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Howells - Orchestral Works (Hickox) 

Here's a delightful mix of Herbert Howells' orchestral music, all of which was written before he turned his attention to the ecclesiastical works for which he is best known. Howells came from the same region that produced Elgar, Vaughan Williams and Parry, and his early compositions reflect the English countryside and folk music traditions just as theirs did. That Howells was profoundly influenced by Vaughan Williams' Tallis Fantasia, the premiere of which he attended in 1910, is very much in evidence here. Works such as "Paradise Rondel," a quasi-rhapsodic piece with a prominent part for piano, and "Pastoral Rhapsody," described by Lewis Foreman in his informative liner notes as a "glorious exercise in nature mysticism" could easily have been penned by Vaughan Williams. The same holds true for the early "Three B's" suite (1914), which includes one of the most beautiful movements in the English repertory, a masterpiece worthy of George Butterworth. From the same period came "Three Dances" for violin and orchestra, another lovely work in the pastoral tradition.

dank aan originele poster!