One of the doyens of British light music, Yorkshire-born Haydn Wood (1882-1959) completed his Mannin Veen (Dear Isle of Man: A Manx Tone Poem) in 1933, the present wind-band alternative emerging a few years later. It’s a thoroughly engaging nine-minute sequence that affectionately incorporates four folk tunes from the island where Wood spent his childhood, and which the Park Avenue Chamber Symphony Wind Ensemble under David Bernard deliver with commendable spirit. In truth, however, this newcomer is outflanked by the US Marine Band’s 2007 account (on Altissimo – and, by the way, don’t miss out on hearing the composer’s own inimitably invigorating 1935 premiere recording of the work in its original scoring, now on Guild, 7/06). It’s a similar tale in the Holst, where there’s simply no escaping the classy composure of those top-ranking versions by the Cleveland Symphonic Winds under Frederick Fennell (Telarc, 12/83) and Dallas Wind Symphony under Howard Dunn (Reference Recordings, 2/05 – splendiferously engineered, both).

At the helm of his regular forces, Bernard gives us two British masterworks. For all the agreeable application on show, RVW’s towering Tallis Fantasia emerges in slightly literal fashion, with some crucial lack of atmosphere, mystery and passion when compared to, say, the 1962 Barbirolli, Silvestri, 1969 Boult and Andrew Davis (to mention four personal favourites). Sad to report, Elgar’s Enigma fares altogether less happily; indeed, one has to contend with a chronic shortage of sonic heft (unhelpfully weedy string tone in particular), corporate personality and tumbling fantasy – drawbacks that leave this performance trailing a long way behind a whole host of stellar rivals (Toscanini, Monteux, Sargent, Barbirolli, Ormandy, Mehta, Boult, Del Mar, Barenboim, Zinman, Downes, Skrowaczewski, Brabbins, Vasily Petrenko … the list goes on).

It’s an appealing programme, to be sure, and our own Andrew Farach-Colton supplies an eloquent and informative booklet essay, but overall I feel this recording is probably destined to find favour with only the most loyal supporters of this hard-working NYC outfit.