Rawsthorne: Practical Cats, Madame Chrysanthème & Street Corner

July 24th marks fifty years since the passing of the British composer Alan Rawsthorne. Though he has now fallen somehow into neglect, Rawsthorne was a prominent figure of English music after the War and his inventive music and talent as an orchestrator bear comparison to his contemporaries Walton and Britten.

Here is an album featuring the debut recording of Practical Cats (a very amusing set of poems of T.S. Eliot set to music and narrated by Oscar-winning actor Robert Donat), the overture Street Corner and the suite from Rawsthorne’s ballet Madame Chrysanthème, after Pierre Loti’s novel.