Hyperion Records | Mccabe: Edward II

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CDA67135/6

Buy? £26.98

Recording details: November 1999
Walthamstow Assembly Halls, London, United Kingdom
Produced by Andrew Keener
Engineered by Tony Faulkner
Release date: April 2000
Total duration: 113 minutes 30 seconds

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'A gripping score. This exciting recording of such a rich creation brings the atmosphere of the stage leaping out of the speakers' (Birmingham Post)

'Stirringly dramatic, strikingly colourful ... it is good to see McCabe's recent 60th birthday being marked by a number of fine new recordings. This could prove the most widely popular of them all.' (International Record Review)

'A fine performance and excellent presentation make this an essential issue for anybody interested in McCabe's music' (Classic CD)

'Barry Wordsworth gets committed playing from the Royal Ballet Sinfonia ... the best playing they have produced on disc to date. Notes are excellent, as is the recorded sound ... a real winner' (Fanfare, USA)

'McCabe's music communicates with an expressive fervour that easily holds the listener in its thrall over nearly two hours. It's not just the superbly judged orchestration and wealth of memorable invention that impress. Above all, it's McCabe's ability to forge his tightly knit material into a dramatically convincing and organically coherent whole that marks him out as a composer of exceptional gifts ... No raise can be too high for Barry Wordsworth's fluent, pungently theatrical direction, not to mention the unstinting application of the excellent Royal Ballet Sinfonia (which has well and truly assimilated McCabe's idiom into its bloodstream) (Gramophone)

John McCabe (b1939)

Edward II

Royal Ballet Sinfonia, Barry Wordsworth (conductor)

		Edward II
CD1	1	Act 1. Scene 1a: Funeral cortège of Edward I. Adagio [1'41]
	2	Act 1. Scene 1b: Gaveston [0'40]
	3	Act 1. Scene 1c: The Fauvel troupe. Allegro giocoso [2'06]
	4	Act 1. Scene 1d: Coronation of Edward II [4'12]
	5	Act 1. Scene 1e: The barons' anger at Gaveston. Allegro agitato [1'52]
	6	Act 1. Scene 2a: Isabella in her chamber. Lento [5'39]
	7	Act 1. Scene 2b: Isabella and Edward quarrel. Marcato [5'04]
	8	Act 1. Scene 2c: Edward and Gaveston. Pas de deux [3'37]
	9	Act 1. Scene 2d: The barons. Maestoso e deciso [4'17]
	10	Act 1. Scene 3a: Outdoor scene. Andantino pastorale [1'30]
	11	Act 1. Scene 3b: The Fauvel troupe. Allegro giocoso [3'10]
	12	Act 1. Scene 3c: Isabella and Mortimer. Lento [5'41]
	13	Act 1. Scene 3d: Wrestling Match. Allegro poco pesante [3'00]
	14	Act 1. Scene 4a: Grim Reaper and Civil War. Adagio [6'41]
	15	Act 1. Scene 4b: The hunt for Gaveston. Allegro scorrevole [2'53]
	16	Act 1. Scene 5: Edward's grief. Adagio [5'59]
CD2	1	Act 2. Scene 1a: Execution of Warwick and Lancaster. Lento [4'34]
	2	Act 2. Scene 1b: Edward's anxiety and the Prince's journey to France [1'40]
	3	Act 2. Scene 2a: The French Court. Allegretto [7'16]
	4	Act 2. Scene 2b: The Prince and Phillippa. Moderato [2'22]
	5	Act 2. Scene 2c: Mortimer and Isabella. Allegro vigoroso [4'42]
	6	Act 2. Scene 2d: The 'She-Wolf of France'. Allegro poco pesante [4'30]
	7	Act 2. Scene 3a: Edward and Despenser hide. Lento [3'46]
	8	Act 2. Scene 3b: Edward's arraignment and abdication [4'21]
	9	Act 2. Scene 3c: Edward is led to prison [5'02]
	10	Act 2. Scene 4a: Edward in prison. Lento, molto calmo [7'11]
	11	Act 2. Scene 4b: Lightborn and Edward. Andante calmo [3'12]
	12	Act 2. Scene 4c: Mortimer and Isabella's triumphant pas de deux. Adagio [2'23]
	13	Act 2. Scene 4d: Arrest of Mortimer and Isabella. Moderato feroce [0'41]
	14	Act 2. Scene 5: Funeral cortège of Edward II. Adagio [3'48]

Edward II ruled medieval England between 1307 and 1327 and is most commonly remembered for his unrestrained favouritism for certain courtiers. The most extreme cases were those of Piers Gaveston and Hugh Despenser, with whom many modern historians now allege that he had homosexual relationships.

The ballet was created by renowned choreographer, David Bintley, from the play by Christopher Marlowe - probably the greatest of Shakespeare's rival playwrights - and focuses on the relationships between Edward and his Queen Isabella, Edward and Piers Gaveston and Isabella and Mortimer, displayed by an inventive and highly-charged score.

McCabe reflects the medieval period using various ancient-sounding melodies, such as the plainchant dirge that accompanies the funerals of Edward I at the opening and Edward II at the end. However, he mixes old with new. To create the desired effect an electric guitar is used to underscore particular moments of tension.

The work was successfully premiered by the Stuttgart Ballet in Germany in 1995 and David Bintley brought Edward II with him on taking up the directorship of Birmingham Royal Ballet in 1997, which company revived his production and toured it around Britain in 1998-9, attracting great critical acclaim and two awards. This is John McCabe's third original ballet score.