The more I hear of Patrick Hadley’s music, the more I warm to it. There are numerous pages in the big 1944 cantata The Hills (the composer’s own text for which touchingly chronicles his parents’ first meeting in the Derbyshire Peak District and their subsequent life together) which proclaim a voice of rare sensibility and gentle distinctiveness. What initially strikes home most is the red-blooded exuberance of Hadley’s invention: thus, as the lovers finally reach the summit of the first section entitled ‘The Hills in Spring’ (track 6), we encounter a sense of all-consuming pantheistic wonder on a par with anything in Delius or VW (Hadley’s mentor). No less effective are the gentler episodes, many of which reveal an unexpected kinship with Britten in their fastidious textures and searching harmonic idiom (try the haunting interlude, ‘In Taxal Woods’).
It’s impossible to imagine a more understanding proponent of Hadley’s ambitious and heartwarming vision than Philip Ledger, who secures a performance of exemplary dedication and scrupulous sensitivity from his assembled forces. The excellently balanced April 1975 recording (masterminded by producer Christopher Bishop and engineer Christopher Parker working within the kindly surroundings of the Guildhall, Cambridge) has come up marvellously. Hadley’s popular anthem My beloved spake (1938) and exquisite 1936 carol I sing of a maiden charmingly preface the main work.
Yes, I know the playing-time is stingy, but don’t let that deter you: here is a very welcome reissue indeed. '