George Dyson's Nebuchadnezzar is no Belshazzar's Feast, nor does it really try to be. Though also an English oratorio based on and named after the same Babylonian king as Walton's work (Nebuchadnezzar, it turns out, is another name for Belshazzar), Dyson's work is less confrontational and aggressive than Walton's. Or, to put it another way, Dyson's Nebuchadnezzar, composed in 1934 and premiered in 1935, is much more of an old-fashioned English Romantic oratorio along the lines of Elgar's The Apostles than it is a new ...
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George Dyson's Nebuchadnezzar is no Belshazzar's Feast, nor does it really try to be. Though also an English oratorio based on and named after the same Babylonian king as Walton's work (Nebuchadnezzar, it turns out, is another name for Belshazzar), Dyson's work is less confrontational and aggressive than Walton's. Or, to put it another way, Dyson's Nebuchadnezzar, composed in 1934 and premiered in 1935, is much more of an old-fashioned English Romantic oratorio along the lines of Elgar's The Apostles than it is a new-fangled English modernist oratorio along the lines of Bliss' Morning Heroes. Big, strong-willed, and deeply devotional, Dyson's oratorio is tonal with traces of chromaticism, dramatic with moments of lyrical reflection, brilliantly colorful but by no means garish, and very formal but not slavishly so. In this excellent 2007 world-premiere recording performed with passionate professionalism by Richard Hickox leading the BBC Symphony Orchestra & Chorus with tenor Mark Padmore and...
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