‘A Vision in a Dream’ is the fifth in the series of CD recordings of Edward Gregson’s concertos and orchestral music in on the Chandos label and has been selected as one of the ‘Recordings of the Month’ in the November issue of Gramophone magazine

The album features three of his concertos: those for Tuba (1976), Oboe 2020), and Viola (2023), along with two shorter works for piano and orchestra, for which the composer took the role as soloist: A Song for Sue (originally written in 1966 as an engagement present for his wife to be), and A Song for Bram (written recently in memory of the conductor Bramwell Tovey, a close friend of the composer). 

The most well-known, and certainly the most frequently performed of these works, is the Tuba Concerto, commissioned for John Fletcher, the then principal tuba of the London Symphony Orchestra and long-standing member of the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble. This concerto has had countless performances world-wide and has been recorded over a dozen times, but this will be the first time that Chandos has recorded the orchestral version. Ross Knight, principal tuba of the Orchestra de la Suisse Romande in Geneva and a former winner of the BBC Radio 2 Brass Musician of the Year, is the soloist on this recording.

The other concertos to be featured are very recent works: the Oboe Concerto (A Vision in a Dream) was commissioned by BBC Radio 3 in 2020 for soloist Jennifer Galloway, principal oboe in the BBC Philharmonic for over 20 years. She premiered and broadcast it with the BBC Philharmonic and Ben Gernon in Leeds Town Hall in 2020.

The Viola Concerto (Three Goddesses) was commissioned by the Presteigne Festival and written for Rachel Roberts, who premiered it in 2023 with the Presteigne Festival Orchestra under George Vass.