The Western Playland (and of Sorrow)

Philip Lancaster’s new version of The Western Playland (and of Sorrow) is a revelation of a major work in British music previously obscured by textual issues, now resolved in a brilliant performing edition. The product of a lifetime of editorial skills and expertise honed in both Gurney’s music and poetry, this unique interpretation of the composer’s late masterpiece brings clarity to a problematical score. While the Carnegie Edition of the song cycle remains the original form of the piece, Lancaster has unravelled the tangled legacy of Gurney’s many revisions subsequent to publication, and allowed performers and audiences to experience the work with complete confidence as to the validity of the text, while revisiting a classic of twentieth-century English song.

The piano part is played from the Full Score