Johnson Over Jordan

1. Our Hunting Fathers, song cycle for high voice & orchestra, Op. 8
Composed by Benjamin Britten
with Phyllis Bryn-Julson
Conducted by Steuart Bedford

2. Symphony No. 1 in F Minor, Op. 10
Composed by Dmitry Shostakovich
Conducted by Steuart Bedford

Johnson Over Jordan,Britten,Bedford,English Chamber Orchestra,Collins Classics,Classical

Average customer rating: ...

Britten: Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra Op34; Sea Interludes Op33a Manufacturer: Chandos ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD All Works by Britten | Britten, Sir Benjamin | ( B ) | Featured Composers, A-Z | Classical | Styles | Music Suites | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music Incidental Music | Theatrical, Incidental & Program Music | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music Chamber Music | Forms & Genres | Modern, 20th, & 21st Century | Historical Periods | Classical | Styles | Music Variations | Forms & Genres | Modern, 20th, & 21st Century | Historical Periods | Classical | Styles | Music General Contemporary | Modern, 20th, & 21st Century | Historical Periods | Classical | Styles | Music General | Classical | Styles | Music ASIN: B000000ATA Release Date: 1994-01-04

Tracks:

1. The Young Person's Guide To The Orchestra Op. 34: Themes: A. Allegro maestoso e largamente -
2. The Young Person's Guide To The Orchestra Op. 34: Themes: B.
3. The Young Person's Guide To The Orchestra Op. 34: Themes: C.
4. The Young Person's Guide To The Orchestra Op. 34: Themes: D.
5. The Young Person's Guide To The Orchestra Op. 34: Themes: E.
6. The Young Person's Guide To The Orchestra Op. 34: Themes: F. Presto
7. The Young Person's Guide To The Orchestra Op. 34: Variations: A.
8. The Young Person's Guide To The Orchestra Op. 34: Variations: B. Lento
9. The Young Person's Guide To The Orchestra Op. 34: Variations: C. Moderato
10. The Young Person's Guide To The Orchestra Op. 34: Variations: D. Allegro alla marcia
11. The Young Person's Guide To The Orchestra Op. 34: Variations: E. Brillante - alla polacca
12. The Young Person's Guide To The Orchestra Op. 34: Variations: F. Meno mosso -
13. The Young Person's Guide To The Orchestra Op. 34: Variations: G.
14. The Young Person's Guide To The Orchestra Op. 34: Variations: H. Comminciando lento ma poco a poco accelerando
15. The Young Person's Guide To The Orchestra Op. 34: Variations: I. Maestoso
16. The Young Person's Guide To The Orchestra Op. 34: Variations: J. L'istesso tempo
17. The Young Person's Guide To The Orchestra Op. 34: Variations: K. Vivace
18. The Young Person's Guide To The Orchestra Op. 34: Variations: L. Allegro pomposo
19. The Young Person's Guide To The Orchestra Op. 34: Variations: M. Moderato
20. The Young Person's Guide To The Orchestra Op. 34: Fugue. Allegro molto
21. Suite On English Folk Tunes 'A Time There Was' Op. 90: 1. Cakes And Ale. Fast And Rough
22. Suite On English Folk Tunes 'A Time There Was' Op. 90: 2. The Bitter Withy. Allegretto
23. Suite On English Folk Tunes 'A Time There Was' Op. 90: 3. Hankin Booby. Heavily
24. Suite On English Folk Tunes 'A Time There Was' Op. 90: 4. Hunt The Squirrel. Fast And Gay
25. Suite On English Folk Tunes 'A Time There Was' Op. 90: 5. Lord Melbourne. Slow And Languid
26. Johnson Over Jordan Suite: 1. Overture. Andante maestoso
27. Johnson Over Jordan Suite: 2. Introduction And Incinerator's Dance: Lento
28. Johnson Over Jordan Suite: 2. Introduction And Incinerator's Dance: Single Clerk. Allegro
29. Johnson Over Jordan Suite: 2. Introduction And Incinerator's Dance: Incinerators' Ballet
30. Johnson Over Jordan Suite: 3. Spider Dance: Spider And The Fly. Lento quasi Blues
31. Johnson Over Jordan Suite: 4. Approach Of Death And Finale: Poco Lento -
32. Johnson Over Jordan Suite: 4. Approach Of Death And Finale: Funeral Music -
33. Johnson Over Jordan Suite: 4. Approach Of Death And Finale: End Music. Andante poco lento
34. Four Sea Interludes Op. 33a: 1. Dawn. Lento e tranquillo
35. Four Sea Interludes Op. 33a: 2. Sunday Morning. Allegro spirtoso
36. Four Sea Interludes Op. 33a: Moonlight. Andante comodo e rubato
37. Four Sea Interludes Op. 33a: 4. Storm. Presto con fuoco

Amazon.com

Britten's Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra has another name that you should know: Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Purcell, and though you can buy it with narration, as a piece of music it's vastly preferable without. The work really does speak for itself in the clearest possible way. The Four Sea Interludes have rapidly become the most famous "water music" since Debussy's La Mer. They are wholly marvelous, especially the evocative "Sunday Morning" music. The other two pieces are relative rarities--the Suite was one of Britten's last completed compositions. Everything here is very well performed and recorded. --David Hurwitz

Customer Reviews:

..........2004-03-12

"The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra" is more than an educational piece, although it does the job of introducing the instruments extremely well without or without narration. There are so many recordings of this enormously popular work that it's quite difficult drawing an opinion on which is the best, it's usually coupled with Prokofiev's "Peter and the Wolf" with most recordings going without narration. This disc in particular with Richard Hickox conducting the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra has some benefits over others because it does a extremely good job of introducing lesser known works of Britten, Hickox has always been a good interpreter of British music and this disc is no exception.

The premiere of the opera Peter Grimes was a landmark in Britten's career and 20th century British music, along side his opera Britten composed four vivid Sea Interludes which have become a concert piece in their own right. These evocative pieces paint the atmosphere of Suffolk and the region's coastal land and sea.

"The Suite on English Folk Tunes" was Britten's last orchestral work and is a masterwork of scoring. The two violins in "Hunt the Squirrel" that are alone and unacompanied are literally chasing one another. The highlight being "Lord Melbourne", it's a movement of haunting, poignant beauty.

"Johnson over Jordan" was an ambitious experimental play in which music, mime and dance were intregral to the drama. It's concept was influenced by the Tibetan Book of the Dead with Johnson the central figure, after he dies goes through a series of dreamlike episodies with people and incidents from his past.

Average customer rating: MacGregor's Piano Concerto is Equal to Richter's ...

Britten: Piano Concerto; Johnson Over Jordan (Suite) Manufacturer: Naxos ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD All Works by Britten | Britten, Sir Benjamin | ( B ) | Featured Composers, A-Z | Classical | Styles | Music General | Concertos | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music Incidental Music | Theatrical, Incidental & Program Music | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music Piano | Keyboard | Instruments | Classical | Styles | Music General | Symphonies | Classical | Styles | Music General | Classical | Styles | Music General | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music English | Languages | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music 4-for-3 Classical | 4-for-3 Music | Stores | Music 4-for-3 All Music | 4-for-3 Music | Stores | Music Similar Items: Britten: Violin Concerto Stravinsky: Three Greek Ballets (Apollo, Agon, Orpheus) Britten: Violin Concerto/Cello Symphony William Alwyn: Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 2 Ferguson: Concerto for Piano and String Orchestra; Gerhard: Concerto for Piano and Strings ASIN: B0007XHKYO Release Date: 2005-04-19

Tracks:

1. Overture To Paul Bunyan
2. I. Allegro Molto E Con Brio
3. II. Waltz: Allegretto
4. III. Impromptu: Andante Lento
5. IV. March: Allegro Moderato Sempre A La Marcia
6. Piano Concerto - Original Third Movement: Recitative And Aria
7. Overature
8. Introduction
9. Incinerators' Ballet
10. The Spider And The Fly
11. Approach Of Death
12. End Music

Customer Reviews:

MacGregor's Piano Concerto is Equal to Richter's ..........2005-05-04

... but different. Richter's well-loved recording of Britten's only piano concerto, with Britten conducting, is Big Concerto romantic in its take on the work. MacGregor's (and conductor Steuart Bedford's) is rather more neoclassic, almost sounding in spots as if it had been written by one of Les Six (except, of course, for the intentionally Prokofievian finale). That's partly because of the recorded sound. Richter/Britten was recorded in 1970 and although the sound has worn well, it has the orchestra somewhat recessed in comparison to the spotlight on Richter's piano. In the present recording the orchestra, which has some really quite wonderful things to say, is treated as an equal partner. This is all to the advantage of the music, I feel. Add to that the brio that MacGregor brings to her performance, and you have a winner. MacGregor, like Richter, is no shrinking violet and she more than holds her own. It is well known that seven years after the 1938 première of the Concerto (with Britten himself at the piano), the composer threw out the original third movement (of four, subtitled 'Recitative and Aria') and composed a new one, called 'Impromptu.' This recording includes, as the concerto's fifth track, that original. My own opinion is that although there are some lovely moments in the original movement, Britten's replacement works better. But it's good to hear it.

The other pieces here are the rollicking overture to Britten's early American opera 'Paul Bunyan,' written while he and Peter Pears were in the US early in the War. The overture had been dropped when the opera was premièred and existed only in piano score; it was orchestrated by Britten's amanuensis, Colin Matthews, in the 1970s, and brilliantly so. And the CD ends with Paul Hindmarsh's arrangement of Britten's incidental music for J. B. Priestley's 1939 play, 'Johnson over Jordan.' It is notable for its use of jazz, particularly in the big band number 'The Spider and the Fly,' which sounds like nothing that I can recall Britten ever writing. It is luscious and even a little sexy. Who knew Britten was capable of writing this kind of music?

This budget-priced CD is a compilation put together from early 1990s performances released separately on the now-defunct Collins Classics label. Bedford as an exponent of Britten's music needs no special pleading; he is obviously the most expert Britten conductor we have. Sound is marvelous and these performances have a freshness and verve that is entirely infectious.

Warmly recommended.

TT=64:00

Scott Morrison

Average customer rating:

Benjamin Britten: Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra; Suite on English Folk Tunes; Johnson Over Jordan; Four Sea Interludes Manufacturer: Musical Heritage Society ProductGroup: Classical Binding: Audio CD ASIN: B000I4A44A

Product Description

From the Musical Heritage Society, 4 works by Benjamin Britten performed by the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra: Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra; Suite on English Folk Tunes; Johnson Over Jordan; Four Sea Interludes.

Average customer rating: A 'Premiere Recording' and Three Fully Satisfying Performances

Britten: Johnson Over Jordan Manufacturer: Collins Classics ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD All Works by Britten | Britten, Sir Benjamin | ( B ) | Featured Composers, A-Z | Classical | Styles | Music All Works by Shostakovich | Shostakovich, Dmitri | ( S ) | Featured Composers, A-Z | Classical | Styles | Music Symphonies | Forms & Genres | Modern, 20th, & 21st Century | Historical Periods | Classical | Styles | Music General | Symphonies | Classical | Styles | Music Modern & 20th Century | Symphonies | Classical | Styles | Music General | Classical | Styles | Music ASIN: B000003VW2 Release Date: 1993-08-24

Tracks:

1. John Over Jordan: Ste: Ov
2. John Over Jordan: Ste: Intro
3. John Over Jordan: Ste: Incinerator's Ballet
4. John Over Jordan: Ste: The Spider And The Fly
5. John Over Jordan: Ste: Approach Of Death
6. John Over Jordan: Ste: End Music
7. Our Hunting Fathers Op.8: Prologue
8. Our Hunting Fathers Op.8: Rats Away!
9. Our Hunting Fathers Op.8: Messalina
10. Our Hunting Fathers Op.8: Dance Of Death (Hawking For The Partridge)
11. Our Hunting Fathers Op.8: Epilogue And Funeral Music
12. Sym No.1, Op.10: I. Allegretto
13. Sym No.1, Op.10: II. Allegro
14. Sym No.1, Op.10: III. Lento
15. Sym No.1, Op.10: IV. Allegro Molto-Lento-Allegro

Customer Reviews:

A 'Premiere Recording' and Three Fully Satisfying Performances.......2006-06-13

Even for devoted admirers of Benjamin Britten's music there is one work that probably never has been considered, much less heard, until this fine release with Steuart Bedford and the English Chamber Orchestra. This CD represents the World Premiere recording of 'Johnson over Jordan' a suite for orchestra (arranged by Paul Hindmarsh in 1988) from segments of incidental music Britten wrote for a 1939 J.B. Priestly 'morality play' based on the 'Tibetan Book of the Dead'. The play relates the life of recently deceased Robert Johnson whose life history is told in reverse order: the state of being is called Bardo - an hallucinatory state between life and death. For this play Britten wrote some very fine music that bears our attention. Not only are there intricate 'death motifs' and finely realized variations on themes, but there is also a movement ('The Spider and the Fly') which in illustrating the baser aspects of Johnson's life is composed in the manner of big band swing! The music is very unusual for Britten and contains some excitingly original thoughts.

Also included on this recording is Britten's brilliant 1936 symphonic song cycle (a work Britten compared to his beloved Mahler's 'Das Lied von der Erde') based on the poetry of WH Auden and serving as a reaction to the turbulence of pre WW II Europe. The cycle is a sterling example of Britten's ability to write for the English language and Auden's biting poetry is clearly enunciated and beautifully sung by Phyllis Bryn-Julson. The work foretells the devastation of the decimation of Europe by the 'hunter' Hitler and is one of the more poignant works to come from that time in history.

Completing the CD is a brilliant performance of Shostakovich's very young (1924 - 1926) Symphony No. 1 in F minor, Opus 10, a work which in retrospect holds some themes and ideas used all the way to his last Symphony No. 15. The front role of the piano makes moments of this work almost a piano concerto (Shostakovich himself often played this part in early performances). Bedford's reading and the English Chamber Orchestra's performance is one of the finest available, and this Shostakovich performance alone is worth buying this CD. In all this is a meaningful, well-programmed release that deserves a very wide audience - for Britten lovers and Shostakovich lovers alike. Recorded in Abbey Road Studios in 1990. Very Highly Recommended. Grady Harp, June 2006

Average customer rating:

Britten: Johnson Over Jordan Manufacturer: Collins ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD All Works by Britten | Britten, Sir Benjamin | ( B ) | Featured Composers, A-Z | Classical | Styles | Music All Works by Shostakovich | Shostakovich, Dmitri | ( S ) | Featured Composers, A-Z | Classical | Styles | Music Symphonies | Forms & Genres | Modern, 20th, & 21st Century | Historical Periods | Classical | Styles | Music General | Symphonies | Classical | Styles | Music Modern & 20th Century | Symphonies | Classical | Styles | Music General | Classical | Styles | Music ASIN: B0000264KF Release Date: 1991-01-01

Tracks:

1. Johnson over Jordan: Ste for Orch: Ov - ECO/Steuart Bedford
2. Johnson over Jordan: Ste for Orch: Intro - ECO/Steuart Bedford
3. Johnson over Jordan: Ste for Orch: Incinerators' Ballet - ECO/Steuart Bedford
4. Johnson over Jordan: Ste for Orch: The Spider and the Fly - ECO/Steuart Bedford
5. Johnson over Jordan: Ste for Orch: Approach of Death - ECO/Steuart Bedford
6. Johnson over Jordan: Ste for Orch: End Music - Phyllis Bryn-Julson/ECO/Steuart Bedford
7. Our Hunting Fathers Op.8: Prologue - Phyllis Bryn-Julson/ECO/Steuart Bedford
8. Our Hunting Fathers Op.8: Rats Away! - Phyllis Bryn-Julson/ECO/Steuart Bedford
9. Our Hunting Fathers Op.8: Messalina - Phyllis Bryn-Julson/ECO/Steuart Bedford
10. Our Hunting Fathers Op.8: Dance of Death (Hawking for the partridge) - Phyllis Bryn-Julson/ECO/Steuart Bedford
11. Our Hunting Fathers Op.8: Epilogue and Funeral Music - Phyllis Bryn-Julson/ECO/Steuart Bedford
12. Sym No.1, Op.10: I. Allegretto - ECO/Steuart Bedford
13. Sym No.1, Op.10: II. Allegro - ECO/Steuart Bedford
14. Sym No.1, Op.10: III. Lento - ECO/Steuart Bedford
15. Sym No.1, Op.10: IV. Allegro molto - lento - allegro - ECO/Steuart Bedford

Track Listings:

1. L'Alta Naixenca / 6 Cancons / Cancionero
2. Le Chasseur Maudit
3. Lichtspielmusik
4. Liszt: Sonata, for piano in B minor, S. 178 / Petrarch Sonnets (3) / Légendes (2), for piano, S.175
5. Music for Breakfast in Bed
6. Music for Celebration
7. Music from the 1995 Royal Tournament
8. Music to Renew Your Soul
9. On the Air
10. Operatic Festival

Track Listings

track listings

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