Hierusalem
Posted in Classical on Nov 30th, 2008 No Comments »
George Dyson was a soldier in the First World War - and a mystic. He lived the best of his life after the War in Winchester, England, as a schoolmaster. He was quintessentially English - as English as Elgar, cricket, and Inspector Morse.
In his spare time he composed. And in his 70s he composed this - his vision of the Heavenly City, Jerusalem. It’s hard to know what to say about it - because it goes beyond saying, into the area of experience where only music works - beyond explanation and description. In the rising and falling of its moods you feel the movements of your own soul in its search of tranquillity, and a yearning for reconciliation with the world of fear and anxiety that surrounds us.
Dyson endured the horrors of the First World War - lived in a world of fear far greater than we could ever know - and yet could still compose this affirmation of life, love and reconciliation.
Inspector Morse would have loved him.
The soprano is Valerie Hill. with the St Michaels’ Singers and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Jonathan Rennert.





