Bernard Herrmann: Suite from Wuthering Heights; Echoes for Strings

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Through their two voices - a radiant Keri Fuge and a towering Roderick Williams - we're drawn immediately into their intense love-affair...This snapshot, stunningly recorded, serves as a tantalising... — BBC Music Magazine, September 2023, 5 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 30th Jun 2023
Catalogue No: CHSA5337
Label: Chandos
Length: 80 minutes

Presto Recording of the Week

30th June 2023
BBC Music Magazine

September 2023

Recording of the Month
Presto Recordings of the Year

Finalist 2023
International Classical Music Awards

2024

Nominated - Premiere Recordings

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This release includes a digital booklet

Chandos - Downloads at MP3 Prices

Special offer ends: 22/05/2024

Herrmann, B: Wuthering Heights: Suite

Work length1:00:09

$20.50

$25.35

$31.20

Arr. for Soprano, Baritone, and Orchestra by Hans Sørensen
Keri Fuge (soprano), Roderick Williams (baritone)
Singapore Symphony Orchestra
Mario Venzago

I. Prologue. The Snow and Wind - Oh, Cathy! Come in. Oh, come in

Track length6:54

$1.05

$1.30

$1.60

II. I have been wandering through the green woods

Track length8:14

$1.60

$1.95

$2.40

III. Do you remember the day you first came to Wuthering Heights!

Track length3:21

$1.05

$1.30

$1.60

IV. On the moors, on the moors

Track length5:23

$1.05

$1.30

$1.60

V. Look, the moon

Track length2:55

$1.05

$1.30

$1.60

VI. Interlude (Nocturne)

Track length3:09

$1.05

$1.30

$1.60

VII. I am the only being, whose doom no tongue would ask

Track length3:35

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VIII. I have dreamt in my life dreams that have stayed with me for ever

Track length2:41

$1.05

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IX. Meditation

Track length2:21

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X. Heathcliff. Heathcliff

Track length3:21

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XI. Will you say so, Heathcliff!

Track length3:41

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XII. Open the window. Let me breathe the wind

Track length2:31

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XIII. Death of Cathy - I shall not leave you, you are my soul

Track length2:07

$1.05

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XIX. Largo assai

Track length0:51

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XV. May she wake in torment!

Track length1:36

$1.05

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XVI. Lento

Track length1:07

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XVII. Heathcliff! Heathcliff! Let me in

Track length0:58

$1.05

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XVIII. Oh, Cathy! Come in, oh come in!

Track length4:00

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XIX. Adagio tenebroso

Track length1:24

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$1.60

Herrmann, B: Echoes for String Quartet

Work length20:22

Album only

Singapore Symphony Orchestra
Joshua Tan

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Recording of the Week, Selections from Bernard Herrmann's only opera, Wuthering Heights

30th June 2023

Soprano Keri Fuge and baritone Roderick Williams join the Singapore Symphony Orchestra under Mario Venzago to perform highlights from a neglected work by a composer known mostly for his film scores, based on the novel by Emily Brontë.

Bernard Herrmann is widely regarded as one of Hollywood’s most important composers, responsible for more than fifty film scores (in addition to his work for TV, radio, and the concert hall), and noted for his collaborations with Orson Welles and, later, with Alfred Hitchcock. Welles was unofficially involved with Robert Stevenson’s film of Jane Eyre in the 1940s, and it was Welles that suggested Herrmann as composer for the project. Herrmann became obsessed with all things Brontë, and within months was writing to friends of his plans to write an opera on Wuthering Heights. It took him eight years to complete the vocal score, using a libretto written by his wife, Lucille Fletcher. Although he conducted a recording of the work, in 1966, he failed to see a live production in his lifetime. Although the opera features eight solo roles, Cathy and Heathcliff dominate the action and are the only singers in Hans Sørensen’s Suite of excerpts – recorded here for the very first time. Keri Fuge and Roderick Williams take the vocal roles in this recording. Echoes was composed in 1965 for string quartet, and was later arranged for string orchestra by Hans Sørensen – the version heard on this album. The recording was made in the Esplanade Concert Hall, Singapore. in Surround Sound, and is available as a Hybrid SACD and in Spatial Audio.

Reviews

September 2023

Through their two voices - a radiant Keri Fuge and a towering Roderick Williams - we're drawn immediately into their intense love-affair...This snapshot, stunningly recorded, serves as a tantalising example of what it might be to go on Herrmann's entire emotionally wrought journey.

Jan/Feb 2024

The hour-long suite from Wuthering Heights reveals Herrmann’s musical ideas without sounding fragmented, with excellent performances and sound, and Echoes is an unexpected bonus.

August 2023

Herrmann’s Wuthering Heights is unlikely to be recorded complete again, still less staged, so this recording fills an important part in Herrmann’s discography, with a soundscape attuned to the terrain from which it springs.

30th June 2023

Herrmann is known as a highly inventive orchestrator, and Sørensen thankfully leaves the original instrumentation intact: the angst-ridden opening for timpani, snarling brass and restless piccolo perfectly conjures the dark and stormy expanse of the Yorkshire moors, vividly and colourfully performed by the Singapore Symphony Orchestra under conductor Mario Venzago...the score is littered with many beautiful moments as ravishing as anything you might find in any Puccini opera.

16th July 2023

The orchestration is astonishingly rich and nuanced, but it is, yes, also inescapably cinematic. The same goes for Echoes for Strings, beautiful and persuasive though the piece is. No matter, this accomplished recording is a deeply rewarding listen.

2nd September 2023

played atmospherically and with top singers: soprano Keri Fuge as Cathy and baritone Roderick Williams as Heathcliff. Williams’s opening cry of “Cathy!” sets the chilling tone, with the orchestra’s brooding gusts transporting us instantly to the windswept Yorkshire moors.

Offer,Bernard Herrmann: Suite from Wuthering Heights; Echoes for Strings

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Recording of the Week, Selections from Bernard Herrmann's only opera, Wuthering Heights

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