Track Listing

1. The Duke Of Marlborough' Fanfare
2. Colonial Song
3. English Dance
4. Sheperd's Hey
5. There Were Three Friends
6. Fisher's Boarding-House
7. We Were Dreamers
8. Harvest Hymn
9. Blithe Bells
10. Walking Tune (Symphonic Band Version)
11. Suite: 'In A Nutshell': I. Arrival Platform Humlet
12. Suite: 'In A Nutshell': II. Gay But Wistful
13. Suite: 'In A Nutshell': III. Pastoral
14. Suite: 'In A Nutshell': IV. The'Gum-suckers' March
15. Green Bushes

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #88338 in Music
• Released on: 1998-09-01
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .24 pounds

From Amazon.co.uk
This first volume of Chandos's Grainger edition includes some of his best-known pieces--the broad-flowing, almost Brahmsian "Colonial Song" in a particularly lush orchestration; the 1921 version of the Passacaglia on "Green Rushes", with its percussive piano part; and the suite In a Nutshell, with its strangely titled opening movement "Arrival Platform Humlet" that flows and judders as if it were being made up on the spot. There are also some rarities--the sonorous "Duke of Marlborough" fanfare that opens the disc and three pieces based on Kipling settings, "We Were Dreamers", the elliptical lament "There Were Three Friends" and "Fisher's Boarding House". Hickox brings out the originality of all these works--the whole point of Grainger is his exploration of musical sound worlds and the BBC Philharmonic have the virtuosity required to do him justice. Hickox also remembers that Grainger was a man of his time and place--sentimentality is a part of what this music is for as well, as long as it is not laid on with a trowel. --Roz Kaveney