Gustav Holst - The Perfect Fool (Opera in One Act)

Gustav HOLST (1874-1934)

The Perfect Fool (1923)

Richard Golding (bass) – The Wizard; 

Pamela Bowden (contralto) – The Mother; 

Margaret Neville (soprano) – The Princess; 

John Mitchinson (tenor) – The Troubadour; 

David Read (bass) – The Traveller; 

Alison Hargan (soprano), 

Barbara Platt (soprano), 

Lesley Rooke (soprano) – Three girls; 

Walter Plinge (spoken role) - The Fool; 

Ronald Harvi (spoken role) – A Peasant; 

George Hagan - Narrator

BBC Northern Singers

BBC Northern Symphony Orchestra

Charles Groves

rec. 26 February 1967, broadcast 7 May 1967, BBC studio recording

Frederick Delius - A Mass of Life; Songs of Sunset; An Arabesque

Frederick DELIUS (1862-1934)

Songs of Sunset*

An Arabesque+

*Janet Baker (mezzo-soprano)

*+John Shirley-Quirk (baritone)

Liverpool Philharmonic Choir

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra

A Mass of Life#

(Sung in German)

Heather Harper (soprano)

Helen Watts (contralto)

Robert Tear (tenor)

Bejamin Luxon (baritone)

London Philharmonic Choir

London Philharmonic Orchestra

Charles Groves

Recorded *+ 1968; # 1972

Vaughan Williams - Hugh The Drover (Opera in Two Acts)

Ralph VAUGHAN WILLIAMS (1872-1958)

Hugh the Drover (or Love in the Stocks)
Opera in two acts

Robert Tear, Sheila Armstrong, Michael Rippon, Robert Lloyd, Helen Watts, Leslie Fyson, Oliver Broome, Sally Burgess, Terence Sharpe, David Johnson,

Ambrosian Opera Chorus
Choristers of St Paul's Cathedral
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

Sir Charles Groves

rec. 1978, Kingsway Hall, London

First Recording