This is Dutton's second disc featuring music by Thomas Dunhill, and the fourth featuring music by Richard Arnell. In 2005, the enterprising English label had released a disc of Dunhill's chamber music by the Endymion Ensemble containing two quintets and a Phantasy Trio. But as lovely and imaginative as those works are, they pale before this discs' magnificent Symphony in A minor. Written between 1914 and 1916, it was one of a handful of symphonies composed by the Englishman during the First World War, and though the horrors ...
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This is Dutton's second disc featuring music by Thomas Dunhill, and the fourth featuring music by Richard Arnell. In 2005, the enterprising English label had released a disc of Dunhill's chamber music by the Endymion Ensemble containing two quintets and a Phantasy Trio. But as lovely and imaginative as those works are, they pale before this discs' magnificent Symphony in A minor. Written between 1914 and 1916, it was one of a handful of symphonies composed by the Englishman during the First World War, and though the horrors of those dreadful years are only distantly reflected in its music, there is a power, a weight, and even a nobility to Dunhill's Symphony that raises it to nearly the same heights as Elgar's symphonies. The work was premiered in 1923 and performed more than five times between then and 1935 -- but after that remained unknown and unheard until the occasion of this world-premiere 2007 recording with Martin Yates leading the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. While 72 years is a long...
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