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Presto Music is proud to present Edward Gardner’s stunning Britten collection as a pre-release exclusive from 30th May 2025, ahead of the album’s general release on 20th June 2025, working in partnership with the LPO label, celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2025. Enjoy it on our streaming app, or buy a CD or download, from 30th May. This is Edward Gardner’s sixth release on LPO Label, and the third that celebrates the 20th anniversary of the label in 2025, having been preceded by the Rachmaninov: The Bells & Symphonic Dances and Edward Gardner conducts Dvořák and Schumann. The Britten / Edward Gardner release comes from live concert performances recorded at London’s Royal Festival Hall (Sinfonia da Requiem and The Prince of the Pagodas), while Winter Words was recorded in Saffron Hall in 2021, at the close of the lockdown season. Sinfonia da Requiem – A Bold, Early Masterpiece. Written at just 26 and originally commissioned to commemorate Japan’s 2600th imperial anniversary, Britten’s Sinfonia da Requiem was rejected for being too solemn—but emerged as his only major purely orchestral work and a powerful response to the growing threat of war. ‘Gardner has long been an outstanding Britten interpreter, and Sinfonia da Requiem was tremendous as the visceral immediacy of its first two movements gave way to the calm contemplation of eternity with which it ends.’ (The Guardian, ★★★★) Winter Words Britten’s poignant song cycle originally for tenor and piano, set to texts of 8 poems by Thomas Hardy is presented here in a new orchestration by Robin Holloway—a world premiere recording. ‘Spence’s nuanced feeling for the text communicated the intense but contained poignancy of passing time.’ (Opera Today) The Prince of the Pagodas, Britten’s ballet with Edward Gardner’s distilled concert suite from The Prince of the Pagodas—another world premiere recording—fulfils Britten’s unrealised ambition to arrange his full-length ballet into a dramatic orchestral suite. ‘We saw [Pagoda Land] clearly in sound instead, helped by the LPO’s percussion section, tinkling and throbbing, gamelan-style.’ (The Times, ★★★★) Reviews Presto Music 30th May 2025 “On paper, the exciting draws on this album are the newly-assembled ballet suite and the orchestrated song-cycle – both world premieres and both brilliantly presented by Gardner and the LPO. And yes, I loved them both. But when nobody’s looking I’ll admit that honestly it was the Sinfonia da Requiem that really knocked me for six. Gardner and his orchestra lean into the fatalistic gloom of the first movement, culminating in an oppressive and exhausted climax. – David Smith The Guardian 12th June 2025 “If Edward Gardner’s performances and recording of Peter Grimes had not already firmly established his credentials as an outstanding Britten conductor, then this collection superbly confirms them…Holloway’s interventions are wonderfully discreet and subtly imaginative, especially in his use of the marimba and xylophone, and tenor Nicky Spence’s careful performance certainly respects that. – 4 out of 5 stars |
