Rawsthorne & Tippett - Divertimentos • Britten, * Arnold & Berkeley - Sinfoniettas

English Chamber Orchestra, Norman Del Mar conductor
* London Symphony Orchestra, Nicholas Braithwaite, conductor

Label: Lyrita
Copyright: 2007 Lyrita Recorded Edition, England
Catalogue number: SRCD.257
UPC/EAN: 5020926025722
Format: CD
Analogue / Digital recording: ADD
Number of discs: 1
Total playing time: 68.31
Price: £ 14.99 (+ postage & packing)

Tracks 1 - 5: Recorded at Kingsway Hall, 22 March 1977, Producer: James Walker, Engineer: Kenneth Wilkinson
Tracks 6 - 8: Recorded at Kingsway Hall, 28 March 1977, Producer: James Walker, Engineer: Kenneth Wilkinson
Tracks 9 - 11: Recorded at Kingsway Hall, 29 March 1977 & 5 May 1977, Producer: James Walker, Engineer: Kenneth Wilkinson
Tracks 12, 13: Recorded at Kingsway Hall, 23 March 1977, Producer: James Walker, Engineer: Stanley Goodall
Tracks 14 - 16: Recorded at Watford, 6 September 1978, Producer: Tom Mowrey, Engineer: John Dunkerley


In considering these works for chamber orchestra by twentieth-century British composers, it is worth noting that the Elgar - Vaughan Williams generation wrote nothing in these forms. There is a practical reason for this. The growth of the virtuoso chamber orchestra in Britain is a comparatively recent occurrence. Elgar's so-called salon music was written for amateur groups, in most cases, or for the theatre orchestras which then abounded, but there were no high-standard professional ensembles in the area between such bodies as Ivan Caryll's Orchestra and the big symphony orchestras. In our time, with the existence of the English Chamber Orchestra, the Northern Sinfonia, the London Mozart Players, the Manchester Camerata and many more,works such as are here recorded receive the accomplished, polished performances which are their due.

"I am not sure that Tippett's Divertimento has ever sounded as bright-eyed and eager. This is the most vibrant-sounding clamorous recording it has had ... The English Chamber Orchestra sounds more like a beefy grand orchestra than a chamber ensemble in this full-on recording. There is a typically English reticence about these divertimentos and sinfoniettas - the only exception being the unbuttoned Arnold. They are fulsomely recorded and given virtuoso performances ..." Rob Barnett, www.musicweb-international.com Click here to read the full review

"In sum, here’s a CD which fascinatingly challenges whether there’s a typical English divertimento or sinfonietta in the 20th century, all examples of which, within their relatively terse confines, offer food for thought as well as fun, as do the mettlesome performances and matchingly vivid recordings ..." Michael Greenhalgh, www.musicweb-international.com Click here to read the full review


Divertimento for Chamber Orchestra, ‘Sellinger’s Round’ (1953) Michael Tippett (1905 - 1998) 19.36
1 1st movement: Allegro 2.57
2 2nd movement: A Lament (Andante Espressivo) 6.42
3 3rd movement: Presto 2.13
4 4th movement: Adagio 3.40
5 5th movement: Allegro assai 4.04
Divertimento for Chamber Orchestra (1961 - 2) Alan Rawsthorne (1905 - 1971) 11.35
6 1st movement: Allegro 5.08
7 2nd movement: Lullaby 3.02
8 3rd movement: Jig 3.25
Sinfonietta Op. 1 (1932) Benjamin Britten (1913 - 1976) 14.46
9 1st movement: Poco presto ed agitato 3.52
10 - 2nd movement: Variations 6.44
11 - 3rd movement: Tarantella 4.09
Sinfonietta Op. 34 (1950) Lennox Berkeley (1903 - 1976) 21.36
12 1st movement: Allegro 4.01
13 2nd movement: Lento – Allegro non troppo 8.35
Sinfonietta No. 1 Op. 48 (1955) Malcolm Arnold (1921 - 2006) 9.53
14 1st movement: Allegro commodo 2.48
15 2nd movement: Allegretto 4.29
16 3rd movement: Allegro con brio 2.36