Tragic Overture - Brahms
Elegy for Brahms - Parry
Konzertstuck - Dohnanyi
Suite: The Tempest - Sullivan
Vernon Handley may not, by his own admission, be the most "violent" of conductors, but he gave a fresh, brisk account of the Brahms, which under his hands became dramatic rather than tragic. This enterprising BBC Invitation Concert then departed for uncharted territory with Parry's surprisingly passionate and deeply-felt Elegy for Brahms. Here Handley found an inner glow in the orchestral textures.
Dohnanyi has always seemed a rather faceless composer to me, an accusation one couldn't make against his friend and contemporary, Bartok, but his Konzertstuck for cello and orchestra is a beautiful piece in a gorgeously late romantic style. Raphael Wallfisch has appeared at several of these invitation concerts over the years, but we have seldom heard such a rich, singing tone or such a range of expression even from him.
Sullivan's incidental music for The Tempest may not aspire to such emotional heights or depths, but this apprentice piece, written while he was a 19-year-old student at Leipzig, shows that he had a gift for memorable melody.
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