Bantock - Tone Poem 5 'The Witch Of Atlas' [Handley-Royal Philharmonic Orchestra]
Granville Bantock seems to have been a forgotten composer, until the early nineties, when Hyperion Records started to record his works, and it's a wonder that he has remained unearthed for so long, because he should be much better known, and surprisingly he has a wonderful way with a tune, deft at using the orchestra to paint literary works with lovely tone colours.
I bought this disc in the early nineties, because everyone was raving about it, i quickly learned what all the fuss was about, i have nearly 1600 discs now, and this gets in my all-time top five!, yes it's that good, i haven't heard a lot of Bantock, but i would urge anyone to acquire this disc.
Bantock wrote six Tone Poems, this is the fifth, and it's gloriously rich in the most exquisite musical sonorities, Bantock has a thing about creating a soundworld to immediately fall in love with, it starts off with a solo violin, pleading [track 6 0:03-0:22], and then an oboe mirroring the tune [track 6 0:20-0:56], and then what sounds like a bass clarinet also mirroring the tune [track 6 1:01-1:37], this is the wonderful intro, really sets the scene, the music changes with horn calls, and Bantock begins to weave his magic with some very atmospheric woodwind & strings [track 7 0:41-2:17], mysterious and ghostly in places, again with a soft clash of the cymbal, it changes with some chattering piccolos [track 8 0:05-0:20], readying for the surge of the strings, who enter with such heartwrenching passion [track 8 0:21-0:49], this is the very best moment of the piece, it sounds like a Tchaikovsky waltz, it quietens down but becomes more impassioned again, a truly breathtaking moment, towards the end there's this short section where the piccolos chatter like birds, and then the chattering ripples down through all the woodwinds to the bassoons [track 12 0:38-1:11], a nice touch!, in the coda the opening is reprised [track 13 1:08-2:43], with some glockenspiel & harp tinkling to end things, if this was a Tchaikovsky or Sibelius Tone Poem it would justly be world famous, do yourself a favour and acquaint yourself with a masterpiece of mood.
Here's the piece played on YouTube.
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