First-performed, in Leningrad, on March 5, 1942. Chicago SO/Bernstein, 1st movement.
VW5 was first-performed in 1943 conducted by the composer, as it is here in September 1952 with the LPO.
LPO.
Hallé/Barbirolli (1946)
Recorded 1960. Premiere of Rachmaninov, January 3, 1941, Philadelphia/Ormandy.
Martinů, Memorial to Lidice, Czech Philharmonic/Karel Ančerl.
Premiere (and therefore with the original ending), December 1, 1944, Boston SO/Koussevitzky.
Also known as A Song of Thanksgiving – “Adrian Boult, Conductor; Elsie Suddaby, Soprano; Valentine Dyall, Speaker; George Thalben-Ball, Organ; The BBC Chorus; The Choir of the Children of the Thomas Coram Schools; The BBC Symphony Orchestra. Rec. 5 November 1944, (Bedford?); First Broadcast 13 May 1945.”
Seattle Symphony/Gerard Schwarz (Naxos)
John Ireland’s Epic March (1942)
Composition begun in 1944; f-p April 1948, Boult/BBCSO.
Arthur Bliss’s Fanfare for Heroes; The Fanfare Trumpeters of the Royal Military School of Music.
Sung by Bud Flanagan.
Released 1940.
That’s all folks!
A great selection, Colin. I hope this means you are feeling better???
By the way, another suggestion – just heard on telly that the amazing David Attenborough is now still going strong at 99. What about a selection for him?
Excellent collection, Colin – I would add Anthony Collins’s Threnody for a Soldier Killed in Action – from sketches found on the body of Michael Heming (a soldier in World War II), John Ireland’s Epic March and Arthur Bliss’s March The Phoenix (in Honour of France) – plus ‘The Day After Tomorrow’ from Lionel Bart’s Blitz! sung by Vera Lynn. D-Day itself remains utterly unforgettable for me!
This is a very imaganative way of remembering the war years gone by.
I am sitting in my garden eating cake and followed by a small cigar contemplating the announcement of war.
Walton capturing the nervous energy and braced by the regimental marches and the comfort of Vera Lynn bringing comfort to millions.
It is impossible to understand just how many emotions were raised up until A Song of Thanksgiving finally bought down the curtain on six years of suffering and sorrow leading into our glorious country finding a new dawn of hope through the power of music.
Deo gratias.
Winston Churchill’s announcement of the end of the war in Europe, as included in this superb collection of musical recollections should be sent to Donald Trump.
Churchill was magnanimious in his praise for the support from Russia and America. Trump has usurped all mention of other nations in the defeat of Nazi Germany and shows what a shallow, self serving politician he is.
He brings shame on our strongest ally and forfeits any right to be regarded as a modern supporter of the Rights of Man as enshrined in America’s Declaration of Independence.
He has assumed the same mantel of modern dictators for his own self engrandisment.
Thanks Bob. Three of your four suggestions added (I couldn’t find The Phoenix on YT); I had intended to include Epic March but it slipped my remembrance.
I used to have the HMV plum label 78 of Bliss’s ‘The Phoenix’ March (In Honour of France) conducted by Constant Lambert with the Philharmonia Orchestra – excellent piece: original, individual and memorable. I do not know if it has ever been reissued, but I still remember VE Day vividly – the sense of sheer joy and optimism in every face you saw, everyone smiling at everyone else as they walked down the street – relief and happiness everywhere! Unforgettable – doesn’t happen today!
I meant VE-Day, of course – my brother was at Dunkirk.