Glanville-Hicks: Sappho

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[Sappho] may not be a lost masterpiece. But it is certainly a massively professional piece of composition whose dramatic timg...keeps a fine balance between local detail and mainline plotting...What... — Gramophone Magazine, April 2013 More…

Release Date: 29th Oct 2012
Catalogue No: TOCC0154-55
Label: Toccata Classics
Length: 2 hours 7 minutes

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Glanville-Hicks: Sappho, Act I

Work length3:40

$1.00

$1.30

Deborah Polaski, Martin Homrich, Scott MacAllister, Roman Trekel, Wolfgang Koch, John Tomlinson, Jacquelyn Wagner, Bettina Jensen, Maria Markina, Laurence Meikle
Coro Gulbenkian, Gulbenkian Orchestra
Jennifer Condon

Overture

Track length3:40

$1.00

$1.30

Glanville-Hicks: Sappho, Act I Scene 1

Work length30:10

$7.00

$9.10

Deborah Polaski, Martin Homrich, Scott MacAllister, Roman Trekel, Wolfgang Koch, John Tomlinson, Jacquelyn Wagner, Bettina Jensen, Maria Markina, Laurence Meikle
Coro Gulbenkian, Gulbenkian Orchestra
Jennifer Condon

Hurry, Joy, hurry! … Is your lady up? (Chloe, Joy, Doris, Diomedes, Minos)

Track length4:13

$1.00

$1.30

Now, at last you Are here (Minos, Sappho)

Track length6:13

$1.00

$1.30

Aria. My sleep Is fragile like an eggshell Is (Sappho, Minos)

Track length4:16

$1.00

$1.30

Minos! (Kreon, Minos, Sappho)

Track length5:14

$1.00

$1.30

So, Phaon's back (Minos, Sappho, Phaon)

Track length3:18

$1.00

$1.30

Aria. It must have seemed like That to them (Phaon, Minos, Sappho)

Track length4:32

$1.00

$1.30

Phaon, how Is It kreon did not ask you to stay (Sappho, Phaon, Minos)

Track length2:24

$1.00

$1.30

Glanville-Hicks: Sappho, Act I Scene 2

Work length27:22

$6.00

$7.80

Deborah Polaski, Martin Homrich, Scott MacAllister, Roman Trekel, Wolfgang Koch, John Tomlinson, Jacquelyn Wagner, Bettina Jensen, Maria Markina, Laurence Meikle
Coro Gulbenkian, Gulbenkian Orchestra
Jennifer Condon

The Symposium: Introduction - Phaon has become much thinner … The Nymph in the fountain (Minos, Sappho, Chorus)

Track length6:21

$1.00

$1.30

The Symposium: Boy! Bring us the laurel! … What Are the fortunes of the world we live in? (Diomedes, Sappho, Minos, Kreon, Phaon, Alexandrian, Chorus)

Track length4:59

$1.00

$1.30

The Symposium: Wait, hear me first! … The epigram contest (Minos, Diomedes, Sappho, Chorus)

Track length2:54

$1.00

$1.30

The Symposium: Sappho! Sappho! … If death Is noble (Sappho, Chorus)

Track length3:56

$1.00

$1.30

The Symposium: Ah, It Is you (Phaon, Sappho)

Track length6:27

$1.00

$1.30

The Symposium: Nay, but always and forever (Sappho, Phaon)

Track length2:45

$1.00

$1.30

Glanville-Hicks: Sappho, Act II Scene 3

Work length6:18

$2.00

$2.60

Deborah Polaski, Martin Homrich, Scott MacAllister, Roman Trekel, Wolfgang Koch, John Tomlinson, Jacquelyn Wagner, Bettina Jensen, Maria Markina, Laurence Meikle
Coro Gulbenkian, Gulbenkian Orchestra
Jennifer Condon

Introduction - What Are you making? … Here's Minos coming (Sappho, Phaon, Chorus)

Track length4:44

$1.00

$1.30

Hail to Pittakos (Phaon, Minos, Chorus)

Track length1:34

$1.00

$1.30

Glanville-Hicks: Sappho, Act II Scene 4

Work length20:30

$4.00

$5.20

Deborah Polaski, Martin Homrich, Scott MacAllister, Roman Trekel, Wolfgang Koch, John Tomlinson, Jacquelyn Wagner, Bettina Jensen, Maria Markina, Laurence Meikle
Coro Gulbenkian, Gulbenkian Orchestra
Jennifer Condon

Sea begotten heroes (Chorus)

Track length3:53

$1.00

$1.30

Admit It now … Now, where Is This brother of mine (Sappho, Pittakos, Kreon, Phaon)

Track length5:31

$1.00

$1.30

Ah, here you Are at last (Pittakos, Sappho)

Track length6:37

$1.00

$1.30

Aria. You think I do not feel … Sappho! Sappho! (Pittakos, Sappho, Minos)

Track length4:29

$1.00

$1.30

Glanville-Hicks: Sappho, Act III Scene 5

Work length8:56

$2.00

$2.60

Deborah Polaski, Martin Homrich, Scott MacAllister, Roman Trekel, Wolfgang Koch, John Tomlinson, Jacquelyn Wagner, Bettina Jensen, Maria Markina, Laurence Meikle
Coro Gulbenkian, Gulbenkian Orchestra
Jennifer Condon

Diomedes, oh Diomedes, what have you done? (Sappho, Diomedes)

Track length5:30

$1.00

$1.30

Sleep now (Sappho, Diomedes)

Track length3:26

$1.00

$1.30

Glanville-Hicks: Sappho, Act III Scene 6

Work length9:39

$2.00

$2.60

Deborah Polaski, Martin Homrich, Scott MacAllister, Roman Trekel, Wolfgang Koch, John Tomlinson, Jacquelyn Wagner, Bettina Jensen, Maria Markina, Laurence Meikle
Coro Gulbenkian, Gulbenkian Orchestra
Jennifer Condon

Priestess of the Oracle … Invocation (Sappho, Priestress, Chorus)

Track length3:48

$1.00

$1.30

Oh Mask! (Kreon, Sappho, Chorus)

Track length5:51

$1.00

$1.30

Glanville-Hicks: Sappho, Act III Scene 7

Work length21:18

$6.00

$7.80

Deborah Polaski, Martin Homrich, Scott MacAllister, Roman Trekel, Wolfgang Koch, John Tomlinson, Jacquelyn Wagner, Bettina Jensen, Maria Markina, Laurence Meikle
Coro Gulbenkian, Gulbenkian Orchestra
Jennifer Condon

Introduction

Track length1:27

$1.00

$1.30

The voting must be over (Minos, Sappho)

Track length6:29

$1.00

$1.30

Aria. I am very tired (Minos, Sappho)

Track length1:50

$1.00

$1.30

Sappho! Sappho! It Is exile (Pittakos, Sappho, Minos)

Track length4:24

$1.00

$1.30

Now everything Is silence and remoteness (Sappho)

Track length7:08

$2.00

$2.60

About
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About

Sappho, the last grand opera of Australian composer Peggy Glanville-Hicks (1912–90), was written in her stone cottage on the island of Mykonos in 1963.

Intended for Maria Callas but never heard before this recording, it captures all the colours of ancient Greece: haunting woodwind solos and shimmering percussion evoke the stillness of crystal island waters, and an epic chorus and colossal brass fanfare herald the conquering hero's army.

Deborah Polaski, who creates the role of the aging Sappho – ‘in turn tempestuous, querulous, compassionate, tender, fierce, impatient...poised like a needle in a compass’ – describes the opera as ‘the kind of music that singers want to sing [....] it offers you so many facets, from colour to expressiveness within the line itself’.

The libretto was fashioned by the composer from Lawrence Durrell’s verse-play with Durrell’s approval – the booklet contains a photograph of the two of them in buoyant mood.

A stellar international cast donated their performances for the realisation of a dream – to enable Sappho to be heard for the first time in 2012, the centenary of both the composer and librettist.

Musical preparation, from deciphering the hand-written manuscript to conducting the ensemble with the Orquestra and Coro Gulbenkian, has been the work of the young Australian conductor, Jennifer Condon, whose energy and passion for this hitherto unknown work brought this recording into being.

Reviews

April 2013

[Sappho] may not be a lost masterpiece. But it is certainly a massively professional piece of composition whose dramatic timg...keeps a fine balance between local detail and mainline plotting...What does it all sound like? Like a tonal opera of the 1930s, quite a lot of VW, some Martinu, a touch of Bartok...Polaski especially sets to with a will, the tessitura suiting her voice well.

20th December 2012

The score contains some striking passages, but the pace is uneven...However, the cast – Roman Trekel as the poet Diomedes, John Tomlinson as Kreon, and especially Deborah Polaski as Sappho – do their best to bring it all to life.

Glanville-Hicks: Sappho

2 CDs

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