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See Terms & Conditions for p&p rates. | |  | English Spring
Hallé returns with a collection of lesser known English orchestral works which display full range of colour and highly accomplished playing of the award wining ensemble. “[Enter Spring] is a brilliantly extrovert display of his skill as a colourist, sustained by an irresistible rhythmic energy. The Hallé plays it with fabulous finesse, and the orchestra is equally assured in Arnold Bax's quasi-symphonic Spring Fire” The Guardian, 14th April 2011 **** “Elder's grasp of [Enter Spring's] structure is idea, the pacing convincing...The golden glow of the strings and the ripe, thrusting brass are extremely satisfying...There is no finer orchestra with a pedigree in this repertoire than the Hallé” International Record Review, July 2011 “Firstly, the Hallé's stellar playing: it's genuinely hard to imagine how music of this English vintage could be performed better. Not only is everything beautifully idiomatic and clear, there's also strong characterisation in every department, with a particularly vivid response to Bridge's intricate solo woodwind writing.” BBC Music Magazine, July 2011 **** “Not only is Elgar adept at teasing out the myriad details in Bridge's meticulous orchestral canvas, his bracingly cogent conception also manages to stress this music's more daringly progressive, "continental" features without stinting on its gorgeous local colour...a truly cherishable account of a great work to crown a collection that bids fair to be one of my records of the year.” Gramophone Magazine, August 2011 “There couldn't be better advocates for this neglected corner of the repertoire than the Halle and Elder. His conducting is superb in the way it teases out the detail through the overall drive, balancing out the galvanising passion with attention to hummingbird-like flashes of colour. Where there's a danger of galumphing - heavy scoring, supposedly bouncy rhythms - he manages to make the music dance instead.” Classic FM Magazine, August 2011 **** “Brilliant orchestral playing throughout and ripe sound.” Graham Rickson, The Arts Desk, 21st May 2011 | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Delius: Florida Suite
“David Lloyd-Jones and his Leeds-based band prove more-than-able protagonists....Lloyd-Jones conducts with marvellous understanding.” Gramophone Magazine | | | (also available to download from $6.00) | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Delius: Orchestral Works
Of the works performed here by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra under the prominent Delius interpreter Sir Andrew Davis, the first three (Paris, the Piano Concerto, and Idylle de printemps) offer a fascinating insight into the early years of the development of Delius as a composer, when he was slowly and painstakingly honing his craft, and assuming the characteristic personal voice that is evident in more mature works such as Brigg Fair. Paris, sub-titled ‘The Song of a Great City’, is strongly inspired by the composer’s many years of living and working in Paris. With large-scale orchestral forces, Delius paints opulent pictures of a city that he obviously loved. The slow opening portrays the still darkness falling over Paris; then the music changes pace and takes us through the teeming and intoxicating nightlife of the city, with impressions of exuberant dance music coming from the many cafés and music-halls. The opening material returns, culminating in the sounds of the awakening streets. Until recently Delius’s Piano Concerto has been know exclusively in its final, one-movement form, which was first performed in London in 1907. The version recorded here, however, represents the composer’s earlier thoughts, from 1897. Performed by Howard Shelley, the work is brimming with full-bodied romanticism while showing the influences of Grieg and Liszt throughout. The airy mood of Idylle de printemps points to later depictions of nature in Delius’s music, as in Brigg Fair, which Delius categorised as ‘An English Rhapsody’. Cecil Gray, the Scottish music critic and composer, described the opening of Brigg Fair as ‘evoking the atmosphere of an early summer morning in the English countryside’. The work is based on a folk-tune which came to light in a competition instigated by Percy Grainger in 1905 to find ‘the best unpublished old Lincolnshire folk song or plough song’. Grainger was immediately taken with the folk-tune, and having arranged it himself for solo tenor and chorus, he approached Delius to write orchestral variations on it – urging him on as the only composer worthy of the task. Delius was soon persuaded, and Brigg Fair became one of his best-loved works. “Delius's piano writing isn't that of a natural virtuoso, but here Shelley transforms it with some really sensitive phrasing and an ability to make the patterns of the figuration sound idiomatic...Davis proves himself an instinctive Delian in the way he delineates the shifting moods and colours of Paris and Brigg Fair: these must be among the best current accounts of both works.” BBC Music Magazine, Christmas 2012 ***** “Shelley and Sir Andrew Davis bring rather more in the way of epic ambition and romantic ardour to this likeable music [the Concerto] than do their Hyperion rivals, though at times greater rhythmic snap would not have gone amiss...As for the remainder, Davis makes a lovely job of the early Idylle de printemps.” Gramophone Magazine, November 2012 “I believe that Andrew Davis is possibly the greatest conductor of this music since Beecham. Davis is so in touch with the unique qualities of Delius's genius as to cause one to stop and reconsider the music...I cannot image any of the works on this eminently desirable disc being better performed than they are here” International Record Review, December 2012 | | | (also available to download from $10.50) | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. (Available now to download.) |
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| |  | The Best of Delius
Frederick Delius had a strong champion in the conductor Sir Thomas Beecham, who praised the composer as “the last great apostle of romantic beauty in music”. This rhapsodic intensity of feeling is nowhere more evident than in the luscious harmonies of his exquisite idylls, The Walk to the Paradise Garden and On Hearing The First Cuckoo In Spring. La Calinda, from Delius’ second opera, Koanga, has achieved worldwide popularity | | | (also available to download from $6.00) | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. (Available now to download.) |
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| |  | English Classics
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Gramophone Awards 2011
Gramophone Magazine