"These disc reveal a vein of rich, dark lyricism far from the jingoism of W's film scores. This is music of melancholy yearning, tempered with outbursts of spontaneous joy, such as 1st symphony finale."
"Welsh composer Hoddinott's not very well-known music tempers a brusque ruggedness akin to RM Thomas' poetry with a wonderful ear for harmony and melody, and a haunting sense of mysterious beauty."
"'The Rose Lake' is Tippett's late masterpiece, a fairly long work depicting a day in the life of a lake, from sunrise to sunset. Lyricism mixes with a certain modernist bite in a compelling way"
"Not perfect; it doesn't really work dramatically, taking most of the incident out of Bunyan's narrative in favour of much rhapsodic meditation and celebration. Still, some of the music is sublime."
"Vaguely reminiscent of the whole 'pastoral' school, but remains fairly oblique as regards programmatic intent, and is far form wishy-washy. Something of a minor classic."
"Hard to know which disc to pick, but this one has some excellent music. Westbrook has done much to present 'serious', grandly conceived jazz, thoug he remains criminally underrated in this country."
"Bax's brand of Yeats-inspired Irish folklory may be hopelessly Romantic, but this music has a real sense of dramatic tension in its mixture of rugged storms and light-drenched dreamscapes."
"Most famous of his course for his film scores, but these symphonies have, yet again, that tough lyricism which I find so appealing in British music, then and now."
"Less famous pieces. You can't call Delius tough, but his drifting, dreaming rhapsodies still speak to the soul, remaining hugely evocative (whether through cultural conditioning or the music itself)."
"A short disc, and hard to get hold of, but superb: built around an old popular song. Rather than spinning variations round it, Wood integrates it/threads it through the work's texture."
