includes premiere recordings DYson Nebuchadnezzar Two coronation anthems Three Songs of Praise Woodland Suite Mark Padmore tenor Neal Davies bass-baritone BBC Symphony Chorus BBC Symphony Orchestra CHAN 10439 RICHArd HICKOX Sir George Dyson (1883 –1964) premiere recording Nebuchadnezzar*† 47:48 1 I = 54. Chorus: ‘Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image ofq gold’ – = about 60. The Herald: ‘To you it is commanded’ – Sir George Dyson Trust qChorus: ‘Therefore at that time…’ 12:29 2 II Rhythmic, but not too fast. Chorus: ‘Wherefore at that time certain Chaldeans came near’ – Slow. Chorus: ‘Then Nebuchadnezzar in his rage and fury…’ – Expressive. Nebuchadnezzar: ‘Is it of purpose, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego’ – Calm. Chorus: ‘O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer thee in this matter’ 10:58 3 III Restless. Chorus: ‘Then was Nebuchadnezzar full of fury’ – Slow – Faster. Chorus: ‘Therefore because the king’s commandment was urgent’ – Vigorous. Chorus: ‘And the king’s servants, that put them in’ – Very broadly. Chorus: ‘But the angel of the Lord came down…’ – Serene, but not too slow. Chorus: ‘Blessed art thou, O Lord’ – Largamente – Quick. Chorus: ‘Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astonied’ – Slower. Nebuchadnezzar: ‘…and they have no hurt’ – Very subdued. Chorus: ‘Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, came forth…’ – Solemn. Nebuchadnezzar: ‘Blessed be the God who hath sent his angel’ – Sir George Dyson Deliberate. Nebuchadnezzar: ‘Therefore I make a decree’ – 17:38 3 premiere recording of orchestral version 4 IV Quiet and devotional. Solo Bass: ‘O all ye works of the Lord, Three Songs of Praise† 9:54 bless ye the Lord’ – for accompanied chorus In strict time. Chorus: ‘O let the earth bless the Lord’ – (string orchestra, with two timpani, two trumpets and Broad and sustained. Chorus: ‘O ye children of men, bless three trombones ad libitum) ye the Lord’ 6:44 10 Praise. Vigorous 2:00 11 Lauds. Calm and sustained 4:26 premiere recording 12 A Poet’s Hymn. Broadly 3:26 Woodland Suite 7:22 for strings and wind 13 Confortare (Be strong and of a good courage)† 1:34 (flute, oboe, clarinet and bassoon ad libitum) Coronation anthem for chorus and orchestra 5 1 At Evening Bell. Tranquillo 2:23 Maestoso – Allargando al fine 6 2 Silken Sails. Allegretto 1:19 TT 68:52 7 3 Moon-Fairy. Andante 2:08 8 4 Elfin Market. Allegro 1:31 Mark Padmore tenor* 9 O Praise God in His Holiness (Psalm 150)† 2:12 * Coronation anthem for chorus and orchestra Neal Davies bass-baritone Vigorous – Firmly – Very broadly – Molto sostenuto BBC Symphony Chorus† Stephen Jackson chorus master BBC Symphony Orchestra Daniel Rowland leader Richard Hickox 4 5 known for his training pamphlet on grenade own day. I had a school orchestra and Dyson: Nebuchadnezzar and other works warfare. In due course, inevitably, Dyson was a school chorus. I had a city orchestra, invalided out. He was soon back in College, including most of the good string players and in his diary Parry writes in shocked terms from twenty miles around, and we brought George Dyson (1883 –1964) came from such College scholarships, the first for organ of how he found Dyson a shadow of his down London Symphony wind for our the industrial north, where his father was and the second for composition. He became former self. Later, Dyson worked in the newly concerts. I had also an adult choral society, a blacksmith in the town of Halifax. Even a pupil of Sir Charles Villiers Stanford and founded Air Ministry where he realised the care fully selected and balanced. And more than Walton, who came from Oldham, in 1904 won the Mendelssohn Scholarship, RAF March Past which Henry Walford Davies we all supported our annual Winchester Dyson wholly reinvented himself; he was in an award founded to help promising young had sketched in short score. Festival. I found time to give Univer sity every sense a completely self-made man. composers travel abroad. He was inclined to After 1918 Dyson, by now married, lectures occasionally, and I took over from He descended from the sort of family which go to Leipzig but Stanford dissuaded him. resumed his career almost where he had Sir Walford Davies his inimitable series formerly would not have been able to afford Dyson recalled: left it on the outbreak of war. Despite his of broadcasts: ‘Music and the ordinary college fees, let alone had the incentive to He said I had had enough teaching, ‘Go origins he was known as a public school listener’. I gave this weekly broadcast for try for admission to a London institution. The to Italy, my boy, and sit in the sun’. I did, music master, and he soon obtained another two years, combining it with a pleasant transformation came through his keyboard and I have since given the same refreshing teaching job, this time at Wellington College. day’s teaching at the Royal College. skills at the local Baptist church, and is all advice to other young musicians, with He was also one of the many new part-time Dyson had begun to build a reputation as the more startling in that he established happy results. staff that Sir Hugh Allen introduced at the a composer, his Three Rhapsodies for string himself almost entirely by his own efforts. Dyson later journeyed on to Vienna and RCM after the death of Parry. Dyson wrote quartet, written during the years between His parents were musical and certainly Berlin, where he met many of the leading a series of articles on new music, widely his return from the continent and the start encouraged Dyson as an organist; he became musicians of the day, including Arthur admired in their day for demonstrating an of war, being among the small number of a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists at Nikisch, who produced Dyson’s early tone apparently commonsense view, which soon works that benefited from the Carnegie UK the remarkable age of sixteen, and then, in poem Siena. achieved further celebrity in hard covers Trust’s publication scheme, established in 1900, won a scholarship to the Royal College The idyll could not last and all too soon (The New Music, 1924). In his autobiography, 1917. Around the end of the war followed of Music. One has the feeling, however, that Dyson returned to England. He needed Fiddling while Rome Burns: a Musician’s two children’s suites for small orchestra, Dyson, unlike Walton, who vowed never to a job and thanks to Sir Hubert Parry, he Apology (1954), Dyson wrote: the second, Won’t You Look Out of Your return to Oldham, retained an affection for became the first Director of Music at the In 1924 I moved to Winchester College Window, after a poem by Walter de la Mare his birthplace. short-lived Royal Naval College, Osborne. An and it was there that all my varied musical (it was later renamed Suite after Walter The RCM, through its system of appointment at Marlborough College soon activities and experiences coalesced into de la Mare, and subsequently Children’s scholarships, played an important rôle in followed, but the outbreak of war in 1914 a most happy and busy life. I had a choir Suite [CHAN 10337(2) X]). But during the helping impecunious students such as Dyson, changed everything and Dyson enlisted. It of choristers and lay clerks, supplemented years between the wars Dyson attained his and in the 1890s about one fifth of the was at this time, as Brigade Grenadier Officer by a picked few from the school. We could principal celebrity with his choral music, student body were scholars. Dyson held two of the 99th Infantry, that he became well sing music from the Tudor period to our starting with a body of church music and 6 7 many part songs for children and amateurs. even sleeping at the office, and he remained and reissued in 1999 as Woodland Suite. and sustained’ meditative setting. Lauds is From these he progressed to a succession of with the College until 1952. After his Here Dyson writes four charming miniatures the earliest canonical hour of the Christian big-boned works for chorus and orchestra. retirement he enjoyed a remarkable Indian intended for a school string orchestra with day and the soldier-poet Gascoigne, writing Written for Winchester, In Honour of the City summer of composition, writing among optional woodwind (one each of flute, oboe, in the early years of the reign of Queen (1928) and The Canterbury Pilgrims (1930) others Sweet Thames Run Softly, a mellifluous clarinet and bassoon), but they sound Elizabeth I, brilliantly produces a magical, (both on CHAN 9531[2]) were published setting for baritone, chorus and orchestra of delightful when played by a full symphony albeit brief, aubade from comparatively little. and immediately won popularity among words from Edmund Spenser’s Prothalamion, orchestra. The movements are ‘At Evening choral societies. Commissions followed, and which was well received at first but for some Bell’, ‘Silken Sails’, ‘Moon-Fairy’, and ‘Elfin Nebuchadnezzar Dyson became a regular at the Three Choirs time in the avant-garde 1960s was forgotten. Market’. At this time Dyson had only recently (1934) festivals. For the 1933 festival at Hereford Finally came Agincourt, a brilliant return to finishedNebuchadnezzar , a commission for he produced St Paul’s Voyage to Melita the scale and style of his first major choral Three Songs of Praise the 1935 Three Choirs Festival at Worcester, (repeated in 1934, 1937 and 1952). He was work, In Honour of the City, now setting All through the 1920s and 1930s Dyson where it was heard on 5 September.