Rutland BOUGHTON: Symphony #3, Oboe Concerto #1 SUPERB!

Gramophone said it best: "Once again our gratitude to Hyperion, and to Vernon Handley, for recording a hidden treasure." Rutland Boughton, a British composer who lived from 1878 until 1960, has a distinct English inflection in his works, which may bring Elgar or even Hamilton Harty to mind. Energetic and full of good humor, Boughton's last symphony is a real find. His Oboe Concerto #1 is if anything even more exuberant, and is a fine addition to the rather small repertoire of oboe concerti. Sarah Francis is the oboe soloist; Vernon Handley leads the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra on this still-sealed 1999 Helios CD. You can listen to excerpts from the CD here.

From the Gramophone review:

If you were to play Boughton's Third Symphony to a friend knowledgeable
about English music and were to pass it off as a newly-discovered
'Symphony No.0' by Elgar, you might take him in, at any rate during the
first movement. in fact it was written in 1937, after the Fourth and
and the First Symphonies, respectively, of Vaughan Williams and Walton,
and even at its first performance in 1939 must have seemed to belong to
another age. But what does that matter? For all its debt to Elgar and a
few others, it stands in its own right as a well-constructed symphony
and a splendid piece of music. For a symphony as beautiful as this to
be virtually unknown doesn't say much for the promoters of British
music. So, once agin, our gratitude to Hyperion, and to Vernon Handley,
for recording a hidden treasure. 

The tunes are distinctive and the work is colourfully and delicately
scored, with most impressive writing for brass in the coda of the first
movement. The Adagio contains a wistful and withdrawn central episode
which, in its poetic beauty, is worthy of Elgar. There is a lively
Scherzo and a finale that begins mysteriously before launching out into
a dramatic expansive movement, ending grandiloquently but without
pomposity. The symphony is enjoyably performed by the Royal
Philharmonic Orchestra, although the strings sound undernourished in
the Scherzo, and the recording is admirable. 

The disc is filled out by Boughton's First Oboe Concerto, composed in
1936 for his daughter Joy, for whom Britten later wrote his Ovid
Metamorphoses. This concerto is more astringent than the symphony and
is scored for strings. Both the soloist's part and the accompaniment
require considerable virtuosity; Sarah Francis is a supple soloist and
is especially good in the intense slow movement, where an almost
Straussian richness is achieved. Michael Hurd's admirable essay tells
us that Boughton could not afford to travel from Gloucestershire to
Oxford to hear the first performance; a sobering thought.

Disc is new and still-sealed.
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About Jimmosk's CDs
I sell high-quality, little-known works, mostly 19th- and 20th-century. Many of the CDs are used, some are still-sealed, and most are the only one of that disc I have to offer. I sell a low volume of CDs, but that way I can listen to each (except the sealed ones :-) and describe the music to give you a better idea of what you're in for before you plunge into the unknown! More information about some composers may be available on my Unknown Composers Page.
-Jim Moskowitz