New recording of Joseph Turrin’s “And Crimson Roses Once Again be Fair” cantata based on poetry from World War I

Announcing the release of a new recording of Joseph Turrin’s “And Crimson Roses Once Again be Fair”,  a 45 minute Cantata based on poetry from World War I, released on the Naxos label and recorded in New York. The poets include Charlotte Mew, Bruno Frank, Siegfried Sassoon, Alfred Lichtenstein, John McCrae, Wilfred Owen, Albert-Paul Granier and Vera Brittain.

The CD features Internationally renown mezzo soprano Frederica von Stade. She sings one of the solos in the piece titled “Perhaps”  based on a poem by Vera Brittain, who lost her fiancé, brother and two close friends during the war.  “The title of the cantata, ‘And Crimson Roses Once Again be Fair‘ is a line from the poem and one of the first poems I found when doing research on relevant texts for the cantata,” said Turrin.  “In many ways the poem became a source of inspiration for the work as a whole. Brittain served as a nurse in the Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD). After the war she began to write and became an advocate for peace.  Her poem ‘Perhaps‘ is dedicated to the memory of her fiancé Roland Leighton.”

The other poems include a selection of powerful vignettes by those that lived, fought and died during the “War to End All Wars”  by poets, from England, France, Germany and Canada.

“I have always liked composers who are reflecting upon the musical sound of their country,” said Kurt Masur in 2002. “Joseph Turrin does this in a very convincing way. I have taken great delight from getting to know his scores, which I have conducted in New York, in Europe, and Asia.”

“And Crimson Roses Once Again be Fair” was reviewed in the January 2025 issue of Gramophone magazine.  Please see the following link for more details: www.josephturrin.net/cantata_news.html.

The CD can be purchased on Amazon, Spotify, Naxos and Apple Music.

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