Epithalamion, cantata for baritone, chorus & string orchestra (based on "The Bridal Day")
Although its products are subsidized releases of the Ralph Vaughan Williams Society, the Albion label has found some commercial success with its releases of largely obscure, but worthwhile works by RVW. Fair Child of Beauty, in fact, made the British charts in 2016, and it's well worth checking out. Its success came in spite of the fact that it's hard to determine from the graphics exactly what you're getting; the two works programmed are related, but not identical, and neither one is called Fair Child of Beauty . The two ...
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Although its products are subsidized releases of the Ralph Vaughan Williams Society, the Albion label has found some commercial success with its releases of largely obscure, but worthwhile works by RVW. Fair Child of Beauty, in fact, made the British charts in 2016, and it's well worth checking out. Its success came in spite of the fact that it's hard to determine from the graphics exactly what you're getting; the two works programmed are related, but not identical, and neither one is called Fair Child of Beauty . The two pieces are both settings of Edmund Spenser's Epithalamion (1594), a long poem celebrating his own marriage. The choral work by that title, including more of Spenser's text, has become better known. This is likely because the chamber version, The Bridal Day, failed at its first performance. It was done as a masque, with dances that failed to impress the premiere audience at 1939. Vaughan Williams responded with the choral setting, in the nature of a little secular...
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