Ever Yours, Selected Music And Letters Of Percy Grainger

Catalogue # 4764628

The man and his music: all-new recordings of classic Grainger orchestral works, with a selection of readings from his letters.

Percy Grainger’s letter-writing belongs to a time before texting, tweeting, twittering, blogging and other forms of social networking reduced personal communication to utilitarian single sentences. Grainger’s letters reflect his passions – for life, for music, for extreme physical experiences, for language itself. They are driven by introversion and by life circumstances that saw him, as a travelling concert virtuoso, frequently separated from those he trusted and loved, alone in the company of strangers.

On this disc, especially selected letters written by Grainger are read by ABC Classic FM’s Damien Beaumont, with excerpts of Grainger’s orchestral works performed by Adelaide Symphony Orchestra conducted by David Stanhope, in between spoken word tracks.

Track Listing:

PERCY GRAINGER 1882-1961

1 Mock Morris

2 ‘On Thursday afternoon, Dec 6, I’m going to make a sort of short speech’

3 My Robin is to the Greenwood Gone

4 ‘Dear “København”!’

5 Colonial Song

6 ‘I stand at the moment at a turning point’

7 Dreamery

8 ‘My own compositions I undertake largely as a kind of artistic life insurance’

9 Harvest Hymn

10 ‘To produce clever overrefined sensual wild types like me’

11 The Power of Love

12 ‘In 1932 or 1933 my wife and I took up this idea of clothing made of towelling’

13 The Nightingale and The Two Sisters

14 ‘Dear Lady Winefride’

15 Irish Tune from County Derry

16 ‘My heart & head alarm me’

17 Blithe Bells

18 ‘Sorrow is fine & productive for me’

19 Early One Morning

20 ‘I love my father so much more since I have lost mother’

21 ‘The Duke of Marlborough’ Fanfare

22 ‘Do you know, little Karen’

23 The Immovable ‘Do’

Damien Beaumont reader

Adelaide Symphony Orchestra

David Stanhope conductor