Elgar / Ravel Songs For Strings CD

In the 1990s, Donald Fraser scored a hit with his orchestral arrangement of Marin Marais' baroque classic The Bells of Genevieve which reached the Top 5 of Billboard's Classical Chart and remains a radio evergreen to this day. Numerous commissions for arrangements followed for musicians such as The King's Singers, Yehudi Menuhim and the English Chamber Orchestra. In 2016, AVIE released Don's large-scale orchestration of Edward Elgar's Piano Quintet and choral version of Sea Pictures, which charted in the Top 10 of the UK Specialist Classical Chart. Don now returns to the art of arranging smaller scale, classic works by John Dowland, Henry Purcell, Antonio Vivaldi and others, including new versions of his own "Amen" from A Christmas Symphony which was written for and premiered by soprano Jessye Norman, a new remix of The Bells of St. Genevieve and orchestrations of four Elgar art songs that evoke the album's title, Songs for Strings.

1. Edward Elgar: The Queen's Hall 2. John Dowland: And Time Stands Still 3. Henry Purcell: Ground in C 4. Antonio Lotti: Crucifixus 5. Nicola Antonio Porpora: Fugue in G 6. Antonio Vivaldi: Concerto for Two Cellos, RV 531 - Largo 7. David Fraser, Piper to the Laird Lovat: Lord Lovat's Lament 8. Franz Liszt: Nuage Gris 9. Alexander Scriabin: Canon 10. Maurice Ravel: Valse (In the Manner of Borodin) 11. Edward Elgar: Pleading 12. Edward Elgar: A Child Asleep 13. Edward Elgar: Queen Mary's Lute Song 14. Donald Fraser: Epilogue - Amen from a Christmas Symphony 15. Marin Marais: Sonnerie