Jennifer Vyvyan; Elsie Morrison; Boyd Neel Orchestra
Release Date: 06 October 2017
Label: Australian Eloquence
Packaging Type: Jewel Case
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 0028948253876
Description
A pair of L’Oiseau-Lyre albums reissued together, including several items making their first appearance on Decca CD.
‘These duets are not only lovely songs, but they are most beautifully sung by Jennifer Vyvyan and Elsie Morison. The Vauxhall songs are also lovely and also well sung … This is indeed a record of outstanding quality in every way, and I strongly recommend it.’ Gramophone, November 1956 (J.C. Bach)
The soprano Jennifer Vyvyan was taught at the Royal Academy of Music in London by Roy Henderson, coach of Kathleen Ferrier. With Henderson’s help she formed a secure technique, and quickly won acclaim for both operatic and oratorio roles in a wide variety of repertoire. Best known now as a singer favoured by Benjamin Britten, Vyvyan was also a leading figure in the revival of Baroque repertory: a celebrated interpreter of Purcell, Rameau, Bach and Handel who starred in landmark 1950s/60s reappraisals of the Handel operas at Sadlers Wells, Covent Garden and elsewhere.
Both the fluency and the brilliance of her voice are on display in songs by Johann Christian Bach and cantatas by Alessandro Scarlatti. J.C. Bach was writing for the open-air concerts at Vauxhall Gardens in London from which the original album and this reissue take their title. The Vauxhall songs are mellifluous, imbued with easy charm and written for accompaniment on keyboard: a part taken on this 1956 album by Thurston Dart, who as a scholar, conductor and virtuosic instrumentalist played a still more significant role in the early music revival in postwar Britain.
Dart is the soloist in J.C. Bach’s F major keyboard concerto Op. 7 No. 2. The Italianate allure of the concerto is shared by six canzonettas in which he accompanies Vyvyan and Elsie Morison and this CD is one of five recordings released by Eloquence in September 2017 celebrating the art of Jennifer Vyvyan. All are Decca recordings from the 1950s.
*FIRST INTERNATIONAL RELEASE ON DECCA CD
Tracklisting
Josef Krips; Various Orchestras
Josef Krips
Neville Marriner; ASMF
New Vienna Octet, Vienna Wind Soloists
Wiener Oktett
John Mauceri; The Hollywood Bowl Orchestra; Julie Andrews
Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt; LSO; Alfred Brendel
Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt; VPO; LSO; Sutherland; Backhaus
BachWerkVokal, Gordon Safari
Dionysos Now!
Soloists; Les Traversees Baroques; Meyer
The Gesualdo Six / Owain Park
La Compagnia del Madrigale
Cappella Pratensis, Stratton Bull, Sollazzo Ensemble
Frieder Bernius, Klassische Philharmonie Stuttgart, Barockorchester Stuttgart, Hofkapelle Stuttgart
Collegium Cantorum Choir, Janusz Siadlak
