No one can complain that Czechoslovakia and Marco Polo are failing to make a significant contribution to the recording of neglected British music! After the Gothic Symphony of Havergal Brian (reviewed in July) by mainly Bratislava forces comes this disc of three works by Sir Granville Bantock, whose representation in the CD catalogue is minimal (one overture, at the last count). The performances are by the Czechoslo- vak State Philharmonic under the young English conductor Adrian Leaper, whose work with the Halle Orchestra in the past few years has won him much critical praise. He certainly wouldn't get much chance to conduct Bantock in Manchester these days, nor anywhere else in Britain, for that matter.
Does this composer whom Ernest Newman, with what I think must have been a rush of blood to the head, once rated above Elgar deserve to have fallen into almost complete neglect? On this showing, no. Two of the works, Old English Suite and Russian Scenes, are beautifully crafted light music, the kind that deserves to be revived in ''Friday Night is Music Night'', that excellent BBC radio programme. The suite—not 'Olde Englishe' by any means—comprises five arrangements of well-known pieces by Gibbons, Dowland, Bull, Farnaby and Byrd. These will not suit today's period-instrument fanciers, but they must have drawn the attention of many listeners to the beauty of the music. The orchestration is in no way gaudy or extravagant, not so much as Harty's Handel, for instance.
The Hebridean Symphony is different again. This one-movement work is a powerful composition, making imaginative use of folk-material, with a remarkable episode of nagging trumpets that brings Janacek to mind. Lyrical, brooding and unexpectedly violent, it is music that does much to explain Bantock's eminence in his lifetime and it is encouraging that a young conductor like Leaper should have re-discovered it and taught it so eloquently to a foreign orchestra. The opening of the work, in particular, is memorable, like the start of a great saga. Obviously Sibelius and Strauss were strong influences on Bantock, but only for the good. The playing is not always of the highest quality and the recording was made in a 'dead' acoustic which does nothing to flatter the string and woodwind tone. Nevertheless, for the Hebridean alone, this disc is welcome and important.'