CCMusic.com

This is Edward Gardner's sixth release on LPO Label, and the third that celebrates the 20th anniversary of the label in 2025. This Britten program was recorded at London's Royal Festival Hall (Sinfonia da Requiem and The Prince of the Pagodas) and Saffron Hall (Winter Words). A bold, early masterpiece written at just twenty-six and originally commissioned to commemorate Japan's 2600th imperial anniversary, Britten's Sinfonia da Requiem was rejected for being too solemn, but emerged as his only major purely orchestral work and a powerful response to the growing threat of war. Winter Words Britten's poignant song cycle originally for tenor and piano, set to texts of 8 poems by Thomas Hardy is presented here in a new orchestration by Robin Holloway-a world premiere recording. The Prince of the Pagodas, Britten's ballet with Edward Gardner's distilled concert suite from The Prince of the Pagodas-another world premiere recording-fulfils Britten's unrealised ambition to arrange his full-length ballet into a dramatic orchestral suite.