More gaps in the Lambert discography are enterprisingly plugged by these sensitive and shapely performances, which consistently display most agreeable dash and commitment. The Piano Concerto recorded here is not that unnervingly bleak 1930-31 creation for soloist and nine players but an earlier teenage effort from 1924 that remained in short score, never to be heard in the composer's lifetime. Now, thanks to the indefatigable musicological and editorial skills of Giles Easterbrook and the late Edward Shipley, we can at last savour yet another astonishingly mature and skilful product of Lambert's youth. Not only is the concerto brimful of striking invention and tightly organised (its four interlinked movements strongly resembling the 'Fantasy' form espoused by W W Cobbett in his chamber music competitions), it also plumbs remarkable expressive depths, not least in the Andante slow movement which contains music as achingly poignant as any Lambert ever penned. David Owen Norris does full justice to the glittering solo part (his soft tone is ravishing in its pearly opalescence), and he receives splendid support from Barry Wordsworth and the BBC Concert Orchestra.
Prize-Fight (Lambert's first ballet score) is earlier still, begun in 1923, completed the following year and overhauled one last time in 1927. Lasting just under nine minutes, it's a veritable romp, pungently scored in the manner of Satie and Milhaud, and with something of the anarchic spirit of Georges Auric's deliciously daft contributions to those glorious Ealing Comedies. In point of fact, Lambert had long been a connoisseur of the silver screen before he finally embarked on his first film score in 1940, for a flag-waving documentary entitled Merchant Seamen. Two years later, he compiled the present five-movement suite, and a decidedly superior specimen it is too - aptly stirring in the Horoscope-like opening 'Fanfare' and concluding 'March', yet powerfully moody when required. Pomona, of course, we've had before, from both Norman Del Mar (still awaiting reissue on Lyrita, 1/80 - nla) and, altogether more recently, David Lloyd-Jones. By the side of the latter's exemplary ENP account, Wordsworth's more spacious realisation occasionally lacks something in sheer effervescence and dry wit (the Allegro deciso 'Corante' is too heavy-of-foot for my tastes). Slower numbers, however, are invested with a stately gravitas that works well enough, save for the 'Passacaglia', which in Wordsworth's hands is inclined to drag.
Vivid, truthfully balanced recording, though on two copies I tried there was a curious patch of what sounded like faint interference beginning at 2'36'' into track 4 - hardly enough, I should add, to take the shine off what is a most enjoyable and valuable compilation.'