As for Albion Records, I yield to none in my admiration for their achievement and have never thought that they could cope with the ‘Flourish for a Coronation’ (or the orchestrated Te Deums) given the vast forces employed – I love the thought, incidentally, of VW deliberately using such numbers to give more musicians a pay packet! I hadn’t heard that before.
What I’ve hoped might happen is that companies recording a big English work might use it as a ‘filler’ – it might just fit with the Sea Symphony and there are several other possible candidates, the recent Parry ‘Prometheus’ for one, though admittedly the orchestral demands are a good deal more extravagant. (Disappointing that the fill-up there is a too speedy ‘Blest Pair’ however good a piece it is.)
Albion has some remarkable achievments (even if one of my favourite items is not pure VW - Adrian Williams’ ‘A Road All Paved with Stars’!) and my initial comment was in no way intended as a reflection on that – I completely endorse Nick’s encomium!
Last thing (for now, anyway!): how much of ‘Thomas the Rhymer’ survives and is any of it performable?
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