Dear Len,

 Would it be possible for you to remind readers and listeners of this important world premiere performance (and recording), for which tickets are now on sale:  http://www.englishmusicfestival.org.uk/booking.html

 Vaughan Williams The Garden of Proserpine at the 5th English Music Festival, Monday 30th May, 7pm, Dorchester Abbey, Oxfordshire www.englishmusicfestival.org.uk

‘The Garden of Proserpine’ is an early Swinburne setting for soprano, chorus and orchestra, from 1899.  Michael Kennedy considers that this unpublished work has "imaginative scoring" and "unmistakable VW fingerprints".  It is a substantial piece, at 489 bars, and is scored for full orchestra including four horns and three trombones.  Published by Stainer & Bell.

More information about the inspiration for the work can be found in A.C. Swinburne: A Poet’s Life (1997), and Swinburne volume in Lives of Victorian Literary Figures (2009) both by Rikky Rooksby.  Mr Rooksby is a member of the Vaughan Williams Society www.rvwsociety.com 

 

The programme for the evening concert is as follows:

Vaughan Williams Five Variants on ‘Dives and Lazarus’
York Bowen Rhapsody for Cello and Orchestra
Delius Walk to the Paradise Garden
Holst Egdon Heath
Vaughan Williams The Garden of Proserpine

Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra

The Joyful Company of Singers

David Hill, conductor
Janice Watson
Raphael Wallfisch

 The recording on Albion, also a world premiere, will be available during May and on sale during the Festival.  The coupling is Patrick Hadley's cantata Fen and Flood, arranged by Vaughan Williams in 1956, for soprano, baritone and mixed chorus. 

 The full programme for the Festival can now be seen at: www.englishmusicfestival.org.uk/programme.html 

 With best regards,

 Karen.

 Karen Fletcher

Publicity Officer: RVW Society www.rvwsociety.com