Sarah Brailey, Dashon Burton, Experiential Orchestra & James Blachly - Smyth: The Prison (2020) [Hi-Res]

Tracklist

01. The Prison No. 1, Close on Freedom. The Prisoner Communes with His Soul
02. The Prison No. 2, Voices Sing of Immortality
03. The Prison No. 3, The Prisoner Askes the Secret of Emancipation
04. The Prison No. 4, His Soul Replies
05. The Prison No. 5, He Asks In What Shape Emancipation Will Come
06. The Prison No. 6, The Voices Reply
07. The Prison No. 7, Orchestral Interlude. The First Glimmer of Dawn
08. The Prison No. 8, The Prisoner Understands His Own Immortality
09. The Prison No. 9, The Deliverance. The Prisoner Awakes
10. The Prison No. 10, His Soul Tells Him the End of the Struggle Is At Hand
11. The Prison No. 11, He Hears His Guests Moving to Depart
12. The Prison No. 12, Pastoral. Sunset Calm
13. The Prison No. 13, He Disbands His Ego
14. The Prison No. 14, Voices Sing the Indestructibility of Human Passions
15. The Prison No. 15, Death Calls Him. Gloring, He Obeys the Summons
16. The Prison No. 16, His Farewell - His Triumph - His Peace



August 18th marks the 100th anniversary of th e 19th Constitutional Amendment, granting women in the US the right to vote. A fitting time then for our release of the World Premier Recording of Ethel Smyths late masterpiece The Prison. Smyth left home at nineteen to study composition in Leipzig. In the company of Clara Schumann and her teacher Heinrich von Herzogenberg, she met and won the admiration of composers such as Tchaikovsky, Brahms, Dvoák, and Grieg. Smyth was the first woman to have an opera performed at the Met, in 1903. (The second was Kaija Saariaho, whose L'Amour de loin appeared there in 2016!) Smyth later became central to the Suffragette movement in England, writing the March of the Women. Her gender politics and sexuality were cause for attacks by critics, and she famously went to prison herself for throwing a stone through an MPs window. Composed in 1930 and premiered in 1931 in Edinburghs Usher Hall, The Prison is a Symphony in two parts, Close on Freedom and The Deliverance, set for soprano and bass-baritone soloists, chorus, and full orchestra. The text is taken from a philosophical work by Henry Bennet Brewster and concerns the writings of a prisoner in solitary confinement, his reflections on life and his preparations for death.

DOWNLOAD ALBUM [flac CD-Rip]

DOWNLOAD ALBUM [Hi-Res]