Hyperion Records

Albert William Ketèlbey (1875–1959) occupies his place in British musical history for a particularly distinctive body of ‘narrative music’. Far from creating anything specificially British, Ketèlbey sought a peculiarly exotic sound in works such as In a Monastery Garden (1915), In a Persian Market (1920), In a Chinese Temple Garden (1923) and In the Mystic Land of Egypt (1931). In his Bells Across the Meadows (1921) we hear distant church bells introducing a typically broad Ketèlbey melody into which they cleverly blend. Ketèlbey was born in Birmingham, was educated at Trinity College, London, and was a church organist and theatre conductor before establishing his reputation with his famous body of compositions.

from notes by Andrew Lamb © 1996