Moeran: Symphony; Overture for a Masque; Sinfonietta – New Philharmonia Orchestra / London Philharmonic Orchestra, Sir Adrian Boult

‘Built confidently on strikingly memorable ideas, and first heard in 1937, Moeran’s G minor Symphony is in the best English tradition of symphonic writing and is worthy to rank with the symphonies of Vaughan Williams and Walton. But for all the echoes of these composers, and of Sibelius too, it has a strongly individual voice. Boult’s radiant mid-1970s performance is spacious, the recording not as opulent as Handley’s Chandos version (very much cast in the Boult mould) but still very impressive. Characteristically, he refuses to push too hard too soon, but the ebb and flow of tension are superbly controlled to build the most powerful possible climaxes. Rarely, even in Vaughan Williams, has Boult adopted to overtly expressive a style, especially in the glorious slow movement, and the 1975 recording quality, although refined, allows the widest dynamic range down to the gentlest pianissimo for the hushed, intense opening of the slow movement. The Sinfonietta is a fresh and attractive work, written a decade later. More extrovert than the symphony, it shows its composer as less ready to write in long paragraphs. It is nevertheless an attractive work and, alongside the Overture, given Boult’s persuasive advocacy, it makes an apt coupling.’

Penguin Guide to Recorded Classical Music