Category Archives: Orchestral

On Record: Royal Ballet Sinfonia / Pete Harrison: Adam Saunders Orchestral Music (Heritage Records)

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Royal Ballet Sinfonia / Pete Harrison, Gavin Sutherland (The Magical Kingdom), Barry Wordsworth (Journey to Lapland)

Adam Saunders
The Magical Kingdom (2003)
Fairytale Sleighride (2008)
Journey to Lapland (2020)
Ballet for Strings (2025)
Capriccio (2025)
Parade of the Snowman (2025)
Sinfonietta (2025)
Sketches of New York (2025)
Three Pieces (2025)

Heritage Records HTGCD117 [68’12”]
Producer Philip Lane Engineers Tony Faulkner, Mike Ross-Trevor (The Magical Kingdom)

Recorded 4 February 2023 at CTS, Wembley (The Magical Kingdom), 12 September 2023 (Journey to Lapland) and 2, 3 January 2026 (all other works) at Henry Wood Hall, London

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse

What’s the story?

His work having featured on several of its miscellanies, Heritage now issues an album devoted to the music of Adam Sanders (b.1968); his skill when navigating various genres and blurring of easy distinctions between ‘light’ or ‘serious’ music made evident throughout this collection.

What’s the music like?

His music often having an illustrative or pictorial aspect does not lessen Saunders’ technical command in a medium for which he has keen affinity. This is as evident in the earlier pieces here as in those more recent works that, between them, make up the larger part of this album.

The curtain-raiser that is Capriccio having launched proceedings with wit and insouciance, Three Pictures demonstrates Saunders’ all-round versatility across three movements which take in the animated Fanfare and Celebrations, the raptly evocative landscape conjured by Rivers of Calm, Peaks of Magnificence, then the final burst of activity conveyed through Dances of Exuberance. With its often resourceful scoring for strings and harp, Sketches of New York is the highlight of this collection – whether in the pulsating while never mindless activity which characterizes Bustling Metropolis, the elegiac expression of Lonely Souls, the lilting elegance of Green Dances, or the lively and joyful abandon of A City at Play.

If the sprightly and entertaining march-past that is Parade of the Snowman has not become a regular seasonal fixture on Classic FM, it certainly ought to be. As, for that matter, should The Magical Kingdom which subtly refits the British light music from an earlier era for the present day. It lasts barely 10 minutes overall, but Sinfonietta cannily outlines a symphony   in miniature as it moves from the spirited incisiveness of its initial Allegro, via the tranquil eloquence of its Adagio then the humorous resolve of its Scherzo, to the brilliant display of its final Allegro. One of the relatively few abstract compositions in Saunders’ output, this is also one of the most appealing and it would be worth the composer building on its promise.

Fairytale Sleighride finds Saunders back on familiar ground and what is another miniature made for Christmas with tuned percussion to the fore. More substantial (indeed the longest overall work on this collection) is Ballet for Strings – its five movements at once dance-like though self-sufficient in content as they take in expressive characters which are respectively humorous in intent; gracious while not a little nostalgic; animated but with searching asides; delicate in scoring if robust in spirit; then energetic to a degree that sees the overall sequence through to a decisive close. It only remains for Journey to Lapland to round off proceedings with its ‘adventure’ being played out for the pleasure and enjoyment of listeners everywhere.

Does it all work?

It does. Those having heard Saunders’ overture Pirates Ahoy! (Dutton CDLX7190) or one of the seasonal pieces on Heritage’s Christmas anthologies (HTGCD139 and HTGCD299) will find much to enjoy, not least with the Royal Ballet Sinfonia so attuned to his attractive idiom.

Is it recommended?

It is, not least as enhanced with excellent sound produced by and informative booklet notes written by Philip Lane, among the leading British light-music composers of his generation. Hopefully there will be further opportunities to hear Saunders’ orchestral work before long.

Listen / Buy

You can explore purchase options at the Heritage Records website. Click on the names for more information on composer Adam Saunders, the Royal Ballet Sinfonia and conductors Pete Harrison, Gavin Sutherland and Barry Wordsworth

Published post no.3,003 – Tuesday 1 September 2026

On Record – Raphael Wallfisch, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra / Kenneth Woods – John McCabe: Symphonies 2 & 3 and Cello Concerto (Signum Classics)

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Raphael Wallfisch (cello), BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra / Kenneth Woods

John McCabe
Symphony no.2 (1970-71)
Symphony no.3 ‘Hommages’ (1978)
Cello Concerto ‘Songline’ (2007)

Signum Classics SIGCD1007 [67’32”]
Producer Andrew Keener Engineer Oscar Torres, Matthew Swan

Recorded 9-11 June 2025 at City Halls, Glasgow

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse

What’s the story?

Signum Classics makes a notable addition to the discography of John McCabe (1939-2015) with his Second and Third Symphonies, alongside his Cello Concerto, given committed and perceptive performances from the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra with Kenneth Woods.

What’s the music like?

Ranging over four decades, McCabe’s seven symphonies are a defining factor of his output and his achievement overall. An ability to reassess the genre afresh each time is hardly less true of those 20 or so concertos which, between them, encompass the entirety of his career.

Certain listeners may have encountered the Second Symphony via Louis Frémaux’s recording (EMI/Warner) made soon after the premiere. The catalyst was Sam Peckinpah’s Western The Wild Bunch (1969) and though McCabe does not follow this hard-hitting scenario literally, he does chart its emotional and maybe its experiential trajectory. A speculative woodwind phrase pervades the single movement whose five sections purposefully alternate fast and slow tempi, incisive and reflective moods, on its course to a visceral while cathartic denouement. That the work emerges full circle, the same yet different, comes as no surprise given its inspiration in a film which was unyielding in its fatalism but highly enlightening through its innate realism.

The stylistic consistency of McCabe’s idiom across several decades is borne out by his Cello Concerto, the ‘Songline’ of whose subtitle references that route taken through its content by the listener akin to aboriginals tracing a physical path through the Australian terrain; even a psychological path through their culture. Tersely though cogently argued, its outer Allegros frame a lengthy Adagio that takes in elements of slow movement and scherzo – separated by an accompanied cadenza where the soloist interacts with luminous tuned percussion in what ranks among its composer’s most eloquent inspirations. Neither are those closing bars, their abruptness dispelling any equivocation, seem other than inevitable in terms of a conclusion.

Stemming from what was a productive period for the genre in the UK, the Third Symphony is a highlight of McCabe’s output. The ‘Hommages’ of its subtitle makes reference to Haydn and Nielsen – but any such allusions are merged into a cumulative structure whose three (more or less) continuous movements unfold from an oblique if stealthy sonata design, via a ‘Fantasia’ more intermezzo than slow movement, to a ‘Fugue-Variations’ which gradually propels the whole orchestra towards an inexorable culmination with resplendent brass then ricocheting percussion. One of the most visceral endings in the modern symphonic repertoire that made an audible impression at its premiere, 48 years ago, and would doubtless do so again today.

Does it all work?

Yes, not least with Woods so attuned to McCabe’s idiom: the Second Symphony less taut if more flexible than Frémaux’s pioneering account and the Third a reminder of why Charles Dutoit’s premiere left such an impact. Nor is Raphael Wallfisch at all wanting in Songlines.

Is it recommended?

Indeed, enhanced by spacious yet detailed sound with informative notes from Guy Rickards. Hopefully Woods and the BBCSSO will take McCabe’s final two symphonies into the studio, while such major works as the Third Piano and Second Violin Concertos also await recording.

Listen / Buy

You can explore purchase options at the Signum Records website, and listen to excerpts from the album at Presto Music. Click on the names to read more about composer John McCabe, cellist Raphael Wallfisch, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and conductor Kenneth Woods

Published post no.2,986 – Tuesday 17 August 2026

#AmbientAugust no.17 – Delius: In A Summer Garden

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by Ben Hogwood

In keeping with the season, some hot weather orchestral picture painting completed in 1909. Frederick Delius‘ orchestral works often lend themselves to background listening, though if you lean in closer there is still a good deal going on. In A Summer Garden is the perfect example, a relaxing place but one that is still a hive of activity:

Published post no.2,984 – Monday 17 August 2026

#AmbientAugust no.11 – John Luther Adams – Become Ocean

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by Ben Hogwood

There is something very elemental about the music of John Luther Adams, and witnessing Become Ocean live made a very strong impression. Listening to it literally repoints your brain, as I discovered back in 2018 with the London Contemporary Orchestra.

The composer’s own words, from the page dedicated to Become Ocean at his publisher, Wise Music, are as follows:

“Over the years my orchestral music has become simpler and more expansive.

Clouds of Forgetting, Clouds of Unknowing (1991-95) contains four different musical textures. In the White Silence (1998) has three. For Lou Harrison (2002) reduces this to just two.

In Dark Waves (2007), I finally got to one. When I first heard that piece I began to wonder if I could sustain a similar sound for a longer span of time. The result is Become Ocean, a meditation on the vast, deep and mysterious tides of existence.

The title is borrowed from a mesostic verse that John Cage wrote in honor of Lou Harrison’s birthday. Likening Harrison’s music to a river in delta, Cage writes:

LiStening to it
we becOme
oceaN.

Life on this earth first emerged from the sea. And as the polar ice melts and sea level rises, we humans find ourselves facing the prospect that once again we may quite literally become ocean.”

Published post no.2,978 – Tuesday 11 August 2026

#AmbientAugust no.2 – Lyadov: The Enchanted Lake

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by Ben Hogwood

The second entry for Arcana’s contribution to #AmbientAugust is very different from the first. Whereas yesterday we enjoyed thoughts from the studio of Aphex Twin, today we hear from 44-year old Russian composer Anatoly Lyadov, and his remarkably vivid portrait of The Enchanted Lake.

Stillness like this in an orchestral piece is relatively rare…as is the luminous orchestration:

Published post no.2,966 – Sunday 2 August 2026

Published post no.2,965 – Saturday 1 August 2026