British Violin Concertos

“... I’ve always liked Tasmin Little’s playing and this latest release in her impressive discography only adds to my liking. Andrew Davis and the BBC Philharmonic have these scores down pat, and Chandos gives us another of its standard issue high quality recordings. Very strongly recommended.”

"...The Chandos engineers have produced a typically wide and opulent soundstage for concertante works by three English composers who crossed the Atlantic – in spirit or in person. In Tasmin Little’s hands the G minor Concerto of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor radiates glamour and confidence at full beam. She goes all out for expressive affection with bags of vibrato, supported by a close rapport with Andrew Davis, who coaxes sighing portamento from the BBC Philharmonic.
Their conviction might place Coleridge-Taylor’s Concerto in the company of Romantics such as Korngold and Barber, and they also play Haydn Wood’s A minor Concerto with dedication and passion. The first two movements of the Wood promise much, with generous and memorable melodies, but their development tends to lapse into German Romantic sequences. There’s a similarly generic oboe-led interlude for the central Andante, replete with the sort of English-pastoral modulations that Vaughan Williams made his own and that even the young Delius did better in a four-movement Suite of character pieces that he filed in a bottom drawer. Ralph Holmes and Vernon Handley showed years ago that Wood’s Concerto was worth pulling out again. Little and Davis go one better, with more deftly managed transitions, wind playing that would charm the birds from the trees and solos in the Intermezzo that embrace the spirit of a Hardanger fiddler. The finale flies between Mendelssohn’s Leipzig, the first cuckoo’s England and the harmonies of American spirituals, to remind us of Delius’s eclectic inspiration."

 

"...there is a wealth of superbly crafted, lyrical music that didnt deserve to be cast into the wilderness because the musical establishment became obsessed with angst and atonality for half a century. Tasmin Little, herself an under-appreciated bastion of British musical life, has been an indefatigable champion of this repertoire. Here, accompanied sympathetically by the BBC Philharmonic under Andrew Davis, she plays violin concertos by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and Haydn Wood both pupils of Charles Villiers Stanford at the Royal College of Music and a delightful early Suite for Violin and Orchestra by Frederick Delius.Woods concerto gripped me most Here he revels in the bigger canvas. The opening movement is marvellously dramatic, with a hair-raising cadenza of fiendish double-stoppings Little plays it stunningly. A gorgeous horn tune launches the wistful slow movement the finale is a spirited romp. Throughout, Woods harmonic world is irresistibly lush without being cloying." 

"...For qualities of command and sensitivity and for the estimable collaboration with both orchestra and conductor, Tasmin Little’s performances stand tall."

Performance ***** Recording *****

“ Besides the stellar quality of Little’s playing (as ever, warmly engaging and technically bombproof), Sir Andrew Davis and the BBC Philharmonic provide accompaniments in a special class. The slow movement of Wood’s Concerto opens with a long theme for the principal horn, delivered here with spellbinding loveliness.” 

“A wonderful disc of unfamiliar but eminently worthwhile British music of yesteryear, outstandingly well performed and recorded Little’s playing is superb, and the orchestra is true fine” ***** 

*** (Good Album) *** (Good Sound) 

“... Little and Davis also make a gorgeous thing of Delius’s four movement Suite it gets a performance of scrupulous sensitivity, wistful tenderness and affectionate ardour Excellent booklet notes by Anthony Burton; sumptuous sound and a wholly truthful balance, too. To sum up, a disc with a distinct touch of magic about it” 

Album of the Week

“ the real find here is Wood’s 1928 Concerto an excellent piece in late-Romantic style.” **** 

“ ... Little’s Britain is full of delightful discoveries.”   ****