This is another excellent
Britten disc from Steuart Bedford and
the LSO on Naxos.
The opera Gloriana
was written for Elizabeth II’s coronation
in 1953. The opera is based on Lytton’s
Strachey’s Elizabeth and Essex,
in which Queen Elizabeth is bound by
duty to condemn a favourite of hers,
the Earl of Essex, to death for his
treasonable actions. The orchestral
suite was arranged from the opera by
Britten with the help of Imogen Holst.
The opening movement, The Tournament
depicts Essex’s jealousy of a fellow
courtier - a contestant in the tournament,
by the name of Lord Mountjoy. This is
suitably jazzy, energetic and vivacious,
with good dynamic ranges and a beautiful
clarity, although I felt it could have
been a little more snappy. The second
movement - Lute Song (a
lute song sung to the Queen by Essex)
- is delightfully sensitive, graceful
and elegant.
The Courtly
Dances present a range of dramatic
music in an "older style",
which shows off both Britten’s mastery
of composition and Bedford’s consummate
musicianship – from the raucous rushings
of the Lavolta and courtly niceties
of the second March to the chilling
nervousness of the Morris Dance.
The final movement of the suite, Gloriana
Moritura, portrays the Queen
facing her own impending death, and
contains gorgeously bold and dramatic,
cinematic statements.
The Four Sea
Interludes are scintillating
depictions of the sea in all its glory
– the Storm is particularly good
in its very controlled opening build-up
from threatening waves to a fully-blown
wild and tempestuous storm. In the ensuing
Passacaglia Bedford creates a
good sense of menace.
The Sinfonia da
Requiem opens with a stark, bleak,
chilling and dramatic Lacrymosa,
before a restless and brilliant Dies
Irae – a "Dance of Death"
as Britten called it. The work has a
serene and radiantly beautiful ending
in its Requiem Aeternam,
expertly conveyed by Bedford and the
LSO.
Em Marshall