I Slept and Dreamed that Life was Beauty Amy Lyddon, London Voices, English Chamber Orchestra & Ben Parry

• Jonathan Rutherford (b. 1953):
• 1 Rutherford: Psalm 13 14:52
• 2 Rutherford: The Artist 08:09
• 3 Rutherford: The Master 06:43
• 4 Rutherford: Final Parting 08:42
• 5 Rutherford: An Old Toast 00:59
• 6 Rutherford: The Hardy Sailor 04:19
• 7 Rutherford: Slugs 03:52
• 8 Rutherford: The Farmers Toast, preceded by A Pensive Interlude 05:27
• Total Runtime 53:03

Info for I Slept and Dreamed that Life was Beauty

In an album of world-premiere recordings, Ben Parry conducts London Voices and the English Chamber Orchestra in choral music by British composer Jonathan Rutherford.

One of the first students to attend the Yehudi Menuhin School, Jonathan Rutherford went on to study with Lennox Berkeley, Harrison Birtwistle, Nadia Boulanger and Sir Peter Maxwell Davies. Rutherford’s choral music embraces sacred and secular texts ranging from the Bible to Oscar Wilde. This release features Rutherford’s setting of Psalm 13 for choir and strings, in which lamentation gives way to peace; The Artist and The Master, in which he adds musical layers to Wilde’s spiritual storytelling; and the elegiac Final Parting, to words by Julie Rutherford. The release ends with the good-humoured Four Toasts, composed during Rutherford’s teen years and later revised and orchestrated.

Amy Lyddon, mezzo-soprano
Caroline Dale, cello
London Voices
English Chamber Orchestra
Ben Parry, conductor

Amy Lyddon
studied at the Royal College of Music as an RCM Award Holder and H R Taylor Trust Scholar. A former chorister of Bath Abbey and pupil of the Junior Royal Academy of Music, she graduated with first-class honours in Linguistics with French and Spanish from Trinity College, Cambridge, where she was a Choral Scholar.

As oratorio soloist, engagement highlights have included Bach's St Matthew Passion for the Dunedin Consort (c. John Butt) at the Wigmore Hall, for the Academy of Ancient Music (c. Edward Higginbottom) at Palau de la Música de València, and with Florilegium in Guildford Cathedral (c. Jonathan Willcocks), Handel's Messiah for Aldeburgh Music Club at Snape Maltings and for Oxford Philharmonic (c. Marios Papadopoulous) at The Sheldonian Theatre, Handel's Israel in Egypt at Cadogan Hall, Mozart's Mass in C Minor for the Brandenburg Festival at St Martin-in-the-Fields, Mozart's Requiem with London Mozart Players (c. Jonathan Willcocks), Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 for Reading Symphony Orchestra, Bach's Magnificat for Oxford Baroque (c. Jeremy Summerly) at St John's Smith Square, Bach's Mass in B Minor for Bristol Bach Choir at St George's Bristol, and Vivaldi's Gloria for London Choral Sinfonia at Cadogan Hall. Amy features on the Dunedin Consort's critically acclaimed recording of Monteverdi's Vespro della Beata Vergine.

Previous opera roles include Pastuchyna/Jenufa for Grange Park Opera, Nancy/Albert Herring for Shadwell Opera at Opera Holland Park and on UK tour, Dorabella/Così fan tutte and Flora/La traviata for Devon Opera at Dartington Hall, Nicklausse (cover)/The Tales of Hoffmann for English Touring Opera, Meg Page (cover)/Falstaff for The Grange Festival, Gertrud/Hänsel und Gretel and Mrs Herring/Albert Herring for the Royal College of Music International Opera School, Cherubino/Le nozze di Figaro, Hermia/A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Angelo Custode/Rappresentatione di anima et di corpo. Amy has performed in public masterclasses with Sir John Tomlinson, Sarah Connolly, Simon Keenlyside and Patricia Bardon, and is an Opera Prelude Young Artist.

Song engagements have included a recital of Schumann, Fauré and Jonathan Dove in the Elgar Room at the Royal Albert Hall, Brahms' Liebeslieder-Walzer at the RCM in collaboration with the Wigmore Hall, Ravel's Trois poèmes de Stéphane Mallarmé with chamber orchestra, and recitals for the Ryedale Festival and the Incorporated Association of Organists. An advocate of contemporary music, Amy performed in the premières of three new works at the Peninsula Arts Contemporary Music Festival, sang Alto (Octet - London Voices) in Mark Simpson's The Immortal (London première) for BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall and step-out soloist for Per Nørgård's Symphony No. 3 for BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall. She performed the role of Magdalene in the world première of The Walking Shadows by Stephen McNeff at St Martin-in-the-Fields.

Amy is very grateful for previous support from The Kathleen Trust, Opera Prelude, The H R Taylor Trust, The Mario Lanza Educational Foundation, The Westminster Almshouses Foundation, and The Josephine Baker Trust.

Ben Parry
has a busy career as a conductor, composer, arranger, singer and producer in both classical and light music fields. He has made well over 100 CD recordings and his compositions and arrangements are published by Oxford University Press, Peters Edition and Faber Music, including the popular Faber Carol Book. He collaborates regularly with the writer Garth Bardsley: their choral piece Flame was performed by a choir of 300 singers at the Royal Albert Hall in the 2012 BBC Proms and their carol Three Angels by King's College Choir on BBC TV's Carols from King's. Major commissions include the Cathedral Choral Society of Washington DC, St John's College Cambridge, Chelmsford, Norwich, Ely and Sheffield Cathedrals, BBC Singers and the Aldeburgh Festival. Ben's music also featured in the 1st episode of the hit US TV series, Glee. He has composed many track for the production music company, Audio Network, whose music can be heard throughout the world on radio and TV.

Ben is currently Principal Conductor of the National Youth Choir of Great Britain, having recently stepped down as Artistic Director of NYCGB after 10 years, and Director of the professional choir, London Voices. He was formerly a course director for the Rodolfus Choral Courses for 20 years, Director of Music at St Paul’s School and the Junior Royal Academy of Music in London and Assistant Director of Music of King's College, Cambridge. With London Voices, he has performed in concert halls and festivals worldwide. He worked closely with Sir Paul McCartney on his classical choral work, Ecce Cor Meum, as well as conducting on the soundtracks of major films such as The Hobbit, Avengers and Harry Potter. London Voices performed the premiere of Stockhausen’s Mittwoch for the 2012 Cultural Olympiad in Birmingham Festival and Berio’s Sinfonia with the National Youth Orchestra in 2009 and at the BBC Proms in 2014 and 2018.

Ben studied Music and History of Art at Cambridge University, where he was a member of King’s College Choir. Later he was musical director and singer with The Swingle Singers, with whom he toured the world and performed with some of the greatest musicians, including Pierre Boulez, Stephane Grappelli and Dizzy Gillespie. He composed and arranged over fifty pieces for the group and co-produced their albums for Virgin Classics and EMI.

For eight years he lived in Scotland, where he co-founded the distinguished ensemble Dunedin Consort, and was also Director of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra Chorus and Director of Choral Music at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. As an orchestral conductor he was worked with the Academy of Ancient Music, Britten Sinfonia, English Chamber Orchestra, London Mozart Players, London Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Concert Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Academy of Ancient Music, Royal Symphony Orchestra of Seville, The Scottish Ensemble and the Vancouver Youth Symphony. He conducted five productions from 1999 as Music Director of Haddo House Opera. He has sung with the Gabrieli Consort, Taverner Consort and Tenebrae, as well as on countless film and TV soundtracks. He appeared on the West End stage in the UK premiere of Cy Colman's musical City of Angels in 1994.

Ben was made an Honorary Associate of the Royal Academy of Music in 2014 for his services to the music industry.

This album contains no booklet.