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That Sweet City
That Sweet City in Bloomington, MN
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Ralph Vaughan Williams
was 79 when his
Oxford Elegy
had its premiere in the summer of 1952, and
Kenneth Leighton
was an Oxford undergraduate when his
Veris Gratia, Op. 6
(the title means "for the sake of spring"), was first presented just a short time before. Yet they are truly contemporary works with many links, and you can hear the younger composer already emerging as a distinctive voice. The whole thing might make a good present for an Oxford graduate, or anyone who has just visited Oxford, for it is redolent of the atmosphere of that college town. The "That Sweet City" title comes from
Matthew Arnold
's Thyrsis, which along with another
Arnold
poem, The Scholar Gipsy, furnishes the text for the
Vaughan Williams
work; the "sweet city" is Oxford itself. A major draw is the narration of
Rowan Atkinson
, whose reading doesn't sound a bit like Mr. Bean, but strikes just the right nostalgic note.
Leighton
's work, which is apparently receiving its world-recorded premiere here, is based on medieval love poems with their ultimate origin being the Roman poet
Catullus
. The texts are based on the theme of spring, and some of them have an erotic tinge (the one called "Erotikon" is about unrequited love and is actually only indirectly about what its title suggests). Certainly
was under
' influence here, with virtually no trace of his later chromatic or even serialist experiments, but there is a kind of passion that is new -- sample the aforementioned "Erotikon" for an idea. The warm tone of the
Choir of the Queen's College, Oxford
is entirely appropriate, and the singers seem to emote their the songs' themes. The group was well-recorded at the St. John the Evangelist Church in Oxford. Gift item or not, this album made classical best-seller lists in the late autumn of 2024. ~ James Manheim
was 79 when his
Oxford Elegy
had its premiere in the summer of 1952, and
Kenneth Leighton
was an Oxford undergraduate when his
Veris Gratia, Op. 6
(the title means "for the sake of spring"), was first presented just a short time before. Yet they are truly contemporary works with many links, and you can hear the younger composer already emerging as a distinctive voice. The whole thing might make a good present for an Oxford graduate, or anyone who has just visited Oxford, for it is redolent of the atmosphere of that college town. The "That Sweet City" title comes from
Matthew Arnold
's Thyrsis, which along with another
Arnold
poem, The Scholar Gipsy, furnishes the text for the
Vaughan Williams
work; the "sweet city" is Oxford itself. A major draw is the narration of
Rowan Atkinson
, whose reading doesn't sound a bit like Mr. Bean, but strikes just the right nostalgic note.
Leighton
's work, which is apparently receiving its world-recorded premiere here, is based on medieval love poems with their ultimate origin being the Roman poet
Catullus
. The texts are based on the theme of spring, and some of them have an erotic tinge (the one called "Erotikon" is about unrequited love and is actually only indirectly about what its title suggests). Certainly
was under
' influence here, with virtually no trace of his later chromatic or even serialist experiments, but there is a kind of passion that is new -- sample the aforementioned "Erotikon" for an idea. The warm tone of the
Choir of the Queen's College, Oxford
is entirely appropriate, and the singers seem to emote their the songs' themes. The group was well-recorded at the St. John the Evangelist Church in Oxford. Gift item or not, this album made classical best-seller lists in the late autumn of 2024. ~ James Manheim
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