BENJAMIN Violin Concerto. Romantic Fantasy

Concertos from the creator of the Jamaican Rumba

Record and Artist Details

Composer or Director: Arthur Benjamin

Genre:

Orchestral

Label: Epoch

Media Format: CD or Download

Media Runtime: 67

Mastering:

Stereo
DDD

Catalogue Number: CDLX7279

Tracks:

Composition Artist Credit
Concerto for Violin Arthur Benjamin, Composer
Arthur Benjamin, Composer
John Gibbons, Conductor
Lorraine McAslan, Violin
Royal Scottish National Orchestra
Romantic Fantasy Arthur Benjamin, Composer
Arthur Benjamin, Composer
John Gibbons, Conductor
Lorraine McAslan, Violin
Royal Scottish National Orchestra
Sarah-Jane Bradley, Viola
Elegy, Waltz and Toccata (Viola Concerto) Arthur Benjamin, Composer
Arthur Benjamin, Composer
John Gibbons, Conductor
Royal Scottish National Orchestra
Sarah-Jane Bradley, Viola
I was mightily impressed with Arthur Benjamin’s brooding, large-scale Symphony from 1944-45 (in Barry Wordsworth’s eloquent account with the LPO – Lyrita, 6/07), and the three strongly appealing concertante offerings gathered here serve up further proof that there’s a great deal more to this talented Sydney-born figure than the once ubiquitous Jamaican Rumba.

Take the substantial Violin Concerto. Completed in 1931 and dedicated to William Walton, it’s a sparkily inventive, urgently expressive and immaculately crafted work that won the approbation of no less an authority than Hans Keller for its ‘gift for melodic generation, for the growth of one tune out of another, or of several shapes out of an original motif’. Constant Lambert was similarly smitten, finding that the first movement, ‘though written in rhapsodic form, convinces us by the firm lines of its construction’. Elsewhere, the Elegy, Waltz and Toccata turns out to be an orchestral version of the 1942 Viola Sonata. This meaty wartime offering was originally designed for William Primrose (who championed it assiduously) and shares something of the same nervous intensity as the aforementioned Symphony. Both solo instruments combine for the Romantic Fantasy (1936). Commissioned by another great viola player, Lionel Tertis, it also proves a genuine find, with writing that is conspicuously imaginative, resourceful and idiomatic. The opening theme, by the way, affectionately echoes the horn call from In the Faery Hills by Arnold Bax (to whom the score bears an inscription).

These performances have fine dash and infectious commitment about them, while the sound is extremely vivid to match (though the reverberant acoustic imparts a touch of splashiness to any bigger tuttis). Do lend an ear to this most enterprising issue.

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