II: I tell you this - when, started from the goal (Philosopher)

Track length3:30

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Part II: What! Out of senseless Nothing to provoke (Beloved, Poet, Philosopher)

Track length4:41

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Part II: Oh Thou, who didst with pitfall and with gin (Chorus, Beloved, Poet, Philosopher)

Track length1:46

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Part II: Oh Thou, who Man of baser earth didst make (Chorus, Beloved, Poet, Philosopher)

Track length2:39

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Part III: Introduction: The Fast of Ramazan

Track length2:47

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Part III: Worshippers in the Mosque

Track length4:10

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Part III: As under cover of departing day (Philosopher)

Track length1:00

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Part III: Shapes of all sorts and sizes, great and small (Chorus)

Track length2:07

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Part III: Said one among them - Surely not in vain (First Pot)

Track length6:36

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Part III: So while the vessels one by one were speaking (Chorus)

Track length1:55

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Part III: Ah, with the grape my fading life provide (Philosopher)

Track length2:26

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Part III: Indeed the idol I have loved so long (Philosopher)

Track length1:48

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Part III: And much as wine has play'd the infidel (Philosopher)

Track length2:14

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Part III: Yet ah, that Spring should vanish with the rose! (Poet)

Track length2:35

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Part III: Would but the desert of the fountain yield (Poet)

Track length6:34

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Part III: Yon rising moon that looks for us again (Chorus, Beloved, Poet, Philosopher)

Track length1:33

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Part III: And when like her, oh Saki, you shall pass (Chorus, Beloved, Poet, Philosopher)

Track length4:17

$1.00

$1.30

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3 CDs for price of 2

Reviews

October 2007

It's a fascinating rediscovery on a huge scale, especially in the detail and depth of SACD surround-sound, seductively performed by Handley's forces, Toby Spence appropriately poetic and Catherine Wyn-Rogers sensuous.

2010

The London-born Granville Bantock used his early championship of contemporaries – Strauss, Debussy and especially Sibelius, who became a close friend and correspondent – to enrich his own Wagner-nourished sonorities and dramatic ambitions. Because he was British, he fought shy of opera, channelling his gift for theatre into song-cycles (he wrote 40), symphonic tonepoems (he once planned a 24-work cycle), forward- looking multi-media events (Apollo and theSeaman for film projection and orchestra) and oratorios (a 700-page score of Christus).
Writing in the age of Mahler's Eighth and Elgar's three major oratorios, Bantock found 101 quatrains of 12th-century Persian philosophical poetry – in the then widely read (and very free) rendering of Pre-Raphaelite poet Edward Fitzgerald – an irresistible challenge.
He set Fitzgerald's work by feeding his natural gift for effective scoring and mood illustration with his own first-hand impressions of the Mid- dle East. It is to his credit that, throughout the nearly three-hour performance span, genuine symphonic interest rarely flags. His large orchestra calls for two complete, antiphonally placed, string sections, as well as the extra wind and brass that his European heroes were deploying.
The choral part becomes virtuoso in its frequent use of unaccompanied, tricky-to-pitch passages, while three named soloists, the Beloved (mezzo), the Poet (tenor) and the Philosopher (baritone) are continually 'onstage' in roles of operatic length.
This first recording reflects the detail and passion of Vernon Handley's championing of Bantock's kaleidoscopic output, and Stephen Jackson ensures that the choral input is similarly lively and fresh. Toby Spence brings a bright mix of Italianate slancio and English declamation to the Poet, combining well with Catherine Wyn-Rogers's more controlled reading of the Beloved in substantial (and Parsifal-like) duets in Parts 1 and 3 (a highlight and a good startingpoint for samplers). Chandos's sound is suitably lush, occasionally at the expense of the chorus's diction. It's what recordings should be for, and should encourage future festival performances.

November 2007

This first recording reflects the detail and passion of Vernon Handley's championing of Bantock's kaleidoscopic output, and Stephen Jackson ensures that the choral input is similarly lively and fresh. Toby Spence brings a bright mix of Italianate slancio and English declamation to the Poet, combining well with Catherine Wyn-Rogers's more controlled reading of the Beloved...

Offer,Bantock: Omar Khayyám

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