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Philharmonia Orchestra - Elgar, Vaughan Williams, Torsten Rasch

Baldur Bronnimann conducts the Philharmonia Orchestra at Worcester Cathedral. Elgar: The Spirit of England. Vaughan Williams: The Lark Ascending. Torsten Rasch: A Foreign Field.

From this year's Three Choirs Festival, the Philharmonia Orchestra, with Baldur Brönnimann perform the world premiere of Torsten Rasch's new choral work "A Foreign Field", for soprano and baritone soloists, boys' choir and large chorus, preceded by Vaughan Williams' poignant "The Lark Ascending" and Elgar's rarely heard setting of three poems by Laurence Binyon, "The Spirit of England" in a programme marking the outbreak of the first World War.

Recorded at Worcester Cathedral on 31st July

Presented by Nicola Heywood Thomas

Elgar: The Spirit of England
Vaughan Williams: The Lark Ascending
Torsten Rasch: A Foreign Field

Yeree Suh, soprano
Peter Hoare, tenor
Roderick Williams, baritone
Three Choirs Festival Chorus
Chorus of the Three Cathedral Choirs
Singers from Die Kantorei der Kreuzkirche, Chemnitz

Matthew Trusler, violin

Philharmonia Orchestra
Baldur Brönnimann, conductor

A Three Choirs Festival commission, Torsten Rasch's new choral work for soprano and baritone soloists, boys' choir, chorus and orchestra sets poetry in English and German. The title, "A Foreign Field" is borrowed from Rupert Brooke's poem, "The Soldier" while the texts are drawn from poetry of the first world war, biblical texts and part of the Latin Requiem Mass. At its heart lie extracts from the writings of Edward Thomas to his wife Helen. Thomas was killed on the Western Front in 1917. Vaughan Williams' evocation of an English idyll, "The Lark Ascending" was written on the very day that Britain entered the First World War and to begin this concert marking the outbreak of the Great War, a rarely heard choral work by Edward Elgar, a composer with a close association to Worcester and Three Choirs Festival, settings of three war poems by Laurence Binyon.

2 hours, 30 minutes

Last on

Fri 19 Sep 2014 19:30

Music Played

  • Edward Elgar

    The Spirit of England, Op 80

    Singer: Peter Hoare. Choir: Three Choirs Festival Chorus. Orchestra: Philharmonia Orchestra. Conductor: Baldur Brönnimann.
  • Ralph Vaughan Williams

    The Lark Ascending

    Performer: Matthew Trusler. Orchestra: Philharmonia Orchestra. Conductor: Baldur Brönnimann.
  • Yeree Suh & Roderick Williams

    A Foreign Field for soprano, baritone, chorus and orchestra

    Conductor: Torsten Rasch. Choir: Three Choirs Festival Chorus. Orchestra: Philharmonia Orchestra. Conductor: Baldur Brönnimann.
  • Post concert

    • Johann Sebastian Bach

      Brandenburg concerto no. 5 (BWV.1050) in D major, [complete]

      Ensemble: The English Concert. Conductor: Trevor Pinnock.
      • Bach: Works for Orchestra: The English Concert/Pinnock.
      • Archiv Produktion.
      • 4.
    • Ralph Vaughan Williams

      Concerto grosso for string orchestra

      Orchestra: London Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Bryden Thomson.
      • Vaughan Williams - Complete Concertos etc..
      • Chandos.
      • CHAN9262/3.

Broadcast

  • Fri 19 Sep 2014 19:30