Description
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THE JUDAS TREE: A Musical Drama of Judas Iscariot
- INTRODUCTION 1’34’’
- CHORIS I: ‘Listen! The hounds of the judge and the priest’ 3’16’’
- Pilate: ‘The tree of Man and God’ FANFARE I 1’51’’
- Pilate: ‘Yes, I suppose I did try to see that man’s point of view’ FANFARE II 1’47’’
- Pilate: ‘But to the point’ 0’38’’
- CHORUS II: ‘Sharply defined in their crystalline heaven like stars’ 2’41’’
- Pilate: ‘Yes, I think it is high time we did something for Judas’ SPOKEN CHORUS: ‘He is the dark side of the Divine Imagination’ 1’01’’
- Pilate: ‘He has certainly had an extremely raw deal’ 1’05’’
- Matthew: ‘Then Judas, which had betrayed Him’ 1’28’’
- Pilate: ‘Thank you, Matthew, remarkable prose’ 2’53’’
- CHORUS III: ‘There’s raw meat for the tiger-cub’ 1’59’’
- Pilate: ‘I hardly dare suggest’ 1’30’’
- CHORUS III (contd.): ‘Now here’s a curious kettle’ 2’11’’
- Pilate: ‘And that is true’ 1’43’’
- Pilate: ‘Can you, in all conscience, attribute that statement’ CHORALE: ‘O sacred head, sore wounded’ 3’07’’
- FANFARE III 0’39’’
Poetry and prose by Thomas Blackburn (1916-1977) Music by Peter Dickinson (born 1934)
PART ONE (29’24’’)
PART TWO (18’10’’)
- INTRODUCTION CHORUS IV: ‘Let us pray’ 2’59’’
- The Dominican: ‘The Viaticum or Last Communion….’ PSALM 129: ‘De profundis clamo ad te, Domine’ 2’59’’
- AGNUS DEI: ‘Ecce Agnus Dei qui tollis peccata mundi’ 1’29’’
- CHORUS V: ‘I am most familiar with the ways of the dead’ 3’45’’
- The Dominican: ‘Listen to me!’ PSALM 129: ‘De profundis clamo ad te, Domine’ 3’41’’
- CHORUS VI: ‘Requiem aeternam dona ei, Domine’ 1’37’’
- Leader of the Chorus: ‘Betrayest thou the Son of Man with a kiss?’ FANFARE IV 1’39’’
PART THREE (22’22’’)
- INTRODUCTION AND CHORUS VII: ‘Beyond the circumference of his beatitude’ MARCH: Commandant: ‘Left, left; left, right, left’ 2’38’’
- HYMN: ‘Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty’ 0’31’’
- Commandant: ‘Number one, number two, number three…..’ 4’09’’
- Judas: ‘Men and women’ 4’28’’
- CHORUS VIII: ‘It is a lamentation of dust in the heart of the city’ 4’53’’
- MARCH: Commandant: ‘Left, left; left, right, left’ 3’33’’
- EPILOGUE 2’09’’
Total time: 69’56’’
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‘The recording can be recommended as a vibrant work by two highly imaginative creators on a subject familiar to a global audience.’
British Music Society Journal, July 2015
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‘This is another of Dickinson’s pieces that is emphatically worth hearing – often disturbing and often moving.’
Nigel Simeone, International Record Review, November 2014
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‘This remarkable work……. will surely come as an epiphanal discovery to many listeners……..The performance is compelling and wholly convincing, well recorded.’
Musical Opinion October-December 2014
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‘No one can come away from a performance of thiswork unmoved by its drama, untouched by its poetry, untroubled by its meaning.’
The Washington Post
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‘This is a powerful drama reinforced by powerful and original music.’
http://www.classical.net
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‘The Judas Tree maybe a period piece but it is a fascinating one, a slice of 1960s memorabilia from that extraordinary cultural decade.’
Gramophone August 2014
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‘This is a very notable performance of a very searching work.’
Music and Vision July 2014