Cyril Scott - Orchestral Works Volume 3

July 2007

“Scott's violin Concerto (c1925) inhabits some of the same territory as the Delius a decade earlier. Both composers employ a rhapsodic continuity based on melodic arabesque coloured by luscious chords. The purely orchestral works stem initially from the first few years of the 20th century, when Scott's reputation was growing... Scott's command of the orchestra still sounds astonishing - no wonder film composers such as Bernard Herrmann admired him decades later. These are again fine performance and recordings.”

September 2007

****

“…the latest instalment from Chandos continues to acquaint us with sadly unfamiliar delights - especially Scott's one-movement Violin Concerto, forgotten since the 1920s. A fascinating work very much of its time, its idiom hints perhaps at Delius, but parallels with early Bartók and the Szymanowski seem more apposite; Olivier Charlier is an eloquent soloist.”

2011 edition

“These are all memorable performances, given Chandos's top-quality which makes the Three Symphonic Dances glow with colour and all but lose their capacity to seem over-long...But easily the best work here is the Aubade, richly sensuous in its scoring and voluptuous in its manipulation of texture. It is superbly played.”