Hyperion Records

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