Samuel Coleridge-Taylor: Hiawatha Overture; Petite Suite

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor: Hiawatha Overture; Petite Suite

8.555191 (Naxos, CD)

DDD
REISSUE (11 February 2022)

Playing time: 71'15"
Tracks: 18
Booklet pages: 6
℗ 1995 Naxos Rights US Inc
© 2022 Naxos Rights US Inc
Main country of recording: Ireland
Country of manufacture: Germany
Reviewer: Gerald Fenech
Review of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor: Hiawatha Overture; Petite Suite published on 22 February 2022

RTÉ Concert Orchestra
Adrian Leaper, conductor

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912):

The Song of Hiawatha, Op 30 (1899)
1 Overture

Petite Suite de Concert, Op 77 (1910)
2 Le Caprice de Nannette
3 Demande et réponse
4 Un sonnet d'amour
5 La Tarantelle frétillante

Four Characteristic Waltzes, Op 22 (1898)
6 Valse bohémienne
7 Valse rustique
8 Valse de la Reine
9 Valse mauresque

Gipsy Suite (arranged by Leo Artok, 1927)
10 Chorus of Gitanos
11 Song of the Gipsy Girl
12 Ballade
13 Gipsy Dance

14 Romance of the Prairie Lilies (arranged by P E Fletcher, 1931)

Othello Suite, Op 79 (1909)
15 Dance
16 Children's Intermezzo
17 The Willow Song
18 Military March

Previously released on Marco Polo 8.223516.

Recorded 20–21 January 1993 at the Radio Centre, RTÉ Dublin, Ireland.

The Hiawatha trilogy, with its stirring overture, established Coleridge-Taylor as one of Britain’s leading young composers and stimulated commissions in a wide variety of music. The Othello Suite was written for a stage production of the play, its powerful and contrasting themes illustrating the composer's prowess in characterisation. Redolent of popular ballads and romances, the Petite Suite de Concert is a masterpiece of light music, while the charming Romance of the Prairie Lilies shows Coleridge-Taylor's lasting influence on future generations of British composers.