Elegy, Waltz and Toccata, for viola & orchestra (Viola Concerto)
British composer Arthur Benjamin is best known for a light piece called Jamaican Rhumba that became a hit for Canadian-American orchestra leader Percy Faith, among others. Some of his full-scale orchestral music, notably the Romantic Fantasy for violin, viola, and orchestra heard here, is performed from time to time in Britain. But the other two works here receive their first recordings. The basic vocabulary is close to that of Arnold Bax, but there is no extramusical content. There doesn't seem to be a strong thread ...
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British composer Arthur Benjamin is best known for a light piece called Jamaican Rhumba that became a hit for Canadian-American orchestra leader Percy Faith, among others. Some of his full-scale orchestral music, notably the Romantic Fantasy for violin, viola, and orchestra heard here, is performed from time to time in Britain. But the other two works here receive their first recordings. The basic vocabulary is close to that of Arnold Bax, but there is no extramusical content. There doesn't seem to be a strong thread connecting the violin concerto, the Romantic Fantasy, and the Elegy, Waltz, and Toccata for viola and orchestra, other than their three-movement structure and basic concerto configuration. The Violin Concerto is almost overflowing with motivic details in its first-movement Rhapsody, and it poses large technical challenges that are surmounted by violinist Lorraine McAslan. The Romantic Fantasy is a more melodic, less dissonant piece throughout, and the Elegy, Waltz, and Toccata is a dark...
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