These 1977-78 recordings are notable because they include three lesser-known but fascinating works - the "'In a Nutshell' Suite," the "Danish Folk-Music Suite" and "The Immovable 'Do.'" Two familiar pieces leaven the mixture - "Molly on the Shore" and the "Irish Tune from County Derry" (aka the "Londonderry Air" and "Danny Boy").
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| Neville Dilkes |
Here is what Malcolm MacDonald of The Gramophone had to say about the music:
"In a Nutshell" is an early work, yet the Grainger sound is there already: lively, colourful settings of simple, compulsive tunes, with often glittering scoring to help propel the tunes to the music's end. I had never heard this suite before, and feel it to be a most enjoyable newcomer to the catalogues. The "Danish Folk-Music Suite" was equally unfamiliar, but here was relative disappointment: it seemed less interesting than the other work, more four-square, less well scored.
The fill-ups of "Molly on the Shore" and the "Londonderry Air" arrangements are familiar enough, and do not need their highly enjoyable qualities praised here. Yet the "Immovable 'Do'" does; the title referring to the note C which one day got stuck on Grainger's harmonium, and around which continuous sound, like Purcell before him, he wove this highly agreeable piece. Like everything else on this largely exploratory disc this piece is beautifully played by the English Sinfonia, and well recorded by HMV.
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| Ad in The Gramophone, May 1979 |
As I mentioned in an earlier post, Dilkes formed the English Sinfonia as the Midlands Sinfonia in 1961, eventually locating it in Nottingham, although the ensemble played throughout the Midlands. The Sinfonia is still is existence, although it now performs in Chesham, near London.
I have one more recording by this underrated conductor to come.
