More English Rarities

My latest recording of music from an English composer is chock full of rarities.  That includes no less than three world premiere recordings, all in the same album.

It's also my first acquaintance with the music of William Alwyn -- as a stand-alone composer, that is.  He's justly famed for his wonderful film scores to many classic British films of the 1940s and 1950s including (among others) A Night to Remember, The Winslow Boy, and Carve Her Name With Pride.

But Alwyn also composed symphonies, songs, operas, and more.  The new Naxos recording gives a fair sample of his art as an orchestral composer.  There are two works titled Concerto Grosso, # 2 for strings only, and # 3 for full orchestra.  As a string composer, Alwyn fits right in with such distinguished predecessors and contemporaries as Elgar, Holst, Vaughan Williams, Dyson, and Howells for his varied and sympathetic handling of the string medium.  The Concerto Grosso # 2 is a real treat for any lover of string music.

There's also a Serenade for Orchestra and a dramatic concert overture, The Moor of Venice.  That piece, obviously inspired by the story and title character of Shakespeare's Othello, is perhaps the most film-like music in the collection, but even so it clearly shows Alwyn's grasp of larger forms.

The real treat is a suite of six Irish Folk Tunes arranged for orchestra.  This music also fits into the long line of folk-inspired music which Vaughan Williams and Holst exemplified.  The tunes aren't significantly varied or in any way twisted by the composer.  He simply chooses from an endless palette of orchestral sound combinations the right one at each moment to keep the music ever fresh.  In its own small way, a masterpiece. 

Kudos to conductor David Lloyd-Jones and to Naxos Records for another wonderful introduction to some unfamiliar but delightful music.  I'm probably going to be collecting some more Alwyn from the same source shortly!