English String Miniatures Vol 6 / Sutherland, Ballet - Naxos (USA) - NXS 8557753 -

Album Summary
Notes & Reviews
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Album Summary

Holst, Gustav : A Moorside Suite, for brass band, H. 173

Purcell, Henry : Chacony for Strings in G minor, Z 730

Lewis, Paul [Composer] : Rosa Mundi, for orchestra

Carse, Adam : The Winton Suite, for orchestra

Warlock, Peter : Bethlehem Down

Carr, Paul : A Very English Music, for orchestra

Lloyd Webber, William : Waltz in E minor for strings

Sainsbury, Lionel : Two Nocturnes, for orchestra

Lipkin, Malcolm : From Across La Manche, for orchestra

Conductor

Sutherland, Gavin

Ensemble

Royal Ballet Sinfonia

Composers

Notes & Reviews:

"This is a real honey of an album! In the hands of Gavin Sutherland the strings of the Birmingham Royal Ballet are lithe beyond telling. They have depth and pace and a lilt that makes you feel as if they're speaking the lines. Their articulation, tone color, atmosphere, and incisiveness compel you to keep listening from one work to the next. The only exception is Purcell's Chacony in G-minor, where Sutherland, rather than drawing out inner lines, merely lets them speak for themselves. I've long believed that everyone is born with a given set of tempos. Many conductors seem able to conduct only at their inner tempos. Some have more than others. Sutherland is gifted with the widest variety I remember encountering. As a result, he brings an extraordinary freshness to the 20 varied movements heard here. His biography in the liner notes makes him sound like a lightweight conductor of ballets, pops concerts, and musicals; but he seems far more than that. The works themselves are gems, all in the tradition of English string serenades or suites- as glorious and mellow a tradition as the sound of English boys' choirs. The Holst, an arrangement by Philip Lane (who wrote the splendid, informative, succinct liner notes) of a suite originally for band, sets the tone for the album, which meanders from traditional suites (Adam Carse), rich moody nocturnes (Paul Carr and Lionel Sainsbury), and a Christmas carol (Peter Warlock) to a very late-romantic and lushly performed waltz by William, the father of two more-famous Lloyd Webbers, and a modern three-movement suite by Malcolm Lipkin that remains firmly in that English string serenade tradition and allows the program to end with a strong finish. (How often "collection" albums like this save the weakest for last.) The weakest work is Paul Lewis's 'Rosa Mundi', a short motif given four minutes of constant modulations in the same style as a "song" in Carse's work but without the inventiveness to stretch it into a tune. Still, it's beautifully performed. The producers have laid out the works so that the key or mood of one selection flows naturally into the next, making listening even more pleasant. Engineering is peerless, and the strings are nicely tuned. At bargain price, you simply can't afford to miss it." -ARG

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