Hyperion Records | Grainger: Jungle Book

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CDA66863

Recording details: January 1996
St Jude-on-the-Hill, Hampstead Garden Suburb, London, United Kingdom
Produced by Mark Brown
Engineered by Antony Howell & Julian Millard
Release date: May 1996
Total duration: 71 minutes 59 seconds

GRAMOPHONE EDITOR'S CHOICE / CRITICS' CHOICE

'This disc offers a sympathetic, endearing portrait of a composer too often valued for his wackiness and eccentricity alone' (Classic CD)

'Unquestionably an important and relishable release' (Hi Fi News)

'A capella singing at its very finest' (Soundscapes, Australia)

'Ce superbe album vient confirmer l'extraordinaire intuition de Grainger pour l'écriture chorale. La perfection des solistes, des choeurs et des ensembles instrumentaux permet d'apprécier dans ces moindres nuances le sauvage raffinement de Grainger' (Diapason, France)

Percy Grainger (1882-1961)

Jungle Book

Polyphony, Stephen Layton (conductor)

LISTEN TO ALL EXTRACTS

		Sea Chanty Settings
1		No 3: Shallow Brown 'Shaller Brown you're goin' ter leave me' [6'04] David Wilson-Johnson (baritone), The Polyphony Orchestra
		Jungle Book
2		No 01: The fall of the stone 'By the hoof of the wild goat uptossed from the cliff where she lay in the sun' [2'11] The Polyphony Orchestra
3		No 02: Morning song in the jungle 'One moment past our bodies cast no shadow on the plain' [2'50]
4		No 03: Night-song in the jungle 'Now Chil the Kite brings home the night that Mang the bat sets free' [0'48]
5		No 04: The Inuit 'The people of the Eastern Ice, they are melting like the snow' [2'17]
6		No 05: The beaches of Lukannon 'I met my mates in the morning (and oh, but I am old!)' [3'23] The Polyphony Orchestra
7		No 06: Red Dog 'For our white and our excellent nights, for the nights of swift running' [1'11] John Mark Ainsley (tenor)
8		No 07: The peora hunt 'Pit where the buffalo cooled his hide' [0'40] The Polyphony Orchestra
9		No 08: Hunting-song of the Seeonee pack 'As the dawn was breaking the Sambhur belled' [1'19] The Polyphony Orchestra
10		No 09: Tiger! Tiger! 'What of the hunting, hunter bold?' [1'19] John Mark Ainsley (tenor)
11		No 10: The only son 'And the only son lay down again and dreamed that he dreamed a dream' [4'40] John Mark Ainsley (tenor), David Wilson-Johnson (baritone), Libby Crabtree (soprano), The Polyphony Orchestra
12		No 11: Mowgli's song against people 'I will let loose against you the fleet-footed vines' [3'41] David Wilson-Johnson (baritone), James Gilchrist (tenor), The Polyphony Orchestra
13		Good-bye to love [3'54] arr. Alan Gibbs John Mark Ainsley (tenor), The Polyphony Orchestra
		British Folk-Music Settings
14		No 10: Died for love 'I wish my baby it e was born' [1'24] Libby Crabtree (soprano), The Polyphony Orchestra
		Danish Folk-Music Settings
15		No 4: The power of love 'A green-growing tree in my father's orchard stands' [4'53] John Mark Ainsley (tenor), The Polyphony Orchestra
16		The Rival Brothers 'On his farm lived a bonder free' [1'03] The Polyphony Orchestra
		British Folk-Music Settings
17		unnumbered: Six dukes went afishin' [2'19]
		British Folk-Music Settings arr. Dana Perna (b1958)
18		No 24: The sprig of thyme 'Wunst I had a sprig of thyme' [2'35] Libby Crabtree (soprano), James Gilchrist (tenor)
		Old-English Popular Music
19		No 1: Willow, willow 'The poor soul sat sighing by a sycamore tree' [3'57] John Mark Ainsley (tenor), The Polyphony Orchestra
		Kipling Settings
20		No 18: Recessional 'God of our fathers, known of old' [3'58] The Polyphony Orchestra
		British Folk-Music Settings arr. David Tall
21		No 42: Lord Maxwell's goodnight 'Adieu, Madame, my mother dear, but and my sisters three, O!' [2'48] John Mark Ainsley (tenor)
		British Folk-Music Settings
22		No 41: The Three Ravens 'There were three ravens sat on a tree' [4'02] David Wilson-Johnson (baritone), The Polyphony Orchestra
		Kipling Settings
23		No 9: The running of shindand 'There's a convict more in the Central Jail' [1'41]
		British Folk-Music Settings arr. David Tall
24		Unnumbered: Early one morning [2'51] David Wilson-Johnson (baritone), Libby Crabtree (soprano)
		Kipling Settings
25		No 11: The love song of Har Dyal 'Alone upon the housetops to the North' [2'14] Lesley Jane Rogers (soprano), The Polyphony Orchestra
		British Folk-Music Settings
26		Unnumbered: My love's in Germanie [3'57] Libby Crabtree (soprano)

Harmonium, four guitars, two mandolas, two mandolins, two ukuleles, piccolo, three clarinets, bass clarinet, bassoon, contrabassoon, two alto saxophones, horn, strings, piano, baritone and choir: and that's just the scoring for one piece, the famous sea shanty Shallow Brown. Grainger's Jungle Book cycle is here recorded for the first time. The eleven contrasting movements vividly portray the sentiments of Kipling's poetry and Grainger wrote of the cycle that it was 'composed as a protest against civilization'.