O that Shakespeherian Rag

American composer Salvatore Martirano was a pupil of Luigi Dallapiccola during the early 1950s. He wrote this four movement work for choir and orchestra shortly after for the League of Composers/International Society for Contemporary Music. It’s a varied and imaginative setting of various extracts from Shakespeare, each of the four movements depicting the change from winter to spring: “When icicles hang by the wall …” To “While you here do snoring lie…” to “When daisies pied and violets blue …”.