Sir Andrew Davis, conductor 
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra 
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Chorus 
Sydney Chamber Choir

 
King Solomon's Espousals 
Danny Deever 
Marching Song of Democracy 
The Wrath of Odin 
The Hunter in his Career 
Sir Elgamore 
The Lads of Wamphray 
The Bride's Tragedy 
Tribute to Foster 
Thanksgiving Song

This recording complements the mammoth Chandos project, dating back over a twenty-year period, and re-issued in a nineteen-disc box set last year, devoted to the music by Percy Grainger. The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and Chorus are joined by the Sydney Chamber Choir under Sir Andrew Davis in works requiring large choral forces. Perhaps the best known of them is the Tribute to Foster. In what he called a ‘musical extravaganza’ Grainger uses the theme and words from Stephen Foster’s Camptown Races, which he remembered his mother singing to him when he was a child. The Thanksgiving Song is, as Grainger writes, ‘honour-tokened to all my life’s sweethearts – to those I have loved long and fully, but also to those I merely looked at but never spoke to’. The work uses the choral forces to vocalise rather than sing a specific text. Kipling’s works were a significant influence on Grainger, particularly in his student days in Frankfurt. Danny Deever sets a poem from Kipling’s Barrack-Room Ballads. King Solomon’s Espousals derives from the Song of Solomon. Also recorded are The Wraith of Odin, The Bride’s Tragedy, The Hunter in His Career, The Lads of Wamphray, Sir Eglamore, and Marching Song of Democracy.

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CD | 2013 | CHANDOS

Percy Grainger: Works for Large Chorus and Orchestra