The Hallé returns with a collection of lesser known English orchestral works which display full range of colour and highly accomplished playing of the award-winning ensemble under its Musical Director, Sir Mark Elder.

    Bax’s Spring Fire has a soundworld which blends lush chromaticism, broad melodies and brilliant orchestral sonorities. It remained unperformed during the composer’s life-time but has consistently been championed by Sir Mark Elder who describes the work as being ’one of the glories of late romanticism ... a high point of English Impressionism in which one can hear the truly unique and individual voice of Bax.’
    Delius’s Idylle de Printemps is a fairly early work in which the composer works in a genre which he would later make his own; that of an orchestral impression or tone-poem inspired by nature or the seasons. It is contrasted with the more mature The March of Spring which is taken from one of the greatest orchestral scores.
    Bridge’s Enter Spring offers a contrast to the typical ’pastoral impression’, with music of bracing vigour which made a striking impression at its premiere on the 14-year old Benjamin Britten who described being ’knocked sideways by a riot of colour and harmony’.


The best is saved until last in this beautifully planned collection of music inspired by spring. Mark Elder’s account of Frank Bridge’s rhapsody provides the best possible advocacy for a work that is one of the least-known masterpieces of British music between the world wars…. a brilliantly extrovert display of his skill as a colourist, sustained by an irresistible rhythmic energy. The Hallé plays it with fabulous finesse…