GEOFFREY BUSH (1920-1998): Symphony No. 1 (London Symphony Orchestra; Nicholas Braithwaite), Symphony No. 2 "The Guildford" (Royal Philharmonic Orchestra; Barry Wordsworth), Music for Orchestra (London Philharmonic Orchestra; Vernon Handley), Yorick (New Philharmonia Orchestra; Handley).

Description: The 1954 first symphony is a hard-driving, rhythmically exciting work in its outer movements whose general nature recalls Walton's own first symphony while the slow movement, slightly tinged with a bluesy feel, is a tribute to the recently deceased Constant Lambert and the second symphony, of only three years later, is in the same vein although in single-movement, four-section form. Yorick (1949) is a good example of the genre of the "comedy overture" and Music for Orchestra (1967) belies its origins as a schools-orchestra piece with its seriousness of utterance and complexity of construction. 1972, 1979, 1982 and 1995 recordings. Original 1995 Lyrita release.