SINFONICA ANTARCTICA / CONCERTO FOR TWO PIANOS AND ORCHESTRA / FOUR LAST SONGS

Mari Eriksmoen (soprano), Louis Lortie, Hélène Mercier (pianos), Roderick Williams (baritone) & Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Sir Andrew Davis

This is the eagerly awaited final volume in our historic series of Vaughan Williams’s Symphonies, started about twenty-five years ago by the late Richard Hickox, and recently continued by that other expert in British repertoire, Sir Andrew Davis. The album features an exceptional cast and a rare combination of repertoire. While the indefatigable piano duo Louis Lortie and Hélène Mercier tackle the virtuosic Double Piano Concerto, the baritone Roderick Williams OBE offers breathtaking interpretations of the rarely heard, yet passionate Four Last Songs, in Anthony Payne’s delicate and imaginative orchestration, premiered at the BBC Proms only four years ago. Vaughan Williams based the disc’s centrepiece, the majestic Sinfonia Antartica, on music he had written for the film Scott of the Antarctic only a few years before, stunningly evoking the implacable, frozen landscape of the Antarctic. All are supported by the impeccable Bergen orchestra and choirs and recorded in surround-sound. This album is a very special one, as is the now complete series.

Vaughan Williams:
 Symphony No. 7 'Sinfonia antartica'
 Four Last Songs
 Piano Concerto in C for two pianos

"Either [Lortie] or Hélène Mercier could probably polish off the original [Concerto] by themselves, but their partnership develops its intensity without strain, particularly attractive in rich SACD sound. Davis is at his most dynamic, and the Bergen Philharmonic playing is characteristically crisp…Orchestrated by Anthony Payne [The Four Last Songs are] attractive if unexceptional, but Roderick Williams does evoke their essential tenderness."
BBC Music Magazine - Christmas 2017 *****

"[Concerto] excellent depth and weight of tone in the outer movements and beautiful touch in the ravishing central Romanzaand final cadenza. The Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra accompany superbly and give a fine performance of the symphony too."International Piano - May 2018 ****