The album releases of the Lyrita label consist of tape recordings made off of BBC radio broadcasts, mostly in the 1970s. As such, they revive a mostly forgotten repertory of large symphonic and choral music in tonal but not necessarily conservative idioms, much of it worth at least a fresh hearing. The British composer Anthony Milner was widely recognized for his Catholic religious music in his day, some of it written in North America. He was a student of Michael Tippett, but it's hard to compare his style to that of any ...
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The album releases of the Lyrita label consist of tape recordings made off of BBC radio broadcasts, mostly in the 1970s. As such, they revive a mostly forgotten repertory of large symphonic and choral music in tonal but not necessarily conservative idioms, much of it worth at least a fresh hearing. The British composer Anthony Milner was widely recognized for his Catholic religious music in his day, some of it written in North America. He was a student of Michael Tippett, but it's hard to compare his style to that of any other composer. The two works here share an ambitious quality that is perhaps his most characteristic feature. The better one is perhaps the shorter The Song of Akhenaten, Op. 5, a setting of ancient Egyptian texts in English translation for soprano and a small orchestra. The work has a unique incantatory quality, captured well by soprano Janet Price and the unpromisingly named but entirely adequate BBC Training Orchestra. In the 55-minute oratorio The Water and the Fire (1961), Milner...
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