An operatic sequence for women's voices
Music by Malcolm Williamson
Libretto by Ursula Vaughan Willians

This programme is a recording of a very large-scale musical event held at the Royal Albert Hall last June - the National Federation of Women's Institutes Music Festival. The Brilliant and the Dark is an operatic sequence in the form of a pageant, depicting the lives of women through the ages. It includes themes such as abandoned lovers, impoverished women, and women under vows. admirably managing to avoid any kind of sentimentality. It was composed specially for the Festival, and the eight singers and eight pianists are drawn from Women's Institutes all over the country
Sylvia Campbell (soprano) Elizabeth Lamb (contralto) Anna Gee (soprano)
Audrey Hughes (soprano)
Barbara Justham (Contralto) Enid Lloyd Roberts (Soprano)
Patricia Viles (mezzo-soprano) Margery Would (soprano)
Massed Choirs of the National Federation of Women's Institutes
Pianists: Marjorie Blackburn, Janet Canetty-Clarke, Doris Catcheside, Hilda Evans, Shena Neame, Margaret Payne, Isabel Thompson, Felicity White
English Chamber Orchestra, leader Kenneth Sillito conducted by Marcus Dods