We are pleased to announce the release of O Fortuna, which is out on 30 November.
This week we will be publishing Rhydians own thoughts on each of the album tracks all the way up until release week, and today we start with the album title track, O Fortuna, as well as Conquest of Paradise and Myfanwy.
You can hear the clips on the site at http://www.rhydianroberts.com/music/release/o_fortuna/ and please leave your comments on the facebook discussion board here
O FORTUNA
“Simon Cowell wanted me to sing this because it’s his entrance song when he walks onstage in X Factor and everyone thinks God has arrived! A lot of people know it from TV ads too, though it’s actually a medieval poem set to music by the German composer Carl Orff for the Carmina Burana. It’s a tremendous song and it’s very exciting to perform it. And the words - although they are in Latin - are crazy. Carmina Burana is very much a secular cantata, with what you might call ‘scenes of a rude nature’. And nudity. And orgies! I’ve been told I am the first person ever to be authorized by the Authors’ Society to sing this solo with a choir.â€
CONQUEST OF PARADISE
“This is epic in nature! It’s the title song from Vangelis’s film score for the film 1492: Conquest Of Paradise. We chose this because it’s a great choral piece, with a great chorus, and it’s in keeping with something like O Fortuna, which I didn’t want to stick out from the rest. There’s a lot of drama in this song and I wanted to keep that side of me, because that’s what people remember from X Factor. And I didn’t want the album to be made up entirely of folk songs and ballads.â€
MYFANWY
“This love song, written by Joseph Parry in 1875, is very popular with Welsh male voice choirs. I first fell in love with Myfanwy when I heard Bryn Terfel sing it on one of his early albums. And I really wanted to have him duet with me. So it is a bit of a fairy tale really to have one of my role models singing my favourite song with me! I think it has the most beautiful melody ever written and the reason I am singing it is that it’s my favourite Welsh song - and also my dad’s favourite song.â€
You can pre order the album now from the links below
http://playcom.at/SonyBMGDM?CTY=37&LID=DM405&DURL=http://www.play.com/Music/CD/4-/11711400/New-Album-TBC/Product.html
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B002OEBEMI?ie=UTF8&tag=sycolagr-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=B002OEBEMI
