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Track(s) taken from CDH55070

A Downland Suite

composer
John Ireland (1879-1962)

London Brass Virtuosi
Recording details: September 1987
Produced by Charles Hilz
Engineered by Tony Faulkner
Release date: August 1988
Total duration: 17 minutes 9 seconds
 

Reviews

‘The London Brass Virtuosi are an accomplished group, and the sound is first class’ (Gramophone)

‘The playing itself, as you would imagine is first-rate and enjoyable’ (Cathedral Music)

‘Timeless and tuneful, the refreshing music on this medium priced reissue of a 1988 Hyperion recording is played with immense authority and affection by an ace ensemble’ (The Inverness Courier)
A Downland Suite was composed in 1932. Its style is simple and direct, showing both a sympathy for the medium and the composer’s remarkable understanding of musical form. The Prelude’s contrasting solo and tutti passages and strong rhythms are appropriately followed by a tender and expressive Elegy whose long-stranded melody is tellingly harmonized and idiomatically scored. The succeeding Minuet has much of the grace and flowing counterpoint of its classical models and is written with such art as to bring a smile unbidden to the listener’s lips. Attractive and bright, the concluding Rondo ends this delightful suite with a flourish, following a penultimate passage of broad and apt sentiment.

from notes by Peter Lamb © 1988

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