DANIEL JONES (1912-1993): Symphonies No. 4, 7 & 8.

Description: The Fourth (1954), in memory of Jones' good friend Dylan Thomas, is one of the composer's first-period symphonies - works in the late romantic symphonic tradition, using very large forces, prominent percussion, large brass sections. A craggy quality present in his late works is present here too while the later Seventh and Eighth (both 1972) show the growing concision and structural experimentation of his later symphonies. Both generate all their music from motives at the works' very beginning, both are in five movements and the Eighth has remarkable use of marimba, vibraphone, timpani and piano (Jones never wrote a piano concerto, making the third movement Capriccioso the closest he ever came). Royal Philharmonic Orchestra; Sir Charles Groves (original 1972 EMI LP release), BBC Welsh Symphony Orchestra; Bryden Thomson (No. 8; original 1979 BBC LP release).