Albion is releasing four new albums this Autumn.
Two discs will be released on 11 October: Romance and Reverie (ALBCD065) by The Gustav Holst Society, with Albion Records, in celebration of the 150th anniversary of Gustav Holst’s birth. Other composers represented are Rebecca Clarke, William Hurlstone and Ethel Barns
Secondly, a major seasonal release with A Christmas Fantasia (ALBCD063) featuring fantasias based on carols by Vaughan Williams and Holst, and other carols by Rebecca Clarke, Cecil Armstrong Gibbs, Gerald Finzi, John Ireland, Herbert Howells and Elizabeth Maconchy.
On 1 November two more CDs will be launched with Carols from Herefordshire (ALBCD064), an unusual album based on Twelve Traditional Carols from Herefordshire published in 1920 by Vaughan Williams and his friend and fellow folk song collector Mrs Ella Mary Leather. Most of the choral versions have never been recorded before.
Also on release in November will be Royal Throne of Kings (ALBC062). In 1912-1913 Vaughan Williams composed and conducted music for Shakespeare plays in the Memorial Theatre at Stratford-upon-Avon, where Sir Frank Benson presented plays for many years. This album includes the Henry IV Suite, the Stratford Suite and his Henry V Overture which he was later to develop into a new work for brass with the same title.
Look out for BMS Reviews in the next edition of E-News.