Two of the three substantial works on this very welcome British Composers offering from EMI (namely The Chagall Windows and Notturni ed alba) were last available on a Greensleeve LP (11/87) and subsequent Studio CD. For the present compilation, the Hartmann Variations (1964) have been replaced by the Second Symphony (which originally shared an LP with Notturni ed alba). All three works rivetingly proclaim McCabe’s very real mastery of the orchestra as well as his enviable ability to write both cogently and communicatively without any hint of compromise or condescension.
Commissioned by the Halle Concerts Society for its 1974-5 season, The Chagall Windows exhibits a truly symphonic purpose throughout its 12 interlinked, beautifully proportioned contrasting sections (each of Marc Chagall’s famous stained-glass windows in Jerusalem, photographs of which originally sowed the seeds for the work in the composer’s mind back in the early 1960s, depicts one of the 12 Tribes of Israel). This fine first recording under James Loughran was made over the two days immediately preceding the Manchester world premiere (on January 9th, 1975).
The hauntingly lyrical song-cycle Notturni ed alba was first heard at the 1970 Three Choirs Festival in Hereford and is an uninterrupted setting for soprano and large orchestra of four medieval Latin poems based around the topic of night. It remains an intoxicating creation, full of tingling atmosphere and slumbering passion, but even more compelling, to my mind, is the Second Symphony from the following year. This is yet another one-movement structure of uncommon elegance and dazzling orchestral resource, and is performed here with total sympathy by its dedicatees, Louis Fremaux and the Birmingham orchestra.
Stuart Eltham’s engineering sounds superbly vivid still. An altogether exemplary reissue, not to be missed.'