ERIK CHISHOLM (1904-1965): Symphony No. 2 "Ossian" (Royal Scottish National Orchestra; Martin Yates), TREVOR HOLD (1939-2004): The Unreturning Spring for Soprano, Baritone and Orchestra, ERIC FOGG (1903-1939): Sea-Sheen: an idyll, Op. 17, Merok.

Description: If you remember Chisholm's piano concerto which we offered in Oct. 2001 on a small British label, you'll know that he wrote very traditional, attractive, sometimes folk-inflected music. This 1939 symphony was never performed, its music being used later for the war-time ballet The Earth-Shapers. The ballet scenario illustrates the music with such sections as "A Celtic Wonder Tale", "The Earth under the Fomors", "The Gods descend to Battle" and "The Gods refashion the Earth" and the programmatic, almost film-score music makes one wonder whether Chisholm had these scenes in mind to begin with. Fogg's short pieces are very atmospheric little tone-poems (Merok is a Norwegian village) of greater-than-light-music depth while the 16-minute song-cycle by Hold (1963) is a case of a 24-year-old composer setting poetry by an English soldier killed in World War II at the age of 21. Hold became one of the best British song composers of his generation and this early work, with its chamber textures, is also quite attractive. Texts included. Ailish Tynan (soprano), Roderick Williams (baritone), BBC Concert Orchestra; Martin Yates, Gavin Sutherland (Sea-sheen), Vernon Handley (Merok).