Resound: Music by British Composers

Between pastoral lyricism and modernism lies another, richly compelling story of twentieth-century British music. This programme brings together four distinctive voices - Ruth Gipps, Doreen Carwithen, William Alwyn and Elizabeth Maconchy - whose works chart an alternative path through an era often defined by aesthetic conflict.

The album features the world premiere recording of Elizabeth Maconchy's 1985 Life Story for Strings, the first commercial recording of Ruth Gipps's Jane Grey Fantasy for Viola and Strings, and new interpretations of the Doreen Carwithen Concerto for Piano and Strings, and William Alwyn's Autumn Legend. Together, these works reveal a British musical landscape far richer, more adventurous, and more rewarding than received histories have long suggested.

You can buy Resound from Resonus Classics here, and the album booklet with liner notes is available to download here.

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Reviews

'I am delighted to hear Dariescu's muscular and appealing interpretation... [Life Story] has an energy and invention that belies [Maconchy's] advanced years, and shows a skill in writing for strings always evident in her fine string quartet sequence. Maconchy always ploughed a difficult furrow - too "difficult" for mainstream concert-goers but not in the serialist camp either - and if this Life Story is taken as biographical, it speaks of an uncompromising pursuit of a musical ideal, even when that was not the easy path.' (The Arts Desk)