THOMAS F. DUNHILL (1877-1946): Symphony in A Minor, Op. 48, RICHARD ARNELL (b.1917): Lord Byron: a symphonic portrait.

Description: Dunhill had the misfortune to write his symphony at a time when musical tastes and styles were about to change radically. Composed between 1914-16, it inhabits the world of Stanford and Elgar while, after the war, the field was beginning to belong to Ireland, Vaughan Williams, Bax and Bridge. Although composed during the war (one of very few British symphonies written then), only the slow movement may have been influenced by it - revised in late 1916, it is probably an elegy (Elgarian in controlled emotion) for a cellist friend killed in France. Otherwise, these 46-minutes of big-boned, emotionally generous music are pure late British Romanticism. Arnell's Byron portrait dates from 1952 and is a 22-minute work in eight segments, played straight through, which illustrate aspects and events in the poet's life ("Augusta", "Success and Disgrace", "Voyage", etc.) in a programmatic manner, developing a few principal motifs, which is not far from film music. Royal Scottish National Orchestra; Martin Yates.