Ireland: Cavatina

Dutton Epoch’s recording sessions with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra this summer have yielded two fascinating programmes. Most intriguing is a collection of all John Ireland’s shorter pieces – mainly orchestrations by other hands – including Merry Andrew, Bagatelle, Cavatina, The Holy Boy, Elegiac Meditation, Villanella and Menuetto-Impromptu, only one of which has been previously recorded. These delightful miniatures are coupled with Ireland’s pupil Peter Crossley-Holland’s epic Symphony in D, a tuneful and tonal masterpiece of wide appeal. Crossley-Holland, for a long time associated with the BBC Third Programme, was also an ethnomusicologist and is wide-ranging in the sources he has absorbed in the Symphony.