The musical career of British composer George Dyson (1883-1964) closely paralleled that of Ralph Vaughan Williams. Like Vaughan Williams, Dyson wrote both sacred and secular choral works of outstanding depth. This disc contains five of Dyson’s best secular choral works that will please any fan of 20th century British romanticism. In fact, it will be difficult not to hear Vaughan Williams (and a little bit of Parry) in Honour of the City (1924). Composed for mixed choir and full orchestra, it’s a thoroughly British pomp and circumstance sort of thing. The charmingly melancholic Sweet Thames Run Softly (1955), the longest work here (24 minutes), is a cantata for baritone, chorus, and orchestra. Baritone Stephen Roberts’ voice sounds perfectly appropriate for this solemn music; it’s also balanced very well against the background of the full chorus.
A Spring Garland, for women’s voices and harp, takes its text from the 17th century love poetry of Robert Herrick. The harp provides a lovely background to the soft female chorus. The Blacksmiths (1934), for mixed chorus, strings, two pianos, timpani, and percussion, comes off as somewhat anomalous in this context, with its marching sounds and heroic melodic lines. To Music, another lovely work based on Robert Herrick’s love poetry (in this case for a cappella mixed chorus), rounds out the collection. All told, these are wonderful, full-bodied performances, each with an excellent sonic tapestry. Some of Dyson’s orchestral music has already appeared on Chandos, and as this recording further proves, he’s a composer worth exploring.
