Gregson: A Vision in a Dream

Edward Gregson, an award-winning English composer of international standing and one of the leading composers of his generation, whose music has been performed, recorded, and broadcast in many countries, celebrates his eightieth birthday in 2025. He is still actively composing and performing. This album presents three major concertos, interspersed with two shorter works for piano and orchestra. “A Song for Bram” was written in memory of his great friend and supporter, the conductor Bramwell Tovey. “A Song for Sue,” a revision of the central nocturne from his “Concertante for Piano and Wind Orchestra” (1966), is a tribute to his wife from 2024. One of his most frequently performed works, the “Tuba Concerto,” was written for John Fletcher, who premiered it in 1977. Gregson’s concerto for viola and string orchestra, “Three Goddesses,” was premiered in 2023 by Rachel Roberts. The goddesses depicted in the three movements are Morrigan (Celtic warrior queen and earth mother), Aphrodite (Greek goddess of love and beauty), and Diana (Roman goddess of the hunt). The oboe concerto “A Vision in a Dream,” which was premiered in 2020 by the musicians heard here in Leeds, is inspired by Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem “Kubla Khan.” Gregson follows the narrative, bringing him—more than any other of his concertos—closest to the symphonic poem. The works are performed by the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra under Ben Gernon. Edward Gregson himself plays the piano, and the other soloists are Jennifer Galloway (oboe), Ross Knight (tuba), and Rachel Roberts (viola).